Exodus chapter 17. The title of the message is The Rock and
the War. The Rock and the War. If you'll
begin our reading in verse 1, the scripture says, 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 at Rephidim. And there was no water for the
people to drink. Now here in the history of Israel,
they're journeying through the wilderness and they come to this
place called Rephidim, which means resting place. That's what
the word means. But there was a great problem
with this resting place. A great problem. First of all,
it was in the middle of the desert. That's not necessarily where
one would think a resting place would be. But they found a resting
place, and it was in the desert. And there was a problem with
this resting place. Worse than the desert, it had
no water. It had no water. Now, remember
that Israel is meant by the Holy Spirit for us to be a type, a
picture of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, a type of
the elect. And so we all, like Israel, before
God in mercy come to us and quickened us to life and faith in Christ,
we too resided in this barren desert place called sin. We resided in sin. This desert place is the abode
of all natural men. All natural men abide in a place
of spiritual death. Therefore, all we do by nature,
all we think, all we feel, is like this desert place full of
sin, full of barrenness, empty of righteousness and life. Now, is it not strange that this
place should be called Rephidim, a resting place, a place that
had no water? That's not a resting place, is
it? Even so, consider the foolishness of natural man to think to find
rest and comfort and joy in this barren world. To think that man could find
pleasure and satisfaction in the flesh and the things of this
world is as foolish as calling a desert a resting place. Friends, this world and all its
vain trinkets are fast fading away. Fast fading away. The lust and pleasures of the
flesh cannot be satisfied. Have you found that to be so?
Have you not by experience seen that? If you have the least,
the smallest amount of intelligence, you can figure this out, that
you're never satisfied. Consider the wisdom of Solomon. Solomon being the wisest man
that ever lived next to the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, who
is wisdom. Solomon being given such great
wisdom, he says, I'm going to do this. I'm going to set my
heart to the things of this world. I'm going to maintain my wisdom
because he's testing these things. He says, I'm going to give myself
to labor. I'm going to give myself to work.
I'm going to give myself to wine and to folly. In Ecclesiastes 2, he said, after
all my labor, after all my work and all my wisdom, you know,
I've come to this conclusion. Everything is vanity. Everything
is empty. I've done it all and I found
it to be empty. To be worthless, to have no life
in it. He said, after I've done all
this, you know what's really vexing to me, Solomon said? He
said, I'm gonna leave this to someone else. And I don't know
whether he's gonna do good with it or not. I don't know because
I'm going to die. That's what he come to the conclusion.
And you know what he said? He said, I've come to hate life.
I'll tell you what, if a man is wise, this is what will end
up happening. He'll hate life. That's just
what it is. Because he finds that it's just
nothing but vanity. It's empty. It's empty. Don't we like aces sometimes
envy those who are ignorant? I know we do. They run around,
they're just so flighty and they don't care about anything. They
just rush headlong into everything and they don't have any concerns
or troubles. And we're always vexed with trouble. I'm always... I got this dark
cloud just looming over my head all the time. It's like it's
raining just on me. Everybody else seems to be enjoying
themselves, having a great time. But I know this, this world is
vanity. And I tell you, it gets us to
making us to hate this world, to hate our sin in this life. Oh, sons of Adam, may God open
your eyes to see that this world, that this world and all it has
is nothing but an empty desert. an empty desert that has no water. And just like Israel, men by
nature pitch their tents in this barren wilderness of sin that
cannot satisfy, that cannot give their souls life, that cannot
give them any joy or peace. And yet lost men call this world
Rephidim, resting place. Believer in Christ, Is this not so with us in our
flesh? Is it not true of our nature
that we are often enticed and tempted to turn to the things of this
world? Are you not attracted by the
things of this world? Because I tell you, my flesh
is. Our flesh is attracted to this world. We're attracted to
the people and the things of this life that are passing, that
are fleeting. And what does that do? It draws
us away from Christ. Listen to me, whatever draws
you from Christ is wrong. Leave it. Is that not simple
enough for us? Because whatever that is, is
not going to give you the peace you think it will. It won't. The peace you think that thing
or person is going to give you, you're going to find it nothing
but dirt in your mouth. The only hope for us is to have
water, the water of life that flows from where? From Christ. From Christ. Is it not true of us, believer,
that we were once dead in trespasses and sins, walked according to
the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air? Was it not true of us we were by nature children of
wrath? But God. Blessed, blessed conjunction. But God. For if God had not come to us,
surely we would have never come to Him. We were children of wrath in
that not that that's God's wrath, that was our wrath. Those people
who are in the desert who have no water, listen to me, they
hate God. Man by nature hates God. You've heard that. But you say
that to this world, and I'll tell you, you'll get a surprised
look, because this world doesn't believe that. This world doesn't
think that. But I tell you, God's Word said
it, that men are children of wrath. They're haters of God. The carnal mind is what? Enmity,
hatred against God. For it is not subject to the
law, neither indeed, what? It can't be. Notice that Israel was content
in this resting place so long as their supply of water lasted.
