Good evening. If you will, turn
back in your Bibles with me to Exodus 15. And before I get started,
I just want to say I think it goes without saying
I prepared this message with my current trial on my mind and
my heart. How could it not be? But I also
want to, since I'm up here, I just I want to say thank you to all
of you. for your love and prayers and
generosity with your time and money and just everything. You
know, life is easy till it's not. And I've been waiting on
trials to come, not waiting, hoping they would come, but knowing
they would come. And the Lord is in control. We know
that. You know that. You've experienced
it just like I'm experiencing it. And I pray that you bear
with me and pray for me. And I pray that the Lord will
enable us to worship him tonight. As Rex said this morning, it's
always an honor, a tremendous honor. I can think of no greater
honor than to be called upon to stand here and open God's
word and declare Christ. There's no greater honor. There's
nothing I'd rather do than gather and worship our Lord together.
And my prayer, and I believe yours, is that our Lord will
be worshiped here tonight. All right, here in Exodus chapter
15, our brother read the verses leading up to our text. Our text
will be verse 22 to 27, and I'd like to start here in verse 22.
Exodus 15, 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. I was searching in my e-sort
app that I use when I study and I was searching certain words
and a certain word led me to this text and I read that verse
and I thought, I can relate to this. The children
of Israel found themselves in a hard trial. That's what we
just read. But you know, I got to thinking
about these people, and I don't know how many it was, apparently
it was a large number of people, large multitude, these children
of Israel. But I came to this conclusion, it wasn't always
this way for them. It wasn't always this way. If
you recall, the children of Israel found themselves in Egypt after
Jacob's sons sold Joseph as a slave and Joseph wound up in Egypt,
according to God's goodness. And then also according to God's
goodness, God overruled Joseph's brother's evil for good and brought
his brothers to Egypt. That's how the children of Israel
got to Egypt. And you know what happened when
God brought them to Egypt? He caused Joseph to nourish them
and their little ones. He used Joseph to save much people
alive. They prospered in Egypt. The
children of Israel, they were well off in Egypt until the Pharaoh
that put Joseph in charge died. And then there arose a new Pharaoh
who were told, knew not Joseph. And then, That man put them under
harsh taskmasters, put them in bondage. He oppressed them. Now, I got to thinking about
that. You know why the Pharaoh that was there before? God caused
Joseph to find favor in his sight. And we know Joseph is a beautiful
picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me ask you this. Whose reign
do you desire to be under? There was no question. whose
reign they would have preferred to have been under. But here's
the thing. Naturally, we say, I will not
have this man, speaking of Christ, to reign over me. You know what?
By God's grace, I can honestly say, I want this man to reign
over me. Say, but you're in a trial. I
especially want this man to reign over me right now. I really do. And though the children of Israel
found themselves in great trial and affliction, we're told several
times, beginning in Exodus chapter three, that God, one, God heard
their affliction. God saw it. He heard their cry.
He said, I know their sorrows and I'm come down to deliver
them out of their sorrows. He promised to deliver them. And they experienced a great
deliverance. You just read about it. You know how it goes. God sent 10 plagues to afflict
Pharaoh and Egypt. He didn't send the plagues to
affect Israel. Egypt. He told us that he put a difference
between the children of Israel and the Egyptians. God put a
difference. When God looks on Israel, here's
what he sees. You can read about it in, I think
it's Exodus 12. He sees the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. He passed over them. He saw the blood applied to them,
and he passed over them. And yet, for all of Egypt, including
Pharaoh's house, mighty, mighty Pharaoh, the firstborn, what
happened? The firstborn male died. God
will execute judgment, but for God's people, as again, as we
heard this morning, the judgment has already taken place in Christ. You know, he said three men died
at Calvary. No, it was a lot more than that.
All who were in Christ. God looks on Israel. He sees
the blood of the lamb and he passes over them. Turn with me. Keep your finger here. We'll
be back here. Psalm 91. You can also keep a finger in
the Psalms. We'll be back around here in just a minute. Psalm
91, verse 7. This blessed my heart so much
when I read this. Psalm 91, verse 7. A thousand shall fall at thy
side, and ten thousand at thy right hand. But it shall not
come nigh thee. You think of all that those children
of Israel went through. Think how much they found that
verse to be true. They would have found that to be true. Look
at verse 10. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any
plague come nigh thy dwelling. What are we so afraid of? If
we're in Christ, brethren, God is for us. He's always been for
us, and he always will be for us. Fear not. You're not. Back in our text. God delivered the children of
Israel from Pharaoh and his armies. Look here, chapter 15, Exodus
15 verse 1, Can we not say that? The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my
song. He has become my salvation. He is my God and I will prepare
him in habitation. My Father's God and I will exalt
him. I pray God has put that song
in our heart. Look down at verse 18 right here. Don't you like this? The Lord
shall reign forever and ever. Our God reigneth. He reigneth,
verse 19, for the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and
with his horsemen to the sea. You know, I've read before when
I've studied this account, there's a lot of people that suspect
that Pharaoh didn't die in the sea. What's that verse saying?
The horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots, with his horsemen
to the sea. I have no doubt the Lord drowned Pharaoh in that
sea. Do you? I've got no doubt. Oh no. And the Lord brought again
the waters of the sea upon them, but The children of Israel? Did a couple of them drown in
the Red Sea? But the children of Israel went on dry land in
the midst of the sea. God fought for them, and he delivered
them. What'd Moses tell them? He said,
stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. That's what they
did. Fear not. The battle's not yours. The Lord
will fight for you. That applies to us, brothers
and sisters. Whatever you're going through, whatever I'm going
through, we're in crisis for us. No weapon formed against
us is going to prosper. How could it? God won't let it.
Well, he said, we can trust him. And yet, this great deliverance
we just looked at, now that that's in the past, and here they are,
they're marching on, and they're in a wilderness. Well, that changed
fast, didn't it? Their backs were against the
wall, the Lord brought them through, and here they are in the wilderness.
Nothing to drink for three days. You know, it's believed that
a person can only live without water for three or four days.
I didn't realize, I Googled it. I do that a lot. But you think
about that. You know, we talk about, oh,
the children of Israel, they murmured and complained, they murmured
and complained, and they did. And we load this light bread.
This is a hard trial. I try to really enter into this.
This is a hard, hard trial that they're going through right here.
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. And again, think about this.
They're not sitting idle just hoping for a drink. They're moving.
You ever go out and take a walk? Just go walk a mile. and you
come home, I'm dying for thirst. They're just walking and walking
and walking and walking, no water for three days. And then look
right here, verse 23. They found some water. And when
they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah,
for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was
called Marah, or bitterness. And the people murmured against
Moses, saying, what shall we drink? Here's my first point. The same
God who delivers also sends trials. Same God. God hasn't changed.
He does both. He does both. We ought not be
surprised when we find ourselves in the midst of a grievous trial.
You just think about the great deliverance we've experienced.
You think about God's goodness to us. What has God not done for us? What has God not done for us?
Nothing. He has done everything for us. We've been redeemed. I love when
you sing that song, Redeemed. I love it. Every time, I love
it. We've been purchased. We've been sought out, not forsaken.
Chosen, called, loved with an everlasting love, drawn, drawn
with an everlasting love, kept, preserved. We've been given promise
after promise after promise, and every single one of those
shall be fulfilled. These past two and a half weeks
have felt, at times, to me and Rachel, unbearable. Just speaking
candidly with you. At times it has just felt, never
in my life, I'm almost 32, just FYI. There's never been a time
in my life when I have felt so just helpless. When you look
at your little baby and there's just nothing you can do. And
you don't know what's wrong with him. You go to this doctor, you
go to that doctor, you have this scan, you have that scan. And
at the end of the day, you're left with more questions than
answers. Some of you have experienced
this. Man, it's just been so hard. Right now, we still have
more questions than answers, and it's so hard. I know to feel helpless spiritually
is a good thing. But in this world, my soul, it
just feels miserable. I'm trying to encourage you,
myself, my wife, by this message, and yet, at the same time, I
remain troubled, concerned, anxious, fearful. But here's the conclusion God
has brought me to. Turn to Job chapter two. The book of Job's
a good place to turn to when we're feeling troubled. Job chapter
two. This is a man God brought through
great trial and also great deliverance. Job 2, look at verse 9. Job 2, verse 9. Then said his wife unto him,
dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. When trials come, we could do
that. How's that sound to you? You
who know God, that troubles us, doesn't it? To react like that.
If we believe God's in control and he does all things well,
God forbid that be our response. Look at verse 10. But he said
unto her, thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.
