Thank you, Gabe and Hannah. Go
with me now to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I know I said in the bulletin
we were going to look at Acts chapter 2, but Lord willing,
we will look at that Sunday morning, the message of Pentecost. We're
going to look at Smitten Rock. 1 Corinthians 10, read verses 1
through 4 again with me. Moreover, brethren, I would not
that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were unto
the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. and did all eat the
same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual
drink. For they drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ, and that
rock is our subject." tonight. And the story of that smitten
rock is found in Exodus chapter 17. So go over there to the book
of Exodus chapter 17. Let's look at this old, old story
that Paul is referring to here. A smitten rock, a shadow, a type
of Jesus Christ and him crucified from whom all blessings flow. One time the Lord Jesus Christ
was preaching to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. You remember
the story. It says he began at Moses and
began to preach unto them things concerning himself, how that
Christ must suffer. And I'm quite sure that he preached
on this smitten rock. I'm quite sure that he preached
on the serpent on the pole, and the smitten rock, and perhaps
the manna, and so forth. But he expounded unto them things
concerning himself. And this whole story is about
the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified, smitten. All right,
look at chapter 17 of Exodus. Look at verse 1. of the children of Israel journeyed
from the wilderness of sin, after their journeys, according to
the commandment of the Lord. The whole congregation of Israel.
Now this story is, the children of Israel represent God's people,
God's chosen people. And these were people whom God
had chosen and brought out of Egypt and bringing them to the
promised land, and they were journeying. They weren't staying
in one place for any length of time. They had there in any given
place no continuing city, but they looked for one to come,
a promised land. which God that promised, that
cannot lie, promised it. And so do we. We journey. We're all strangers and pilgrims
in the earth. We sojourn in this earth. We're
not here permanently, but we're passing through. And just as
the children of Israel had a destination, so do we. What is our destination? Who is our destination? He is
our reward. Christ is our reward. So we all have a journey or a
pilgrimage to undergo. But look at this in verse 1.
It says that their journey was according to the commandments
of the Lord. In other words, every step they
took was ordered by the Lord. Every step. Isn't that what Psalm
37, 23 says? The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Do you know, you
may not know this, but if the children of Israel had left Ramse,
wherever it was there in Egypt, I think Ramse, and had taken
a straight course to Jerusalem It would be right by the coast.
It was two hundred and fifty miles. It would have taken at best forty
days. But that's not the way the Lord
purposed it. It says throughout the scriptures
he sent them way down into the wilderness of sin. They had to
sojourn for forty years. Why? To prove them, and to prove
Him. And so it is with us. This is
a... Our time is short, but it may seem like a long time. But look at verse 1. And it's
all ordered by the Lord. And they pitched in Rephidim.
They pitched their tents. They pitched their tents. No
permanent dwelling. in a place called Repidim, and
there was no water for the people to drink there. It was a dry
and thirsty land where they pitched. And so it is in this world. No
matter where we pitch our tent in this world, you'll find no
water, nothing to satisfy you in anything or anywhere in this
world except where this rock is. Nothing to quench our thirst
to satisfy us except that which comes from the smitten rock.
Right? Some of you have already journeyed
for about 40 years. That is, this life of faith.
Some of you a lot older than 40. But you've been, perhaps,
walking by faith that long, and you know by now that nothing
really satisfies with the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing in this
world, just like Solomon, to a lesser degree. The Lord one
time sat on a well, waiting on one of His elect, one of His
sheep to come by, and she did come by. He was waiting on her,
and she came to draw water from the same well she'd been drawing
from for years, but she had to keep drawing. And our Lord said
to her that day, this water will leave you thirsty, but the water
that I shall give you, you'll never thirst again. And after
he revealed himself to that woman as the living water, Scripture
says she left her water pot. As if, it doesn't even say she
took a drink. She came to the well to get some
of that temporal water and she forgot all about it. She didn't
even take a drink. Neither did the Lord. She left
her water pot because she found something, rather someone, who
really satisfied her. Thirsty soul was satisfied. She didn't need that cistern.
She now had the fountain. There's no water in Rephidim,
no water. Verse 2, But the people did chide
with Moses, and said, Give us water, that we may drink. Moses
said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Why do ye tempt? Wherefore
do ye tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there
for water, and the people murmured against Moses and said, Wherefore
is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us
and our children and our cattle with third? And they murmured
once again." Once again, these ungrateful,
unworthy sons of Jacob. Seems like that's about all they
did, wasn't it? Every now and then they would
give thanks, but a lot of murmuring. What about us? Once before, they
were hungry and they began to murmur and they said, you brought
us here to kill us with hunger. No, the Lord didn't do that.
God in mercy then rained bread down from heaven, miraculously.
