us this morning, and we'll go
into chapter 17 as we study this morning the subject of Smite
the Rock. Let me read these verses to you,
Exodus chapter 17, and I'll read the first seven verses And then
we'll ask for God's blessings upon the word, Exodus chapter
17, verse one. And all the congregation of the
children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin. After
their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord,
they pitched in Rephidim, And there was no water for the
people to drink. Wherefore the people did shout
with Moses and said, give us water that we may drink. And
Moses said unto them, why chide ye with me? Wherefore do you
tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted therefore
water. And the people murmured against
Moses and said, Wherefore is it, is this, that thou hast brought
us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle
with thirst?' And Moses, rather than speaking to them, he lifted
up his voice and he cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall
I do unto or for this people? they be almost ready to stone
me. And the Lord said unto Moses,
go on before the people. You go ahead of them. Take with
thee the elders of Israel, the leaders of each of the tribes,
and thy rod. This is the same rod wherewith
thou smotest the river. Take in thine hand and go. Behold, I will stand before thee
there upon the rock in Horeb, literally Mount Sinai, one of
the peaks in Mount Sinai, and thou shalt smite the rock and
there shall come water out of it that the people may drink.
And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And
though it isn't stated here, the obvious thing is that they
all drank, and we'll read that from the New Testament here in
just a few minutes, verse seven. It says, he, Moses, called the
name of the place Massah and Meribah because of the chiding
of the children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord,
saying, is the Lord among us or not? Let's ask God to bless this morning. Our Father, we have the utmost
respect for this, Your Word. We're thankful that You gave
to Moses, Your servant, these things to write, and we rejoice
to read of this portion of Scripture. We also know and believe and
understand that Without the spirit of wisdom, without the spirit
of grace, no spiritual benefit will come to any of us, even
from this your word. We must have the same spirit
who led Moses to write these words so many hundreds and hundreds
of years ago. We must have this same spirit
to open our minds, our intellect, and our very innermost being,
that we would receive the message of these words. Teach us who
the rock is. Teach us what it meant for him
to be smitten. Teach us, oh God, of the water
of life. And oh, our gracious God, give
us a thirst for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thirst by nature for anything
and everything but the Savior. We beg of you, out of the depths of our souls,
oh God, we plead, give us a thirst for this one who is the living
water of life. Magnify yourself. Lord, give
glory to that one who is the rock of our salvation, to that
one who was wounded and bruised and stricken and smitten by that
which is the rod of your justice. We thank you for him. Thank you
for his death. Thank you that Jesus paid it
all. That is all the debt that all
of your people owed under divine justice. Thank you that he ever
lives evidence that he finished the work that you gave him to
do. And now give us a thirst and give us grace that we would
drink and live forever in the water of life. For Jesus' sake
I ask these things. Amen. Our God has brought Israel out
of their Egyptian bondage with a mighty hand. And this is the
nation that He chose. Above all other nations, no other
nation was treated like God treated Israel. Now, there was no difference
between Israel and the rest of the nations of the world. They
were by nature ungodly and wretched and idolaters like all the rest
of the people upon the face of God's earth. But God, for the
glory of his mercy, He ordained that this would be the nation
that he would deal with. To them, he gave the offerings. To them, he gave the sacrifices. To them, he gave his word. To them, he gave the tabernacle. To them, he gave all the prophets. To them, he gave the very word
of his truth. This was a very favored nation. And he who chose them has redeemed
them. He did so by the blood of the
lambs of the Passover, as we have already studied. He has
bought them. He delivered them by his own
might. and by the blood of the lambs. Moreover, he has brought them
out of Egyptian bondage. By his might, he called them."
They've been chosen, they've been redeemed, and they've been
called. And every provision that they
needed, as far as material things were concerned, they went out
of Egypt with them. They went out with an abundance
of riches. Why, they virtually stripped
the Egyptians of all their wealth, and yet the Egyptians gave up
their wealth willingly. They said, here, you need it?
