A passage in Deuteronomy 32,
there were several things that struck me, but one is when God
says, my doctrine. Don't ever speak negatively of
God's doctrine. It's just doctrine. It's God's
doctrine. And this hit me in verse 31,
for their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves
being judges. How many times have you heard
people say, my God's not like that? You're right. He's not. Our rock is not like their rock. And even our enemies, the enemies
of the gospel, say the same thing. Now back to 1 Corinthians 10. They did all drink the same spiritual
drink. For they drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ. The children of Israel spent
40 years in the desert. with perhaps up to two million
people and the livestock, and they were in a desert. How are
they going to drink? Two million people. Chicago has
two and a half million people, so a city roughly the size of
Chicago with all these livestock. How are they going to drink? I suppose one of the last places
you would expect to find water is in a rock. Now, I Googled it to see if there
is any water in a rock, and indeed there is some moisture in everything. But listen to this passage of
scripture from Psalm 78, verses 15 and 16. He claimed the rocks
in the wilderness and gave them drink as out of the great depths. He brought streams out of the
rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. That is what came out of this
rock. That is what provided the children
of Israel with water to drink. Now picture this in your mind,
rivers gushing out, rivers gushing out from this one rock. enough water to sustain and provide
water for all the people of Israel and all their livestock for 40
years. And Paul goes on to say that
rock followed them. There were some 40 encampments. They would march, they would
encamp. And whenever they went to a different
place, they had a pillar in front of them. The pillar of cloud
by day, the pillar of fire by night, They followed that pillar
and behind it, that rock would follow them. And Paul tells us
that rock was Christ. He doesn't say it's as if that
rock were Christ. He doesn't say that rock was
a type of Christ. He said that rock was Christ. Now somebody says, does that
mean this is a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus
Christ? I wouldn't say it's not. I don't know how to explain it.
But Paul doesn't say it's as if that rock was Christ. And
I suppose if it is a pre-incarnate appearance, the Lord can take
any form he wants to. And Paul tells us that rock was
Christ. Now, let's go to Exodus chapter
17 and read this story. Exodus 17. Now, this was early in the journey,
just a few weeks after they had left Egypt. They had been in
a place where they could get water, and now they're in a place
where there is no water. Exodus chapter 17, verse 1, and
all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the
wilderness of sin after their journeys, according to the commandment
of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim. And there was no water for the
people to drink. Wherefore, the people did ask
Moses, would you please pray for us? The Lord that graciously
bestowed upon us that manna just a few days before this, we believe
that he will graciously give us water. Didn't say that, does it? Let's
read what they did say. Wherefore the people did chide
with Moses, 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? Now, chided, contended, and complained,
and strove in an aggressive manner. And look at the way they say,
give us water. by way of a sense of entitlement. Give us water. You ought to give us water. They
were commanding Moses, give us water. Now that's not the attitude
anyone ever has with the Lord. If I have a sense of entitlement
like this, it's because I have way too high an opinion of myself
and way too low opinion of the Lord. That's where this sense
of entitlement comes from. If the Lord gives me the grace
to have the right attitude, I'm not going to be making demands
and commands. I'm gonna ask for Christ's sake.
And I'm gonna know the only reason I can be heard is for the sake
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I hope I always realize that. The Lord hears me for one reason,
for Christ's sake. He provides for me out of his
loving, glorious heart for one reason. for Christ's sake. But that's not the way they approach
this. Give us water. Moses replies, why chide ye with
me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord? Now it's not me you're complaining
with, it's God. Now I hope I'll take this to
heart. Every complaint I have, every murmuring I have, I'm murmuring
at the Lord. I might be saying it's directed
toward somebody else, but the Lord is the first cause and control
of everything, and all of the murmuring that comes out of my
mouth and my heart is directed at the Lord. Oh, I'll blame other
things, but Moses says, why are you chiding with me? You're not
complaining with me. You're complaining with the Lord, and you're tempting
the Lord with this evil attitude. Now verse three, and the people
thirsted there for water. And the people murmured against
Moses and said, wherefore is it that thou has brought us up
out of the land of Egypt to kill us and our children? and our
cattle with thirst." Now, after all they'd seen that the Lord
had done for them, this is all they had to say. You brought
us out here for a genocide. You're gonna kill us. You're
gonna kill our children with thirst. Why did you do this?
How disheartening that must have been to Moses. And verse four,
and Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, what shall I do unto
this people? They be almost ready to stone
me. Now that's how upset they were.
