Let's look at Numbers chapter
20. Read the first two verses here. Now this is Moses and the
children of Israel in the wilderness. And we read
before how they came up on the brink of the wilderness. They
complained and murmured and wouldn't go in because of what they saw,
rather than believing God, rather than depending upon Him. Other
than two men, Joshua and Caleb. But here they came, the children
of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the
first month. And the people abode in Kadesh,
that's Kadesh Barnea, Miriam died there and was buried there. And there was no water for the
congregation. And they gathered themselves
together against Moses and against Aaron. Now this is a desert area.
It's a dry area. But you remember that God had
promised to take care of these people. And he had done it. Think about what all God had
done for them up to this point. And it just seems like every
time you turn around. Now there's a period of time
that goes on between these episodes. But think about how many times
God had taken care of them and now again here they are without
water and the first thing they do is what? Get on their nose,
get on their nose and the face in the dirt and pray unto God,
no. No, they complain, they unbelieve. That's the nature of man. And
they complain against Moses and against Aaron. And I always put
in the lesson, I think I dealt with this last time we dealt
with subjects like this, lest we become puffed up and proud. Is that possible that a believer
could become puffed up and proud? Yes, it is. That's one of the
pride and Even self-righteousness is one of the continual sins
that plagues us, sins of the flesh, isn't it? That we have
to fight. And so when we look at these
people, and I honestly believe that false religionists, when
they look at these people, they have some notion in their minds
that they wouldn't have been like this. They would have done
better. But the Bible tells us otherwise. So lest we become
puffed up and proud in our own minds, thinking that we're better
than these people, consider that if we're saved and preserved
under glory, it's not because we're better than them. It's not because we made better
choices or anything like that. It's because of Christ. It's because of the grace of
God. Salvation is of the Lord. in every aspect of it, every
degree of it, every stage of it. And it's all based upon the
righteousness of Christ and not our own. We don't have any. See,
we stand before God in Christ. And He is our righteousness now
and forever. And what we have within us is
the Spirit of God. who has given us a new spirit,
that's life and knowledge and faith and repentance and all
that comes with it, that brings us to do what? To look to Christ. And I'm gonna talk about that
this morning in the 11 o'clock message in Hebrews 12, the race
that's set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. In other words, we don't run
that race by looking within ourselves and trying to find something
worthy. We look at Christ and look to him. And so think about
us in our daily lives when we go through trials and tribulations
and how we act. And I've always told you that
anytime I go through a trial, especially a severe trial, I
never come out on the other end. And God brings us through. He's
going to preserve us. There's no doubt about that.
He's faithful. He promised and he's faithful. He's gonna preserve
us. Now that doesn't mean that we're gonna come out on the other
end alive physically necessarily though, does it? We may come
out on the other end dead from this world, but that's better
for the believer. That's gain for the believer.
But he will preserve us, you see. So we don't have any problem
with that. I mean, we know God's gonna do
his work. He's gonna keep his promise.
But as I go through these trials and I consider my thoughts and
my anxieties and the things that I think and face and question,
I never come out on the other end of a trial being proud of
myself. Oh Lord, boy, I really did a
good job on that one. No, I never do that. But I come
out on the other end of that trial always looking to Christ
more, resting in Him more. And that's what they're all about.
So as we look at these people, here's what, God preserved them.
Now he told them, you're not gonna go into the promised land.
That's gonna be the next generation. But he didn't snuff them out
right then. He kept them. And I think about us in that
way, that we oughta thank God every day that there is therefore
now no condemnation in Christ. As we go through this life, as
we suffer, We suffer just like unbelievers, but we suffer for
a different reason. And these sufferings are called
the loving chastisements of our Heavenly Father. And I know it's
difficult sometimes to look at them that way, isn't it? When
you go through things, and especially the hard trials, the severe trials. You know some trials are lighter
than others. There's some trials that can
be put in the categories Paul said in 1 Corinthians are light
affliction. But there's some trials that
are really tough. Some trials we think they're never going
to end. But God's going to preserve us. And none of the trials that
we go through are evidences of condemnation. They're just evidences
that we, as I put in the lesson, we are truly the embodiment of
the wretched man, aren't we? Oh, wretched man that I am, who
will deliver me from this body of dead? They complained, and look at
verse three. It says, and the people chode, they chided with
Moses. In other words, their words were
not respectful, their words were not seeking wisdom, their words
were just complaining and attacking, blaming, all of that, they chode. with Moses and they spoke saying,
would God that we had died when our brethren died before the
Lord. I mentioned this, I think, last week. There's the folly
and the foolishness of unbelief. Get into a situation like that
and you think, boy, it would have been better for me to have
died. You know, Job, during his trials, as God preserved him,
he got into thoughts like that. He said, I'd have been better
if I'd never been born. Well, why were you born? Think
about that. You were born for the glory of
God. How do I know that? Because if
you're a sinner saved by grace, that's to God's glory. And so
your very existence is for the glory of God. So whatever you're
going through today, whether it's pain or pleasure, God's
gonna be glorified. And they say, well, it'd been
better for us to have died. Well, what makes you think that?