Take it. Take our silver. Take our gold. Whatever you need, whatever's
in our houses, go ahead and take it. Just leave here. And God
gave to these people abundantly all of these provisions, even as God has provided so abundantly
for those of us who are the people of God. I began the service today with
The reading of 2 Thessalonians 2 and 13, we're bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God has chosen you unto salvation. He chose us just like
he chose Israel. I don't think anybody of any kind of honesty and integrity
would refuse to acknowledge that God chose Israel. above every
nation, even so God chose another nation, a spiritual nation, a
spiritual Israel to be the recipients, not of fleshly mercies, but of
everlasting mercies. God chose us unto salvation. He gave to us all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. God chose us, this is the very
foundation. This is where it begins. And
then God has redeemed us because he chose us, he redeemed us,
he bought us. Not with silver, not with gold,
and not with animals. He bought us with the blood of
the Lord Jesus, that one who is the Lamb of God, he bought
us. Justice took us captive. Justice
held us for ransom. Justice said, be perfect or die. And God found the way whereby
he could honor his justice and yet show grace and mercy to us
without compromising his justice. We had a substitute who died
for us. He lived and died for us to satisfy
all the demands of God. What did justice demand? Death
for sin. What did our Lord Jesus do? He
died. He died for sin. He died that
God might be just and justify the ungodly. Our Lord Jesus has
paid our debt. He redeemed us. Peter said, you
were redeemed. Past tense. You were redeemed. How precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without spot and without blemish. And then he
has, to those who've been called, to those who've been chosen and
redeemed, he's called us by his grace, by his spirit. He quickened
us. He gave us faith. What do you
need? I need faith. Lord said, I'm
gonna give it to you. You don't have it within you,
but I'm going to give you faith. What do you need? Repentance
toward God. Repentance of dead works. Repentance
from idolatry. You don't have it and you can't
muster it up. You know what God does? He gives
it to you. He gives you repentance, He gives
you faith. And in the Lord Jesus, He gives
you all things. We're blessed above all peoples
of the earth, just like Israel was. As I was reading this portion
of scripture, well, actually, for the last two or three weeks,
because I knew I'd be getting to this as we continue our studies
through the book of Exodus, I thought about this fact. There are lots
of people who think that these stories about the Israelites. Well, they're
just so much fiction, some people say. This didn't really happen. It makes for interesting reading.
It's just the author took liberties and he kind of stretched things
out to make things more interesting. It's just a fictional story that
Moses or somebody came up with. No, it's not fiction. It's actually
happened. This is a true story. This is
an accurate record of what happened to the Israelites. God has blessed
them, he has delivered them, and now he's beginning to lead
them through the wilderness. And ultimately, he will lead
his people into the land of promise. But all along the way, they're
going to encounter difficulties. They came across bitter waters
at Marah. Well, he had the answer. Moses,
throw a tree in and sweeten the waters. They drank of the water. And then they go to Elam. At
Elam, they sat down under the palm trees and they rested and
enjoyed that. But then they needed bread. needed
food. God said, behold, I'll rain bread
from heaven. He gave them food. He said, I'm
gonna give you quail in the evening, you'll have meat, and you'll
have bread in the morning. That sounds pretty good. Bread
in the morning, meat in the evening. And then he said, furthermore,
because you're gonna be traveling and you got things to do, you
got your cattle to take care of, you got your sheep, you got
your goats, you got your babies, you got your family, you got
all these folks that have got to be taken care of. God said,
I'm gonna give you one day of the week for rest. I give you
food, I give you rest. And God abundantly, provided
for them as God has abundantly provided for us. Our Lord Jesus,
he teaches us, he says, I am the bread come down from heaven.
