I'm so glad to be here. My wife
and I are so thankful. We're thankful for your fellowship,
thankful for your hospitality, thankful for this time together.
Many years ago, I went through the book of Numbers at our church
there in the Dalles, and I missed something. So I would ask you
to turn with me to the book of Numbers chapter 33 tonight. The
book of Numbers chapter 33. We have here in this passage
of scripture a part of the historical travelings of the children of
Israel. And God determined that this
would be left in our Bibles. His Holy Spirit gave them to
Moses and Moses was commanded to write them down. And there's
a reason for it. Now I don't know all the reasons,
but I know some of the reasons. And as we look at this passage
of scripture tonight, May we enjoy some of those reasons. Here in the book of Numbers chapter
33, I wanna begin reading with verse one, and it says, these
are the journeys of the children of Israel, which went forth out
of the land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moses
and Aaron. And Moses wrote their goings
out according to their journeys by the commandment of the Lord. And these are their journeyings
according to their goings out. Now notice here we're in chapter
33 of the book of Numbers. This is a review of what they
have already done and where they have been. It says they departed
from Ramses in Egypt in the first month on the 15th day of the
first month on the morrow after the Passover. And we can go back
to the book of Exodus chapter 12 and we can read about that.
That is exactly when God determined that these children of Israel
would leave because He promised Abraham many years before this
that the children of Israel would spend 400 years in servitude
to the Egyptians. They would be slaves for 400
years. And to the very same day, 400 years later, the scriptures
tell us they were released the self same day. They didn't spend
a minute longer than he said they would. And he didn't spend
a minute less than they said they would. They left on the
very same day, 400 years after God said, this is what was going
to happen. They departed from Ramses in
the first month there. and the children of Israel went
out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians." Now notice
verse 4, "'For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn.'"
So in actuality, God did move there in that land that day when
they had the Passover, and if you did not have blood on your
doorposts and on the lentils, He would not pass over you. But
if you did, He would pass over you. It was the Passover. every
family in Egypt at this time, Jew and Gentile, Jew and Egyptian,
there was a death in that household. Now it was either the firstborn
among the Egyptians or it was a substitutionary lamb on the
behalf of the Jews but there was a death in every household
in Egypt that night and as we move on it tells us here that
the children of Israel moved from Ramses to and pitched in
Sukkoth and they departed from Sukkoth and pitched in Etham
which is at the edge of the wilderness and they removed from Etham and
turned again into the Philaroth which is before Baalzeon and
they pitched in before Migdal, and they departed from before
Phileroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the
wilderness, and went three days' journey in the wilderness to
Etham, and pitched in Merah, and they removed from Merah and
came to Elam, and in Elam there were twelve fountains of water,
and threescore and ten palm trees, and they camped there." For a
short time, at least, because in verse 10, it goes on. That's
as far as I want to go in this history lesson. tonight, but
we'd like to ferret out some of the things that are a blessing
here. Now we are, as we read this, we are encouraged, as the
scriptures share with us, we are encouraged to look at what
God has saved us from and where we are as a result of God interfering
in our life. We are called on not to forget
what God has done for us just as we find in the historical
account of Israel God was telling them don't forget what I've done
for you and many of them did because they didn't have any
way of hanging on to it they had no spiritual leadership but
if you would turn with me to the book of Isaiah for just a
verse of scripture the book of Isaiah chapter 51 in the book
of Isaiah chapter 51 we have an address for us place it tells
us don't forget. Notice here in Isaiah 51 so as
we look at the history of Israel or the history of any country
or any nation or any peoples we're finding out if it's in
the Word of God we're encouraged to do the same thing to be reminded
of where we have come from. Isaiah 51 and there in verse
1 The scriptures share this. Hearken to me, ye that follow
after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. If you are seeking
the Lord, if he is your righteousness, then this is incumbent upon us
to follow these instructions. It says here, look unto the rock
which you were hewn and to the hole of the pit which you were
digged. Don't ever forget where you came
from. When we do, we have a bit of
pride about it. And you know, we could go over
there to that. I've often used those two men at the temple. One was a Pharisee and the other
was a publican, and they demonstrate the difference between the sheep
and the goats. We have pride exemplified in
that Pharisee, and we have humility demonstrated in that publican.
He could not even raise his face to God, but said, be God be merciful
to me, a sinner. And Jesus said, that man went
home justified. You know what that means? Forgiven.