You see, they had been to other places that had water, and they
had filled their bags, they had filled their sacks full of water. And so when they got to this
resting place, they were drinking that water that they had carried
with them. But that didn't last too long.
That didn't last too long. And when that supply ran out,
guess what happened? They began to murmur. Look at
this in verse 2. Wherefore the people did chide
with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. See how God showed these people
His great power? Remember how he delivered them
from Egypt? Remember how strong that was?
Remember the miracle of this? That he delivered them from the
most powerful army in the world. He parted the Red Sea and they
walked through on dry ground. He gave them manna that rained
down from heaven. And now then they're in this
place and they ain't got no water and what do they do? They turn
to Moses. And they demand of Moses to do
something only God could do. They demanded of Moses, give
us water. Now John Gill notices this, he
said this word give is in the plural. Gives, in other words,
we need water for two million people and Moses you give it
to us. They wanted a man to do what
only God could do. Even so, did we by nature, when
sin could no longer satisfy, remember, this is where God leads
his people, he leads them into that barren place, he lets them
sit there a while, and then when they finally realize that there's
no water, they become angry, And they say they turned to men. They turned to men. And even
so it was with us, when our sin could no longer satisfy us, when
we saw this world to be a barren place, what did we do? We turned
to flesh. That's a natural response to
guilt, isn't it? A natural response of man to
guilt is to turn to man, turn to flesh, to carnal means to
satisfy a spiritual drought. See, men by nature, when they
realize their guilt, the first thing they'll turn to is law.
That's what Moses pictures in the Old Testament, isn't it?
The law. Dear friends, listen. The law
of God. The law of God was never meant
to save anyone. The law of God can only expose
sin. It cannot produce righteousness. Paul declares in Galatians 3.10,
as many as are under the works of the law, listen, are under
the curse of the law. So if you're supposed
to satisfy your guilt by doing something, you are turning to
law. And I tell you, law cannot satisfy. Law cannot save. The only thing the law can do
is curse. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
How foolish then it is to seek water, the water of life, from
the law that demands only your death. No man, Paul said, it is evident
that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. Now
you start trying to obey the law, you might impress me. That's
not hard to do. You might impress your friends
with your sudden change in morality. That does not give life. It is evident because the scripture
has concluded you're a sinner. That's what the Scriptures conclude.
You're a sinner. Paul says, By the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, because the law
by the law is the knowledge of sin. How do you know you're a
sinner? The law exposes you. That's what it does. And because there's no peace
or satisfaction to be found in the law, men begin to murmur.
Isn't that what men do? When they turn to the law and
they say, give me life, I'll obey you, give me life. And the
law says, no, cursed, you're cursed, you're cursed. And what
do men do? Oh man, I hate that. I remember, you remember the
prophet, I think it was Ahab, king of Israel. He had 400 prophets,
and all of them were yes-men. And Jehoshaphat knew that, and
he said, well, is there not another prophet of God? And he said,
yeah, but there's one man. He don't speak well of me. I
don't like him. Isn't that like natural man?
I don't want somebody to tell me how bad things are. I want
you to tell me how good things are. I ain't gonna tell you a
lie. You may not like me, but I'm
not gonna tell you a lie. I'll tell you the truth. There's no peace and satisfaction
in the law. Remember what the songwriter
confesses, enwrapped in Egyptian night, fond of darkness more
than light. Madly I ran the sinful race,
secure without a hiding place. But thus the eternal counsel
ran. Almighty love arrest that man.
