Let me read my text for you this
evening from Exodus chapter 15, and I'll begin at the 22nd verse. Exodus chapter 15, verse 22.
So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea. And they went out into the wilderness
of Shur. And they went three days in the
wilderness, and they found no water. And when they came to
Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they
were bitter, brackish waters, what it was. Therefore the name
of it was called Merah. And the people murmured against
Moses, saying, what shall we drink? And Moses, well, he cried before
the Lord. And the Lord showed him a tree. which when he had cast into the
waters, the waters were made sweet. There he made for them
a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them and said,
if thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy
God, and will do that which is right in his sight, and wilt
give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I
will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought
upon the Egyptians. For I am the Lord that healeth
thee." Literally, I am Jehovah Rapha. I am the Lord that healeth
thee. Now a new paragraph and a new
thought, verse 27. And they came to Elam, where were 12 wells of water
and three score and 10 palm trees. And they encamped there by the
waters. I wanna talk to you about the
waters of Merah tonight. I'll give you several things,
and I'm just gonna kind of jump right into the message here very
quickly. Number one, the blessedness of
Marah over Elam. Say, Jim, I believe you got that
wrong. Maybe you should be talking about
the blessedness of Elam over Marah. No, I said it right the
first time. The blessedness of Marah over
Elam. In my preparation for this message,
I read three or four messages by Mr. Spurgeon. I always enjoy
reading him. He can give you insight into
a passage of scripture and maybe give you a few thoughts that
you hadn't had on your own. I appreciate, by the way, I read
something not long ago that said, he who will not use the brains
of others shows he has no brains of his own. So I think it is a wise thing to
use the brains of others. And Mr. Spurgeon, he told this
story in one of his messages. He was down in France. He went
to, where is it, Mentone, France, quite often. He had lots of physical
ailments. He died a relatively young man. He didn't even make 60 years
of age, 57, 58, something like that. But he had lots of trouble
with sickness, and so he would often leave the ministry there
in London, and for a very few days he'd go down to France.
They had the hot baths there. They were rather soothing to
him, and of course it was a better for the ailments that he had. But while he was there on one
visit, he took a bad fall. Got all bruised and he had his
aches and pains and several of us know something about falling.
And he was just suffering something awful. And a brother in the Lord
came to see him. to visit him and he said, my
dear, my dear beloved friend, you have now come to Mara. And Mr. Spurgeon said, yes, and
I can tell you the waters are very bitter. And the visitor said, but Mara
is better than Elam. For in Elam, the Israelites only
drank of the water and ate of the fruit and enjoyed the shade
of the trees, the palm trees, and very soon it was over. But he said it was at Marah that
the Lord revealed himself as the God who heals you. Merah is the more blessed location
than Elam. You see, Israel, they learned
a lot at Merah. Well, they learned about themselves. Hey, they had just come through
the Red Sea. Ron read to us this morning,
the previous verses of chapter 15. They just sang the song of
redemption. It's 72 hours before this. Why, they're a joyful people.
They're a happy people. They're a thankful people. And then they got to Marah. That's where they learned more
about themselves. They weren't nearly as strong
in faith as they thought they were. They were actually quite weak
in faith. And rather than, as Moses did,
to seek God's face, cry out to God, they murmured. I'll tell you something about
the bitter experiences of life. It'll teach you about yourself.
