Alright, Exodus 15. Now you know that in Israel we see a picture of
the Lord's spiritual Israel, of His true sons of Abraham,
true children of Abraham. Paul told us in Galatians 3.27,
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
baptized into Christ by the Spirit of God. And there's neither Jew
nor Greek. There's not Jew and Gentile in
Christ. There's neither bond nor free. There's neither male
nor female. You're all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs
according to promise. That's the true Israel of God
is God's children. When we look at this Word today,
we're going to try to get this Word down in our hearts this
morning as God teaching us how He deals individually with His
children. Word of how He deals in mercy
and love and grace to each individual child whom He's personally called
by His grace. Let me give you a few examples
of how Israel is a picture of the believer in particular. and
of his children, his people. You know, long before the nation
ever existed, God the Father said they would. They already
existed in the mind and purpose of God, and that's so of every
believer. They were chosen of God and put
in Christ before as yet even the world on which we live existed.
Then in time, Israel was in Egypt as slaves. They were in bondage.
That's where the children of Israel were. And that's how we
were born. We came into this world. Every
chosen child of God comes into this world in bondage. We come
bound in trespasses and in sins, dead, bound, just bound, unable
to free ourselves. And then the Lord, there was a Passover lamb that
He provided. And it was slain in the place
of the firstborn of Israel. And all of the The head of the
house applied that blood to the doorpost and God passed over
when he saw the blood. And we see a type of the redemption
accomplished by Christ who died in the place of every one of
his firstborn elect children. Of Christ our head applying his
own blood and of God passing over us even when we were dead
in our sins because of him. And then they were brought out
of Egyptian bondage. And they passed through the Red
Sea and were baptized unto Moses. And we're told in the Scriptures
that that's a picture of baptism where we're the believers baptized
of the Holy Ghost, made to call on God and believe on Him. And then they got to the other
side of the Red Sea and all their enemies died in the Red Sea by
God's power and wrath coming upon the enemies. And they looked
on the seashore and on all those that pursuing them. All their
enemies were slain on the seashore. And they began a song of rejoicing
to the Lord. And we see a picture here of
the believer rejoicing in faith as we behold that all our sins,
all our enemies have been cast into the sea by our God, by the
power of Christ. So you get the picture here.
We have a picture of a child of God. He's delivered out of
bondage by the blood of Christ, by the Spirit of God into spiritual
life. Immediately they come out and
a great trial starts. Verse 22. So Moses brought Israel
from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of Shur.
And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
Can you imagine being in a desert for three days without water?
Scorching heat, the hot sand, everything is dry. We're talking
about two million people here. Men, women, children, cattle,
and no water to drink. No water to drink for three days.
For three days. But then, they look off in the
distance, and they see water. They see water, and they get
excited. And you can picture it going
through the camp. Hey, folks at the front said, there's water.
They see water. And it starts spreading through
the camp. Hey, there's water. Water up ahead. Everybody starts
rejoicing. There's water. There's water. If you're thirsty
and you hear the news of water, that sounds like good news. Water. But they get to the water and
they don't find what they expected. Verse 23. And when they came
to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they
were bitter. They were bitter. Therefore the
name of it was called Marah. Bitter. Bitter. Can you imagine
how disappointed appointed that you would be? You traveled for
three days without water, and you think you've got water, and
you get there, and it's bitter. You can't even drink it. You
can't drink it. Well, what did they do? Three
days ago, they were singing and rejoicing in the Lord because
they just saw all their enemies slain in the Red Sea. They've
been delivered out of bondage. They're rejoicing. They're happy.
What are they going to do now when they get to these bitter
waters? Verse 24, And the people murmured against Moses, saying,
What shall we drink? What shall we drink? Now put
yourself in Moses' shoes. He's leading two million people.
And he's got two million people saying, Moses, what are we going
to drink? What are we going to drink? Notice
what Moses did. He didn't murmur with them. He
didn't lead them into further rebellion. Roses do whatever
child of God must do. Verse 25. And he cried unto the
Lord. Brethren, cry unto the Lord.
