She's doing much better. Hopefully
she'll be with us Wednesday night. I want you to notice here that
the people of Israel, God brought them up out of the land of Egypt,
took them through the wilderness, took them through the Red Sea,
and then they came to this river, this water that's called Amara.
And the water was bitter, so they threw a tree in it and took
the bitterness out of the water. And of course that tree was our
Lord Jesus Christ. He takes the bitterness out of
water and takes the bitterness out of sin. But as they continued
to travel, they didn't have any water. No water to drink. Now people murmured against Moses.
Because there's no water. What could Moses do to give them
water? What could Moses do? And if you and I didn't know
something of the evil of the human heart, and from our own experience and
from what the scriptures say, and from our own experience,
knowing that in our flesh dwells no good thing, we'd be at a loss
as to why these people would murmur so against God and so
against the Lord's promise. And to account, boy, they had
such unbelief, such ingratitude, such insensibility, and God had
been better to them than anybody, anybody. They had been delivered
from Egypt, seen the hand of God at the Red Sea. They had been fed with quail
and manna from heaven. The water in Meribah had been
sustained by a tree. And now they're ready to stone
Moses because they have no water. Have no water. Now there's something,
if you're there in Exodus 17 with me, there's something we
can learn here from Israel in the wilderness.
And that is the unvarying tendency of the human heart to doubt God. You get in a tough situation,
the smallest, smallest cloud of trouble. is sufficient to
hide the face of God from us for our slightest trouble. Yes,
I heard one preacher say, we'd rather lean on a cobweb of human
resources and wisdom than on the everlasting, omnipotent hand
of God. No wonder, no wonder Paul called
it an evil heart of unbelief, ready to depart from the living
God. But now, There's an age-old question that these people ask.
And over here in Exodus 16, 3, look what they said. There's
two old questions. What are we going to eat? What
are we going to drink? And the only other question that remains
is, what shall we wear? And that's what the heathens
always ask. But look what he said here in
chapter 16, verse 3. And the children of Israel said
unto them, and this is how they murmur against God. Would to God we had died by the
hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the
flesh pots, when we did eat bread to the full, and you brought
us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with
hunger. First thing they want to know,
what are we going to eat? What are we going to eat? What are
we going to eat? Then look here at verse 3 of
chapter 17. Here they are, there they asked
what we're going to eat, and then the people thirsted there
for water, and the people murmured against Moses, said, Wherefore
is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us
and our children? And our cattle were thirsty.
What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? And
both times they said, You brought us up here to kill us. Brought
us up here to kill us. And I tell you, the only question
remaining is, and missing is, what shall we wear? And that's
the things our Lord said, that's the things that the heathens
seek after. But I'll tell you what faith,
where God's given faith, where God's put faith in our hearts,
we have a brief, brief but a comprehensive answer to all these questions.
Three letters. God. He said, what are we going
to wear? What are we going to eat? What
are we going to drink? God meets every one of these needs. He
gives us what we need to eat. He gives us what we need to drink.
And this is going to deal with this rock, this rock that was
Christ. And what are we going to wear? He clothes us with His
righteousness. And you can't have a better garment,
here or in eternity, either one. And there's nothing, nothing
that exceeds the wickedness of the human heart except the abounding
grace of God. Nothing. The only thing greater
than our sin is His grace. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. And there's two things the human
heart has never fathomed. I've never fathomed them yet.
There's the depth of sin. Way to service this morning,
I felt like that leper. I felt like all the running around
hollers, unclean, unclean, unclean, unclean. Two things, the depth that we
have never grasped, and that's the depth of sin and the depth
of the grace of God. So no matter how sinful we are,
God's grace is always greater. Always greater. And look what
it says here now in verse 4 through 6 here in Exodus 17. Thank God for grace. And Moses cried unto the Lord,
saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready
to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Go on before the people, and take with thee the elders of
Israel. And thy rod were with thou smotest the river, taking
thine hand, and go. And behold, I will stand before
thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock,
and there shall come water out of it, and the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight
of the Lord. And what makes this event so
special? What is it about this rock, this smitten, that is so
special, so significant? The answer is four simple words.