You're not nearly as advanced in spirituality as you think
you are. And there are some very bitter
experiences of life that God can use to bring out within you
what is still there. We haven't progressed very far
in reality. I know we're growing in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But our God, he
puts these bitter waters in front of us in order to make us understand
more about our nature, about ourselves. My dear friends, we're
still sinful people. There's nothing to us. There
isn't anything to us. If God the Holy Spirit should
leave us, we'd just fall flat on our faces. We just wouldn't
last. I'll tell you something else
I learned. I'll tell you why Marah, it's more blessed to go
to the bitter waters of Marah than to Elam. Because it was
at Marah that God revealed himself to them as the Lord that heals
them. Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who restores. They'll learn more about the
Lord. Oh, who wouldn't want to stay
at Elam? Give me a choice. Well, here's
your choice. You can go to the bitter waters
of Mara, brackish waters, or you can go to Elam where there
are lots of palm trees blowing gently in the breeze, lots of
fruit, lots of shade, much enjoyment, and where you want to go, I know
what this flesh wants. I'll always choose Elam, and
so will you. And we're thankful that God in his
marvelous providence does bring us to Elam's in life. But I noted in this portion of
Scripture, and I was, of course, been reading on it all week,
that there are one, two, three, four, five verses that are devoted
to the bitter waters of Marah and God healing them, and only
one verse devoted to Elam. Because you see, we learn more,
there's the blessedness of Marah. these bitter, difficult troubles
of life. It's God who brings us to them. And it's God who uses them to
reveal what we still are, reminding us that we need the Savior. We need the blood. We need the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus. And then every once in a while,
thankfully, mercifully, he takes us to an oasis, which in my estimation, this
is like Elam here. Elam is where you worship over
there among the saints of God. This is where we're refreshed.
Is this where we drink of the cool waters of the gospel of
God's redeeming grace? This is where we get out of the
hot sun of the trials of life and the troubles of life and
the bad news of life and all the negativity that's out there. It's right here in Elam. I'm
thankful for Elam, but you can't live in Elam all the time. And the Israelites must not stay
at Elam because Elam, though it was pleasant, it wasn't the
land of promise. This is not our rest. That's what the scripture says.
Oh, the blessedness of Marah over Elam. You see, we must need the bitter waters
of Marah, otherwise God wouldn't lead us to them. Isn't that right? We must need them. We must need
Marah. And he also needs it every once
in a while. We need Elam too, to just get
out of the troubles for a while. Mr. Spurgeon also said this,
our lives are the canvas on which the Lord, he paints his own character. He teaches us because when we
go through the trouble, we go through the trial, if you belong
to God, you'll say with David, it is good for me that I've been
afflicted. that I might learn thy statutes. That's how it will learn. This is our education. You see,
when the Lord led, and I'm gonna go into this in just a minute,
when the Lord led them to the bitter waters of Merah, that's
part of their education. They've got to learn. their own
insufficiency and the all-sufficiency of their God, who is their healer. So Israel learned more about
themselves at Marah than they did at Elam. And they learned
more about their Lord. At Elam, it was said back, Relax,
take it easy. Enjoy the shade, enjoy the water,
enjoy the fruit. But it was in the bitter waters
of Merah that they were made to understand more fully who
the Lord is. He's Jehovah Rapha. He's a God
who heals. The God who heals. And then here's the second thing
I want to talk to you about, the leading of the Lord. How'd they wind up at the bitter
waters of Mary anyhow? Well, look at verse 22 again.
So Moses brought Israel to the Red Sea. And that word brought
means he caused them to journey that way. Well, how did he cause,
how did Moses know to take them that way? pillar of fire by night,
pillar of cloud by day. He said, let's go. They had camped,
made camp after the crossing of the Red Sea and rejoiced in
the goodness of God and gave thanksgiving and all of that,
and then that cloud began to move. Moses said, up, pack up
your stuff, fold up your tents. We're moving. And I'll tell you
the 22nd verse, this is the very beginning of the wilderness journey
right here. This is the very beginning. It's
not going to end for 40 years. This is where it begins. And they're led by God himself. Don't pay any attention to those
who preach this false gospel called the prosperity gospel.
Health and wealth. God only wants you to prosper
and be well, not his will for you to be sick, all this kind
of stuff. Listen, it's God who led them
to the better waters. It's God who made the waters
bitter. And it's God who made the bitter
waters to be sweet. This is all of the Lord. He led
them. He led them. At Marah, you see, we understand
how quickly that glorious song of redemption
can be forgotten. And started murmuring again.