Cry unto the Lord. He's near. He's nigh. He hears
the cry of his children. Cry unto the Lord. He hears. Verse 25. And the Lord heard
him. Look. Verse 25. And the Lord
showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters,
that the waters were made sweet. If the Lord will show us that
tree this morning, whatever waters that are bitter to us, they'll
be made sweet. They'll be made sweet if we can see this tree
this morning and it be cast into the waters. It'll be sweet. We'll
look at three things here. We'll see the bitter waters.
We'll see the two cries. And then we'll look at this sweetening
tree. I've titled it the Sweetening
Tree. Let's look at these bitter waters. Marah, verse 23. When
they came to Marah they couldn't drink of the waters for they
were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And you
can picture this. You know that you've had this
happen before. We have this happen in our lives
many times over. We go through a little drought
and we think we see some sweet water ahead and we only find
out it's more bitter water, bitter waters. In our homes we have
an example of it. The young people hadn't all experienced
this yet, but you know, a young couple of believers meet and
they fall in love and the prospect of getting married, they're just
so excited to get married. They get married and then everything's
good. It's wonderful. Marriage is wonderful. But there's a whole lot of stuff
that goes along with it. There's some bitter waters too.
Bitter waters too. Then you go along a little while
and you decide, we're going to have some children. prospect
of having children. You have one, oh it's so exciting,
it's so thrilling. Then you have the next one, have
the next one, then you got to raise them. A lot of bitter water
goes with that, trying to raise them, bitter waters. And then
you think about when you're younger, you think of this, boy I can't
wait to get older. Don't you think that? You think
of all the different things about right now that you're deprived
of because you're younger, but you think, boy if I could be
older, Well, you know what you really want? You want to be older
and feel like you feel right now. Because when you get older,
the age comes along and your body don't feel like it does
when you're younger. And there's so many believers
that have to taste the bitter waters of illness and all kinds
of bodily infirmities. You think about work, our work. You think about how excited you
were. You went to the first interview.
You come home and you got all those jitters wondering about
it, you know, and then you got the job. Came home, got to announce
it to everybody. I got it. I got the job. And
you're all excited. You're learning the ins and outs
of it. It's all thrilling to you, you know. And then before
long, some disappointment comes. Maybe it's a bitter loss or some
bitter, heavy load that you face. All you wanted, really, you just
wanted to take a long, cool drink of water. And you got to it,
and it's bitter. bitter waters. What about where
we live? We live in a place, you know,
and we live there for a while and it gets kind of dry. We think,
well, if we could just, we got our eye on another place, another
little town or community or house or whatever, and we think, well,
if we could get over there, that just looks like that'd be the
answer to everything. You know, the streets are shady
and the Communities are so quaint and their schools look good.
Everything looks good We get over there and we get right up
to it We bend down we dip our hand down beneath the service
and we take us a big old drink and we find out It's bitter there, too Bitter
there, too What about where we worship? You know, this is a
church in the wilderness right here. We're looking at There's
some God's got some sheep in the midst of all this right here
where we're looking at, we start thinking, boy, if we just had
more people. They had two million. That didn't make the water sweet.
They had a faithful man leading them. That didn't make the water
sweet. If we could record a message
that we preached ourselves and get in a room by ourselves, that
we set up by ourselves, set the time and everything by ourselves,
and just sit there by ourselves listening to ourselves. It wouldn't
be very long and we'd find some bitter waters. Either in the
preacher or in the audience or in the way the room's set up.