I felt the arrows of distress and found I had no hiding place. Indignant justice stood in view. And where did he go? To Sinai's
fiery mount I flew. And what did he find at Sinai?
What did he find at the law? He says, but justice cried with
frowning face. This mountain is no hiding place. Are you such in one as these
Israelites? Have you found this world to
be nothing but a desert full of sin and no life? Have you
turned to the law only to find condemnation? O sinner, see that
God owes you nothing. You can demand nothing of God. Human nature says, God, give
me. I deserve it. And I'll tell you,
God will give you what you deserve. Hail. That's what you deserve. That's what we deserve. And if
you continue seeking righteousness by your works and obedience,
hail is what you'll get. What then is a hope for thirsty
sinners? Look at verse 4. And Moses cried
unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? They'd
be almost ready to stone me. What would you do with the people? What would you do? I know what
I'd do. I'd have God smite them all.
I would. They're always complaining. They're
always murmuring. They're always on my heels. They're
always ready to kill me. And so Moses said, what am I
going to do with this people? And he gives him an answer what
he should do. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go before the people,
and take with thee the elders of Israel, and thy rod. Wherewith thou smotest the river,
take it in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee
upon the rock, horrid and thou shalt smite the rock and there
shall come water out of it and the people may drink and Moses
did so in the sight of the elders of Israel behold here what God
says Moses don't go and smite the people Isn't this gracious Isn't this
the grace of God? He said Moses. I'll tell you
what to do You go out in the desert there and there's gonna
be a rock And I'm gonna go and stand on that rock. And when
you get there, you take that rod and you hit that rock. And
out of that rock, I'll give them water to drink. Behold the great
picture of the rock. The rock is Jesus Christ. That's what Paul tells us in
1 Corinthians chapter 10. I'll read it for you. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse
4. And did all drink, talking about
Israel, the same spiritual drink, for they drank from that spiritual
rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Very plain, very simple, isn't
it? The rock is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider
that Jesus Christ is the rock and foundation of all the salvation
of Israel, of all His people. In Isaiah 28, God says, Behold,
I lay in Zion for a stone, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation. When was this foundation laid? The foundation of God's salvation
was laid from eternity. Consider the picture here. Who
was there first? The Rock or Israel? Which was first? That rock was
there long before Israel ever got there. You see that? That Christ was always God's
salvation. He was always God's foundation
for His elect. He's the cornerstone, the one
that bears all the weight and responsibility of the salvation
of His people. Jesus said, upon this rock I
will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. So then, in our text, God says
that this rock in the wilderness, He says this, He says, I will
stand upon this rock. He tells Moses, I will stand
before thee there upon the rock. What is this saying? This is
telling us, as God says He would be upon
the rock, even so would the Spirit of God be upon Jesus Christ. The Scripture says of Christ,
Behold my servant, mine elect, whom my soul delighteth, I will
put my Spirit upon him. The Spirit of God, you remember
when John baptized our Lord, he saw the Spirit of God descending
like a dove and it abode on him. The Spirit of God was given to
Christ without measure. For what purpose? So that He
should fulfill the will of God, which was to save His people. This was the purpose of Christ's
coming. Not to make salvation possible,
but to actually accomplish salvation. In that same chapter of Isaiah
that declares his service, the servant that should come, he
also declares his success. He says, for he shall not fail. My servant. God says, my servant
will not fail nor be discouraged. In Matthew 121, the angel says,
you shall call his name Jesus. What does that mean? That means
Jehovah saves. Not Jehovah might save, not Jehovah
will save if you'll do... No, Jehovah saves! For He shall
save, definitely save His people from their sins. And how will
the Messiah accomplish this? How should He accomplish to supply
the water of life for His people? by being smitten. This is the picture. Moses, didn't
I tell you, Moses is a picture of the law. He takes the rod
in his hand. He's a picture of the law, ready
to strike against the sinner. But instead of striking the people,
who does he strike? He strikes the rock. You see