And it didn't take long, three days. Now, hey, have no water
for three days? Probably they had some canteens
and that sort of thing, but they didn't get any fresh water at
the Red Sea. That's salt water. And I would never say that this
was an insignificant trial because they had to have water. They
had their babies, they had their children, the older folks, the
middle-aged folks, they got to have water. Then there's all
their cattle, there's all their sheep. They've got to have water. This is a very severe trial. But back of the trochle, is the
God of purpose who's leading them. You think of the benefits that
they had received from God, and all of a sudden, the memory of
those mercies have just evaporated. It's like they forgot all about
how God brought them out of Egyptian bondage. And they forgot about
the Passover lamb, about the power of God, how that God opened
the way through the Red Sea, and then He drowned Pharaoh and
all of His mighty army. They forgot about that. And it
goes 72 hours, and now they're bellyaching against the providence
of God. Do you know anybody like that? Do you know anybody who forgets
so quickly the grace of God, and the mercy of God, and the
forgiveness of God, and that He has imputed the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus to us, and then you find a bitter waters
of Mara, and then it's as though we forget all about what God
has done for us, as though He would abandon us. Well, could
God abandon these people? Here they are at the bitter waters
of Merah. Has God forgotten about them?
Look up. See that cloud up there? The
Lord is here. The Lord is with us. It got dark. That pillar of cloud turned into
a pillar of fire. God said, I'll never leave you.
I'll never forsake you. that pillar of cloud and pillar
of fire, it led them all the way for 40 years to the land
of promise. And that had led them, God had
led them to the bitter waters of Marah. God had been so merciful to them. These are the people that he
chose to be their nation, to be his nation. These are the
people he redeemed by price and by power. These are the people
he liberated. He's done all of this fulfilling
a covenant obligation and promise that he put himself under when
he gave his oath to Abraham. I'm gonna give your seed this
land. That's what God said. He's making
good on his own oath. Would he lead them across the
Red Sea and then lead them three days to Marah only to forsake
them? God showed them sovereign mercy. He didn't show any mercy, any
sovereign grace to the Egyptians. When the Lord, when he gave instructions
to Moses about Passover lamb, there next is chapter 12. He
gave no instructions to Moses, go tell the Egyptians this too. There was no sharing of the good
news of a Passover lamb. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. God didn't say, now go tell the
Egyptians that too. No, he didn't send the good news
to them. He only sent the good news to
the Israelites. They're a favored people. And
you and I, saved by sovereign grace, God sent us the gospel
of redemption. of full atonement, of saved by
grace. We're safe in Christ Jesus. We're saved by covenant fulfillment
due to the promise of God. We're in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're forever safe. God hadn't
told that to everybody. He hadn't made that promise to
everybody, but he's made it to his people. And God has said
to each one of us who know Him, I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. I'll never leave you! I received an email just today. A dear child of God said, I feel
so alone. I feel so alone. Oh, child of God, you're not
alone. Look up, see the pillar of cloud. Look up, feel the warmth of the
pillar of fire. You who are in dark, troublesome
times, and some of God's people have some heavy burdens that
they bear, Maybe burdens that they don't share with anybody.
Nobody knows but God. There's some people who are all,
they're all the time ready to tell you their troubles. There
are other people who they play it close to the vest. They keep
them within. And I say to the people of God
who are troubled and you're at the bitter waters of Marah, look
up dear child of God. Your Lord is always with you. Always with you. And he even
says, like David. David said, yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil. And there's only one reason.
Thou art with me. If Jesus goes with me, I'll go
anywhere. Won't you? Anywhere. "'Tis heaven
to me, where'er I may be." If Jesus is there, you heard that
song, didn't you? If Jesus is there. If Jesus is
there, I can even go to the bitter waters of Marah, and my heart
may be breaking over some trouble or some trial, but if he's there
with me, No, never alone. Never alone. God did things for Israel. He
didn't do for Egypt. He drowned the Egyptians. Not
one of his people drowned. And none of his people will ever
drown in the terrors of divine judgment. Our Lord Jesus bore
all the judgment for us. Don't you understand? There is
no condemnation to them here in Christ Jesus. All is good. All is good. These were redeemed people. So
there's the blessedness of Marah over Elam. There's the leading
of the Lord. And here's the third thing I
want to tell you. Life's experiences sure can change quickly, can't
they? Oh, they changed so quickly. They're up on the mountaintop. Isn't this wonderful? We just
came through the Red Sea. Look at the enemy there. Look
at all their bodies. Our God reigns. That's what they
said. You read the rest of the previous
chapter 15. The Lord reigns. And then we get to the waters
of Marah. Somehow or another, we forget
that he's still raining. Shame on us. Past mercies can be forgotten
just like that. And that's when we find out there's
nothing to us. We're saved by the grace of God.