Something about it. We'd find some bitter waters. You see,
we like the cow that's sitting out there on the fence and he's
got all this pasture. He's just got a big pasture right
there. But he's up against that rail and he's got his head stuck
through that fence as hard as he can cutting himself and getting
scraped by the wire and everything just trying to get to that grass
outside that fence because that grass over there looks just a
little bit better than this grass. How long are we going to chase
that mirage in the desert? How long are we going to look
up see that mirage glistening over there in the desert and
think oh there it is there's my oasis and we're going to take
off running to it and get over there and every one of these
rivers we try to run to and we dip, plunge ourselves into it
for a big old drink, we find out that there's nothing but
good old bitter pond scum mixed with every bit of it. Everywhere
we go. Wherever we are, that's where
we are. Wherever you are, that's where
you are. And wherever I am, that's where I am. And there's the sand. There's the bitter water. Wherever
we go. wherever we go. But that's grace, isn't it? Isn't
it grace that God don't let His children become satisfied with
the waters? That He doesn't let us just run
up and find sweet water and start drinking down, drinking it. That's
grace. That is great, great grace for
God to do that. Else we'd call that which is
bitter, sweet, and that which is sweet, bitter. That's what
we would do. We can't expect Canaan's fruit
in this wilderness. We're just not going to find
Canaan's fruit in the wilderness. Alright, let's look at these
two cries once they got there, verse 24. And the people murmured
against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And Moses cried unto
the Lord. We've got one people murmuring
against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And the other cry is
Moses crying unto the Lord. past the Red Sea. We get out
of the house of bondage. We see what marvelous things
the Lord has done for us and His Son. And we go a little ways
and we get hemmed in between a rock and a hard place at the
Red Sea with the enemy barreling down on us. And we find ourselves
murmuring again. And then the Lord takes us over
the Red Sea. And we sing and we sing and we think, I'm not
going to do that anymore. I'm not going to murmur anymore
against God. How many signs does He have to
show me that He is the Lord that's leading me and guiding me and
providing for me? And then we go three days without
water. And we come to, we see what we think is water and we
get to it and it's bitter water. And the Lord just keeps on showing
us that within every believer there is still a sin man dwelling
there. that all he can do is find something
to murmur about. That's all he can do is find
something to murmur about. This is not Jewish nature that
God is showing us to be vanity. This is human nature at its best
state that God is showing us to be vanity. Verily, verily,
man at his best state is altogether vanity. Paul is a believer in
Romans 7, 18. He's a man who knows God. And
he says, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwells no good
thing. And he says, for to will is present
with me. I don't want to murmur. There's
a new man inside me that don't want to murmur, that knows what
God does is right and best. But there is how to perform that
which is good. I find not. There's another man
They're warring at each other. Do we realize we murmur? Do you
murmur? Do we realize we murmur? It may
not be, we think, when we think of murmuring, you think of some
ugly things. We can have some ugly things come into our mind.
And sometimes murmuring is ugly. It's real ugly. But it may just
be something as simple as thinking this. Why am I being dealt with
like this? Why? I've been working hard. I've been trying to do what's
honorable. I've been trying to, you know, whatever it is, provide
for my family, for the church. Why is this coming on me? I look
around and I see folks going through this life and they just
seem to be fat and jolly and happy all the time. And I'm just
going through this all the time. It could be something like that.
Just those thoughts that come up at every little ill providence. Is our murmuring against God?
Is it against God? They murmured against Moses.
You see that? They murmured against Moses.
Is our murmuring against God? Was their murmuring against God?
You know, whenever they... Pope Scott just read that scripture
in the back about them coming to Canaan, when they got to Canaan. And it was just like what the
Lord told them it would be like, and they came back and The report
turned evil when they came back and started saying, we can't
go in. That's when the report turned evil. And the Lord, when
he answered Moses, he said, how long is this people going to
murmur against me? They didn't say that to anybody
but Moses and Caleb and Joshua and anybody that wanted to go
in. That's who they said it to. That's who Moses said this to.
Well, we don't out and out murmur against God, do we? I've tried to think of some example.
Let's just say you had a parking lot. Somebody backs into your
car, puts a ding in your car. We say this. They would have
just been watching where they were going. We say this. Well, if whoever designed this
parking lot, the engineer that designed this parking lot, if
he would have just done his parking differently and made it so that
these lines were drawn differently, that wouldn't have happened.
If the manufacturer of this car had their car, I saw inside of
their car, it just was designed poorly. You couldn't see out
of the rear view mirror out the back to see that. I could see
where he could back up and hit somebody. The manufacturer would
have just designed that differently. If it just hadn't have been raining. All those things are second causes.