That rock was Christ. You want to see that? If that's
not so, look over at 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Just a minute. 1
Corinthians chapter 10. And look what it says here about
our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my. The answer is four words. That
rock was Christ. What he said here in the first
four verses of 1 Corinthians 10, moreover brethren, I would
not that you should be ignorant, I don't want you to be ignorant
about what was going on in the wilderness. How that our fathers
passed under the cloud, that's the cloud that God had before
the day to keep them from the sun, and it was a fire by night,
they was in that cloud. And all passed through the sea,
all went through the Red Sea, and all were baptized unto Moses
in that cloud and in the sea. And did all eat the same spiritual
meat, now listen to this, and did all drink the same spiritual
drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed
them, and that rock was Christ. Now, back over in our text here
in Exodus 17. Oh, the people, here's what happened.
The people thought, we're going to perish. We're going to absolutely
die here. They thought they was going to
die because they didn't have anything to eat. Then they thought they
was going to die because there was no water. The people thought
they'd perish. When all hope was gone, there's
no water. And where there's no water, there's
no life. No water, no life. And ain't this us by nature?
Ain't this our state and condition by nature, by birth, by practice? No spiritual water, no life.
All we have is death and a dry and thirsty and barren land.
You know our Lord Jesus Christ, there was a woman went by the
well of Jacob's well. She went out there at high noon.
Went out there in the middle of the day to get her some water
out of that well because she was a woman that was ashamed
to go out at any other time. And about the time she got there,
there was our Lord Jesus Christ was weary and tired. He was sitting
on that well. And he said to her, give me the
drink. And she said, you're a Jew and
I'm a Samaritan. We don't have nothing to do with
one another. You know what he said to her? He said, if you
knew If you knew the gift of God, you would have asked of
Him, and He would have given thee a drink of living water,
and you would never thirst again. Are you greater than our father
Jacob, who gave us this well? Oh yes, he was Jacob's God, that's
who he was. And oh beloved, I tell you what,
all they thought they would perish. And I know this, until you have
water, And have Christ as the water who is the water of life.
You're in a bare and a thirsty land and you'll perish just as
sure as these people thought they would in the wilderness.
Now it says here in verse 6, Behold, he said, I will stand
before thee upon the rock in harm. Now this word harm, it
means dry, it means empty. Dry and empty. Dry and empty. Ain't that what the human will
is? Dry and empty? Oh, the human will is dry and
empty. What are we going to bring out
of ourselves? What are we going to bring out of our nature? What
are we going to bring out of our free will? What are we going
to bring out of our nature? What are we going to bring out
of ourselves that's going to satisfy our thirst? The religious
will is empty. It's dry. Oh, you find anybody,
the religious will is dry. Dries a bone, dries a chip. Oh, go to the religious well.
What are you going to get? Look what they said about our
Savior. Those are the things that the religious people said
about Him. And today, today I heard a fellow, oh I heard a fellow
say today, You know, God's got all power to do everything and
if you'll have this faith and not walk by sight, walk by faith,
He says, then you have the victory. And if you obey His Word and
do what He says, then you'll have the victory. So why has
God got all power if you've got to do something to get the victory?
That religious well is dry. What can we do? What can we do to satisfy our
own thirst? And the philosophers will. It's
dry. Oh, go to any philosopher. Any
of them. Oh, go all the way back to Plato
and Aristotle and go on back to them. Go back as far as you
can go and you'll find out that not one of them had anything
to do good for man in any way. And there's nothing in this world
or our flesh that can do to save our souls and satisfy our needs. But that's the condition they
was in. But thank God there was a rock. There was a rock. And all of a sudden it says,
you just go there and stand upon a rock and hurry up. And oh beloved,
there's a rock. Isaiah 32 says, Behold, you know
our Lord has talked about us being a stone or a rock in so
many places in this world. So many places. He is that rock
here that we are talking about. He is that foundation stone that
was laid that the builders rejected. He is the tried stone, the sure
foundation. He is that rock in the weary
land. He's that rock that God hides
people in the cleft of his hand. Puts him in the cleft of the
rock and covers him with his hand. And no other foundation
can be laid than that which was laid, which is Christ. So all
our Lord Jesus is mentioned as a stone or a rock in so many
places. Because you know why? Because
rock's got silentness. Rock's strong. Rock, you can't
hurt it. And a rock, beloved, you can
rest in the shadow of a rock. And yeah, I'll tell you that's
what he's talking about here. And then by its appearance it's
only a rock like so many other rocks. They said, you go stand on that
rock. But what about that rock looking a bit different than
this rock or that rock or better than this rock or that rock?
How can this rock give water? This rock was in a dry and barren
place. It was in the wilderness. Looked
like a hopeless, just looked like it was hopeless for any
kind of a help. And ain't that the way our Lord Jesus was with
men, and that's the way we were until God revealed Christ to
us. There was no beauty about it that we should desire, and
He was a root out of dry grass. They said about our Lord Jesus
Christ, there's His mother Mary, and His brothers and sisters,
and we know them. So how does He say that He came
down from heaven? And they said, well, ain't this
the carpenter's son? He's just a carpenter's son.
