I'm allowing time to get away
from me here. Turn to the 20th chapter of the book of Numbers. As we brought out in our morning
Bible study this morning, all mankind take their journey through
a valley of death. It is a valley of death to those
who belong not to God. But no more than a shadow of
that death for those whom Christ Jesus has redeemed. Those who
our Lord went to that cross for, those who He shed His blood for,
those for whom He is loved from before the foundation of the
world, all of those for whom the Father hath given Him. It's
nothing more than a shadow. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, has taken
our death for us. He's been judged for us. Judgment
has been laid upon Him. By His stripes, we are healed. Our great Redeemer paid our price.
His perfect, precious blood was shed in our stead. What you and
I have earned, the wrath, the judgment of God, and our sinfulness
in our nature, Our great Redeemer has had that
laid upon Him. Jesus Christ our Lord, our Deliverer. All the Old Testament prophets
spoke in types and pictures of the Deliverer. That's why the
Jewish people were looking for a Deliverer. They were looking
for someone to come along that God had promised would be coming
through the seed of Abraham, through Jacob, through Isaac,
and deliver them. But most of them had forgotten
their delivery was of sin. Most had come to realize, because
of all the strife that they had brought upon themselves, because
of what the world had turned itself into in the fall of Adam,
sinfulness, death, corruption, all those things. The world had
forgotten that that was what they were being delivered from,
and they thought they were being delivered from the Roman Empire. Our Lord Himself expresses the
fact that all the Old Testament prophets spoke in types and pictures
of this Deliverer, and Luke, don't need to turn there, we're
going to be in numbers here in just a second. Luke chapter 24 verse 25, we
read 25, 26, and 27. Then He, our Lord, said unto
them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken, Are you hard to believe about all the stuff that
the prophets have spoken of over all the time? Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory? We're talking about
the two men on the road to Emmaus. They had been walking with Christ
even. thinking he's going to deliver
us from these Roman persecutors. And now he's dead. Oh, man, what's
going to happen to us now? And the Lord just joined them
on the road to Emmaus. And as I just read to you, he
said, O fools and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have
spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? Do you
recall in the Old Testament verses that you've been studying how
the prophets spoke of me and my death in Jerusalem? How all
the sins of my people would be laid upon me? And then he said this, and beginning
at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all
the scriptures the things concerning himself." Here in Numbers, we
see one of these pictures, a type, a true event, absolutely. Our
Lord spoke in parables. Now, a parable is a picture of
something that, whether it happened or not, It
was used as a picture of something you were trying to relate, something
you were trying to tell. But this is an event. This is
a true event that pictures our Lord and Savior. Are you with
me in Numbers chapter 20? Let's begin reading at verse
1. Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation,
into the desert of Zin. That's exactly what we were reading
about here just a moment ago. The Psalms. That psalm that we
were reading, if you recall last week, began with the deliverance
from Egypt, and then it went right on through, and today,
into the trip through the desert, and then on into their troubles
in Canaan. The congregation entered the desert of Zin in the first
month, and the people abode in Kadesh, and Miriam died there
and was buried there. And there was no water for the
congregation. And they gathered themselves
together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with
Moses and spake, saying, would God that we had died when our
brethren died before the Lord? And why have he brought up the
congregation of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our
cattle should be died there? And wherefore have he made us
to come up out of Egypt to bring us into this evil place? It is
no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of 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, and the
glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly
together, thou and Aaron thy brother. And speak ye unto the
rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water. And
thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock, so thou
shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.' And Moses
took the rod from before the Lord as he was commanded, as
he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered
the congregation together before the rock. And he said unto them,
Here now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?
And Moses lifted up his hand with his rod, and he smote the
rock twice, and the water came out abundantly. And the congregation
drank, and their beasts also. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron, because ye believe not to sanctify me in the eyes
of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation
into the land which I have given them. This is the water of Moriah,
because the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and He
was sanctified in them." Now, there's a lot that you and I
could talk about this morning in these verses. And I ask for
your prayers, because there's a good possibility that I'm going
to start a series this morning. I'm not quite sure yet. I've
got to study through some more. I'll make that decision between
now and next Sunday. But for now, I wish to bring
for you the subject of this rock. Title for my message this morning
is Living Stone, part one, just in case. Have you ever wondered about
it? Have you ever stopped to think about it for a moment?