You know what that means? God worked a work of grace in
him. You know what that means? He
was born again. all of the terms that we find in the scripture
that have to do with that. So don't ever forget. The pastor
who brought me the gospel told me that after I was saved. Don't
ever forget where you came from. You were saved out of the same
pew that many people are going to be saved out of. You were
religious. You went to church. You did your
thing. You even went through preaching and that sort of thing.
Don't ever forget where you came from. So in my study, if you
ever come to visit, and I hope it's cleaner when you come to
visit, There are three pictures of my hometown that are hung
on the wall. Now, it's not because I think
that they're important. It's just a reminder. Don't ever
forget where you came from. Everything you have is because
of free and sovereign grace. End of statement. Can't go any
further. Free and sovereign grace. Here
in that Numbers chapter 33, we have the Holy Spirit gave Moses
the instructions and the words to write for the benefit of Israel. It was their history. And really,
if you look at the word history, it could be divided up to HIS
story. HIS story. History is HIS story. HE has left us the history of
this world. And it says, and we pay attention
and we're called on to pay attention to this history that God had
given Israel and also has given us. Now, there is a passage of
scripture that we want to spend a little time on because it's
in the book of Exodus and it elaborates a little bit on what
we have just read here. This is just a quick going over
of the history of Israel up to this point. And in the book of
Exodus chapter 15, we find that there is a little more said about
that. In fact, there's enough said here to say, I want to go
there and read about it. So here in the book of Exodus
chapter 15 verse 22, Exodus chapter 15 and verse 22, we have a little
elaboration about what went on when they came to Marah and when
they came to Elam. I do not or I should not, I should
say, need to be reminded that every step Israel took was ordered
of the Lord. Every step. Every place they
stopped, every place they camped, and particularly after they refused
to go into the promised land, ten of them came back with an
evil report, God said you're gonna wander around for 38 more
years. You know, as we follow that out,
every day there was either a pillar of cloud or a pillar of fire
that led them. So every step they took was determined
by God Almighty before the foundation of the world and was carried
out. So we say, why did they go there? God led them there.
Why did I end up in Central Point, Oregon? Because God moved me
there so I could hear the gospel. All right, as we look at this,
we find out that the words of the Lord Jesus many years later,
there as he spoke about going to the woman at the well, he
said, must needs, Jesus must needs go to Samaria. He had to, and you know, as we
think about that, These words are still so applicable, the
Lord must needs go where you were or where you are. because he's going to find his
lost sheep everywhere. Not one will be missed and not
one will be lost. He must, needs, go wherever his
lost sheep are. And here, as we read in Exodus
chapter 15, we find these words, it says in verse 22, So Moses
brought Israel through the Red Sea. and they went out into the
wilderness of Sir. Now, I've had people tell me,
you know, I would have been a lot smarter than those Israelites
in that day and time because after seeing the Red Sea open
up and seeing Egypt destroyed and seeing all that he did back
there, I would have more intelligence and I wouldn't do what they did.
You know what? That's a bold-faced lie and that's
only pride speaking. our own pride speaking, because
if we were there we would have done exactly the same thing that
these folks did. They were not special in that
sense and we are not either. We are all sinners and some saved
by grace. All sinners, some saved by grace. So as we look at this, it says,
and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three
days in the wilderness and found no water. Oh my goodness, have
you ever been to a place in your life where there wasn't any water,
where you grew thirsty, where you wanted some water, you'd
pay almost anything? Most of us have never been there.
And now we just carried along with us. I have a platypus I
put on my back, and when I go elk hunting, I can go anywhere
for some time, and I can just draw water out of that platypus.
Well, they didn't have platypuses back then. They didn't have that
thing they could put on their back, and they got out there
three days' journey. Now, they must have had a little
bit to carry with them, but they ran out of water. Now, we have
2, 3, 4 million people out there in the wilderness, wandering
around at the direction of Almighty God, And it tells us here, by
God's divine responsibility to leave us his word, they had no
water. It goes on to tell us there,
and they came to Marah. So they've traveled a distance
that they don't have any water, and they come to Marah. And here
at Marah it says, they could not drink the waters of Marah. For they were bitter, therefore
the name of it was called Marah. That word Marah means bitterness.
So here they are. Did God lead them to that place?
Absolutely. Did he put them there on purpose?
Absolutely. Did he leave bitter water there
on purpose? Absolutely. God never does anything
by mistake. He always does everything he
does on purpose. And that purpose was laid out
before the foundation of the world, the script. For everything
that was happened was written in the covenant of grace and
in time it unfolds before us. But it is exactly the script
that God Almighty wrote before the foundation of the world.
