Exodus 15. Exodus 15. I don't know if you read this
beforehand. I hope you did. I hope it will be a blessing. It
certainly was in studying it. Look at verse 22. Let's read.
Let's read verse 22 through 24. Exodus 15. So Moses brought Israel
from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of Shur.
They went three days in the wilderness and found no 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. And the people murmured against Moses, saying,
What shall we drink? We're thirsty. We need something
to drink. Just three days, just three days
after such a great deliverance at the Red Sea. Just three days. Just three days after they saw,
Scripture says, that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians.
And the people feared the Lord, believed the Lord, believed His
servant, Moses. Just three days after they were
singing of such great mercy. They start complaining. They start complaining. And it's us in there. We're a sad bunch. I always tell
you to read 1 Corinthians 10. Go there with me. 1 Corinthians
10. We need to read it. You need
to read it. I need to read it. We all need to read it. All the
time. Over and over. Psalm 90. Read
it. Once a week at least. Psalm 91. 1 Corinthians 10. We'll
read Romans 1. Read all of Romans and all of
Ephesians. Read God's Word. Read it. But look at this. 1 Corinthians 10. You have it? Brethren, I would
not that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were
under the cloud. All passed through the sea. All
baptized under Moses in the cloud and the sea. They all eat the
same spiritual meat. They did all drink the same spiritual
drink. They drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them. Oh my, that rock was Christ. That's the next chapter. Acts
17, a smitten rock. But with many of them. God was
not pleased. They were not well pleased. They
were overthrown in the wilderness. The world overthrew them. Now,
these things were our examples to the intent that we should
not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be
idolaters, as were some of them. As it is written, the people,
here's what they did. This is all they thought about.
They sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither
let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell
in one day, 23,000. Neither let us tempt Christ,
not Moses, Christ. And some of them tempted, and
were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmured ye. And some
of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now, all these things happened
unto them for examples, and they're written for our admonition, upon
whom the ends of the world are come. Now, let him that thinketh
he standeth, take heed. They were murmuring and complaining
three days after such great deliverance. We all do it, don't we? Especially
when we're alone. Murmuring and complaining is
finding fault with God's providence. That's all it is. Murmuring and
complaining is finding fault with God's providence. Go back
to Exodus. Everything is of the Lord. Everything
that happens to us. If you drop something and break
it, the Lord did that. Caused that for a reason. People,
things, events, circumstances, whether little or big, the Lord
is the first cause of them. To murmur and complain over anything,
about anyone or anything, is to murmur and complain about
the Lord who did it. It's just so. All things are of the Lord. It is God who worketh all things
after the counsel. If God didn't work the little
things, the little things become big things. It's God who worked
all things after the counsel of His will. And what did all
things work together for? Good. So the murmuring complaint
is really a murmur against His goodness. Because we don't see
at the time why something happened. But later we're going to thank
him so much for what happened at the time we're murmuring.
And later we're going to You're going to be so thankful.
I told you about Whitfield. It was raining. He was going
to preach somewhere during the time of flintlock rifles and
pistols, you know. He was murmuring and complaining
because it's raining. He's riding in the rain to go
preach the gospel. He came around the corner and
there was a robber standing there holding a gun on him. An old
flintlock pistol, you know. It's got the powder in it. You've got to keep the powder
dry. Well, that man was going to rob him and fired that pistol. He wouldn't go off. The powder
was wet. And Whitfield just wrote off. He said, I'll never complain
about rain again. Well, did he? Sure he did. He's human. To murmur about little
things, anything, is to murmur against God. Look at chapter
16, verse 8. Well, verse 7. He said, In the
morning you'll see the glory of the Lord. that he heareth
your murmurings against the Lord." In verse 8, the last line, he
says, you're murmuring against Him. What are we? You're not
murmuring against us, you're against the Lord. They murmured
against Moses, and God said they murmured against Christ, because
Moses represents Christ. Moses was just the messenger.
Quite often people don't like the message, they murmur against
the messenger. And quite often people don't like the way a man's
leading. They murmur, the Lord's the one who chose him to lead.
Yeah, he's a man. Yeah, he's a sinner. But Moses
did the best he could with it. The best of his ability. What's
that? He's a man. You're going to make a mistake.