This is true, folks. This is not a parable. This is
not just something that somebody has thought of as an example.
This is an event. Just as the Red Sea, by the power
of God, was opened up unto Israel, that they would leave Egypt,
our Lord is providing them water from a rock in a desert, in a
wilderness place. Not something that's bubbling
up out of the sand underneath a rock. Not something that's
just, you know, it's worked its way up here. This is a rock that
went with the people. Have you ever stopped to think
about that for a minute? It's kind of a crazy idea, isn't it?
I mean, we're not told exactly how that rock followed the people
around. So to be quite honest with you,
we're not going to speculate this morning either about it. I don't care how it did it. I
don't care how our Lord did it. I don't care whether people drove,
ran around in circles around that rock, or whether the rock
followed them all over the sands and all over the wilderness.
It happened. Because my Lord says it happened.
And that's good enough for me. Where scriptures are silent,
we are to be also. But we are told This people drank
not just their fill, not just a little puddle on top of a boulder
where there might have been an indentation or something, a little
something, and everybody got up and went up. No, we're told
that they drank to their fill and their livestock also. That
had to be a lot of water, folks. That had to be a lot of water
coming out of that rock, because they're saying that there was
about a million people, is what some of the historians think. There was about a million people
from Israel at that time who were told that they drank and
that their thirst was quenched by a rock. That's a pretty peculiar thought,
is it not? Has anybody here ever seen a
rock, the water just bubbling up out of the top of it? gushing water coming out of it.
Many might even say it's impossible. I know that's what I would have
said at one time. Until the time when my Lord showed
me himself to be that rock. To be the very rock with his
gospel flowing from it. Water in scripture is a picture
of our God's word going forth. It's the river of peace for the
people of God. It's the peaceful rivers that
go through green pastures for God's people. To see that thing that I would
have thought impossible, my Lord had to show it to me. He showed
me himself as that rock you see to the natural man. Those who
walk in his flesh, that is not a natural thing at all. There
must be a logical explanation from it. Maybe there's a spring
that comes up out underneath you. Oh, that's fine. But how
did the water get all the way out over there when the people
moved? If there was a million people,
think about that for a minute. The front would start. And they
would move however far the cloud or the flame was, whatever they
were doing, whether day or night. And the Lord was guiding them.
And they would move so far in a day. Well, if you figure a
million people with all their cattle and all of their tents
and all of their stuff that they carried with them out of Egypt,
by the time the first people stopped, the back people are
just now starting to move. That's a long distance there.
That rock had to be somehow or another. Either way, it still
had to be. All those years they were out
there. Think about that. It was not natural. There had
to be an illogical explanation to a natural man. But to one
who has been given the gift of spiritual life, to one who once
was dead spiritually, but now lives by the grace of the Almighty,
this rock becomes very precious. How precious do you think it
was to those who were out there in the desert? How long have
you gone without water? We're pretty blessed here in
this country, aren't we? We have electricity to pump it
up out of the ground when we can't get to it. We have generators
to keep the pump going when the electricity stops. To one who's
once dead, but now lived by the grace of God, this rock becomes
precious. For this rock is a picture of
our savior. It's a picture of our Deliverer,
just as it was for this people we see wandering around in a
dry and thirsty land. Now turn over to Isaiah chapter
28, if you would. Isaiah chapter 28. We're going
to turn through some scriptures kind of quickly. I'll try not
to get too far ahead of everyone. I've actually not marked my Bible,
so that way I have to turn to it too. Isaiah 28. We're talking about those who
were wandering around in the desert, and they had their water
in the rock. That had to be precious as could
be to them, but their deliverer was just quenching their thirst.
