All right, let's look at Exodus
chapter 15. I'm going to begin reading at
verse 22. The title of this message is
Bitter Waters Made Sweet. Bitter Waters Made Sweet. What I thought I would do just
in this message is just take an Old Testament passage as an
exercise of preaching Christ. showing how we really do not
begin to understand the quality of the message, the power of
the message of the Old Testament until we see the Lord Jesus Christ
in all the scripture. You know, Christ taught the Pharisees
that in John chapter 5 and verse 39. He said, you do search the
scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life. He said,
these are they which testify of me. And he went on to talk
about how Moses, who was the human instrument that the Holy
Spirit used to write these passages here in Exodus, the first five
books of the Old Testament. And he said, Moses wrote of me. And here's a little segment of
the history of the Hebrew children having been brought out of Egypt
by the power of God. They've crossed the Red Sea.
Look at verse 22. It says, so Moses brought Israel
from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur,
and they went three days into the wilderness, and they found
no water. And when they came to Marah,
they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter."
Now, that's what the name Marah means. It'll show you here in
just a minute. Therefore, the name of it was called Marah.
It wasn't called Marah until they got there and they drank
and the waters were bitter. The name Marah literally means
bitter. I don't know if you'll recall
in the book of Ruth, you remember when Naomi came back from Moab. And they called her Naomi, which
means pleasant. She said, don't call me Naomi,
call me Mara, because she was in bitterness. And that's what
this means, bitter waters. We don't know what made the waters
bitter. We don't know the exact makeup of this, but it was bitter
waters. And it says in verse 24, and the people murmured against
Moses, saying, what shall we drink? Now, murmuring in the
Old Testament is the equivalent of complaining, and complaining
is the equivalent of unbelief. And that's what it is. Now, this
is common. This is man by nature. You know,
we're all by nature unbelievers, complainers, murmurers in that
sense. And we still, even as justified,
even as regenerated, born again people who believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we still have that spirit of bitterness and complaining
in us. That's why we have to fight the
warfare of the flesh and the spirit. But this was common among
the Hebrew children. You remember when they came to
the brink of the Red Sea and they looked back and they saw
Pharaoh's army approaching. They complained they murmured
against Moses then and God still delivered them in spite of themselves
And then he opened the Red Sea and they crossed the Red Sea
and then you're you'll recall later on it They'll come to the
foot of Mount Sinai Moses goes up into the mountain while he's
away They begin to grow impatient they murmur and that's when the
the episode of the golden calf so here they are murmuring in
the wilderness and Cause there's no water to drink. Well, verse
25 says, and he cried unto the Lord and the Lord showed him
a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, now, I don't
know what kind of tree this was or how big it was or anything
like that. That's not the issue. But you see, cast it into the
waters and the waters were made sweet. And there he made for
them a statute, an ordinance. And there he proved them, he
tested them is what that means. And he said, if thou will diligently
hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do that which
is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandments,
and keep all his statutes. Now this is according to whatever
the Lord says to them, and of course this is coming up on Mount
Sinai when he gives them that covenant. He said, I will put
none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the
Egyptians, that's the plagues of Egypt, for I am the Lord that
healeth thee, the Lord heals. Now, what you see is a precursor
there to the conditional covenant that God's going to lay upon
them. And of course, the whole message of the old covenant,
Israel, 1500 years under the old covenant, is this, that when
any covenant is placed upon sinners, where the blessings of that covenant
is conditioned on us, it's a failure. And so we know that because the
summary of that whole nation under that covenant is given
in Jeremiah 31 when God says, I'm going to make a new covenant.
That's the covenant of grace in Christ that's coming. He said,
not like that old covenant that I made at Sinai, which my covenant
they break. And so don't get the impression
that you would have done any better than them under that whole
covenant. We wouldn't have. Thank God that we're under the
covenant of grace and not the covenant of law. Thank God that
our salvation is conditioned on Christ who met those conditions
and not on ourselves. And so he says in verse 27, And
they came to Elam, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore
and ten palm trees, and they encamped there by the waters.