They murmur, we don't like this. And quite often it's the people
that murmur the most are the people that do the least. And Moses, just a man. And you know what? He's going
through everything that they're going through. He's going through
everything. He's going through all the troubles
and the trials that they're going through. And he wasn't complaining. Joshua
and Caleb. There weren't many that weren't
complaining. Just a few. And let me remind you why most
people didn't go in the Promised Land. murmuring and complaining. It's
a form of disbelief, unbelief is what it is. Now here's a wonderful,
amazing fact. Moses, we said, God's man, he
represents Christ. Our Lord became a man, tempted
in all points like as we are, voluntarily. willingly came down
here into this place to endure everything that we go through,
all the troubles. I wouldn't do that. Would you
go through trouble if you didn't have to? No, you wouldn't. He
did. Why? Tempted in all points, like as
we are. Tried his patience, everything,
everything. Every earthly trouble, every
inconvenience, every irritation, everything. Everything. And he was never... Every irritation
that he experienced without being irritable. Think about it. This is an amazing man. He's
a man. He's flesh and blood. Everything.
Everything. Every inconvenience, every trouble.
He was never inconvenienced. Never irritable. Never impatient. Think of it. That's why the scripture says
he was declared to be the Son of God by the Spirit of holiness.
That's holiness. That's holiness. Perfect love,
mercy, grace, patience, wisdom. Understand it, hold it, just
and everything. That's amazing, isn't it? He
endured it all voluntarily, willingly. Next time we begin, here's something,
next time we begin to murmur and complain, think about him.
Everything, everything he heard vexed his righteous soul. I mean,
he was patient. Murmuring is a form of self-love. Murmuring is self-love. Murmuring
is self-righteousness. Murmuring is self-pity. Why is
this happening to me? Right? Why is this happening
to me? How could that person do this
to me? What did they do to you? Left
me on hold. Now tell me you don't murmur
and complain about something as minor as that. Tell me about
it. What a horrible inconvenience.
How could they do this to me? Probably somebody just trying
to do their job. They don't even want to be on
that panel. They're making a third of what you're making. We're a sorry lot. And God ought
to send us all to hell, shouldn't he? This rich, privileged nation
is going to be punished by our God unlike any society ever in
the history of the world. For it's constant murmuring and
complaining when we've got everything our hearts could desire. And
we complain. We murmur and complain about
terrible trials like waiting in line at the grocery store.
We can't buy all the food we want. We have to wait ten minutes
to fill our grocery carts full. My soul. There are people in
Africa waiting on a bag of grain to fall out of a helicopter. God had mercy on us. I said, in 1 Corinthians 10,
we're so warned. Hebrews, all through Hebrews,
with many of them, many of them, many of them, God was not pleased
with many of them. Someone said, well, they just
didn't believe the Lord. They didn't trust the Lord. They
were going about to establish their righteousness. That's not
what they were doing. They didn't trust the Lord, all
right. They didn't trust that it is the Lord. Whatever it was,
it was the Lord. They were complaining about it. They're tempting. Every single
time they tempted the Lord, ten times, was murmuring. It was
unbelief. Job, the Lord sent every conceivable
trial, every known trial to man at Job, didn't He? One right
at the end. How did he endure that? God's
grace. God's grace. But he did, didn't he? He did.
He endured it without. The scripture says, In all this
Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. He didn't murmur.
He didn't complain. What did he say? Everything that
happened, he didn't blame the Chaldeans, he didn't blame the
Sabeans. He said, it's the Lord. He said, the Lord gave, and the
Lord taketh away. Blessed with tears running down
his face, his body in pain, and all his loved ones dead. He said,
the Lord gave. The Lord taketh away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. Boy, what honor that gives to
our Lord, doesn't it? Oh, how that honors our Lord.
The Lord was well pleased with such a testimony as that. But, a little while later, he's
cussing his daddy. Isn't it? He read it. He begins
to curse the day he was born. He began to murmur and complain. And God got angry with him. Get angry. So... Alright, here's the thing. Go
back to our text. Look at verse 22. Exodus 15, verse 22. Moses brought Israel from the
Red Sea. Made great deliverance. Out of
Egypt, through the Red Sea. They went out into the wilderness.