And I use that in a felicious sense because he doesn't need
a piece of paper or a book to remember what he wants to do.
But for us to just help remember, he has everything that he ever
was going to do written down, if you please, in his mind and
it is carried out exactly. And much of it is contained in
what we have as the Bible today. Here he goes on to say, it was
a place, they were in desperate straits. After walking a bit
further, they came to water and it was bitter water, it could
not be drank. You know, in the history of this
country, the Oregon Trail goes right through the Dalles. In
fact, it stops at the Dalles, and you either had to make up
your mind to go down the Columbia River on a raft, or you had to
go around by the Barlow Trail, which was just as difficult.
It was a difficult journey. Well, in the state, or the territory
at that time of Idaho, you could take the California Trail and
go southwest. And going on the California Trail
southwest, you ran into the Great Basin. And the Great Basin is
a pretty good chunk of territory that no water flows out of. It
is there. Nothing of it runs into the Pacific
Ocean. None of it goes into the Gulf
of Mexico. It goes out there and evaporates. And here people
are traveling out there, and there is plenty of water, but
it has alkali in it. and the cattle, the oxen, and
the horses would not and could not drink it, and you could not
drink it if you were a human being. It was rotten water. It was terrible water. So here
you are, caught between a rock and a hard place, headed for
California, and you don't have the water you need. Many people
perished as a result of that. If you had your 55-gallon drum
full of water before you headed out there, you might make it
to where there was good water, but if you didn't, there's going
to be trouble in Dodge. Well, here we have it. It's a
desperate situation. We find out that it was according
to the good pleasure of His will. That's the book of Ephesians
chapter 1 and verse 5. Everything falls out for the
good pleasure of His will. God is the absolute director
of this world. And the church is the actors
in this act that God has determined and everything else is props. There were many Israelites who
were nothing but props, suppliers for the rest of them. There were
a few of Israel that were saved. There were a few of Israel that
knew God. There were a few that God revealed
himself to, but the majority died in unbelief, and that's
going to happen over the years. But here we have this group of
people coming up to the waters of Mara and it is so much like
us in our life coming up to religion. You know, there's never a religion,
when we finally see something, there's never a religion that
doesn't have some bitterness in it. Oh, we want to drink that
water so bad and we find out it is bitter water. All the rules
and regulations that are required by this water that religion has
provided for us. And we can go from one religion
to another religion. It's just terrible. There is
bitter water in every religion this world has to offer and there
is no sustenance, nothing in it that will satisfy. It is just
bitter water. Mara was bitter water, It was
a terrible place, but God led them there, and I look back in
my history, and you can look back in your history, and you
can find out that every step you took was ordered by the Lord,
and it may have been to Marah. It may have been to a bitter
place. You know what God determines
by showing us the difference between that and Goodwater? Now
we know. Now we know. That was the worst
place in this world. You know, the Lord saved me and
I went to the church I was pastoring and told them that I'd been saved. I've told you this before, exactly
what they did for me. They fired me on the spot. We
don't want you to be our pastor anymore and please get out of
the parsonage. And you know, at first that hurt me. But over
time, I said that was the best thing they could have ever done
for me, to get me out of that religion. And then God showed
me where to go. a place that taught and preached
sovereign grace, that all that we have is in the hands of an
almighty God, and my will left to myself would lead me to a
devil's hell, but because he intervened, he's the one that
arrested me, he's the one that brought me to himself, drew me
out of death, he's the one that did every bit of it, I can say
I've been saved by the grace of God. The water I had drank
was terrible and I was providing that terrible water every time
I got up into the pulpit. Here, drink this. Well, this
is terrible after we find out what good water is. According to the good pleasure
of his will, he brought them to Mara bitter water they couldn't
drink. And then we read here something
interesting. The people murmured, verse 24,
against Moses saying, what shall we drink? And he cried unto the
Lord. What a leader Moses was. He knew God because God revealed
him to him. He was born again. He was a believer
in Christ Jesus, in the Messiah. He was led of God. in a most
powerful way. And when he was in trouble, where
did he go? What's it say? He cried unto
the Lord and the Lord noticed that. What did the Lord show
him? A tree. The Lord showed him a tree. What does that, what goes on?
Which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made
sweet. Now, what kind of tree is that?