Moses was never popular in Israel. He was always criticized, always
second guessed, always accused. And here they are accusing him
again. Verse five, here's the Lord's
reply. And the Lord said unto Moses,
go on before the people and take with thee The elders of Israel,
I want witnesses to see this. This is not going to be done
in private. I want the elders to see this and behold what's
getting ready to take place. And thy rod wherewith thou smotest
the river. Now you remember this rod? Remember
he smoked the Red Sea? He used it to smite. It's something of God's power
and God's judgment. That's what this represents,
this rod. He said, you take that rod wherewith thou smotest the
river, take in thine hand and go. And behold, don't miss this. I will stand before thee upon
the rock. Now don't miss that. He's not
just smiting this rock. The Lord says, I will stand before
thee on the rock. And thou shalt smite the rock. And the implication is he's smiting
that one who's standing on the rock. He says, I'll be on that
rock. 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. And he called the
name of the place Massah. and Meribah, because of the chiding
of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord,
saying, is the Lord among us or not? Now, Horeb is where he
saw the bush that burned and was not consumed, and there was
a rock standing there. And he says, I'll stand on that
rock. Now, I thought, did Moses realize what he's doing? I don't
know. Did he know that he was, there the Lord is, and he smites
the rock? But that's what the Lord says. I will stand on the
rock. And there shall come out water
where the people may drink. And that word smite is also translated
kill, slaughter, and slay. And when he hit that rock with
the Lord standing on it, rivers of water, streams of water came
up from the depths. Can you imagine seeing that?
These streams and two million people had plenty to drink. Their
livestock had plenty to drink. And the scripture says, in the
New Testament, that rock followed them. Now somebody says, how
could that be? I don't know. A lot of things
I don't know. But it wouldn't be hard for God
to cause that rock to follow them with that water continually,
streams of mercy, never ceasing, coming toward them and giving
them drink. Now, Paul says in no uncertain
terms, that rock was Christ. I think of what Zachariah said,
Awake, O sword, smite the shepherd. and the sheep will be scattered. Now, what a gospel time. First, we have a great need.
Water. How bad do you need water? You'll
die real quick without it. A great need. Oh, I wish the
Lord would Show us our need of him, and our need of his grace,
and our need of his precious blood, and our need of his righteousness. Need. He healed them that had
need of healing. The whole need, not a physician,
but they that are sick. A great need. Water. And we have a wicked people. Give us water. What of? Rotten attitude. What a sense
of entitlement, thinking it's owed to him. All the Lord had
done for him, they couldn't come into his presence with any better
attitude than that? Give us water! I mean, the Lord
had graciously given him bread. He parted the Red Sea for them. They'd seen the 10 plagues and
the deliverance. Give us water! A sense of entitlement. It's
so ugly. Give us water. What a high view
of yourself that you would think, I have water coming to me. What
a low view of the Lord that you would, you could think you could
come into his presence like that. Give us water. We have a remarkably
wicked people and we have a gracious God. His grace is bottomless. It's boundless. It's infinite. God, in his grace, provides for
such a sinful, unbelieving people rivers of water from the great
depths. And that grace, that water, comes
through the smiting of Christ. This is the gospel. Christ was
standing on top of that rock. Why? This rock speaks of the
cross. Him being smitten on the cross.
God is holy. I wish I would say that with
the proper reverence. God is holy. He's other. He's
altogether just. He can't let sin go unpunished.
He's merciful. He's gracious. He delights in
mercy. For him to be just and merciful
To me, with my sin, Christ had to be smitten. And on the cross,
when he was smitten, mercy and truth are met together, righteousness
and peace have kissed one another. Oh, the mercy, the justice of
God displayed on the cross. Now, these wicked people and
their sin, and this wicked man and his sin, sin. The sins of
God's elect. Do you remember when Christ was
in Gethsemane's garden and he said, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. Now that's the son of God who
knew it wasn't possible, but yet he's so overwhelmed at the
thought of what he was getting ready to do. What was in that
cup? Now, I understand somebody says,
well, the wrath of God. Yes, the wrath of God was in
that cup, but why is there the wrath of God? Sin. He was taking into his own body
when he drank that cup the sin and the sins of all of his people. He bare our sins. in his own body on the tree. Now do I understand all the implications
behind that? Of course I don't. I look at
this in fear. I look at this in trembling.
I look at this in amazing that the Holy Son of God would drink
that cup. My sin, the filth, the defilement
of my sin He drank in and he became guilty of the commission
of that sin. That's why he sweat great drops
of blood. He knew what he was getting ready
to do. It wasn't the physical pain of crucifixion that he was
afraid of. It was knowing he was gonna be
separated from his father. It was knowing he was going to
become the thing he hated. For he hath made him sin. That's what the Bible says. He
hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. He never sinned,
he never thought sin, he never had a sinful motive, he never
had a sinful thought, yet he was made something far worse. He was made sin. Why? That we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Now, I want you to hear that.