Now, back here, what we have is a picture, a type of Christ,
of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ in these bitter waters
made sweet. Christ is that tree who has been
cast into the bitter waters of the sin of his people, and who's
made these bitter waters sweet in that he's put away our sins
by the sacrifice of himself." It's a very simple type there,
very simple picture. And the question that I want
to ask and answer in three points here is this, how exactly was
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate, the second
person of the Trinity, How was the Lord Jesus Christ cast into
these bitter waters of our sin? In what way exactly? Let me give you three ways. And
I want you to turn first to 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter
1. The first way that he was cast
into the bitter waters of the sins of his people, God's elect,
was as the sins of his people were imputed charged, accounted
to him before the foundation of the world. You could say that
he took full responsibility of the sins of his people before
the foundation of the world. Look at verse 9 at 2 Timothy
chapter 1 where the Apostle Paul was talking about the gospel
and the ministry of the gospel that was given to him according
to the power of God, verse 9. who hath saved us and called
us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according
to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began." Now, Christ was set up to be
the surety of his people before the world began. The book of
Ephesians chapter 1 speaks of that, how God chose us in Christ. How it was all according to the
fact that he agreed as the surety of his people to come in time
and to do what was necessary to put away our sins. And those
sins, the debt of those sins were charged to him. He became
responsible for them. And you have to understand about
a surety now in the Bible. It's not like a surety in our
economy, in our day and age. You know, somebody says, well,
I'll be a surety for someone, which means that I'll pay their
debt if they can't pay it. Well, that never was the case
with Christ becoming the surety of his people. He never said,
well, I'll pay it if they can't. He always said, I will pay that
debt. It always was his responsibility,
his accountability, not ours. And so Christ was cast into the
bitter waters of our sin in a legal way. Now that doesn't mean it
wasn't real. Doesn't mean it was fake or God
was pretending. No, Christ had the dead of his
people charged to his account. And he became surety before the
foundation of the world. And let me give you some more
scripture on this. Turn to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. So the first
way that he was cast into the bitter waters of our sin was
by imputation. who knew no sin, was made sin
in that sense, before the foundation of the world made surety for
the sins of his people. The second way is this. In time,
Jesus Christ came into the world and dwelt among sinners. John
chapter 1 and verse 14. Now you look at Hebrews chapter
2, it's what we're going to read. But John chapter 1 and verse
14 says, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That word
dwelt means tabernacled, as you know. In time, he was cast into
the bitter waters of our sin when he came into this world
and dwelt among sinners. Now look at Hebrews chapter two
and look at verse 14. It says, for as much then as
the children. Now, who are the children there?
Well, that's the children of God. That's the children of promise. That's God's elect people chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world for whom he became
surety. He said the children are partakers of flesh and blood. That's what we are, flesh and
blood. And he says he, Christ, also
himself likewise in the same way took part of the same. He
took part of flesh and blood. He had a human body and soul
created for him in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. And just like us, there was that
birth. The only difference between him
and us is He was without sin in his humanity. He was without
sin. And he says that through death,
he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the
devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. He came and he dwelt among sinners.
Look at Galatians chapter four with me. Galatians chapter four. And look at verse four. It says in Galatians 4 and verse
4, but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
his son. That time was the time appointed
for our surety to come into the world. He who had our sins charged
to him came into the world. And it says he was made of a
woman. That is his incarnation. That's the miraculous birth or
conception and birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was made under
the law. That's the broken law that condemned
us according to the covenant of works. And he was responsible
for to keep that law and to satisfy its justice. And how would he
do it? Verse five, to redeem them that were under the law
that we might receive the adoption of sons. And you think about
his life here on this earth. You know, Jesus Christ, the perfect
God-man, the perfect Son of God who knew no sin, who had no sin,
thought no sin. He walked among sinners. The
scripture says he ate with publicans and sinners. In fact, the Pharisees
brought that as an accusation against him because they wouldn't
associate with such people. He healed the sick and the lame.