God knows what's best for us. You know that? That's another
problem, too. Because one of the reasons that we're called
children, even us adults who are in the family of God, we're
still called children because really, according to the end
of all things, only God knows what's best for us. I might go
through a trial and I can't see how that's gonna be good for
me. Have you ever done that? But it is. Because the father
says so. And the father, just like the
TV program Father Knows Best, well this father really does
know best. That guy on the TV program, he
didn't really always know best. But our father does. Some of
you young people may not know what I'm talking about on Father
Knows Best, but I do. Well, look here, he says in verse
four, it says, and why have you brought up the congregation of
the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should
die there? So they're questioning Moses'
motive. You just did this to bring us
up here to die, Moses. You ever run into anybody like
that, just kind of complain, you just want to slap them, don't
you? And that's what these people are doing. And he says in verse
five, and wherefore or why have you made us come up out of Egypt
to bring us in unto this evil place? Well, they weren't in
an evil place, but they called it evil. There's man's natural
tendency. We call good evil and evil good.
It is no place of seed or figs or vines or pomegranates, neither
is there any water to drink. The desperation, well, You know,
it's the way of our Lord to bring us to the end of our rope to
show us the glory of his salvation. Isn't that the way it is? When
does a sinner, when does God bring a sinner to Christ for
salvation, for righteousness, for forgiveness, for blessing,
for eternal life? It's when that sinner is brought
by God to see that there's no other way. This is it. Just like Robert and I were talking
about it before the message, you know, somebody would say,
you're saying that it's a narrow way and there's no other way.
Well, yeah, that's what Christ said. It's a narrow way and few
there be that find it. Now, how are they going to find
it? God's going to show it to them. And so you can go back
to all these Old Testament pictures and events, just like in Joseph's
time, there was a famine in the land and they heard there's corn
in Egypt. We better go there. And that's
what God does to us. He brings us to the, look, there's
none righteous, no, not one. You say, I've tried to be good
all my life. Well, there's still none righteous,
no, not one. And it goes on, it even explains
it this way. There's none good, no, not one.
There's only one place, one person that you'll find righteousness
and goodness that will satisfy the Lord God, and that's in Christ. So here they are in an evil place. It's the best place they could
be. And they forgot the past, how God had taken care of them.
You remember over in Isaiah 46 where God says, remember the
former things of old for I'm God and there is none else. Declaring
the end from the beginning, calling a ravenous bird from the... saying
I will do, I have purposed it, I will do it, I'll make good
on my promises. Nobody's gonna stop God or argue
with God. And then right after that, he
says, I bring near my righteousness. See, all of that. God has been
so good to us and we have a tendency, especially during times of lack,
to forget it. To forget it. But he won't let
us go. Just like he wasn't gonna let
these people go, he wasn't gonna let them die. Now some of them
did die. Now they're gonna die in the
desert. He said, your carcasses, that's what he called it. That's
a polite way of putting it, your carcass. When you go to a funeral,
there's somebody's carcass laying there. You don't wanna say it
that way, that's the way God put it. Your carcasses will fall
in the desert. And that's your own doing, see.
Well, look at verse six, he says, and Moses and Aaron went from
the presence of the assembly under the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces, and the
glory of the Lord appeared. Now, this is the issue here.
I didn't put that in your lesson. I meant to put verse six there,
too, on that Numbers 20, verses three through five, but what
it's talking about here is Moses gonna seek the Lord. And that's
what we ought to do in every situation, whether it's a time
of famine or a time of feast. And what happens here is the
glory of the Lord appeared. This is the issue here, is the
glory of the Lord. Anytime that God's faithfulness
is questioned, as it's being done here, the glory of the Lord
appeared. And so look at verse seven, now
here's where we come to the heart of this lesson. And the Lord
spake unto Moses saying, take the rod, that's Aaron's rod,
you remember the rod that's gone through the desert with him,
Aaron's rod, and he held it and he gave it to Moses, he said,
and Aaron thy brother, Speak ye unto the rock. Now don't forget
that. Speak to the rock. What rock? Well, you remember that rock?
I think it was back in Exodus 17 we studied about. Moses was
to strike the rock. Water came out, and God said,
this rock is there. He said, follow them through.
I'm not gonna get into all that, but he says, speak ye unto the
rock before their eyes, while they're seeing you, and it shall
give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water
out of the rock, so that thou shalt give the congregation and
their beast drink. So there's speaking to the rock.
Now that rock is Christ. We read about that in 1 Corinthians,
how Paul said that rock is Christ. It was a type of Christ. And
I love to talk about Christ our rock. We're hidden in the cleft
of the rock. He's our refuge. He's the rock
of the church. He's the foundation rock. He
said, upon this rock I will build my church, speaking of the glory
of his person and his finished work, his righteousness, by which
we're justified, his righteousness imputed. This church is built
on that, built on Christ. In Matthew, what is it, 16? It's
not built on Peter, not built upon any human being, it's built
upon the God man, it's built upon the one who redeemed us
from our sins, who put him away. who established the ground upon
which God justifies us, sanctifies us, and gives us life. Christ
the Lord our righteousness. And then he's the chief cornerstone
by which all things are measured. Everything that we believe and
know is measured. In other words, it is the validity
of it, the worth of it, the rightness of it, can only be measured as
it relates to Christ. And so if whatever I'm preaching
or whatever you're believing or whatever you're saying, if
it doesn't meet up to the standard of that cornerstone, it's not
gonna work. And of course, everything's measured
by Christ. What do we say about ourselves
as sinners saved by grace? Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And so if I'm gonna
talk about obedience, okay? We always talk about obedience.