Just as truly as he was made sin, everybody that he died for
is made the righteousness of God. I wouldn't dare say that if the
Bible didn't say it, but it's true. Every believer is nothing
less than the very righteousness of God. This is the name wherewith
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. This is the name
wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. He did what only he could do
by drinking that cup and bearing our sins and bearing the wrath
of God. He satisfied God's law and he
answered all the demands of God's law and he actually put away
that sin so that I don't have any sin. That is so thrilling
because I'm conscious of my sin, I'm embarrassed by my sin, I
hate my sin, but I have no sin by what he did. I stand before
God's holy law without guilt, without sin, That is the heritage
of every believer. You think, well, what about the
things I've done? Well, you've done them. It's a whole lot worse
than you think. But he put them away. They're gone. They're blotted
out. They're canceled. That's what
he did. Now the waters flow from that
rock to this undeserving because the rock was smitten,
the accomplishments of his death. Now this is at the first of the
journey, but turn with me to Numbers 20. We have another event
with regard to this rock that was smitten, Numbers 20. This is toward the end. of the
journey, and they're getting ready to enter into the promised
land. Very soon. Numbers 20, verse
1. Then came the children of Israel,
even the whole congregation, to the desert of Zion in the
first month, and the people abode in Kadesh, and Miriam died there. and was buried there. Moses'
sister, Aaron's sister, Miriam, the one who led that singing
in Exodus 15 after the parting of the Red Sea, she died there.
And was buried there and there was no water for the congregation. Now what happened? I don't know. That rock had been following
them for 40 years. All of a sudden it's not following
them. Somebody says, can you give me an explanation for that? No, the Lord knows. There was
good whatever reason, it was good. But at this time, they're
in this predicament again. There are millions of people,
and all of a sudden, there's no water. Now, they do the same
thing. Instead of asking Moses, would
you pray for us, that the Lord would bring us water, We read,
and there was no water. And they, verse two, gathered
themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people
chode with Moses and spake saying, would to God that we died when
our brethren died before the Lord. Now this happened a bunch
of times. The Lord's judgment upon them. I think of Chapter 11, when they
said, we're tired of this manna. We want something else. We're
tired of manna. God sent them quails. And they had quails to
the full. And they ate those quails. And
they turned into poison. And many people died. In Numbers
chapter 14, when they were getting ready to go into the land of
Canaan. And they sent the spies and the
spies said, we can't take it. And the people murmured once
again, and many were killed during that time in Numbers chapter
16. When they murmured against Moses and Aaron, you guys think
you're the only ones that are holy. We're as good as you. We
can offer sacrifices as well as you can. And it was the sons
of Korah, and remember what the Lord did? He opened the ground
up and swallowed up 250 families straight to hell because of their
murmuring, thinking they could bypass the priest. And then the
people got mad at Moses, and Aaron said, you've killed the
Lord's people. And the Lord swallowed another 14,700 of them with a
plague. And they're saying, we wish we
would have died with them. Verse four. Why have you brought up the congregation
of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our cattle should
die there? And wherefore have you made us to come out of Egypt
to bring us into this evil place? It's no place of seed or figs
or vines or pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink. And Moses and Aaron went from
the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces. They were so distraught, they
were so discouraged. Here we go again, exact same
thing happening. It's the way it always is, isn't
it? Here we go again. And they fell on their faces
in utter discouragement, and the glory of the Lord appeared
unto them. Now this was some bright, shining,
Shekinah glory, some symbol of the presence of the Lord, kind
of like the Lord on the Mount Transfiguration when he became
white and glistening. The glory of the Lord appeared
unto them, The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod,
that rod you've been carrying for 40 years, the rod of my judgment,
take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and
Aaron thy brother, and what? What's it say? Speak to the rock. Don't smite it. Speak to the
rock. That's all that had to be done.
Speak to the rock. And it shall give forth his water,
and thou shalt bring forth them water out of the rock, so that
thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts to drink. Speak to the rock. First, smite the rock. Second time, speak to the rock. You see, that smiting has already
been done, and you cannot smite again. The rock had already been
smitten. When Christ was smitten, he was
raised because all of those sins were paid for. and put away. That's what the resurrection
means. All of those sins were put away, canceled out, made
not to be. I want to say this, I hope reverently,
that he got the job done. He came to save his people from
their sins. He saved his people from their sins. There's nothing
left to do. When he said it is finished, it was finished. No
need to smite him again. Why? That would take away from
the justice of God. That would take away from the
work of Christ. That would dishonor the work of Christ. You know,
when people believe in what they call universal redemption, that
Jesus Christ died for all the sins of all men without exception,
some of those sins that some of the people he died for He
goes ahead and sends them to hell anyway, even though those
sins were paid for. What's that doing but smiting the rock again?