That's all he is. Joseph's son. We know his father,
we know his mother, we know his brother's sister. What in the
world is he calling out? Where'd he get this wisdom from?
Where'd he get all this power from? Where'd he get this ability
to speak so well? He's just a carpenter's son.
That's the way they spoke of him. That's the way they spoke
of him. And I'll tell you something else
about this rock. This rock was a native of the desert. It was native there in that desert.
It didn't look any different than any of the rest of the rocks
that was around. And that's the way our Lord Jesus
Christ is. He said He was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh. He was a sinful flesh, but we
are in the likeness of it. He was a man. He looked like
a man. He was a man. He bled like a
man. He hurt like a man. He needed
rest like a man. But the only difference between
him and any other man that ever lived, he was a sinless man.
He was a perfect man. He was a holy man. He was a harmless
man. He was undefiled and separate
from sinners. He was the only one, beloved,
that God says, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
He humbled himself, didn't take upon him the nature of angel,
but took upon himself man, the role of a servant, and been passioned
as a man. He became obedient unto death.
And you know when Judas came to get him out there in the Garden
of Gethsemane, you know what Judas said? He looked so like anybody else. That Judas says, the man that
I kiss, that's the one you're going to take. There was no halo over his head.
There was no light shining down from heaven around about him.
There was no glow in his face. And that's why you know he could
be among them and somebody didn't point him out. They didn't know
who he was. And that's why Judas went and
kissed him. And said, now this is the fellow you want right
here. And so he kissed the Lord Jesus
Christ. And oh, listen. And let me tell
you something else. Not only was this rock native
to the desert. It looked like just any other
rock. But this rock was chosen by God Himself. Look what He
said in verse 6 here again in Exodus 17. Behold, I'll stand
before thee there upon the rock and holler. God picked out this
rock. God chose this rock. God pointed
out this rock. The rock that was going to give
water and life to these people in the wilderness is chosen by
God Himself. And I want you to see this. I
know you've seen it before, but look in Isaiah 42. Look in Isaiah
42 with me just a moment. And in fact, I'm going to say
that this God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, was the one who chose this. He
was chosen of God. And Isaiah 42, and I can get
there here in a minute. But look what he said here about
him in Isaiah 42. God chosen of God. Behold my
servant whom I uphold. Mine elect. Christ was God's
first elect and we were chosen in Him. What was He chosen for?
What is He elected for? To do everything you and I couldn't
do. He has chosen to be head over
a covenant. Chosen to be the redeemer of
a people. Chosen to be the mediator. Chosen
to be our surety. Chosen to be our sacrifice. Chosen to be our sin offering. Chosen to be our substitute. God chose him and elected him
and put him in these positions. Everything that you and I couldn't
do. And look what it said, in whom my soul delights. I put
my spirit upon him, and he's going to bring judgment to the
Gentiles. Now listen to it. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised wreath
shall he not break, and a smoking flag shall he not quench. Thank
God for that, because if he did, it wouldn't be too old for me.
And listen, verse 4, and I love this right here. He shall not
fail. I remember your dad, James, he
came across that one time, heard a message from that, and I mean
he, that's all he talked about for six, seven months. He shall
not fail. He shall not fail. I was with him up on one of them
mountains up there one time, I forget where it was. Me and
Tommy Robbins. And that's, he talked about that.
He said, I just heard a message from Isaiah 42 and verse 4. It said, He shall not fail. We set up there and they potted
and eaten crabs. Talking, fishing. I forget which
mountain maybe. But anyway, that's what he talked
about. He shall not fail. You reckon Christ ever failed
at anything? You reckon he didn't do what
he was sent to do? Did He come to redeem a people?
Did He redeem them? Did He come to make them perfect?
Did He make them perfect? Did He come to give them a complete
salvation? He did. Whatever He came to do,
He did it because He shall not fail. And listen to this, He
won't even be discouraged. He won't even be discouraged. So, come back over here in our
text again. That's why I said He was the
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Oh my! And that rock, what I said here
now, I said, you go and stand there, go there and I'll stand
before thee there upon the rock in Horeb. Now there's only one
person that ever, that stood between God and men. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's why He's called the rock.