It doesn't tell us exactly what it was, and it doesn't tell us
exactly how it worked. But we know this about a tree.
Would you turn with me to 1 Peter? 1 Peter chapter 2, we can read
more about the tree that God used to bring us out of the bitterness
of that water we were drinking in religion. You know, I never
heard a message on substitution and I never heard a message on
righteousness or justification, never heard a message on imputed
righteousness, never ever heard a message on any of that in all
the time I was growing up in religion. The most basic things
were never brought up. Now, baptism was brought up and
church membership was brought up. All of the things that turned
out to be the bitterest of all because they have no place in
salvation whatsoever. They are not part of our salvation. They do not lead us to salvation.
They declare Christ and Him crucified. All right, here in 1 Peter, it
tells us in chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 24. The scriptures share this. Who
his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. Now we don't worship the cross.
It was an instrument used by God to fulfill the purpose of
God of raising this one up between heaven and earth and that He
might bear our sins in His own body. Our sins were imputed to
Him in such a manner, such a glorious manner, that when He dealt with
them and the wrath of God was poured out on Him, there was
no smell of sin left. It was over, finished, and done. Sin would no longer be chargeable
against the elect. Sin was charged to him. So I
am innocent before God in that sense. Now, I think I've shared
this with you before and I've shared it most of the places
I went. When I grew up in religion, if you did something really bad,
the preacher always brought it up from the pulpit and says,
you're going to have to pay for that. Well, I'll tell you this,
if you have to pay for that, you're going to have to pay for
everything. because it means nothing was paid for. Jesus Christ
paid for all the sins of all his people and they will never
come into condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
in Christ Jesus. Nobody can lay anything to the
charge of God's elect. Now that does not give us a license
to sin, but it certainly gives us peace of mind in this world
that he's taken care of all the charge that was against me. And
you know what? I'm thankful. I praise him that
he took my sin upon himself and paid that debt. So God showed
Moses a tree and he cast it into that water and it lost its bitterness. But you know what, the most important
thing, they did not stay there in camp. Wonderful thing about
grace. God will not leave us in religion. He just won't. Well, I'm gonna
clean up this church from the inside out. No, you're not. No, I've heard a number of people
say, I'm gonna just stay in this church after I save it, I'll
help clean it up. No, you can't do it. You need to be on the
outside in a place where God is honored and you hear the truth
of the gospel. You need to be there. It's for
our own benefit. I don't care whether you don't
say a word to anybody else in the church. You need it and I
need it. The most valuable thing I do
every week is go to church and hear the gospel. Go to church. It's good to listen to it on
television. It's good to listen on tape.
It's good to listen on sermon audio. But my friend, it's valuable
to be with God's people and hear the gospel. All right, as we
move on here, it says that this water was bitter. It's made sweet
by a tree. And then we find out that they
did not stay there. Let's look here in the book of
Exodus again, if you would. The book of Exodus chapter, Chapter
15. They murmured, they cried and
found fault with Moses. He prayed to his God. God showed
him a wonderful tree that took out the bitterness from that.
And then it tells us in verse 27, and they came to Elim. Now notice what's at Elim. 12 wells of water and three score and 10 palm trees. So what do we have here? What
did God give them when they moved away from Mara? What does God
give his people when they are taken away, moved away from religion
and brought to the water of life? What is given to us? Well, we
are certainly given the water of life, but we're also placed
in the shade of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He becomes
our shade. And we'll look up a few verses
of scripture that have to do with that. They did not spend
much time at Marah. They are brought to this place
of 12 wells and 70 palm trees. It's an oasis. You know, to us,
this is an oasis. Out in the Dalles, here's our
oasis. We got 12 wells and 70 palm trees. Peace and quiet, hearing the
good news about our Savior, resting in the shade of the Almighty.
You know, Brother Wayne told me, there's a guy over here that
he has coffee with every morning, and I was over there, I know
the guy, and he told Wayne, this place, this whole town would
be better off if this church wasn't here. And I said, Duane,
if this church wasn't here, this place wouldn't be worth a diddly.