That's all that is. It's denying the justice of God.
It's denying the holiness of God. You see, God's justice demands
the salvation of everybody for whom that rock was spit. Speak
to the rock. Speak to the rock. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. To smite him again would be to
deny the satisfaction of his work. It would be saying he was
wrong when he said it's finished. It was not finished. Something
else needs to be done. Speak to the rock. Now let's
go on reading. Thou shalt bring forth to them
water out of the rock, so that thou shalt give the congregation
and their beasts drink. Verse nine. And Moses took the
rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. Moses did what
the Lord told him to do. In verse nine. But look at verse
10. And Moses and Aaron gathered
the congregation together before the rock. And he said unto them,
hear now ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? Now,
you know on the surface, Moses is wrong now. First, what he
did, he did in anger. Here now, you rebels. I can just
hear him say it. He was so mad. Moses had a temper. And he said, must we fetch this
water out of the rock? Wait a minute, Moses, this doesn't
have anything to do with you. You're not gonna be fetching
any water out of the rock. This is the work of the Lord. You're talking
about joining in with him. Must we fetch you water out of
this rock? That's a little bit of self-promotion
going on. Must we fetch you water out of
this rock? And what did he do? He smote it twice. And Moses lifts up his hand with
his rod. Verse 11, he smoked the rock
twice. I could just see him taking that
rod and just banging that thing as hard as he could twice in
anger. Guess what? Water still flowed out of the
rock in Moses' act of disobedience. Water still flowed out of the
rock. Why? Because God is gracious. Now I know that Moses messed
up this type, didn't he? He disobeyed God. Everything
he did was wrong. He tried to take some of the
glory to himself. Most especially, he messed up
this type. But the water came out anyway.
Verse 12, And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because
you believed me, not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children
of Israel. Therefore, you shall not bring
this congregation into the land which I've given them. Now, what
does the Lord say Moses did? He failed to sanctify. He failed to regard as holy me. in smiting that rock twice. You say, well, it's just losing
his temper. Well, I understand him losing his temper. Might
have happened to me, might have happened to you, probably would have.
But the point is, that rock was only to be smitten once. And
when he smote it twice, he failed to regard as holy, just, and
right the Lord before the people. And you know what the Lord told
him? You're not going into the promised land. When Moses heard
that Joshua and Caleb were the only ones going into the promised
land some years before, I imagine he thought, it's just a given,
I'll go in. But he found out, no, you're not allowed to bring
them into the promised land. And the Lord always brings good
out of evil. Who brings them into the promised
land? Joshua. The Savior, the one who pictures
the Lord Jesus Christ. His name's the same. Jesus is
the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Joshua, Joshua Jesus. You see, Moses can't bring anybody
into the promised land. The law can't bring anybody into
the promised land. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can
bring us into glory. So the Lord brought good out
of this. I'm sure it crushed Moses. I'm sure he thought, oh, I go
through all this, I don't even get to go in. I'm sure it crushed
Moses and disappointed him and he was probably frustrated with
it. But Moses, the law is not gonna bring anybody into heaven.
Only the Lord Jesus Christ. He brings his people into heaven. Now Moses was wrong in smiting
that rock again. But you see how the Lord has
taught us the gospel through this rock not being smitten again.
Speak to it and we see the Lord's grace through Moses' sinfulness. But through that, we have the
gospel once again. The law can't bring in. Christ
does. Let's pray. Lord, we stand amazed at the
thought of you smiting your son. We stand amazed that he would
drink the cup that you gave him to drink and bear our sins in
his own body on the tree. Lord, we stand amazed. There's
so much we don't understand, but we believe it all. We believe
what you say. And we're so thankful for what
you've done. and bless us for the Lord's sake.
In his name we pray. Amen. Mike Rigsby is going to
come and confess Christ in Believer's Baptism now, and tell you a little
story first. About a year ago, I dreamed Mike
was going to come. I never told you this, but I dreamed Mike
was going to come up and ask me to baptize him. Dreamed it.
Now, I don't trust dreams. And I didn't want to tell him
about the dream because I thought it would put, it could put pressure
on him and I don't want to do that. And I really, I don't trust
dreams. But this one's come true. So let's sing a closing hymn
together and do this.