He's the bread of life and we eat of him. He that eateth of
me shall never die. He told the Jews there in John
six, your fathers ate of the bread in the wilderness. They
ate, but they died. But if you eat of the bread that
I'll give you, You'll never die. He said, I am the bread of life. I'm telling you, you eat of the
bread of life. Now listen to him. You eat of
the Lord Jesus. That is, you feast on him. You
believe him. You receive him as God presents
him in the word of God. If you believe the Lord Jesus,
you will never die. That's what God says. There is
no eternal death for you. There is no second death for
you. Oh, the body is going to corrupt
and disease or whatever is going to get it one of these days,
but you're not going to die. You're not going to die. Our
Lord said, he that liveth and believeth on me shall never die. Have you feasted on that manna
which is from heaven? The Lord Jesus? And every day
we feast on them. You see, faith is not a one-time
act. It's not a one-time eating. In
your life, you don't eat just one time. You say, well, yeah,
I ate ten years ago. Was that it? No, I ate this morning
too. Because you've got to eat every
day. That's what faith is. Faith is eating of the Lord Jesus
every day. It's not an isolated act. I have believed, I am believing,
I shall believe by God's grace, and one of these days I'll see
Him face to face, and faith will be done away with. We feast on the Lord Jesus. You
see, God has abundantly provided for us bread, and He has provided
for us rest. Rest for your soul. Christ is
our Sabbath. Just like Christ is the bread,
Christ is the manna, Christ is also our Sabbath. He's entered
into His rest. He's entered into His Sabbath.
He did the work God gave Him to do in the covenant of grace
to redeem His people, to save His people, to reconcile His
people unto Himself. And having done that work of
removing all the sins of all of His people of all time and
then throwing them in the depths of the deepest sea, putting them
behind God's back and out of God's very Remembrance, having
done that, he entered into his rest, and he's the rest that
we enter into. We rest in the Lord Jesus. Just
cease from your labor. Trying to do this for God, trying
to do that for God. I'm going to be a better person.
Well, you ought to be a better person. If you're a lousy person,
you ought to be a better person, but it doesn't have any effect
upon your relationship with God. You need rest, rest for your
soul, rest for your conscience, that the issue of your sinfulness
has been settled. Where can I find rest for my
soul? In Him who's the bread. Just cease from your labors.
If you don't do that, here's the penalty of violating the
Sabbath, it's death. I don't want you to die. I want
you to live. I want you to live forever. I
want you to live with the Lord Jesus. I want you to inhabit
heaven's glory and sing the praises of the Lamb of God. I don't want
you to die, I want you to live. Where is the life found? In Christ.
You rest in Him. Is that clear? Just cease from
your labor. Cease from your labor. Now, I
know from the Bible that the bread, the manna, pictured our
Lord Jesus because it says so in John chapter 6. I am the bread
of life. Secondly, I know the Sabbath. I know that picture, the Lord
Jesus, Hebrews chapter four. And I also know what this water
from the rock picture. We're not in doubt as to what
this picture is. Hold your plates right here.
And I just want to show you this. First, go to the book, 1 Corinthians
chapter 10. Look with me in 1 Corinthians
10. Just to remove all doubt, let
me show you this. I know you've read it before,
but we'll read it again. 1 Corinthians 10. Look at verse four. Verse three
says, they did all eat the same spiritual meat or bread, food,
that's Christ. Verse four, and did all drink
the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them. Watch it, and that rock, That
rock was Christ. Interesting, very interesting
language here. That doesn't mean that that actual
rock was the Lord Jesus in reality, but there was something about
that rock that fit him, that pictured him. That rock was Christ. You know, that's never referred
to, no other picture of our Lord Jesus in the Old Testament is
phrased that way. We read of lots of lambs in the
Old Testament, right? Lots of Passover lambs. But do
you ever read one of them that says, and that lamb was Christ? No. A lot of other pictures of
our Lord Jesus. But this one is very specific. If you're in doubt, and if the
Word of God means anything, if this is God's Word, then there's
no question about it, that rock was Christ. That's the only spiritual and
reasonable understanding and explanation of this rock over
here. Here's our Lord Jesus. And we'll
get into this more fully, but he's hit with the rock, or the
rock is hit, it's smitten by the rod of divine justice. No rock means no salvation. No rock means no water. No smiting
of the rock means no water. No rod with which it was smitten
means no water. All of these things have got
to come together. The justice of God, the person
of the Lord Jesus, And that water coming out and then drinking,
we drink of that water. That's the story. And let me
just give you several things here. And we can be thankful
God's given us bread, God's given us rest, and God's given us water. And all of them picture the Savior.