The Bible says, look over at Hebrews 4 real quickly. It says
that he was tested, he was tempted, like as we are. Hebrews chapter four, where it
talks about our great high priest, who is passed through into the
heavens. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
Verse 15, it says, For we have not an high priest which cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. That's the infirmities
of the flesh. That's not sin. The infirmities
of the flesh are the weaknesses of the flesh. Because it says,
but was in all points tempted or tested like as we are, yet
without what? Without sin. He had no sin. Now how could he be tested like
as we are yet without sin? I'll often use this example.
You think about when the Lord went into the mount of temptation
where Satan tempted him and it says there he remained there
40 days and 40 nights and he didn't eat. Now here's the infirmities
of the flesh. If you went without food for
40 days and 40 nights, how hungry would you be? You'd be pretty
hungry. Well, he was just as hungry as
you were. You would be. That's the infirmity
of the flesh. The difference between him in
his hunger and us in our hunger is that we, we in our hunger,
we would consider because of the remaining sinful flesh, we
would consider denying the Lord or not glorifying God in order
to relieve that hunger. We would do that because we would
have to fight the warfare of the flesh and the spirit in order
not to relieve that hunger in a way that would dishonor God. That's why Satan tempted him. Command these stones to be made
bread. In other words, he would have had to have dishonored his
father. But Christ, there was no evil in him, no sin in him
that would even cause him to even consider dishonoring or
denying his father in order to relieve that hunger. Now, he
was just as hungry as we would be. But there was no evil or
sin within him that would cause him to go that way. But yet,
he was still cast into the bitter waters of our sin, tempted as
we are yet without sin. He never became corrupted. He
never became contaminated with the sins of his people. So he
tabernacled, he dwelt among sinners, he walked among sinners, yet
he did not become a sinner. Yet he was never made a sinner.
And here's the third thing, go to Philippians chapter two. In time, the Lord Jesus Christ
became obedient unto death as he suffered bitterly to pay for
the sins of his people. and establish for us a righteousness
to justify us. That's how he was cast into the
bitter waters of our sin. Look at Philippians 2, look at
verse 5. He says, let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, and that means,
the phrase afterwards shows you what that means, in the form
of God. That word form is not like some kind of a phantom.
What he's talking about here is, in the form of God, is to
be God, and it says, "...thought it not robbery to be equal with
God." Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the
Trinity, is equal with the Father and the Spirit in every attribute
of deity, and it's not robbery, it's not stealing, for him to
claim that. It would be for you and I to
do that. If you and I would claim to be
deified or in any way equal with God, that'd be robbery. It'd
be robbing God of his glory. But it's not robbery for Christ
to say that. He's the great I am. He said
before Abraham was, I am. Verse seven, but made himself
of no reputation. Now listen to the language here.
This is how he was cast into the bitter waters of our sin.
You think about it. Now this is God incarnate. This is God who created the world. This is the word, which was God,
which was with God. The word made flesh. This is
the one, you know, you often hear something like this, you
know, the very cross upon which he was crucified. He's the one
who created the wood, created the tree. And so, he made himself
of no reputation. When we hanged him on that cross,
we accused him of being a malefactor. What is a malefactor? That's
a criminal. A criminal. A blasphemer. That's the way
that man by nature looks upon him. And he made himself of no
reputation. He who is the only one who's
worthy of reputation, worthy of honor, made himself of no
reputation. See, he was cast into the bitter
waters of our sin. And he took upon himself the
form of a servant, the Lord of glory, the Lord of this universe. He is a servant, a servant of
his father, and the Bible says a servant of his people. That's
what he said. He washed the feet of his disciples. You think about that. And he
was made in the likeness of men. Again, his incarnation, a human
body. And so, without sin. In verse
8, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. Christ,
the Lord of Glory, humbled himself. And he became obedient. But not
just obedient, look at it, obedient unto death. Why unto death? Because
sin demands death. And the sins of his people, charged
to him, demanded that he die. Even the death of the cross.