We're the children of the Lord. That's true. But we're still sinful people. Weak. Oh, they've just been singing
about the faithfulness of God. The Lord is so good. I can just
hear him talking, the Lord's good to us, isn't he, brother?
Oh, yes, he is. Amen, brother, you're so right. And then after 72 hours, what
in the heck are we doing out here at these bitter waters?
How'd we wind up here, Moses? You ain't much of a leader, Moses.
What kind of pastor are you? Lead us out here, we're thirsty.
Don't you see our women and children? Don't you see our cattle and
our flocks? We're gonna die right here and
it's your fault. I thought you were just singing
about how the Lord reigned. We sure can't go to pieces real
fast, can't we? It doesn't take much. It doesn't
take much. I'll tell you what, whether you
remember or not, He does reign always, exercising His sovereign
will and pleasure. So many of the people of the
Lord are troubled, but He reigns forever. He reigns forever. I tell you three things that
ought to encourage our hearts. Number one, the purpose of God
that doesn't change. God, the God of purpose. Number two, the sovereignty of
God. He governs all things. And number
three, divine providence. That which his sovereign will
ordained His almighty, almighty providence, all the sweetness
of providence is bringing to pass. It's all good. And let me tell you this, where
providence leads you, the presence of God will go with you. That's
good to remembering it. I don't say too many things worth
remembering, but I believe that's a pretty good thing to remember.
Where the providence of God leads you, the blessed presence of
the Lord will go with you. Life's experiences can change
quickly. Remember who it is who governs
all things. And fourthly, what to do in time
of trouble. How do you handle bitter experiences? Well, the Israelites grumbled
and Moses prayed. You can use your voice to do
one of two things. You can grumble to others, or
you can just talk to God about it. We're rather good at talking
to others. And they bend your ear for a little bit, and boy,
after a little bit, it's like, whoo, you've bended enough. I
don't wanna hear anymore. That's the way the people were. But Moses, he talked to the Lord. You can use your mouth one way
or the other, to murmur or to pray. And the answer was immediate. You see that tree there, Moses?
God showed him a tree. Maybe it had been there all along.
Maybe Moses just hadn't paid any attention to it. I don't
know. But God showed him, God revealed to him a tree. This
tree is an emblem of our Lord Jesus. who is the tree planted
by the waters. He's the one who meditates upon
the Lord day and night. He's the green tree. He's the
tree who gives forth fruit, Psalm 1. He's the one who always prospers
in whatever he does. And I tell you the fruit of this
tree is life. life because of that tree he
hung on the cross of Calvary. I'll tell you what will sweeten
your bitter waters. If God would give you grace to
see the tree again, to see substitution, to see satisfaction, and if God would enable you to
see that tree cast into the bitter waters, It'll just make everything
sweet. And you'll find there's really
nothing bitter out there. I love what brother Scott Richardson
said years ago. He said, I hadn't heard any bad
news ever since I heard the good news. There is no bad news. You say what you will. God reigns. I'm His child. I'm safe forever. Let come what may. Whatever happens
in this world, whatever happens in the United States, whatever
happens in Kentucky, whatever happens with COVID-19, my God
reigns and He's my Father. And His Son's my Savior. Oh,
give me grace, Lord, not to fear anything. not to be afraid of anything.