God's the God of first cause. Nothing comes to pass out of
his hand. So we can murmur against all
the second causes, but take all the second causes out of the
way. And what we're saying is, God, why did you do this? Why
did you do this? That's really, that's it. And
a sure indication that it's our old man that's talking, a sure
indication that it's the believer's old man that's talking is this.
Whenever we decide that the problem is somebody else's fault, that's
a sure indication. when it's somebody else's fault.
I've told you this before. As soon as Adam sinned in the
garden and death entered by sin, and God came to Adam and said,
Adam, did you eat that fruit I told you not to eat? What's
the first thing out of Adam's mouth? That woman, you gave me. She gave me this and I ate. He
blamed God and he blamed Eve. That's a product of sin. That's
a product of sin. It's somebody else's fault. It's
nobody's fault that I'm a sinner. but my own, my own. Nobody's fault for me to murmur
but my own, my own. Nobody else, I can't blame anybody
else but me, but me. The people murmured against Moses.
It's another sure indication it's our old man talking too
whenever it's not just somebody else's fault, but when we're
saying that, we're saying this at the same time. We're saying,
God, I thank Thee I'm not as other men are. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer.
I'm not as this publican. I know how to drive in the parking
lot. I know how to drive. I know how to park my car. I'm
glad I'm not like others. Well, do we just say by that,
well, that's just an old man. Flesh is flesh. It's weak. I
can't do anything about it. If we've been made a partaker
of the divine nature, strive against that. Let's strive against
it. Let's strive and say, no, there's no excuse for me doing
it. There's no excuse for it. It's
not. Not any excuse. But we see by it, if the Lord
left us there, we see exactly what we are. We're just murmuring,
murmuring against God. But look, there's another cry
here too. This is the cry that comes about when God's working
in grace in the heart This is the cry of the new man, verse
25. And Moses cried unto the Lord.
Moses cried unto the Lord. You know, grace brings us to
cry this cry. Why did Moses cry unto the Lord
and they murmured against Moses? Why didn't Moses just turn around
and murmur against them? He did at times. He did at times. He came down with two tablets
of stone that God just broke with His own finger and threw
them down on the ground and broke them. because of the people. He murmured against God too.
Why didn't he right here? Why didn't he then? The only
one who gets the glory for him not murmuring like the rest of
them right here is the God of all grace. The God of all grace
gets all the glory. Romans 8, 26. The Spirit also
helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray. We know
not what we should pray for as we ought. The Spirit maketh intercession
for us with groanings that can't be uttered. Trials don't produce
prayer. Trials don't produce prayer.
God's got to sanctify that trial to our heart by His grace and
pour out the spirit of grace and supplication in our heart
to make us pray. We're not going to boast in praying
all day. We're not going to boast that we pray. You've got no strength
to do anything unless God gives you the grace to do it. I love,
I rejoice, I'm so thankful that we have access to the throne
of grace. We need grace to get to the throne of grace. That's
right. We need grace to have a prayer
in our heart to pray to God. I rejoice and it thrills my soul
to know I have an intercessor at the right hand of the Father.
I have a mercy seat there where I can find mercy and grace to
help in time of need. And honestly, I need mercy and
grace to come to the mercy seat. I need mercy and grace to come
to the mercy seat. I needed it the first hour that
He called me. I need it every hour since then.
I need His mercy and grace. And usually God in His dealings
with us leaves us alone just long enough to humble us by making
us to see if He left us to ourselves, all our praying would be murmuring.
We would stand and pray thus with ourselves. I'm so glad I'm
not like them. But when He does this and He
strips us, And He makes all bitterness to us. He does pour out the Spirit
of supplication in the hearts of His people. And He does draw
His children to Himself. And He does cause His children
to look up and see that all our hope and all our salvation is
the God of the trial. He does that. And then the one
that seeks finds. And He that knocks, He opens
to it. And when you ask, you receive.
You ask, you receive. But who gets the glory for that?