An ignominious death. A shameful death. A hurtful death. And so based upon his death,
it says in verse nine, wherefore, for this reason, God also hath
highly exalted him and given him a name, which is above every
name. Now, as God absolutely considered, he always had a name
above every name and he never relinquished that. But this is
talking about Christ, the surety. of the covenant. This is talking
about Christ, the savior of his people. This is talking about
Christ, the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. This is talking about his mediatorial
glory as God-man, as God-man who finished the work of establishing
the only righteousness whereupon God could be just to justify
the ungodly. He is highly exalted and given
a name which is above every name. Verse 10, that the name of Jesus
every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth
and things under the earth. And that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. All of this, you see, Christ,
who bore our sins in his own body on the tree, highly exalted,
he was made sin. Now there's no doubt about that.
There's no argument that Christ was made sin. Now, there's a lot of debate
about how he was made sin. Some want to say he was made
a sinner. Some want to say, well, he was
made sin by some mysterious way that we can't explain. But the
Bible teaches that he was made sin as our surety by the imputation
of sin to him. Christ who knew no sin, and He
did it for us, that we might be what? Made the righteousness
of God. How? In Him. That's His righteousness
imputed to us. And so out of His death comes
the sweetness of our eternal acceptance with God. To the point that God does not
charge us with sin, but charges us with righteousness. Now that's
sweet to the ears of a sinner who's being convinced of sin
and righteousness and of judgment. How in the world can a sinner
stand before holy God and be eternally unchangeably without
corruption, without any, any hint of corruption accepted as
holy and righteous before God. Well, the sweetness of that message
is the gospel. And then out of Christ's death
comes the sweetness of eternal spiritual life for all his people. He was teaching his disciples,
as recorded in the book of John chapter 12. In verse 31, he was
talking about using the metaphor of planting a seed. And he was
using this metaphor this way. He said, you plant a seed into
the ground and in essence it dies, but out of that death comes
life, the plant, the corn of wheat, the seed of wheat. And
he said in verse 31 of John 12, he says, now is the judgment
of this world. Now shall the Prince of this
world be cast out. Talking about Satan. And what
he's talking about is how he in time was going to destroy
the work of Satan who brought the whole world under condemnation
in Adam. But here's what he said. Look
at verse 32 or listen to verse 32. He says, and I, if I be lifted
up from the earth. Now, how was he lifted up from
the earth? Well, he was lifted up on the cross. You say, well,
how do you know he's talking about that? Well, listen. He
says, I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto
me. That word draw. What's it, what's
he talking about? He's going to bring them to him.
Is he talking about all without exception there? No, because
all without exception are not drawn to him. He's talking about
his people, his sheep. And it says in verse 33, he said,
this he said, signifying what death he should die. What death he should die. It's
out of his death that comes righteousness charged to his people, whereby
the Holy Spirit gives life and draws them out of the bitter
waters of their unbelief into the sweetness of faith in Christ.
who draws them out of the bitter waters of their self-righteousness
under the sweetness of repentance of dead works and idolatry, who
draws them out of the bitter waters of legalism and mercenary
forms of religion to the obedience of faith as motivated by love
and grace and gratitude. In the book of Romans chapter
8, let me just read this to you, verse 10. It says, if Christ
be in you, the body is dead because of sin. That's his body. And
we're all dying. Somebody said, I'm preaching
as a dying man to dying men. But the spirit is life. Why? Because of righteousness. Whose
righteousness? Yours? Mine? No, Christ. And
he says, but if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from
the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead
shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth
in you. Christ was cast into the bitter waters of our sin
in his death. He died, he was buried, but out
of his death came what? His resurrection. He is the tree
of life, you might say, just like Moses took that tree, and
I don't know how he did it. I don't know what it looked like.
I know people will spend volumes trying to figure all that out.
All I know is the scripture is silent back there in Exodus 15.
It doesn't tell us what kind of tree it is. It doesn't tell
us why the waters were bitter. It doesn't tell us how Moses,
I mean, did God give him superhuman strength and he went over and
uprooted a big tree or what, or was it a little bush? Just
called it, I don't know, and I don't care. All I know is that
it's a picture of my salvation, my justification before God in
the Lord Jesus Christ who was cast into the bitter waters of
my sin and made those bitter waters sweet because of his righteousness. That's what I do know. And that's
what the lesson is. All right, okay.