All right, let me give you several things. Number one, here's the
problem. Verse one says, no water. no water. That's a big problem
because we got to have water. But now when you think of no
water, what of that? This presented no difficulty
to him who could divide the sea. He could provide water. He provided
manna. Earlier he provided sweetened
water for them. with a tree, a picture of the
cross of Calvary of our Lord Jesus. He provided water before. He provided bread. He provided
rest. He gave them everything they
needed. You see, nothing's impossible
with God. You remember when Abraham entertained
three visitors, and one of them was the angel of the covenant. He came to Abraham, and he asked,
where's Sarah? He said, well, she's in the tent.
And just by mentioning the name of Sarah, that perked up her
ears. Nothing will perk up your ears
quicker than somebody carrying on a conversation near you, and
they mention your name, and all of a sudden, it's got your attention.
And so the angel of the Lord, the Son of God said, where's
Sarah? He got her attention. And he said, by this season,
next year I'm coming back, Sarah's going to have a child. She's about 90 years old. And
she laughed. And the angel of the covenant
said, why'd she laugh? Nothing's too hard for the Lord.
Is anything too hard for the Lord? I ask you, is anything
too hard for the Lord? I know He cannot and He will
not do anything contrary to His holiness. So in that regard,
He cannot save a sinner at the expense of His justice. He can't
do that. But these other things, is there
anything too hard for the Lord? I gave you bread from heaven. Don't you think I can give you
water? But there are hundreds of thousands
of people out here, and all our cattle and goats and sheep. Do you doubt my ability to provide
for you these? And I say to all of you who are
the people of God, to those of you who are watching by way of
the internet, is anything too hard for the Lord? Is there anything
He can't provide for you? If He sees there's a necessity,
will He not meet that necessity? And I'm not speaking now so much
about temporal things, but every spiritual need. Is God not up
to the task? Does He not have the ability
to meet every spiritual need, every eternal need that you have? He has given you all things in
Christ Jesus. You lack nothing. And as far as temporal things.
He knows what you need. No wonder our Lord Jesus said
in Matthew chapter six, don't be anxious for these things,
what you're going to eat and what you're going to drink, what
you're going to wear. The Lord knows you've got to
have something to eat. Now it may not be T-bone steak. It may be a pot of beans, but
I'll tell you a pot of beans with a big chunk of fat back,
that's pretty good too. And he knows you got to drink.
He knows you got to have clothes. It don't have to be I can't even
think of some famous brand name. It don't have to be the finest
thing. Somebody asked, do you have dress
code at your church? I said, no, just dress modestly. and clean clothes. Be nice if
you wash your clothes every once in a while. God may not give
you the best that you think you ought to have, but he'll provide
for you according to his ability. He's got the ability. And here
they have no water. No water, that's a big problem.
Is anything too hard for the Lord? That'd be a good question
to ask Israel. Hey, that'd be a good question
to ask you. Next time you're having your doubts and your questions
and your, I wonder how I'm gonna get this. I wonder how this is
gonna come out. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? He's already done what I would say if I could put it
this way. He's already done the hardest
thing. It wasn't hard for the Lord,
but in His infinite wisdom, He came up with the way, the only
way, whereby He could remain as holy as He is, and yet receive
you as sinful as you are. Through the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus, He solved that dilemma. Don't you reckon He can handle
everything else too? No wonder He said to His disciples,
O ye of little faith, Oh, this is a problem. No water. No water. Can't live without
physical water. Remember our Lord, He passed
through Samaria. John chapter 4 says He must needs
go through Samaria because there's a woman there. He made an appointment
to see her at that well. He made that appointment before
the foundation of the world. She didn't know anything about
it, but He manipulated everything in her life to bring her to Jacob's
well at that hour of the day when nobody else would be there
but the woman and the Savior. And I tell you, you who believe
Him, you who have drank of the water of life, He manipulated,
He controlled all things from before the foundation of the
world. He designed that exact hour when you would be brought
with a confrontation of the gospel of His grace, and He would give
you to drink of the living water, and you drank, and your thirst
was quenched. He is the water of life. The last day of the Feast of
Tabernacles, John chapter 7. On that day, the high priest
had a ceremony in which he would take a pitcher of water before
the people and pour it out, symbolizing how God provided water for the
Israelites all through their wilderness journeys. And as the
high priest did that, and with that fresh in the minds of the
people, the Lord Jesus stood before them. He cried with a
loud voice, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. and out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water. This said he concerning the Holy
Spirit, because the Holy Spirit, the comforter, had not been given
because our Lord Jesus had not been glorified. He had not entered
into his glory, yet he would by way of his substitutionary
death. And then the Holy Spirit's gift.