This town would be worthless. There would be no difference
between it and Sodom and Gomorrah. But with this place here, it
makes it an oasis, a place to be, a rest, shade. The word of God, the message
of grace, we need it. Well, let's look here just a
little bit. In the book of John chapter 10,
would you join me there in the book of John, excuse me, chapter
four, John chapter four, verse 10. In the book of John chapter
four and verse 10, we read this as the Lord Jesus is dealing
and talking and conversing with the woman at the well. He must
needs go through Samaria. Here's a Samaritan woman, which
a priest would not say a word to. A rabbi would not say a word
to this woman because she was part Jewish and part Gentile,
so she was unclean. But the God of heaven, the Lord
Jesus Christ, came by this place because there is a sinner. And
he's very careful to point that out to her. She wants to talk
religion, he says, go get your husband. Uh-oh, I have no husband. You're right. And the man you're
living with isn't your husband. Oh my goodness, pierced to the
heart. How terrible is it to be pointed out as a sinner? Because
in our perfection, we're not. All right, John 4, verse 10.
John 4 and verse 10, the scriptures share this. It says, Jesus answered
and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is
that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked
of him and he would have given thee living water. You know who
he's talking about right there? Himself. I would be, I am. Him that can give living water.
I am living water. I am the 12 wells. I have all
the great glory of Elam. I have everything that's needed
when it comes to satisfaction with the water of life. I am
Jesus Christ, the water of life. Going down to verse 14 of that
same chapter, it says, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I
shall give him shall never thirst. What does it say in the verse
before that? If you only drink of this well, you'll thirst again. It will be a constant thirst.
But from a spiritual standpoint, whosoever drinketh of the water
that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I
shall give him shall be to him a well of water springing up
into everlasting life. What a picture we have of Israel
coming down from Marah down to Elam and here we have 12 wells
of water instead of one little hole and everybody had to fight
over it. We have 12! Plenteous mercy. Plenteous mercy. Plenteous grace. Plenteous water. The water of life flowing from
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 7, would you move just
a little further in your Bible there to John 7, verse 38? John 7, verse 38, the word of
the Lord says this, he that believeth on me, as the scripture hath
said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. You know what we get out of God
saving us? We get to brag on the water.
We get to brag on the water of life. We get to brag on God Almighty,
what he has done, what he has lifted us up. Religion teaches
us brag on yourself. Salvation teaches us to brag
on Christ. He's the living water. We had
nothing to do with that. We were dying of thirst and didn't
know about it. We were dead in trespasses and
sins and couldn't realize it. But when God saves us by his
grace and brings us out of that pitiful state that we are in
by nature, we find out we've been given bragging rights. Bragging
rights on the water of life. You know, all of us that know
Christ are nobodies. We're nobodies. Trying to tell everybody about
somebody who can save anybody. Scott Richardson. We're nobodies. But the apple
of his eye. In the book of Revelation, chapter
21, Book of Revelation chapter 21,
I had a dear friend said he just couldn't read the book of Revelation,
it's just too scary. And I said, you got the wrong
view of Revelation then. It's not scary, it's the most
comforting book. Every time there's trouble, God
comes along in the person of Christ Jesus and settles it,
takes care of the problem. That's exactly what he does with
our sin. In the book of Revelation chapter 21, there in verse six,
we read these words. It says, and he said unto me,
it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. Who's that? The water of life. Jesus Christ the righteous. I will give unto him that is
a thirst. of the fountain of the water
of life freely, without reservation, without quantity. We're not going
to be, oh, you get a small cup today. It's without any reservation. The qualifying mark is there.
Are you a thirst? Do you have a thirst? By nature,
we don't have a thirst for Christ. We have a thirst for religion.
We have a thirst and we'll complain about our religion quite heartily. Boy, I was talking to some young
ladies that, well, I can't, is that proper? Can I say that?
Waitresses. Waitresses. And I said, who is
the worst group you have to wait on? And they said, Sunday after
church group. They're the worst. They're so
unhappy, and they are so demanding, and they are so don't tip. And you know, when you go out,
don't be that. I remember a missionary saying,
was asked, how do you do mission work? He says, when I go to the
grocery store, I smile. That's pretty cheap, isn't it?
Isn't that pretty nice? All right. Here it says there.
book of Revelation chapter 22 verse 1 would you read that with
me chapter 22 and verse 1 it says here and he showed me a
pure river of water of life clear as crystal there isn't a sin
in this it is so pure It is the water, as spoken of, of our Lord
Jesus Christ, without sin, without the taint of sin, without the
nature of sin, pure river of life, clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. That's where it
comes from. It doesn't come out of baptism. It doesn't come out
of church membership. It doesn't come out of our will.
It doesn't come out of our thoughts. It comes out of the throne of
God. And then in that same chapter
in verse 17, we read this, and the spirit and the bride say,
come and let he that heareth come and let him that is thirst
come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely.