This rock was Christ. And He says that God was in this
rock and that rock was God, that rock was our Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'll stand before thee there upon that rock. I'll stand before
you. I'll stand before you and all
your thirst I'll stand before you and all the people I'll stand
before you and all your sin I'll stand before you and all your
rebellion I'll stand before you. And look what he says now. And
boy, you're talking about a blessing. Oh, that rock was full of unseen
blessings and an unlikely place and an unlikely thing. Can any
good come out of this rock? Can any good come out of this
rock? And the only way they knew what rock it was, was God to
be there and make it known to them and say, this is the rock,
this is the rock! What about that over there that
looks just the same? This is the rock! And he goes on, now look here.
And I do know this, if you do business with God, have the water
of life, you'll do it with the Son of God, you'll do it with
the Lord Jesus Christ. God won't do business with anybody
on the face of this earth except through Jesus Christ, the Lord
of Glory. I never get tired of saying that, never get weary
of saying that. God will not speak to nor be spoken to except
through His Son. God will not give a blessing,
And even judgment comes through His Son. All blessings come through
Him and all judgment coming through Him. If we have that God has
anything to do with us, He's going to have to do it through
His Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He said this, He said, there
ain't nobody, nobody coming under the Father but by me. And I'll tell you what, beloved,
and it's such a blessing to me that there's no, I don't, I don't,
I wouldn't dare go in the presence of God without Jesus Christ,
the Lord of Glory. God wouldn't give me the next
breath without Christ. He wouldn't give me the eye-waters
of a blessing outside of Christ. The fact that we would ever think
for a moment that we could get anything from God outside of
our Lord Jesus Christ shows us how depraved and how sinful we
are. And oh, listen now, look what
happened to this rock. God said, I'll stand there before
you on that rock. And then look what has to happen
now. And there shall 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. That rock was smitten. If there's
no smiting, there's no water. No smiting, no life. No smiting,
no help. No smiting, nothing going to
happen. And that's why I said, He was
smitten of God and afflicted. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. He is wounded for our transgressions. You know, when that Roman soldier
pierced our Lord's side, he said, out came blood and out came water.
Water to cleanse us of all our sins. Blood to cleanse us from
all our sins. I know no body, no redemption.
And I thank God, oh bless God, that he was smitten. Smitten
of God. Thank God he was afflicted of
God. How was he afflicted of God?
Well, God's judgment afflicted him. When my sin was put on him,
your sin was put on him. He was charged with our sin,
charged with our guilt, charged with our shame. There ain't but
one thing that God can do wherever he finds sin, and that's to judge
it. There ain't but one thing God can do wherever he finds
sin, he must punish it. The wrath must be inflicted on
justice. Must the sword of justice must
pierce the soul that does this. And so God himself smote his
own son. Afflicted his own son. And that's why he said, except
the ground of wheat fall into the ground and die and abideth
alone, but if it die, it'll bring forth much fruit. Oh, listen, God said, Arise,
O sword, against my fellow, smite the shepherd. And God spared, God spared, not
his own son. so he can spare me and you. Next
time you think God's dealing harshly with you and that you've
got more than you can bear, you feel like that your burdens are
too heavy or your trials too great, you remember this, you
remember this, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Lord Jesus Christ,
for everything that was against us, Never think that was against
us. That God spared him nothing,
nothing that was due you and I, so He could spare you and
I. So whatever happens in this life
is still good. Sin ain't involved in it. I tell
you that. I despise this thought. I don't
mean to take too long on this, but I despise this thought. I
abhor this thought that people think that God, if anything goes
wrong in their life, that it's because they've got sin in their
life, or it's because God is punishing them because He's purging
sin from them. No, no, ten thousand times no. I can't have sin because Christ
done put it away. So He can't punish me. So anything
that comes to me or you in this world has to come from the hand
of God's goodness and God's grace. Has to come from an infinite
wisdom and will. So it can't be because we have
sin. Why don't we have sin? Christ
done bore us. He bore our sin in His own body.
He was the just for the unjust. And then to think that He's purging
you of your sins. If the blood of Christ didn't
put away sins, then you still got them. And it's said in Hebrews
1.3, after He by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right
hand of God. So God never deals with His people
except in goodness and grace and mercy and kindness and compassion. And whichever way He wants to
take us to glory, that's fine with me. Ain't that right? But don't never, ever, ever consider
for a moment that anything that happens to you is because of
sin or God purging you from sin. Oh, anything more dishonorable
to God than that? And oh, listen, it was only after
this rock was smitten did He give out His life-giving water.
And let me tell you something about this rock that was smitten.