You thirsty, drink. That's the real problem. See,
no water, you know what it really means? No life. That's what it means. It means
no life. I had Ron read that passage this
morning, Psalm 42. As the heart panteth after the
water broke, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Here's what I see very little
of, people panting for spiritual water. I see so little of that. People panting after the Lord. It's kind of like years ago. I don't pay much attention to
commercials anymore. We try to tape things and then
just zip right through. There used to be a commercial,
Brill Cream. A little dab will do you. You
all remember that? Several of you are old enough
to remember that, I know. That's the way it is with a lot
of people with religion. A little dab will do them. Just
a little dab. Don't want too much. Don't get
too much. Let's feast on, let's drink on
the whole of Christ every day and pant after Him. Oh, we pant
after everything else. We pant after money. We pant
after things. We pant after materialism. We
pant after good health. Oh, I want to be healthy. I'll
take my vitamins. I'll do my exercises. I'm going
to avoid this. I'm going to avoid that. We pant
after everything else except the living God. God have mercy
on us. That's the problem. Number two,
the divine pathway. Look here again in chapter 17,
verse one. It says they journeyed there
according to the, you read that word? It says commandment of
the Lord. Or you could use the word appointment. of the Lord, but I'll tell you
how this Hebrew word is mostly translated in the Old Testament
according to the Word of the Lord. According to the Word of
the Lord. You say, well, they journeyed
according to the Word of the Lord. Did He just speak? Now
wait a minute. You see that pillar of cloud overhead? That's the
Word of the Lord. That's the incarnate Word. You see that big dusk to dawn
light up there? The pillar of fire? That's the
Word of the Lord. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was God. The Word is God. The same was
in the beginning with God. They journeyed according to the
Word of the Lord. This is where the pillar of cloud
has led them. They're not out there because
Moses made a wrong turn. They're not out there because
somebody mistook a landmark and put it
wrong on a map. They didn't have a map. They're
out there because that's where God would have them to be. This
is a test. This is another test for them. Now, if we have the time, which
we don't, you can, Numbers chapter 33, we find that from the wilderness
of Sin, they went to Daphka, 12 miles. And then from Daphka,
they went to Elush, that's another 12 miles. And from Elush, the
Lord led them eight miles to Rephidim. 12 and 12 is 24 plus eight is 32,
right? So he's led them 32 miles, 32
miles. And here's the situation. They
have no water. Now, after leading them 32 miles,
do you think the Lord knew their need? Well, sure he did. 32 miles, that's pretty good
ways. I try to walk anywhere between
four and six miles a day. That's eight days walking at
four miles a day. Here's what, hundreds and hundreds
of thousands of people. It took them a good bit to walk
32 miles. And I guess their canteens and
their barrels of water, they're all empty now. Moses, how come we're out here?