And they saw it, they tasted it, They even grew tired of that. But now again, the same thing,
they said, you brought us here to kill us with thirst. Constantly
murmuring. What would you do? I ask you.
If you were God, what would you do with these people? Aren't you glad God said over
there in Hosea 11 verse 9, do you remember that? Where God
said, I'm God and not man. Aren't you glad? Old Brother
Barnard used to say that, you better be glad I'm not God. But
I am. I'm glad none of us are. But
God's mercy is higher than the heavens. David said one time,
after hearing of God's mercy to him for years to come, he
said, Is this the way of man? No. Man's not like that. I'm
God, not man. A merciful God, slow to anger,
ready to pardon. What a faithful Lord we have,
huh? To an unfaithful people. What a wonderful Lord to an ungrateful
people. Murmuring and complaining. Murmuring
and complaining. was God's great condemnation of the children
of Israel. You know that? That's chiefly
why they didn't enter in. It's a form of unbelief. Murmuring
and complaining is nothing more than, number one, ingratitude. Our Lord said, we need two things,
food and raiment. And we have that to an abundance,
don't we? He said, and it is, that's all we need. And yet we
murmur and complain like they did. That's nothing more than
ingratitude. Murmuring and complaining is
pride. Murmuring and complaining is
pride. What we're saying is, I deserve better. Murmuring and complaining is
finding fault with God's providence and God's sovereignty. God doles
out things according to his sovereign will and purpose, doesn't he?
According to the measure of grace that he measures out. And to
murmur and complain is to find fault with God's providence and
say, I don't like the way you're doing things. Aren't you glad he's merciful? We're going to see why. There's
a smitten rock. A smitten rock. Now, you know, in this thing
of murmuring and complaining, you know, there are quite a few
other people involved in this world than us, aren't there? And we don't have all the facts
we don't know why the Lord is doing what he's doing we don't
he does. Known under God all his work
from the beginning. And we've likened this purpose
of God to a tapestry. We don't see the whole, well
we don't, we know in part, but every thread in that tapestry
is connected, right? Everything on the top side of
God's earth and in his heaven all works together to fulfill
this purpose of his, and I'm just a little small part of that. We don't have all the facts.
Let's just be thankful. Now, verse 4 says, So Moses cried
unto the Lord and said, What shall I do unto this people?
They're almost ready to stone me. Moses was just the messenger,
wasn't he? They got mad at him. They couldn't
get to God. So they took it out on Moses,
as men are prone to do. But while they murmured, now
here's the goodness of God. While they were murmuring, God
spoke to Moses these blessed word. Look at verse five. The Lord said unto Moses, Go
on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel,
and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thy hand,
and go. Moses, you go before the people. Moses was told to journey before
them to Horeb. Now that's where Sinai was. He
went ahead of them and to this place, this place in Sinai, Horeb. And he said there would be a
rock there waiting. There's a rock there waiting
upon which the Lord is going to be standing. Shadow of a rock
in a weary land, a high and mighty rock. So Moses went before. Now
Moses is the lawgiver. Stay with me here, there's the
gospel in there. Moses is the lawgiver, whom the Lord sent
the law through, and he went before the people. And it says
in verse 5, take the elders with you. Do what you do in sight
of the elders. Moses taught the elders. Moses
represents the law of God. The law of God. John, the scripture
says the law went before. It went before. But it can never make the comers
there unto perfect, can it? The law. No. Moses couldn't bring
the children of Israel into the promised land. And in God's purpose,
you know what happened. We'll look at that in a few minutes.
But he couldn't bring them in. Why? The law can't bring us into
the promised land. Who did? Whom else? Joshua. That's the Old Testament
name for Jesus. Saviour. Joshua brought them
in. Caught all their battles for them. He was the captain
of their salvation. He brought them into the promised
land. But Moses couldn't. And neither can the law of God
bring us in. And the law went before us, the
Scripture says. So what was the law for? Well,
to reveal our sinfulness. and as a schoolmaster to bring
us to Christ. A schoolmaster. So Moses went
before the people, and he instructed these elders and did what he
did in the sight of the elders, and God said to him, verse 6,
Behold, I will stand before thee there upon thee rocks, in horror. There was a rock there, not just
a rock. God called it the rock, as if
there were no others. The rock in horror. There was
a rock waiting there all along. It was there a long time before
Israel came to this place. And that rock was Christ, Paul
said. A great rock. Don't think of
this rock as some little stone. God stood on it. So how big was
it? A great rock, a high and a lofty
rock. The very word you look it up
means a high and lofty place. Paul wrote in the Hebrews, he
said, we've seen him crowned with glory and honor. He was
like the manna, a small thing. The Lord, a child is born, a
son is given. and made a little lower than
the angel, but he's not lower now than anything. There's none
above him now. He's a high and lofty, the rock
of God, a solid rock God stood on. All the purposes of God stood
on Christ. All the counsel of God, all the
wisdom of God, all the word of God, all the promises of God
rested on Jesus Christ. Can he hold up? Yes, he did. A solid rock, a solid, firm foundation
which God Almighty laid, and not only God stood upon it, later
on Moses did. God said, there's a place in
the rock and you're going to stand there. The same place I
did. All your trust. You know, God
trusted His Son with His purpose and His covenant and His salvation
and His people. And he was able to save, able
to save. So Christ is that rock, a sufficient
rock. Now this rock's got to provide
water for how many people? They're all thirsty. There's
a couple of million people counting children. Can one rock provide
all of that? Is one rock sufficient for all
of them? You know, it ran for 40 years.