They went three days into the wilderness. The Lord said, you're
going out into the wilderness. He told them that. You're leaving
Egypt. And you're going out into the wilderness. That's where
you're going to be. That's where you're going to
be. Look at Psalm 63 with me. Psalm
63. What did they expect to find
in the wilderness? What can we expect to find in
the wilderness of this world? In a world of dry and thirsty
land where no water is, what can we expect to find? Water
to satisfy us? Can we expect to find anything
that's going to satisfy this flesh? Anything to make this
flesh happy? Anything that fulfills us? Anything? No, no, no, no. Look at David
in Psalm 63. Kelly, you read this in a study
not too long ago. Psalm 63. Oh God, thou art my
God. Early will I seek thee. Remember that. Like manna. First
thing, my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee
in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. They didn't find any water. They
went out in the world. They couldn't find any water
or anything to satisfy. What did you expect to find? No water here in this world.
You hear me? I didn't say it. The Lord said
it. Listen to this. We'll go to Ecclesiastes
1. You need to know these scriptures.
I need to know these scriptures. We need to know these things.
Ecclesiastes is a whole book of life, isn't it? Everything
we go through. Ecclesiastes 1. Look at this. Ecclesiastes 1. You see, this
world is a dry and thirsty land. There's no water. There's nothing
that will satisfy the soul. There's nothing that will satisfy
the flesh even. This flesh has an insatiable
appetite. It cannot be filled. You no sooner
drink of these things until you want more. It will not satisfy. Ecclesiastes 1. Verse 2. Vanity of vanities. This is how
it begins. Vanity of vanities. You know how it ends? How does
Ecclesiastes end? Vanity of vanities. You go all
through it. Experience it all. Try it all.
What's it going to leave you? Thirst. Look at verse 7. All the rivers run into the sea.
The sea's not full, is it? What's that mean? So you can
fill up, you can have everything there is to have in this life.
Get your fill of it, you'll never be full filled. Verse 8, all things are full
of labor, man cannot utter it. The eye labors to find something
that satisfies it, can't do it, not satisfied with seeing. The
ear Not satisfied with hearing. Stomach, not satisfied with eating. And on and on it goes. On and
on it goes, right? We know that. So why murmur and
complain when we don't find fulfillment? We knew that, we knew that. Passing through. There was a woman in her fifties. A woman in her fifties that kept
coming every day to this place to get fulfillment, came to a
well. Every day, all her whole life. She had a water pot passed
down to her, meant a lot to her, passed down from her mother,
from her grandmother. Every day she would fill this water pot
up at this well and go home and use the water and had to come
back. It's gone. She's got to come back to the
well. Every day. Day in and day out. Alright?
Nothing would satisfy her. Every day. All her life. She
was married five times. None of those worked out. So
she's living with a fella now. We'll try this. Just living together.
That'll do it. No, it won't. No, it won't. When are you going
to learn? Until she met her husband. till
she met Christ. And our Lord came to her in mercy
and grace, and He told her, the first thing He told her was,
this water that you keep coming back for, and have been trying
to find fulfillment in all your life, will leave you thirsty. Those men, they're not going
to satisfy you. There's one man that will. She
said, give me this water. I'm tired of thirst. He said,
I'm it. You know what she did? Dropped her water pot. Think
she went home and dropped that fella too. This water, what did you expect
to find? This water, the water of the world. Here's the fact,
brothers and sisters. Here's the fact, the more you
drink of this water of this world, the more you're going to have. But there's water, the water
of His Word, the water of the truth, Christ the water of life. A little bit will fulfill you. A little bit, a little faith,
will give you great joy, great peace that passeth understanding. Just a little. Scripture says,
better is little with the fear of the Lord. Can you quote the
rest of it? Than great treasure and trouble
therewith. That's all treasure is, isn't
it? Better is little with the fear
of the Lord. A little faith. Oh, a little gospel. All week
we've been working and doing this and doing that and there's
no fulfillment in anything. You come here and you just get
a little draft. Just a little water. Go away
with a little water. Boy, it's just wonderful. It just soothes
your dry and thirsty soul. How can I deliver that? And the water we find, now look
at this, they came, they found some water, verse 23. First they
found no water, well they came, they came to a place and they
found some water. What was it? Bitter. It was bitter. In the world you'll find no real
satisfaction, no water for your soul. True water. And the water that you find will
leave you bitter. Most everything in this life
and most everyone is going to leave you bitter. Relationships. It's a rare thing
to go through this life and not lose friends. And people that
don't disappoint you. It's a rare thing to find a friendship
that lasts your whole entire life and somebody doesn't disappoint
you, doesn't leave you. Well, that's a bitter thing,
isn't it? It's a bitter thing. We have children, we have marriages
and all that, and we lose them. It's tough, isn't it? Bitter pill to swallow. Life has a lot of bitterness,
a lot of disappointments in it. Someone once said, though, and
look at Ecclesiastes again with me. I should have told you to
stay there. Ecclesiastes 3. Someone said
this. We should never be disappointed
in our Lord's appointments. Everything has been appointed.