I wouldn't come and ask Him if He didn't give me the grace to
do it. I just wouldn't, Mike. I'm being honest. I just would
not. Well, let's look now at the sweetening
tree. Crying to the Lord. Approach
Him. Don't ever misunderstand me. I'm not saying don't pray. I'm saying approach Him. Do approach
Him. Which one of these two is the
better? Murmuring against or crying unto the Lord? Asking
the Lord. It's far better to go to the Lord and ask the Lord.
I'm just saying, know that when you go to the Lord, rejoice and
thank Him that you have the grace and the heart to come to Him,
because otherwise we just wouldn't. Alright, let's look at this sweetening
tree now. Verse 25, And the Lord showed
him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters
were made sweet. They were made sweet. Let's go
over. Hold your place right here. We're
going to have to come right back here. But go over to 1 Peter
chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. Look at verse 24. What's the tree that's going
to sweeten every trial of bitter water? 1 Peter 2.24 Christ, His
own self, bear our sins in His own body. Where? On the tree. On the tree. That we, being dead to sins,
should live unto righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. Now put those two things together.
He bare the sin of His people in His own body on the tree. And the result was, by whose
bruise you were healed. Go back with me real quick. We're
coming back to the New Testament, but go back with me to Exodus
15. What's the Lord teaching us in
this whole deal here? Well, when that tree He showed
him a tree, and when it was cast into the waters, the waters were
made sweet. Look down at the end of verse
26. It was a tree. Do you see that tree? Look down
at the end of verse 26. This is what he is teaching us.
I am the Lord, and healeth thee. Do you see that? Do you see this
tree and this healing combined? Look over at Galatians chapter
3. Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. For it is written, Cursed, cursed
is everyone that hangeth, where? On a tree. What's the result
of that? What's the result of that? Look
at the next verse. That the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. You know what He just
said? When this tree is cast into the
waters, it makes the waters sweet because I am the Lord that healeth
thee. This is how His people are healed.
Let's look at one more place. Acts 5. Look at verse 30. Acts
5 verse 30. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged." Where? On a tree. On a tree. Now here's the result of it.
"...Him hath God exalted with His right hand, a Prince and
a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of
sin." You know what he just said? This tree, when it's cast into
the water, makes the bitter water sweet, because I am the Lord
that healeth thee. Go back now. Let's read this
Exodus together. Let's read this. He cried unto
the Lord, and the Lord, Exodus 15, 25, and the Lord showed him
a tree, which when he cast into the waters, the waters were made
sweet, and there he made for them a statute and an ordinance,
and there he proved them. Listen to what the Lord said
to him. He said, if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice
of the Lord thy God, who did that? That one who went to the
tree. You know what we see by him going
to the tree? We see him hearkening diligently
unto the voice of the Lord. He's the only man on the face
of this earth that ever did it. The only one. What's required
of me to love God and my neighbor as myself completely, hearkened
diligently to the voice of the Lord. Look right here. And if
you'll do that which is right in His sight, that's what's required,
do what is exactly right in God's sight, and give ear to His commandments,
and keep all His statutes, do that. There's only one man on
the face of every walk of this earth that ever did that. What's
required for me to love God and love my brother is myself. to
keep all of God's Word and all of His statutes and obey all
of His commandments. After you have completely fulfilled every
one of them and honored every one of them for thirty-three
and a half years without a sin in you from conception to that
point, then to completely hearken diligently and obey everything
that is spoken in His Word and His statutes, then for God and
for your brethren, you have to be forsaken of God and forsaken of your brethren.
And then you will have hearkened to the voice of the Lord and
fulfilled every word that is spoken, and loved God and loved
your brethren as yourself." You want to see Him doing it?