What? Shall we receive good at the
hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? Shall we? You know, people think that prosperity
and happy days are the signs of God's love. God tells us quite
the opposite. Whom He loves, He chastens. He'll
put you through it, and He'll bring you through it. Because
He loves you. The psalmist said, it's good
for me. You talk about a hard statement to make and mean, it
is good for me that I have been afflicted. That just goes against
carnal logic, doesn't it? It's good for me that I've been
afflicted, that I might learn thy statute. It ain't about me,
it's about Him. It's not about my happiness and,
well, do I feel like I'm well off today? That's irrelevant. God and His glory, that's what
matters. His statutes. It's all about
Him. I turn to Psalm 63. Psalm 63, verse one. Written by David, we know David
was a man who experienced much trials, many afflictions, heartache. His house was not sold with God. His own house tried to kill him. His own flesh and blood and his
in-laws. They just, look right here. Psalm 63 verse
one, O God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee, my soul
thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and
thirsty land where no water is. Where do we go when trials come? Oh God, thou art my God. That's the only place to go.
If you have somewhere else, you let me know. There's nowhere
else to go. It's like that woman with the
issue of blood. Oh, she sought out every physician
she could find, spent all the money she had. But until she
came to the Lord, it was all for naught, all in vain. You
know, to this day, Rachel and I are desperately searching for
answers. Just dying to have some answers,
whether they're good or bad. We just want some answers. David
said, early will I seek thee. In the midst of the trial, I
pray God would cause us to seek Him. Seek Him early. Seek Him
only. Seek Him. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. All these things shall be added
unto you. Everything else is gonna be all right. Does it make
the trial easy? No. But He'll bring us through
it. I know He'll bring us through
it. Brethren, whatever you're going through, He'll bring you through it. He'll
bring you through it. He brought David through it.
He wouldn't let Saul kill him. He was the Lord's anointed. Who's in control? Whose will
is coming to pass? Who, right now, right this moment,
is having His way in all things, with all of us, in this whole
evil world? Who? God and God alone. That's it. That's all right,
isn't it? That's all right. David said,
My soul thirsteth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land where
there's no water. Lord, make it so. Be our desire. Turn back to our text. Verse 24, Exodus 15, 24. And the people murmured against
Moses, saying, what shall we drink? And he cried unto the
Lord. They murmured against Moses.
And what did he do? He prayed for him. We murmur
and complain against our Lord. What's He do? He prays for us. Does a day go by you don't sin
against the Lord? Not me. Every day. Every day. We murmur
against our gracious Lord and yet He ever liveth to make intercession
for us. You know, we know not what to
pray for as we ought. We don't know how to pray. The
Lord teaches us to pray. What about our Lord? He prays fervent,
effectual prayer, and the Father hears Him pray. I need Him to pray for me, do
you? Look, I want and I feel like I need you all to pray for
me, but I rejoice to know He's praying for me. Oh, praise His name. You know, I thought about this.
They murmured against Moses. Moses was in the same boat. Moses
was thirsty, too. He was suffering just as much
as they were. He wasn't exempt from the trial. He was the leader
that God had given them, the under-shepherd, their pastor,
if you will. What about our Lord? Does He know what we're going
through? I told you, He told Moses in Exodus 3, I know their
sorrows. I know them because He came down. And He experienced them. He endured
them for us. He bore our sins in His own body,
His spotless, perfect, righteous, holy, pure body. Sin. That's one thing for us to suffer. We're sinners. He knew no sin, and yet he suffered
the weight, the guilt, the punishment of every sin for every child
of Israel, child of spiritual Israel. I want to talk about
trials. I want to talk about affliction. Never any sorrow like his. No
man has ever suffered like him, visage marred more than any man,
unrecognizable. And you know, when we suffer,
when we go through sorrow and heartache and trial and trouble,
we have each other to lean on. He suffered alone. Alone. He who is God, the eternal God,
was forsaken by God. It doesn't get more alone than
that. I truly believe if God will let
us enter into that, I think that will give us the right perspective.
Again, it's not going to wash away our trials. They're here
for a reason. But I pray they can comfort us
through them. Give us hope and encouragement during them. Verse
25 right here again. This is amazing to me. The Lord showed him a tree. What's
gonna quench your thirst? I promise a tree does not come
to my mind. Unless maybe a coconut. You're
not. A tree. A tree. His ways aren't ours. Oh, the wisdom of God. I pray
we'll see something glorious here. Moses cast the tree into
the bitter waters. It's believed the tree was bitter.
I don't know. But he cast this tree into bitter, undrinkable
water, and all of a sudden, this water is pleasant to the taste.
Does that not amaze you? There are certain accounts in
the scriptures where something actually, physically happened
that just blow my mind, and this is one of them. I just love this. I love thinking about this. The
Lord provided for them. Maybe they saw the tree before
the Lord showed Moses. Well, that ain't gonna do any
good. I don't know, but oh, the Lord showed him this tree. He
told Moses, you throw it into the water, and then there you
go, they had water. Drinkable water, wonderful water. Their
thirst was quenched, and the Lord quenched it alone. They
didn't do it themselves. They were looking and looking
and looking for water. And then the Lord said, here you go. Gabe mentioned this Wednesday.