We began by saying we were bitter and murmuring and complaining.
People leave, people come and go and hurt us and all that.
Well, none was more hurt than our Lord by those around Him.
None. None. Judas, after all he did
for them, all of this side was left to him. Amen. Many walked no more with
him after all those years. They said, this is hard. We can't
take it anymore. They walked no more. But the Lord knew it. This is
of the Lord. This is of the Lord. It must be. There must be heresies
among you. That day when you're approved. If you have old friends,
cherish it. Nourish it. Do everything you
can to nourish that friendship. You might end up in bitter disappointment.
You provoke people to love you. You be the friend. You want to
have a friend? You be a friend. Well, he didn't speak to me. Did you speak to him? They never
invite me. You ever invite them? Okay. That's the way it is. Ecclesiastes,
look at this. Chapter 3, verse 2. It's time
to be born, time to die. Seems like you're no sooner born
than you're time to die. It's bitter, isn't it? But don't
let it leave you bitter. Don't let that leave you bitter.
You know why? Death is better than birth. Lord, so good. Oh, this is awful. Brother Mike Bartram's mother
just died at 4 a.m. this morning, 92. This is the greatest day of her
life. Sad for Mike, his sister Sharon. Oh my, what a dear and
lovely lady Dean was and is. Oh my, all her troubles are. Over. No more bitterness. Well, I'm getting old. Oh, life's
so bitter. Hold on now. It's about to get
real sweet. On and on it goes. Time to kill,
time to weep, time to laugh. Morning sits up and down, up
and down, up and down. Weep, laugh, weep, laugh, weep,
laugh. You're not going to find anything in this life to fulfill. Nothing ever. Anyone or anything. Might as well not complain about
it. It's all good. Here it is. Look at, write it
down. Oh yeah, Ecclesiastes 7. Everybody,
every eye look at this. Remember where it is. Remember
this. Write it down. May the Lord write
it on our hearts. Ecclesiastes 7. You have it? 7. May the Lord bring this up in
the time we need it. Verse 14, in the day of prosperity,
be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider. God has
set the one over against the other to the end that man should
find nothing after him. If you find great fulfillment
in this world, what does that mean? You're of the world. Egypt didn't want to leave Egypt.
Egypt liked Egypt just fine. The Lord sent troubles to His
people, made them miserable in Egypt. What a good God He is. He sent all kinds of troubles
to make them miserable in Egypt. Bitter waters. that he might
provide the sweet. Now, go back to the text. Go
back to the text. This is wonderful. Okay? Look at Ecclesiastes, Exodus,
chapter 15. This is wonderful. Just wonderful. Why? Because that's Christ's
name. Look at it. Verse 23. They came to their
waters, couldn't drink, they were bitter. People murmured
against Moses. Verse 25. What shall we drink?
And verse 25, he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him
a tree, which when he cast into the waters,
the waters were made sweet. And he said, this is a statue
and an ordinance forever. He showed them a tree cast into
the waters. that stop their murmuring and
complaining and quench their thirst. What is that? Brothers
and sisters, you know what that is. You know what that is, don't
you? Huh? Do you know how blessed you are? Why do you know that? Flesh and blood didn't teach
this to you, but our Father which is in heaven. Christ is the truth.
He's the only one that's satisfied. Christ is the water of life.
Christ is the tree of life. Christ crucified, cast into the
waters, these bitter waters. Christ, the Lord God, cast him
into this despicable place among these no good murmuring complaining
sinners. Cast into this, the depths of
this sinful world. Cast into the waters. Oh my.
What is man that thou art mindful of him, and a son of man that
you would visit him? But God's not a man. And God,
in great mercy, sent His Son into this bitter place and cast
Him into this world of sin and bitterness. And I won't have
you turn, but Lamentations 3 is the chapter that says, I'm the
man. I'm the man. Christ is a man whom God set
for His mark, who set the bow, who endured His wrath. And on
down it says, He filled me full of bitterness. Please read Lamentations 3.50.