See Him drinking the bitter waters that caused our curse. See Him
who God made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. You want to see the fulfillment
of the law? Look to the cross and see a man whose visage is
marred more than any man on the face of this planet ever in the
history of abuse and wrath and rebellion. You want to see the
hearkening diligently unto the voice of the Lord? Look to the
cross and see the man who took the cup of trembling out of our
hand and he drank every last drop of the cup of God's fury
in the place of his people. for the glory and honor of the
Father whom He came to serve. You want to see the fulfillment
of the law? Look at Him who was bruised. Have you ever seen a
bad bruise? A bad bruise looks bad. That
word wounded for our transgressions means bruised. You know, there's
something in a bruise that is a picture of what our Lord suffered.
Because what He suffered wasn't just on the surface. It was deep
beneath the surface. It was deep beneath. Imputation
don't get it. Imputation don't get it. It was
imputation of sin. I know that. That don't get it.
It's something we can't understand. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. And He bore the bruise for our
iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And you know what the next word
is? After that tree? With His stripes we're healed.
I am the Lord that healeth thee. This is the sweetening tree for
all bitter waters is Christ in Him crucified. He is the tree
of life. He is the one whom God has raised
to His right hand because He satisfied God. He finished everything
that was written. This is what was written. Everything
that was written was saying this to us. from that innocent lamb
slain in the garden to make coats of skins which God used to cover
Adam and Eve, the fallen couple, from that all the way to the
cross when He hung there and bore this in His own body on
the tree. That's what it was declaring all the way through.
Every bruise, every ounce of blood, every drop that was shed,
everything God did throughout the history of this world with
the people that He called out to use to illustrate this whole
thing for us. Teaching some right there in
the midst of them. This is very true. God did this to show what
He would accomplish by laying down His own life on the cross. And by that we have atonement.
His children have atonement. God has satisfied Himself by
His own blood. Reconciliation to God by His
own offering. By that one offering whereby
He has perfected for ever them that are sanctified. He did this.
Now don't miss this point too. That's true when they got to
those waters. I mean, it's two million people. You don't pull
up to a creek with two million people just on the fly. It takes you a little time to
get there, you know. And they're murmuring. They done gone up
there and tasted. And as quickly as that word spread
through that there's water, that word started spreading back through
that it's bitter water. And the people started murmuring.
And all this has taken some time to go on. And Moses is sitting
there hearing all this. And the tree was there the whole
time. The tree was there the whole time. Christ is there the
whole time. He was there from before the
world began. He was there throughout all these ages of time. He was there when He went to
the cross and laid down His life and put the sin of His people
away. He was there when you were in all your rebellion, going
through life trying to deny God. He was there the whole time.
And every time we're in a trial and we're suffering and we're
going through these things, He's there the whole time. He's Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today, and forever, who does not change.
He's there the whole time. But it takes God showing Him
to us, doesn't it? God's got to show Him to us.
We're blind at the bitter waters. The tree's got to be cast into
the waters. The Spirit of God has to come
and take the veil off our hearts to make us to see Christ, the
tree of life. He's got to come to where we
are and remind us of Christ hanging on that tree in our room instead. He's got to come to us where
we are and make us to see Christ in our heart. And when He does,
brethren, really and truly, Moses took this tree and he cast this
tree into the water. But you know who cast this tree
into the water? Our prophet, priest, and king, the one who's
leading His children. He takes the tree that He is.
He takes the life that He is. And He casts it into the bitter
waters, wherever we are, through the Spirit of God, through the
gospel of His grace. And it comes in power into us.
And we've been murmuring and complaining the whole time. And
our waters, they've been bitter. They are bitter. Disappointment
disappoints. Hurting hurts. Cutting cuts.
It doesn't matter. Sharp words are sharp. It's just
so. And it cuts against us. And it
is bitter. But even in the midst of all our rebellion against
Him, this long-suffering, merciful God who's put away the fury and
wrath towards His children, He hasn't sent the bitter waters
out of fury and wrath. He sent the bitter waters out
of love. He sent the bitter waters to tell us, don't try to find
satisfaction in these waters. I'm the Lord that healeth thee.
I'm the Lord that satisfied all my commands. I'm the Lord that
healeth thee. That's what he teaches us. Oh,
and we cast those waters into our soul and our heart. Those
bitter waters are made sweet. Proverbs said the full soul loatheth
a honeycomb. When you're full, you don't even
want a honeycomb. But the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. You know what we say with David? It's so good that I've been afflicted.