We're just going to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps, and we're
going to press through and be strong and get through this trial. Well,
look what I did. No, the Lord will get us through.
The Lord will provide for us. Lord might show us a tree. God heard their cry. Moses cried
on their behalf, and Moses cried on his own behalf too. The Lord
heareth the cry of the afflicted. We're told that in the book of
Job. Now, how did God do this? How did God bring them through
here? A tree. You know, a tree is how we got
ourselves into the mess we're in. Right? Don't eat of that
tree, we ate of the tree. And a tree is where we see our
deliverance, isn't it? A man in a tree, a man on a tree. Have we seen the tree? Have we
seen the tree? There's a tree we need to see,
but it's not so much the tree, it's the one hanging on the tree. There's a, we sing a song, it's
a, I think it was the old rugged cross, but I think Milton Howard
maybe changed the words. We sing it in cross while I love
singing it. I want to sing it every time I'm there, because
they like to sing it. And Houston sings it for me. The Christ of
the cross. You know, we'll sing, at the
cross, at the cross. It's the Christ of the cross.
That's who we need to see. Christ. The Christ of the cross. Now let me say this, we need
more than deliverance from trials. Deliverance from trials is great.
Oh, if I get a call tomorrow and we've got answers and they're
good news, oh, my heart will leap and rejoice and praise God. But that may not, I'm not expecting
it. And the opposite, I might receive really terrible news. But that's not my great need.
My great need and Isaac's great need is deliverance from sin.
That's what we need. That's what we need. We might
be in for a lifelong trial here. Pray not, but we might be. Many
people are, some of you perhaps are. We need deliverance from sin
and that's what happened on the tree. Deliverance from sin. Talk about bitter waters made
sweet. That's what happened at Calvary. Read through this, quoting
Isaiah 61 verse 3, Christ came to give us, I love this, beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, weeping, the garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness. He took these undesirable things
upon himself and he gave us the good things. That we might be called trees. of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that He might be glorified. What's the purpose
in this? That. He's made us trees of righteousness.
That's our good. He might be glorified. His glory.
That's what we say all the time, isn't it? Our good and His glory. That's why God does what He does.
Trials are bitter waters, but those bitter waters represent
us as we are fallen and dead in sin. We're the bitter waters,
and if we stand before God in our natural state, God will spew
us out of his mouth just like he did the Laodiceans. He won't
have us. We must be made sweet, and that's
why Christ came into the world, was to head straight to that
cross and trade places with us. He took the bitter waters, and
he made us pleasant in God's sight. He who knew no sin was
made to be sinned to make us the righteousness of God in him.
He who is the riches of God became poor to make us rich toward God,
rich in Him. He came and died, the just for
the unjust, that He might bring us to God, reconcile us to God. We're one with God. And as He is, so are we right
now, right now. How do you feel right now? Maybe
you don't feel so good. Well, as He is, so are we in
this world. Right now. Pray that can cheer
us up. Accepted in the beloved. Verse
25 again. And he cried unto the Lord, and
the Lord sowed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters,
the waters were made sweet. There he made for them a statute
and an ordinance, and there he proved them and said, if thou
wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and
wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear
to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put
none of these diseases upon thee, which I've brought upon the Egyptians."
You know, sometimes I'll get to a verse or two and it just,
the way we interpret it at first kind of gives us pause. Well,
that's how that part was to me when I first looked at it. Well,
I spared you this time. Now it's up to you to keep yourself
and be faithful. Don't you slip up now. You ever
been in a hard trial and just found yourself just pitiful,
I mean, just weeping and weeping, unconsolable, just, well, God'll
let you go? No. Be strong now. Be of good courage. I want to
be of good courage. I want to wait on the Lord and
pray for Him to strengthen my heart, I do. Oh, trust and obey, there's no other
way. Is that the message here? Let me ask you this. Is it within
our ability to hearken unto the voice of the Lord our God diligently?