the picture? Instead of striking the people,
He strikes the rock. In mercy, God commanded Him to
strike the rock which pictures our Savior. He who was righteous,
who knew no sin, and did no sin, and could not sin. How could
the law strike such a righteous man as the Lord Jesus Christ? Because God had made Him to be
sin for us. Who Himself knew no sin. That we should be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And this thing was not done in
a corner. Notice he says to the Israelites,
he says, you gather the elders together and I want them to see
this. Isn't that what happened at the
death of our Lord Jesus Christ? Was it not that the bulls of
Bashan were gathered together gaping? Now you imagine these
elders. He said, you elders come over
here to this rock. They said, oh, we got to go over there and
look at this rock. What a pitiful source, Moses! How do you expect to get water
out of this rock? Do you not see them gaping at
him and gnashing at him? Do you not see their anger and hatred
at Moses for bringing them to such a horrible place as a rock
for water? Well, that's the most ridiculous
thing I ever heard, Moses. Well, isn't that what people
say about Christ? Isn't that what you say about Christ? How
ridiculous! We don't want it. We're not going
to get anything from Him, that dead Savior. We're not going
to get anything from Him. Yet this was prophesied here
in this book here as a picture was here before us, so it was
in Psalm 22. He says these very words, he
says on the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
In verse 14 through 18, he tells about how the people would gather
against him and they would pierce his hands and his feet. This
thing was not done in the corner. This thing was done in the open.
The Scriptures reveal plainly that Jesus Christ should come
into the world and suffer for sin. And behold, Christ was made a
reproach and shame as God imputed our sins to him and he bore the
guilt under the holy law of God. Therefore God says, Awake, O
sword, and smite the shepherd, the man that is my fellow. Smite
the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn
my hands upon the little ones. And even as God smote Christ
on the cross, what flowed? What flowed from his side? Was
it not blood and water? When the rock was smitten, was
it not blood and water that flowed? Blood for what? Redemption. And water for cleansing. Water
for refreshment. His blood, he says, is meat indeed. He said, my blood is drink indeed. His blood has been offered for
sin and satisfied the justice of God. And all who come to Him
may freely drink. The purpose of Christ's death
was to save sinners. And all who come to Him may drink Freely. That's the only way you can drink.
You know that? That's the only way you can truly
believe on Christ. Freely. Without condition. Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached
unto you forgiveness of sins. This morning I point you who
are thirsty to the rock Jesus Christ. I confess unto you this morning
that once I pitched my tents in Rephidim. I was once who was
satisfied in the desert until God caused my supplies to run
dry. He dried up my flesh. and the
things of this world could not satisfy me, I murmured and sought
refreshment in religion. It was only when the Holy Spirit
came to me and gave me life that I did turn to the smitten rock. And that's the way it is with
you. You who have turned, you who do drink of the water of
life freely, you know this is your picture. This Israel is
you. The rock is the source of our
life, Jesus Christ. And lastly, I want you to see
this. What takes place? After this, after they have water,
after they are refreshed, what takes place? Look at this in
verse 8. Then came Amalek and fought with
Israel. So what happens after we drink? War. Isn't this your experience,
believer? When God gave you life, what's
the first thing that happened? A war. A war took place. Amalek is a picture of our fleshly
nature. Believers in Christ let us see
that Amalek is the enemy, which is our nature. Once our flesh
ruled and we were at peace. But as soon as the Lord sets
up his throne in our hearts, what happens? All hell breaks
loose. That's what happens. That's not
the way I thought it would happen. The way I thought it would happen
was I would believe on Christ and everything would become rosy.
Everything would just, the paths would clear and open up before
me and I would see the roses just blossom as I passed by and
the scent of, oh, I thought it would be so great. I thought
that everything would be so kind and good and that I would get
better. That's what I thought. Is that
not what you thought? Is that what happened? No. When I came to Christ by faith,
I know this, I was surely at peace with God, but I was surely
at conflict with myself. Being justified by faith, by
the object of our faith, we have peace with God, but nowhere in
Scripture is it given the promise you'll have peace with your flesh.