It's where the Lord led us. You see that pillar up there,
don't you? Yeah, we see it, but we don't have any water. This is the divine pathway. And I don't know where you are
in life's journey. But I guarantee you this, I can
tell you this. You're there by the commandment
of God. You're there by the word of the Lord. You say, I'm in
Rephidim, preacher. There's no water for me. I'm
trying to find refreshing for my soul and I can't find it. It's not finding it, it's finding
him. That's where the refreshment
is to be found, is in the Lord Jesus. Which brings me to the
third point, human depravity. Now if we didn't know something
about the depravity of our own hearts, we could easily be astonished
at Israel's faithless response to this trial. Especially so
soon after people have experienced the wonders of the provisions
of God. Well, how long did it take for
them to barely ache against God's providence? 32 miles, that's
how far. 32 miles. And all of a sudden,
the manna, the recognition and remembrance of the miracle of
the manna, that just evaporates. Wonder how many miles you go
before you forget about past mercies. I bet you with some
of us, it ain't even 32 miles. We don't have to go very far
at all. And all of a sudden, we just go to pieces. And that's
the Israelites. Look at this. Look at verse two. Wherefore the people did chide
with Moses and said, give us water that we may drink. And
Moses said to them, why chide you with me? Wherefore do you
tempt the Lord? Why are you putting God to the
test? And the people thirsted there for water and the people
murmured. It's the third time they murmured
in their brief journey. They murmured against Moses and
said, wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of
thee to kill us, to kill our children, to kill our cattle
with thirst? What did you do? This is your
fault. It's your fault, human depravity. Pay no attention to those who
say it's not God's will for you to have hardships in life. Pay no attention to these health
and wealth false preachers. They don't know the gospel of
God's grace. Why would you listen to them
preach or say anything about any subject? A man wrote me not too long ago
and took me to task over a prophecy issue. And he said, brother so
and so said, well, you know who he quoted? A free will Arminian
that has no knowledge of the gospel. And I just wrote him
back and I said, why would you believe what he has to say about
anything when he doesn't know how God can be just and justify
the ungodly? human depravity. These people walked beneath glorious
canopy of the presence of God and so do you. Now don't you
ever forget that and when you get to commencing to get started,
the belly aching, just look up and see that big cloud by faith.
And you look up at night at that pillar of fire by night. And
then you say, Lord, help me not to murmur anymore. You're here! That's enough, isn't it? Isn't
that enough for God to be with you? Oh, God have mercy on us. We
just got to have everything perfect, don't we? Everything that caters
to the flesh. Yeah, this is human depravity.
What a horrible accusation against Moses and really against the
Lord. You brought us out here to kill us all! Oh God, you chose
us, you redeemed us, you called us, and you're just going to
desert us out here in the wilderness and we're going to die. Shame
on you for ever thinking such a thing. And here's four things of the
cry of Moses, just real quick. He couldn't do anything about
the situation. But I love the way he responded. And he reminds
me of that one of whom Moses was a picture and a type, who
when he was reviled, he reviled not again. Moses didn't give
it back to them the way they gave it to him. That's what we'd
do. I don't know who y'all think
you're talking to. I'm the leader here. I'm in charge. God chose me. No. No. just like our Savior. They talked
bad to Him. He didn't give it back to them
the way they gave it to Him. He left it all up to the Lord.
Moses, verse 4, he goes out and cries to the Lord. I bet they
hear Him. Here's their preacher. And he leaves them, probably
goes behind, I don't know, rock or whatever. They hear him crying. They say, where'd Moses go? He's
over there crying. He's crying to God. He's crying to God. Oh God, help me to cry to you
on behalf of a needy people. Blessed is the congregation who
has a preacher who cries to God on their behalf. This is the
cry of Moses. Reminds me of that verse in 1
Peter, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Here's the fifth thing, the revelation
of grace. God told Moses, you go on before
the people. take with you the elders of Israel,
these are the princes, the main men of each of the tribes of
Israel, and take your rod, that rod that you smote the river,
take it in your hand and go. And Moses, behold, and this is
amazing, I'm going to stand there. I'm going to stand on a rock.
The rock. That rock's associated with me.
And you smite the rock. And water's going to come out
of it that the people may drink. It's the revelation of God's
grace. When I read this, I think of that passage in Romans 5 where
sin abounded. Grace did much more abound. Remember, there's a real need.