Is it within our ability to do right in his sight? Is it in
our ability to give ear, truly give ear to his commandments
and keep all his statutes? Can you do that? That's what
Moses said. Do that. Can anybody here do
this? Let me tell you something. Many
people think they can. Many people think, well, God
saved me, and now here we go, clean slate, let's go, let's
keep a good track record here. You know, it's like when I went back
to grad school, my GPA started over, I had a chance to get a
4.0. God hasn't given us a clean slate. He's made us righteous. He wiped
the sin out and replaced it with righteousness, a righteous slate,
if you will. What does God see when He sees
His people? He sees Christ. We have done
all of those things right there if we're in Christ. Do we make
void the law through faith? God, we establish it because
Christ kept it and we're in Him. And if our hope is in Him, If our
hope is in Christ alone, that right there is the evidence that
God has saved us. That's the evidence that God has come and
delivered us. And that it shall be well with us. Look at the
end of verse 26 right here. For I am the Lord that healeth
thee. Does that not bless your heart? That's what led me to this text.
I am the Lord that healeth thee. What's your infirmity? It doesn't
matter. What's your trial? It's irrelevant. I am the Lord
that healeth thee. Who's our great physician? The
Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who else do we need? To whom
shall we go? I told you, there's nowhere else
to go. Nowhere else to go. He healeth us. And in Isaiah
53, and also in I think 1 Peter 2, we're told that by his stripes,
We are healed, and we were healed. That's the way it's worded. We
are, and we were. You think we shall be? Verse 27. And they came to Elam, where
were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees.
Yeah, this blessed my heart, too. And they encamped there
by the waters. Elam means the place of great
trees. The place of great trees. Not
only did God make the bitter waters sweet, he took them from
that place straight to this place. Trees, which I imagine provided
some shade and cool. 12 wells of water, one for each
tribe of Israel. Enough for all God's people.
70 palm trees, 12 wells of water. Again, what? What a change of
scenery, right? It started off with the children
of Israel in Egypt well for them. Then it wasn't well. Then it
was well. Then it wasn't well. Well, not well. Is that not our
life? But here's the thing, here's the point. If we're in Christ,
it is well. It is well. Even when it doesn't
feel like it is. It is well. Turn to James chapter
five. Somebody wrote us a card last week and wrote this verse
in it. Bless my heart, man. Rachel's
too. James five. You know, for the children of
Israel, what a relief, what a wonderful reprieve that must have been
for the Lord to bring them to Elam. What a wonderful place. Brethren, I'm talking to myself
and I'm talking to you. Anybody going through something,
despair not. You may be troubled, but God's
not cast you away. God's not forgotten about you. Cast all
your care upon him, for he careth for you. Always, always. God will not leave us in this
trial forever. He won't do it. In this life,
we're either in a trial or coming out of one or going into one,
right? And that's okay. I hope we see that's the way
it's supposed to be. It's not a mistake. God makes
no mistake. God has refined you. He has chosen
you in the furnace of affliction. There is a purpose. There is
a purpose. Though we might feel like our
Lord has left us, The reality is he's holding our right hand. James 5, verse 11. Behold, we
count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience
of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is
very pitiful and of tender mercy. The patience of Job. By God's
grace, he endured. He knew his redeemer liveth. Said the Lord gave, the Lord
hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I don't know
how our trial's gonna end. I have no idea. I can tell you
how I want it to end. But God's ways aren't my ways.
His thoughts aren't my thoughts. They're better, they're higher. But whatever the end of our trial
might be, and however God takes us out of this place, blessed
be His name. Blessed be His holy name. God has caused us to rest by
the waters. That's where they encamped, the
waters. At our conference a few weeks
ago, Brother David Evanson sang that song, Christ is the river
that never shall run dry. Where has God placed us? Right
there. You know, all the great cities thrive by a river. There's
a great city. And that city finds its life
in the river. And that river is Jesus Christ.
John 6.35, Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that
cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. Does that sound good to you?
My soul thirsteth for thee, shall never thirst. We thirst for him right now,
don't we? For all eternity, we shall never
thirst again. I want to leave you with the words of a song
that I gave. This has to be one of his favorites.
He quotes it a lot. I always thought his name was William
Cowper. He says Cooper, so I guess William Cooper. God moves in
a mysterious way his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps
in the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep and unfathomable
minds of never failing skill He treasures up his bright designs
and works his sovereign will. His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage
take. The clouds ye so much dread are
big with mercy and shall break in blessing on your head. Blind
unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain. God is his
own interpreter. and He will make it plain. Let's
have a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we praise and bless Your holy
name. You do all things well. Lord, enable us to truly bow
to Your will. Enable us to find all our comfort
and refuge in Thee. Cause us to look to Christ and
nowhere else, both in the good times and bad. Lord, with you
there are no bad times. It's all good. You only do good. You only do right. Please give
us faith, increase our faith. Lord, direct us, forgive us,
have mercy on us, and keep us. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.