He governs. And then I'll say this, this
all happened to prove Israel or put them to the test. That's
what he says in verse 25. There he made for them a statue
and an ordinance and there he proved them. He put them to the
test. I believe he failed that test,
don't you? I believe they failed that test. You teachers, you
know about passing or failing. Well, they sure didn't get an
A on this. I believe they flunked this test.
And I tell you, we flunked a lot of tests too. But I'm thankful the Lord doesn't
fail us. No, he doesn't. Oh, you see,
here's the promise of God. Read it carefully. Look at verse
26. If thou will diligently hearken
to the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do that which is
right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandments,
and keep all his statutes, keep them all, I won't put any of
those diseases upon thee which I brought upon the Egyptians.
Well, I guess that means I'm gonna have a lot of the diseases
and a lot of the plagues that fell upon Egypt fall upon me. No, no, wait a minute. You have
kept all the statutes and you have kept all the laws and you
have kept all the ordinances in your representative. The Lord
Jesus Christ. And I tell you, none of the diseases
that afflicted and killed the Egyptians will ever fall on God's
people. Impossible. That can't happen. Can't happen. Oh, they failed
the test, but God came through for them. Yeah. And then the Lord revealed himself
as Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. I am the Lord that healeth thee.
I am the Lord that restores thee. That's what the Lord said. And
I'll say two, three things here. Christ is the healer of our troubles. If he's pleased to do so, whatever
trouble you're in, whatever bitter waters you've come to in life,
whatever afflicts you, whatever assaults you, whatever hurts
you, he can just take it away just like that if he wants to. He who sent it can remove it
if he's pleased to do it. He may be pleased to use means
by which to sweeten the waters. You see that tree that he showed
Moses, it had no healing virtue of its own, but God used the
tree to accomplish healing. God uses medicine physically
to heal people, uses surgery to heal people, The Lord healed
the waters of Jericho by Elisha casting salt into them. The Lord
used that to heal the waters of Jericho. God told Isaiah,
lay a bunch of figs on the balls of King Hezekiah. Guess what? That was the means for his healing. Timothy had some kind of stomach
ailment. You know what Paul said? Take
a little wine for your stomach's sake. Did him good. And James says that God makes
use of both prayer and the anointing of all to heal the sick. God is a God of means. He can
use means or not use means. But he's the healer. He's the
healer of our troubles. He's the healer of our physical
diseases. But most importantly, he's the
healer of our spiritual diseases. With his stripes, with his stripes, by his substitutionary
sacrifice, we're healed. Healed of what? Spiritual diseases. and he has given to us a blessed
wholeness. We're well. It's like John wrote in one of
his epistles. I pray that your body will be
as healthy as your soul is. He wrote that in 2 John or 3
John, one or the other. I pray to Gaius, he wrote, I
believe it was. I pray that your body will be
as well as your soul is, because your soul is well. He ain't sick
anymore. He's a healer of our spiritual
diseases. He heals the broken in heart.
He binds up their wounds. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities? Who healeth all thy diseases? Well, do you find yourself at
Myra? Well, we often do. But we know
the Lord is leading us. He leads us to these bitter waters
to fulfill his purpose, educate us, instruct us, show us what
we are. We get to thinking we're, oh,
you know, I'm a man of faith. Well, let's see how much faith
you got. I'll put you out in the desert
for 72 hours without a drop of water. Let's see how much faith
you got. You say, I don't have much faith at all. Yeah, you
need to learn that, your own insufficiency, and then see what
God does. See how he's a God of blessing.
He's a God who meets our every need. It's good to come to Elam
every once in a while More blessed, though, to go to
the bitter waters of Myra, and then stand back and watch as
our God casts in the cross of Calvary, the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus, and then see how those bitter waters just
turn sweet, and you drink and drink and drink again. And you say, thank you, Lord,
for giving me another drink of water. I bless you. Well, I hope that helps you.
Let's pray. Lord, we're grateful for your
tenderness to us. We're so, we're so totally dependent
upon you every day. And some of your people, Lord,
even now have come to some bitter waters in life. Lord, cast in
this.