How many of that million people saw the truth of who God is in
that rock? And this is the grace of God,
is that you and I see our Lord in that rock. We don't just see
water coming out, quenching our thirst, like the lady at the
well. The Lord says, yeah, this stuff that we're drawing out
of the well, this is water that will quench the thirst of your
body. But I, our Lord, is the water from heaven. You drink
of that fountain, and you shall never thirst again. Isaiah chapter 28, look at verse
16. Therefore saith the Lord God,
behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious
cornerstone, a sure foundation, he that believeth. shall not
make haste." This rock is as the rock in the wilderness was
to the outside world. It's a stumbling stone to those
who are blind to spiritual truths. You and I were just as blind
as any of the world was in one time. It took the love of God
to come to us and give us sight. We've been studying in the book
of Mark, and the Lord went out from... He had just fed 5,000
people on a mountain. He told His disciples to go down
and get into a ship, go over to another land. He came out
on the water. It's walking on the water with
Peter. And then after all that, after He calmed the sea, they
went across to that land. And when He got off the ship,
He went around healing the blind. Healing the lame. giving ears
to those who were deaf, eyes to those who were blind, speech
to those who were dumb. And everyone who could even touch
the hem of his garment were made whole. Made whole. See, right now, there are thousands and thousands
of people in this world who think that they know the Lord who have
never been made whole. Are you whole? Have you been
made whole? This rock is as the rock in the
wilderness. A stumbling stone to those who were blind. Those
who were in the wilderness were blind to the truths of God. But
it is this rock upon which the foundation of salvation is built
upon. Listen to the words of Psalm
118 verse 21, I will praise thee for thou hast heard me and art
become my salvation. The stone which the builders
refused is become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's
doing. It is marvelous in our eyes.
The cornerstone, the foundation that God became a man, a servant,
lowly, so lowly that though there was no sin in Him, God the Father
made Him sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. Think about that, folks. The
holiest of holy. Jesus Christ Himself was made
the lowliest of all lowly. He was made to be sin. Can we
wrap our minds around that? Can we fully understand the depth
of love of One who would be in such glory, bringing Himself
down to such lowliness for our sakes? In Romans 8, verse 3, we read
these words, "...for what the law could not do, in that it
was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh."
That's why Christ had to come. He had to die. God can't die.
He's a spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ, He couldn't
die before He became a man because He was a spirit. Three distinct
persons, absolutely, yet one God. The foundation of salvation is
that the God-Man Himself, Christ Jesus, laid down His life for
His sheep. He shed His blood for His people.
He took the wrath of God upon Himself that all that the Father
hath given Him would have eternal life. The foundation of salvation
is that death could not hold the Lord Jesus Christ. He willingly
laid down His life for His people. He has the power to take it up,
and He arose from the grave, having successfully put away
all the sins of His chosen. Is it good news to you that our
sins are seen no more? We are washed in the blood of
the spotless Lamb of God. Could there be anything better
than that? This is the foundation of salvation. He that sits on the throne of
all glory is making intercession for his people. He's no longer in that grave.
He was there for three days, just as Jonah was in the belly
of the fish for three days. But now he sits on his throne.
And that's our job. That's our responsibility, to
lift our Savior up. Hold him up. Let the world know
that there's nothing you can see in this flesh, but here's
the one who has everything we need, our Lord and Savior. This is the foundation of salvation.
Salvation is of the Lord. Matthew 1, verse 21, we read
these words, And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name
Jesus. for he shall save his people." All power in heaven and earth
and under the earth has been given unto the Son of God, Jesus
Christ. It says in 1 Peter 3.22, who
has gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God, angels
and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. Now look with me at these familiar
words over in Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16, beginning at verse 13. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah, or,
you know, one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that
thou art Peter, and upon this rock, the rock of Jesus. Peter was nothing more than a
man. He's the same as me. God may
have given him some authority over some of what we call natural
powers of the world to heal people, commit miracles, but he was still
a sinner, just as you and I are. He was a sinner saved by grace,
just as you and I are. So God could not have been talking
about Peter being that rock. There's only one rock that we
can stand on, and that is Christ Jesus the Lord. Upon this rock
He's speaking of, I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. That's the Lord sitting on His
throne that I was talking about just a moment ago. The foundation
of salvation is that He sits on His throne right now, keeping
us, by the power of God, through faith, to walk according to His
will. All of God's preachers preach
the same message we preach Christ and Him crucified. And that is
a stone of offense to those who die in their sins, hating God,
running from the true and living God. But to you and I, to us,
whom God has revealed His Son according to Scriptures, this
message is precious. I don't know about you, but I
love to hear about my Lord. More about Jesus. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. And the world will turn dim in
the light of His glory and grace. To us, to you and I, whom God
has revealed His Son according to the Scriptures, this message
is precious. Close with me in one more type
or one more picture of this precious solid rock. Turn, if you would,
to the book of Acts. And we'll begin in chapter 3. We're looking at this living
rock. The solid foundation that God's
church is built upon. Our Lord didn't bring you here
to hear about how good a church is. He brought you here to hear
about Him. The foundation of salvation.