It was smitten for rebellious people. These people were rebels. Rebels. We don't have to make
Israel look good. No, no. Because they didn't.
You couldn't make them. They were a sinful, undeserving
people. Moses said, they're ready to
stone me. He said, why are you chiding me? Why are you aggravating
me? Why are you coming to me? Why
are you getting on me? I ain't got no water. But I have
no ability to get any. So the only thing he had to do
was go and cry unto the Lord. And I know this rock was smitten
for a sinful, rebellious, undeserving people. Do you know anybody more
undeserving than us? Anybody more undeserving than
you or me? They were thirsty. So were we. They couldn't do nothing about
it. We couldn't do anything about it either. God had mercy upon
them. God had mercy upon us. God gave
them life and water out of the rock. He's given us life and
hope and health and salvation and water and life and bread
and food and everything out of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll
tell you something about this rock. This rock didn't come out
with just a little old trickle. It's not like, you know, when it gets hot and dry like
this, you know, things dry up. It wasn't just a little old,
you know, he smoked that and just a little old bit of water
run out. No, no. The scriptures tells us that
water gushed out of that. Just gushed out of it. And we
was up and going through Alaska and going up through there. I
don't know how many times we'd be going up through there and
then all of a sudden you see this great big, you couldn't see hard
enough to the top of it, but a great big stream. It'd be about
that, you know, from where we is, about that wide, but coming
out the side of that mountain straight down. Gushing down. Just rushing down. Well, that's
the way this was. This was a rock when it was smitten,
water just went to gushing out of that. Gushing out of it. And I tell you, it wielded water
abundantly. And I tell you something that
man didn't need to do. He didn't need to say, well, I need to
boil this and purify it. No, he didn't need to purify
it. They didn't have to get him some pipes and pipe it to their
houses. No, no. All they had to do is
just drink it and drink it freely. That's all they had to do. And
that's what I do. Drink, drink, drink, drink freely. All the fitness He requires is
to fill your need of Him. He stood that last day, that
great day of the feast and said, if anybody's thirsty, let him
come unto Me. And I'll give him water, a drink,
that'll come out of his belly like springs of living water.
Now that rock, not only that, but this rock followed them.
Look over in 1 Corinthians 10.4, just a minute with me, and I'll
show you something about this rock. This rock followed them.
This rock followed them. I know we looked at this a minute
ago, but I'll close with this right here, this rock. 1 Corinthians
10. In verse 4, Oh my, thank God that God smoked
the rock. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
I'm the water of life. And look what he said here in
verse 4. And did all drink the same spiritual
drink. See, when they drank of this
rock, they was drinking water, but it was a spiritual drink.
It was water from the rock, but they drank of that spiritual
rock. And that rock that followed them,
and that rock was Christ. Now I tell you what, I don't
understand it. I don't understand it, but it said wherever they
went, that rock was right there with them. Wherever they went, they said,
well, they went 12, 15 miles to Mary. Well, the rock was there
with them. They didn't have to, you know,
they didn't have to just keep, The water's there all the time,
freely. They're following them. Oh, they went through the valleys,
they went over the hills, they went through the desert, wherever
they went, that water was right there with them. Is it night time? Thursday,
the water was there. Get up first thing in the morning,
there's that rock. The desert couldn't dry it up.
And our Lord Jesus Christ is the fountain of all life and
the source of all grace throughout this wilderness. I'm going to
read you a psalm here right quick. I'm going to read you this psalm.
I won't even tell you where it's at. I'll just read it to you. He opened the rock and the waters
gushed out. They ran in the dry places like
a river. Oh my! The fellow said, we are
going to die of thirst here. No, no. Not where God is at,
you are not going to die of thirst. You may die of thirst in religion,
die a thirst in philosophy and die a thirst set in even other
sounds of the gospel but it'll be your fault the rocks been
smitten the water gushed out it's ready for you it's there
it's there what I need to do drink see that water going right down
through there Our Father, in the blessed name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for your great grace, great
grace, abundant grace. Our sins abound, but oh, your
grace abounds so much more. We have no strength within ourselves,
so you, Lord, you're our strength. And Father, when our souls are
thirsty, we have free access to You. Free access to You. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for taking
that smiting from God Himself. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for bearing
our sins, bearing our judgment, bearing our wrath, and putting our sins away by
doing that. Oh Lord, we bless you. Open hearts,
open minds, open understanding. Cause the message to be fruitful
and effective as only you can. In Christ's name I pray. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face,
and believe will grow strangely dim, and the light of His glory
have embraced.