That I might learn your statutes, Lord. It's so good that He's
afflicted me. What is this tree that's cast
into the waters? I think I read this to you every
time. Romans 8. Go there with me. We're going to get it one of
these days. We really are. We're going to get this for truly one of these days. Romans
8. Let's just start with verse 34. Who is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Why didn't God just stamp
them all out right there in the middle of the wilderness? Because
He had some seed there. He had some children there. And
He had His Son, and they're righteous in His Son. His Son's making
intercession for them. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or the bitter waters of persecution, or the bitter waters of famine,
or the bitter waters of nakedness, or the bitter waters of peril,
or the bitter waters of sword? Shall the bitter waters of being
a sheep that's killed all day long accounted as a sheep for
the slaughter? Will that separate us from His
love? No. And all these things were more than conquerors through
Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither
death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." That's a tree
of life that will make any bitter water sweet. Any bitter water
sweet. What have we seen here? What
have we learned here? What do we see here? The wilderness. As long as we go through this
wilderness, God is going to continually present us with trial, and we
are not going to find any pleasure in this life. We are just not
going to find pleasure in this life. In any of those things
that the worldly man can find his pleasures in, we are not
going to find them there. They are just going to be turned
bitter to a child of God. But remember, that is mercy to
our souls. We wouldn't appreciate the sweat
in the Garden of Gethsemane if we didn't have, in some little
measure, have to sweat some pain every now and then. We wouldn't
have any understanding of the sorrows that He endured for us
being forsaken by His own friend if we weren't forsaken by our
own friends now and then. We wouldn't know anything at
all about the suffering that He encountered at the hands of
intellectual religious venom if we didn't suffer the same
every now and then. We wouldn't know anything at all about what
it is to his cry of, I thirst, or of, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Unless the desert didn't get
dry as this life didn't become dry as a desert on occasion.
We wouldn't know what that's like. And we don't even drink
a sip of that water. We don't even drink a sip because
he drank it dry. Just a little providence, just
a little turning of his hand every now and then. to teach
us. This is what our Lord always
teaches us. I'm the Lord that healeth thee.
Alright? We learn this. Strive against
murmuring. Let's strive against it. It's
not becoming. It doesn't do anything but make
us miserable. When we get done with it, it
makes us regret it, don't it? It just makes us sad that we
ever said it or thought it. He's our ever-present help in
time and cry unto Him. Cry unto Him. Pour out your heart
unto Him. This bitter water, it's going
to be done. It's going to be accomplished
in the heart. It's going to be done in the
heart. And remember the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the sweetening tree. The sweetening tree. Satisfaction
accomplished. Atonement made. It's done. And remember this too, in all
of these trials, all of these little things, they're leading
us to the last day. They're leading us to that day
when we're going to come to the bitter waters of death. And I've
sat with some believers at times that have died, and a believer
still has this old flesh too. A dying believer still has this
old flesh too. You have that murmuring of thinking
about Tryin' to think about how well you spent your life. Have
that murmurin' of tryin' to think about all the honors you achieved.
Have your murmurin' of thinkin' about benevolence and deeds you've
done. All of those things won't sweeten
the waters. They just won't sweeten the waters.
Oh, but to have Christ. To just know. I've got the tree. I have the
tree of life. I have the sweetening tree. I
have the Lord who's healed me. That makes those waters sweet,
just like it does all these other waters. You don't know the next
trial you're going to face. It may be bigger than the one
today. That one's going to be bigger than all of them. But
just like He provided grace for yesterday's, and He's providing
grace for today's, He'll provide grace for tomorrow's, and He'll
provide grace for that one. He will. When we need it, He
will. And here's the last thing. Look
down at verse 27. The Lord's always able to provide
plenty of sweet water for each of His children. Look at verse
27. And they came to Elam, where
were twelve wells of water, a well for every tribe, and three score
and ten palm trees, and they camped out right there by the
water. He's always able. Always able. Amen.