How many people were born in that space of time? Is Christ
able? Is he a sufficient Savior for
all to a thousand generations? Did you read that with me in
Psalm 105? That struck me as if the first time. His covenant
for a thousand generations. Christ is sufficient to provide
salvation for all of God's people from Beginning of time to the
end, that rock was Christ. And God said to Moses, take your
rod, the same rod that he smoked the river with. That's verse
5, and the river in Egypt that turned to blood. That rock represents
the wrath and the judgment and the anger of God Almighty. And
God Almighty told him in verse 6, I stand upon the rock in horror,
and thou shalt smite the rock," smite it, hit it with that rod,
as it were a mortal blow. And what he's doing here, you
see that ungrateful bunch of sinful sons of Jacob? The rod should have gone across
their back, shouldn't it? But God said, I'm a merciful
God. I'm going to smite that rock
instead. Their murmuring complaints smite
the rock, but their unworthy smite the rock. They ought to
be smitten, but smite the rock. Smite the rock. And he said,
there shall come water out of it, and the people, but the people
may drink. And so that blow that should
have fallen on those sinful, ungrateful people, God said,
smite the rock in their stead and there shall come water out
of it and the people are going to drink. No, I'm not going to
smite these poor sinners. I'm going to smite the rock so
the people may drink. And Moses, it says, did so. In
the sight of the elders of Israel, they witnessed it. There were
several witnesses to this smitten rock, and it says, well, it doesn't
say it here, but in our psalm, it said, and waters gushed out
in a dry place like a river. How wide do you suppose that
stream of water was? How good was that water? Purest
of the pure. Water gushed out, and that rock, God Almighty took His Son up
on Calvary's mountain 2,000 years ago and took His anger out and His
wrath out and His judgment out upon His Son that should have
been upon us. God Almighty took the knife of
His justice, the rod of His anger and His wrath, His law, broken
law, And in our stead and in our place, God Almighty slew
his son. Yes, it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. God made his soul an offering.
He put him to grief, God did, in our stead. the smitten Christ, and out of
his wounded side, the Scripture says, flowed blood for our redemption,
the price of redemption, and water for our purification in
which our death." That rock was Christ. down in the mountains of southwest
Virginia. There was a one-room school building
back several years ago when all ages of children would go to
a one-room school. Brother Henry attended one. Hornholler
or Horn Valley? Horn Valley. I've got a picture
of that one-room building. They closed it down after he
left. But down in southwest Virginia, there was a one-room school building,
and kids of all ages would attend there, most not more than until
they were about 15 or 16. And there were dirt-poor children
back then, just children of farmers and loggers and so forth. Well,
they had a hard time keeping a teacher. in that little one-room
school building. They couldn't pay him much, and
the conditions were terrible. And they got a new teacher in, a young man, straight out of
the college. And the first day that he came
there, he said, I've got to do something to establish order
here. So he said to the class, he said, We've got to make some
rules. We've got to have some rules
to keep order here, and everybody's got to abide by these rules.
They say, what I'm going to do is let you all make the rules.
And then, when we make rules now, there's got to be punishment
for breaking those rules. So he said, what do you think
the rule should be? Somebody raised a hand and said,
no cussing. Okay, no cussing. What's the
penalty? You've got to sit in the corner
for two hours. Okay. Anybody else? No spitting on the floor. No
spitting, okay. What's the punishment? Somebody
raised their hand and said, no stealing. No stealing, okay. What's the punishment? Somebody
said, ten licks across the back with a rod on the bare back. And the teacher said, don't you
think it's kind of severe? They said, nope, ten licks, bareback
with a rod. Okay, they made all the rules.