Isn't it wonderful that when God brings us to that point,
we are so thankful we bow down and drink heartily. He is all
my hope and all my salvation. Another thing that we find there,
and very quickly I wanna finish this, another thing that we find
there in that place of Elam, not only is there 12 wells of
water, there are 70 palm trees. Oh, the shade. Oh, the shade. Oh, the place of rest. You know,
over in the book of 1 Kings chapter four, it talks about Solomon's
kingdom. And you know, there are couple
of verses there in 1st Kings chapter 4, would you join me
in that place? 1st Kings chapter 4, it talks
about Solomon's kingdom but it is so pictorial of our Savior's
kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. 1st Kings
chapter 4 and there in verse 24 we read these words about
Solomon, it says here for He had dominion. That means He rules. And you
know He rules. Our Savior rules over His entire
kingdom. Dominion over all the region
on this side of the river. Do you know, as we read this,
we find out that every square foot that God gave Israel, Solomon
rules over. Every square foot that God gave
His Son, He rules over. There's nothing left out. He
rules over all of it, and that is all of it, and he has a special
rule over the church. Here it goes on to say, from
Tipsa unto Ezza, over all the kings on this side of the river,
he had peace on all sides round about him, and Judah and Israel
dwelt safely, every man under his vine. Oh, what a shady place
that they dwelt. You know who's the vine and we
are the branches? Christ said, I am the vine, you're
the branches. Oh, how peaceful it is to find
the shade under the vine. Just as we read about it from
a historical standpoint, it says, from Dan even to Beersheba, all
the days of Solomon. Every day of Solomon's reign,
you know what? Every day of God's reign, every
day of Christ's reign, there is peace that he extends to us. And in the book of Isaiah, it
tells us in Isaiah chapter 32 about the shady place, those
70 palm trees. that God provided for Israel
so long ago, how typical, how pictorial they are of the shade
that we have in Christ Jesus. In Isaiah 32, we read these words,
Isaiah 32, and there in verse 2, Isaiah 32, verse 2, the scriptures
share this, and it says, and a man shall be as a hiding place. Now take that to heart. It's
a man. It's not a doctrine. It's not
a church. It's not an ordinance. It's none
of the things that humanity has come up with. It's not religion
of any kind. It says here, a man shall be
as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest,
as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock
in a weary land. We get to abide in the shadow
of a great rock. What is in that shadow? peace,
quietness. Out off the Oregon coast, there's
a place called Haystack Rock. And when I met Nancy, I got to
go up there and meet her. Well, I knew her parents, but
I went up there and her father-in-law took me out in his boat. It was
a flat bottomed dory and we just launched right off of the sand.
And we went out there and a little wind came up and he headed for
the lee of the rock. You know what that was? The shadow
of the rock. The side the wind wasn't blowing.
And that's where Christ puts us. The side where the wind isn't
blowing. We are at peace. He brings the
sweet peace of the gospel to us. And it's in a man. is nothing
else. Don't look for it anywhere else,
it's in the man Christ Jesus, the man who came to save his
people from their sins. And then if you would read with
me in the book of the Psalms, Psalm 91, Psalm 91 and verse
1, read with me here this, Psalm 91 and verse 1 it says, He that
dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide
under the shadow of the Almighty. Oh, as those people came from
that place, that Mara, that bitter place, there was a tree, but
He didn't leave them there. My goodness, when God saves His
people, He doesn't leave us in this world like we were in it.
We're brought to a better place. We're brought to Christ. We're
brought to peace. We're brought to living water. We're brought
to shade. And this is a person that we
find the shade in. It is, as we read here, we shall
abide under the shadow of the Almighty. To dwell under his
vine is to dwell in Christ. To dwell in the shade of the
Almighty is to dwell in Christ. And he is our water of life. He is our shade in a dry, thirsty
land. Don't think for a moment we don't
live in a dry, thirsty land. Very little water out there.
Once in a while we run into someone who knows something. And when
we do, we say, I think I've known you all my life. We have that
in common. Oh, we both worship the same
Christ. We love the same gospel. And nothing about free will is
brought up, nothing about all the tapestries and stuff that
go with religion. We're just settled in Christ.
Oh, brother, sister, I think I've known you all my life. And
we just met him because we have that bond. Oh, the shadow of
the Almighty, the water of life found only in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. And so Israel come down to Elam. Twelve wells of water and 70
palm trees for the wing.