No water, that means no life, means certain death. And number
two, here's a real rock. God directed his attention to
the rock, a specific rock. I'll stand before thee there
upon the rock, a specific rock. This rock, probably to the natural
eye, it looked like any other rock on Mount Sinai. But there's something special
about this rock because God's there. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself. This is a real rock. Reminds me of what our Lord replied
to Peter's confession in Matthew 16. He said, upon this rock I'll
build my church. Referring to himself. He's the
rock in a weary land. He's the rock. Christ Jesus is
the rock. On Christ the solid rock I stand. To others it looked like a regular
rock, but this is a special rock. It's like people didn't recognize
the Lord Jesus as being the Son of God. They said, we know your
father, we know your mother, we know your brothers, we know
your sisters. You're like any other rock. Well,
now they were right to a degree. They did know his mother, and
they did know his brothers, and they did know his sisters, but
they didn't know his father. Because if they knew his father,
they'd have believed him, because his father sent him. Notice there
were witnesses to the smiting of the rock, the elders. Listen,
in the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be
established. God said, take elders with you,
lest you go up there and you're out of sight of the people and
you come back and say, there's water, I found water. And they
say, well, you just found a lake or something. No, take witnesses. And I tell you, when our Lord
Jesus died, remember what Paul told King Agrippa? These things
weren't done in a corner. The death of our Lord Jesus Christ
wasn't a private thing. There were many witnesses of
Him dying on the cross. Many witnesses to the darkness
of three hours. Many witnesses to the earthquake. There were many witnesses who
heard that thief say, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
There were many witnesses who heard him say to that believing
thief, Today you'll be with me in paradise. Many witnesses. And that was a real rod. That
same rod, go back further in the book of Exodus, chapter eight,
something like that. This is the rod of justice. It's the rod of judgment. smite the Nile River, put a curse
on the Nile River, and the water turned to blood. You ever thought
about that? The first plague and the last
plague. All the plagues are bookend with
blood. Blood. It's the rod of judgment. And
you smite that rock. That word right here translated
smite, it's also translated kill, hit, to strike with force. Our Lord Jesus was smitten, wounded,
stricken for us by the rod of God's justice. There's not going
to be any water for anybody unless the rock is smitten. And God
pulled out the rod of his judgment, and he smote his son. Zechariah
said, smite the shepherd. Smite the shepherd! Bring forth
your sword, O justice, and smite the shepherd. The sheep will
be scattered. Our Lord Jesus was smitten. Who smote him? The justice of
God. God did it. And notice, the smiting of this
rock was for the sake of others. Because of their sinfulness.
Why must that rock be smitten? Why must our Lord Jesus Christ
die? To save sinners. And the rock was to be smitten
in a horrible in a dry, barren area. Here we see the law of
God and the justice of God. Moses as the law, the rod as
the justice. And the rock gave forth water
in abundance. And 1 Corinthians 10 says they
all drank. They all drank. And that rock was elevated. I'll tell you something else.
John Gill, I believe it was, says this. Travelers into this
part of the world, even to this day, of course he wrote this
many, many years ago, but it said that to this day that there's
a big, massive rock that has two holes in it. I don't know
if that's true or not. But I know this, that rock who
was smitten for us, from whom there flowed rivers of living
water, he ever lives to make intercession for us. Well, the
last thing is verse seven, the location is named Massa and Meribah. Names given not as a remembrance
of the merciful provision of the Lord, but as a remembrance
of the sin of the murmuring people. Massa, temptation. And Meribah,
strife or chiding. God help us not to murmur against
his providence, but to trust him. Listen, he who chose us,
he who redeemed us, and he who called us, has abundantly provided
for us all spiritual blessings in that one who is our manna,
that one who is our Sabbath, and that one who is the rock
smitten for us, that one who for us is the water of life.
And I bid those of you who are thirsty to drink. And I ask God to give you a thirst. because nobody drinks until they're
thirsty. And only God can give thirst. May it be so for the glory of
His grace. Let's pray. Thank you, O Father, for that
rock, Christ Jesus. who was wounded for our transgressions
and bruised for our iniquities. We bless Him who endured the
contradiction of sinners against Himself, and who endured being
smitten and wounded and bruised because it pleased the Lord to
bruise Him, to make Him an offering for sin, and thereby He became
the Savior to us, and there flows from him the water of life. Give
to all who are under the sound of my voice a thirst for this
glorious, exalted rock, this one from whom the water of life
flows freely. And so we read, and the Spirit
and the Bride say, come. And to let him that heareth Come,
and whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life
freely. For Christ's sake we pray, Amen.