That which is born of flesh is what? Flesh. And you should expect
nothing else but flesh. Therefore, like Rebekah, Isaac's
wife, over in Genesis 25, 22, when she was barren, she that
was barren, when she conceived life in her, what happened? The two struggled within her. Jacob and Esau are a picture
of our natures. Jacob is the new nature. Esau is the old nature. And they
struggle where? They struggle within her womb.
And she said, why am I thus? Have you not asked that question?
Am I alone? Am I the only one? who struggled and with Paul said,
oh wretched man, why am I thus? If I'm a child of God, if I am
chosen of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, given a righteous
nature and shall inherit everything, why then do I struggle with sin? Why do I suffer so much? Have you not asked this same
question? Why am I thus? Why this dull
and lifeless frame? Surely can they be worse who
never knew his name? Why is it like this? Even because
our salvation and new nature did not eradicate the old. It infuriated the old. It irritated the old. But it
did not eradicate it. Truly, the old man is cast down
from his throne, but he in rebellion still seeks to take it again. Believer, do not be deceived
to think that your flesh will somehow miraculously get better
by holy living. No, Jesus said, that which is
born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit.
Never shall the two mingle. It is like oil and water, they
cannot mingle. They are constantly opposed one
to the other. See then in our text, how then
did Israel prevail? How did they prevail? Well, it's
a good indication of how we can prevail over the flesh. And Moses
sent Joshua to fight. Oh, that's good. Who does the
fighting? He's our Joshua. He's the one
that fights. He's the one that overcomes.
Notice what Moses does. Moses, he goes up on top of the
mountain, and he has two men with him, Aaron and this man
Hur. And he takes him up on the mountain,
and as long as Moses' hands were lifted, Israel prevailed. But when his hands began to fall,
Amalek prevailed. Now what does this teach us?
The only thing that makes us to prevail over the flesh is
faith. Faith. But how long does it take for
our faith to become weak? I tell you this morning you may
be exalted to heights of glory and as soon as you walk out of
the door be cast down to the pit. Is that not so? That's just
so. So how then shall we prevail?
I like this. Her is a picture of the gospel
and Aaron is a picture of the priesthood of Christ. These two
things uphold our faith. The gospel, her, his name means
two things. It means dungeon and white. I said, what in the world does
that have to do with anything? Well, consider the gospel. Is
it not that he lifted us up from the dungeon of sin and brought
us up and clothed us with his righteousness? Is that not something
to exalt our faith Is that not something that will lift us up
to look to Christ? It's the gospel. It's the gospel
of considering the grace of God that has brought us from darkness
to light. From death to life. That's one rock under the arm
of faith. The other rock is Aaron, the
priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ upholds our high faith.
Remember that we have a faithful high priest. Our priest never dies. That's one thing about Israel,
always worried about their priest would always die. They would
always have to get another one. You never know what you're gonna
get. Like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna
get. They didn't know what kind of priest they were getting next.
I know what kind of priest I have. I have a faithful high priest
whose blood has been offered for my sin. And now he sits on
the throne of glory, ever living to do what? What does he ever
live to do? To make intercession for me. By these two rocks, our hands
of faith are held up. Remember, faith is the victory
that overcomes the world. May God give us such grace in
his gospel and looking to Jesus Christ, our faithful high priest.
And notice this, Joshua, the scripture says, discomforted,
verse 13, Amalek. Didn't say he destroyed him,
said he discomforted him. That means he made them to bow
down. What is it that we do with this
flesh? You make it to bow down. That's all we do. The only way
this flesh is going to go away is when you die. See, this is
then our blessed hope in death, that one day this flesh will
be no more. And look at this. In verse 14,
the Lord said to Moses, write this for a memorial in a book
and rehearse it. in the ears of Joshua, for I
will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven."
Listen to me. When we die, believer, we're
not even going to remember what it's like to be a sinner. Is that not the most glorious
thought you ever had? One day, I'm not even going to
remember this warfare. I'm not gonna know what it's
like to be a sinner. God's gonna wipe away all tears
from our eyes. He's going to take away all death,
all pain, all separation, all fear, and no more curse. And I'm not going to remember
what it's like to sin against my God. Is this not a great hope? cast off this desert world, drink
of Christ, fight the good fight of faith, knowing this, that
one day God will put away Amalek forever. May God bless this to your hearts.