Well, one day, one of the oldest boys, one of the biggest boys,
Big Josh, found his lunch missing. Somebody had stolen his lunch. And he went and told the teacher. The teacher said, all right,
class, somebody's broken the rule. Somebody's stolen Big Josh's
lunch. Would the guilty party like to
come forward? Nobody would admit it. Until finally they found out
that it was a little old fella named Jimmy, little skinny poor
fella. Skinny as a rail, Little Jimmy. He always wore a big coat to
class for some reason. And so the teacher brought Little
Jimmy up before the whole class. He said, Little Jimmy has been
caught. He stole Big Josh's lunch. And
you know the penalty. Ten licks with a rod across his
bare back. And this was hurting the teacher
bad. But he said, take off your coat, little Jimmy. Little Jimmy said, don't let
me take my coat off. He said, you know the rules. Strip him. Take the coat off. So they took
that coat off and all you could see was his ribs. And the teacher got that big
rod out. And just as he started to bring that big rod down on
little Jimmy's back, Big Josh said, Hold it! Teacher, don't
smite him. Smite me instead. But he stole
your lunch, Josh. I know it, and therefore I have
the right to take his place. Smite me instead." So big Josh
took off his coat, and the muscles were rippling. And he leaned
across that desk, and that teacher bore into him ten times. And
after the tenth blow, the rod broke. And that's not all. Little Jimmy's
heart broke. And he ran up and threw his arms
around those bloody shoulders of Big Josh and said, Big Josh,
I'll love you forever for taking my licking. Now that rock was Christ. He took our weapon. God laid
on Him the iniquity of us all. Stripped Him naked and the rod
of God's justice Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Thou shalt
not make unto thee any graven enemy. Thou shalt not commit
adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not covet. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not."
We've broken them all, haven't we? And God struck his son in
the rod. The wrath of God, the justice
of God, the punishment of God that was due unto all his people
was spent on the Lord Jesus Christ. That rock was cracked. And out
of his wounded side flows rivers of living water to the thirsty
soul, to the guilty Well, go over with me in closing to
Numbers 21. This is not the end of this story
concerning the rock. Numbers chapter 21, we need to
look at this. Numbers chapter 21, the children
of Israel are still sinners. They're still murmuring. Numbers
20, I'm sorry, chapter 20. They're still murmuring. Verse 1, Then came the children
of Israel, the whole congregation, into the desert. Verse 2, There
was no water for the congregation. Apparently the Lord allowed the
water to dry up for a time to test them. And they gathered
themselves together against Moses. Again, the people chode with
Moses, would to God we had died when our brethren died before
the Lord. Why have you brought us into the wilderness that we
should, we and our cattle should die right here? Well, they murmured and complained,
but God hasn't changed. And he's still merciful and that
rock is still there. It over. Gay was telling me about. my little niece, grandniece,
I guess you call her, Lucy Jean. She was here recently. And I
know you wish you could tell this, but I'm going to. She was
telling Gabe about this smitten rock. Gabe said it was such a
blessing to him. But she said to him, after he
asked her what she had heard, what she studied, and she said,
you know, the children of Israel were thirsty. And God had a rock there. And you know, God smoked that
rock. And you know what? Water came
out of it. And then He gave us that all.
She said, No, you know what else? That rock went with them everywhere they went. That's very simple. Well, that rock went with them
everywhere. Christ said, I will never leave
you or forsake you. Water for the thirsty soul, wherever
we go. Look at verses 7 and 8. The Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod. 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. Thou shalt bring
forth to them water out of the rock so shalt thou give the congregation
and their beasts Drink. Speak to the rock. Don't smite
it. It's already been smitten. Don't
smite it again. There's no need. Do you know
what that's talking about? There's one sacrifice for sin. Christ entered, came into this
world once with his own blood. He entered into the Holy Having
obtained eternal redemption, God smote him once. He's not
to be crucified over again. The mass that they practice today
is just that. They say the wafer and the wine
actually turns in to the body and blood of Christ. That's crucifying
him again. God said don't do that. Speak
to the rock. Just ask. All things are free. That water is free just for asking. What did Moses do? He's just
a man in anger and in impatience and in wrath against the people.
In pride, he said, must I fetch you water out of this rock again?
No, Moses. But God allowed him to do that,
didn't He? Because Moses, God's providence is amazing. Moses
can't bring them in. The wrath of man is going to
praise him. And the remainder he'll restrain.
Moses said, Moses got mad and anger and wrath, smoked that
rock again. God said, now you can't bring my people in. I told
you, you didn't sanctify me, just call upon me. Christ is
not to be crucified, Fred. No, no, no, no. The reason we
don't wear crosses around our neck, we don't go through all
of these motions to crucify him. We worship a living Lord who
was crucified. buried, but is now risen, exalted,
and ascended, and sits down at the right hand of God right now.
Living Lord. A living Lord, who died, but
who is alive forevermore. Speak. Just ask, and it will
be given. Rivers of living water. Okay,
stand with me.