He brought me here to preach about Him. Because that's what
saves God's people. His gospel, the good news to
sinners. Christ Jesus is Lord of all. And salvation is of the Lord. Are you with me in Acts chapter
3? Let's begin reading at verse 1 through verse 18. Now Peter
and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer,
being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his
mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of
the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered
into the temple. And who, seeing Peter and John
about to go into the temple, asked an alms. And Peter, fastening
his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave
heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then
Peter said, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give
I thee in the name of Jesus." There's the rock. In the name
of Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And He took him by
the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet
and ankles were received strength, and leaping up and stood and
walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and
leaping and praising God. And all the people saw Him walking
and praising God, and they knew that it was He which sat for
alms at the beautiful gate of the temple, and they were filled
with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto
Him. And as the lame men, which was healed, held Peter and John,
all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called
Solomon's, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered
unto the people, and he said, yea, men of Israel, why marvel
ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on
us as though by our own power or holiness we had made this
man walk? Why are you looking at the man
at the pulpit? Why are you looking at the messenger?
It's not the messenger, it's the one who is the message. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. God's preachers have no power
within ourselves. Don't you just hate it when somebody
comes on the TV and says, I can heal you! Touch the top of somebody's
head and somebody pretends that they're healed and fall over.
We know it's all fake. Amazes me how many people are
gullible enough to fall for that. Why do you look upon us as though
by our own power or holiness we had made this man whole? The
God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our
fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus, whom ye delivered up,
and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined
to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One, and
the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed
the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead, wherefore
we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in
his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see, and know,
yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness
in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I walk that
ye through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But
those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all
his prophets that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled."
We began talking about all the prophets, who they all spoke
of. And here our Lord Jesus Christ
has fulfilled everything. Now look over at chapter 4. With
me at a couple of verses over there. Chapter 4. Acts chapter 4, and let's begin
reading at verse 7. And when they had set them in
the midst, speaking of Peter and John, and when they had set
them in the midst, they asked, By what power or by what name
have ye done this? Now listen, folks. Listen to
the man of God preaching the word of God. Then Peter, filled
with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, ye rulers of the people
and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined, questioned
of the good deed done to the impotent man by what means he
is made whole, be it known unto you all And to all the people
of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom
ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth
this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which
was said it not of you builders, which has become the head of
the corner. Do you wonder? Was that stone
giving water to the people of Israel, was that Christ? If God be in you, you won't wonder.
You'll know. It says so right here, doesn't
it? Folks, the message of Christ
Jesus, the rock of salvation, is a stumbling stone to some. I ask you, is it a stumbling
stone to you? This is the word of God, Romans
9 verse 16, so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
You know how many people there are in the world who will read
those words, That's not the God I know. No, the God I know loves everybody. He loves everybody and that love
is for you if you'll just reach out and take it. If you'll just
do something. Get baptized. If you'll just
accept Him in your heart. Scriptures tell us that old stony
heart has to be completely removed, taken away. And a new heart must
be given to all of God's people for them to know who the Lord
Jesus Christ is. People want to say, I accepted Christ in my life. I made a decision. How do dead
men do things like that? Was there a decision for Lazarus
to come forth out of the grave? He came forth bound in burial
clothes. It wasn't until he was completely
out and in front of the Lord Jesus Christ when the Lord said,
loose him. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth. but of God that showeth mercy. Is this a stumbling stone for
you? Or is it precious? Does your heart burn as it did
in the two men on the road to Emmaus? Does it burn to hear
more about Jesus? I can't wait for next Sunday. I don't know what I'm going to
preach on, but I know it's going to be Christ Jesus the Lord and
Him crucified. I used to sit in the pews. We'll
get through the week. Is work over yet? Are we done
doing that? Sunday morning, where are you
going? Going to church. I like going to church. Why? Because
that's where I hear about my rock. That's where I hear about the
one that I can stand on and be assured on that all my salvation
is of Him. Is it precious to you? Does your
heart burn to hear more about this solid rock? Then stand with
me if you would. And let's sing about that. I've
changed, if you've got a bulletin,