Filled me, Christ said, full of bitterness. He who was joyful
and happy and blessed and content. full of praise, had to come down
there and He made sin. His soul vexed with it. And finally,
God put all the sins of God's people, He bore them in His body. That's why He sweat blood. Here's the point, people. The
only thing that will keep us from murmuring and complaining is to see what Christ endured
for us. Nothing else will do it. The
thing that will make every bitter pill sweet, every bitter trial
sweet is to see that Christ came and did this for us. He didn't
have to. He did it voluntarily. And everything, everything that happens to us
is good. It's good. The only thing. Honestly, this is the only thing.
They quit murmuring. This water was made sweet. They
drank of this water. They quit murmuring for a while. But what made them quit murmuring?
This tree cast into the water. I talked about us murmuring and
complaining. We're having to wait over this and wait over
that. Do you know our Lord is not subject to time? God's not
subject to time. Thousand years in this side of
the day, a day is a thousand years, but he made himself subject
to time. Humanly speaking, it was more
difficult for him to wait. What he endured on the Calvary's
tree, six hours he spent hanging on that tree, separated from
God. That was the equivalent of us going through eternity.
Do you understand what I'm trying to say? I don't even understand
what I'm trying to say. But do you understand what I'm
trying to say? He made himself subject to time. He was so patient. So patient, so long-suffering. What do we suffer? What do we
have to be patient about? It's all good. Remembering, here's
the only thing, as soon as we start to murmur and complain,
put our hand over our mouth, what did our Lord endure for
me? How long? He spent 33 years waiting
to be gracious, going to the cross. From the time He was born,
He knew He was going to the cross. And that weight was on His shoulders,
all His. Oh, we got to look forward to
it. It's great. It's great. Oh, man. It's the only thing. You understand? That's the only
thing. He's the only one. And I got to quit. There's a
statute that proved them. You know, God's Word, the Gospel
is what proves it. Do you really believe God? God
is sovereign. Why'd that happen? I can't believe
that. We need to act like this proves
us. Do you really believe God's sovereign?
Then why do you complain about that? He sent it, right? This proves us. Christ crucified
proves us. Why did I have to go through? Oh, I forgot what Christ went
through for me. This proves us. Proofs. In everything, Paul said. What
did Paul go through? What did Paul go through? Read it. And so he wrote, in
everything, give thanks. Didn't he? Why? For this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus for you. This is it. Oh my. And then in verse 26, he said,
If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord God,
and do that which is right in his sight, give ear to his commandments,
keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon
thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, I and the Lord,
that healeth them." He didn't say, if you'll do this and do
that, you'll go to heaven, and I'll accept you to be my son.
Never. What'd he say? I won't put these
diseases on you like Egypt. Is that plain? If you be willing and obedient,
you'll lead a good life. If you don't, and the Egyptians
weren't, everything that could happen, what was it? The displeasure
of the Lord upon Egypt. Myrtle used to say, anything
this side of hell is mercy. Mercy. Oh, as obedient children. Not fashioning yourself after
the former conversation in your lust. They came to Elam. Now, our God
is so merciful. Look at this. They were murmuring
and complaining just shortly before this. The Lord sent them
this tree. The tree had to be cut down.
The tree had to be killed for them to live. Cast into the water.
And then, verse 27, they came to Elam where were twelve wells
of water. Fresh water. Twelve wells. And
three score and ten palm trees. Seventy palm trees. And they
just camped right there. Now they're just drinking water.
Isn't that us? Huh? Twelve apostles, twelve wells,
twelve apostles. There's so much water that flows
into this place, the water of God's Word, every week. Just
come, sit, camp here. Just drink. You don't have to
do anything. Just sit and just drink it all
in. Palm trees. You ever laid on
the beach under a palm tree? Aye. What are you doing? What
are you doing? Nothing. You're resting under
the shade. He's palm for 70. 70 men were
sent out also along with those 12 apostles to preach the gospel.
Just come, just camp, just sit, just drink to your fullest. Okay? Rest. Our next study is on the
manna on the Lord's Day. If you don't gather it, it's
all clear. But this do also. This will prove
you. Don't complain. Don't murmur
about anything. Don't do it now. Remember Christ. Okay.