We're to be an obedient people in every way. And we don't need
psychology to tell us that. Now that's what most religion
is today, trying to get people to do something or to not do
something with psychological means. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
12 step programs, all of that. But
we're to obey God. But we understand the whole time
that our obedience, even that which glorifies God, does not
measure up to the perfection of righteousness that can only
be found in Christ. And therefore, if it's to be
acceptable with God, how is that possible? Our prayers, our praise, Our generosity, how's that gonna
be accepted with God? Only as it is washed in the blood
of Christ our righteousness. He's our advocate. Jesus Christ
the righteous. And so he is our rock. And what
you see in these types and the pictures and the events as we
go through, that everything that God gave them that either typifies
or foreshadows or speaks of Christ, it has to be right on the money. It can't fluctuate. It cannot
vary in any way. It's got to be precise. And that's
what's happening here. Well, look at verse nine. He
says, now you speak to the rock. Now you know before, back over
in the book of Exodus, what was he told to do? Strike the rock. And that was a picture, wasn't
it? Strike it with Aaron's rod. Moses was to take that rod and
hit that rock and water come out. And that was a picture of
Moses, a picture of Christ, Moses representing the law. The rod
representing the justice of God against the sins of God's people
imputed to Christ. Christ the rock being struck,
that's a picture of his suffering unto death on the cross as our
surety, our substitute, our redeemer. And the water came out, the water
of life. I am the water of life, Christ
said. That water is everything of life, all the spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. So you strike it, Moses. But
look here in verse nine, he says, and Moses took the rod from before
the Lord as he commanded. And Moses and Aaron gathered
the congregation together before the rock. And he said to them,
here now you rebels. Well, Moses is speaking the truth.
Must we fetch you water out of this rock? Is that what I have
to do? Now you can tell Moses is, Not
in the right attitude. He's upset. And so he's angry. And Moses lifted up his hand
and with his rod, he smote the rock. Not once, but twice. He didn't do what God told him
to do. God said, Moses, speak to the rock. You've already smitten
the rock. You've already struck it. Now speak to it. And the water came out abundantly.
Now God gave him the water anyway. That to me is a picture of this.
God's gonna save us in spite of ourselves, even when we mess
it up. And he says, and the congregation
drank, and their beast also. So you see what Moses did. God
said, speak to the rock, Moses in anger. Well, I can understand
why Moses was angry. When people come after me and
accuse me, I get angry too, don't you? But I'll tell you what,
we should never act out of anger, should we? Anytime I've acted out of anger,
when I get my brain back in my head, I regret it. That's a good, I mean, that shows
this. Whatever transpires in God's
dealings with his people, whether it be temporarily or whether
it be spiritually with his spiritual people, again, the main issue
is the glory of God. What Moses was commanded to do
was to do something according to God's command that would represent
and communicate the truth of God to the people. You see what
I'm saying? This was meant to glorify God.
Speaking to the rock that had already been struck one time,
that would glorify God. Hitting the rock twice would
disobey God and just relieve Moses' anger. You ever hit something
and just feel better about it? They always tell you, they say,
get you a punching bag and then think about somebody you don't
like and hit the punching bag. That kind of thing. Well, Moses
didn't sanctify the Lord God when he did that. When I'm up
here preaching, when Jim or Randy or Mark or Robert, any of us
up here preaching or teaching, what we want to do is make sure
that what we say communicates the proper character of God. I don't want to lie on God. I
don't want to misrepresent God. We want to glorify God and tell
the truth. I don't want to hide any truth
that glorifies God. That's why these preachers who
say they believe election but won't preach it. God told Moses
that's his glory. I'll have mercy upon whom I will,
I'll be gracious. He said that's where his glory
is. And so I'm going to hold back something that glorifies
God. Do I have that right? No. So whatever I do or say,
I want it to glorify God. And that's where Moses went wrong. He smote the rock twice. He wouldn't
have smited it at all. He was to speak to, now you know
what that's a picture of. Christ being stricken one time
on that cross for all the sins of all his people. One time,
that's all he had to do. All he had to endure for the
salvation of his people. The Bible says, by one offering,
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. By one offering. Christ did not have to die more
than one time. One time was enough. He sat down,
he finished the work and he sat down at the right hand of the
majesty on high. And his one sacrifice for sin
was enough to bring about all the forgiveness and righteousness
that we need to save us forever and ever and ever. To say that
Christ had to do more than what he did is blasphemy. You understand? And that's what Moses did when
he struck that rock, even once, but twice? You didn't, Moses,
you didn't bring out the picture the way that you should have.
That's not the lesson. And look at verse 12. It says,
and the Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron, and he said, because
you believe me not. Now, God attributes Moses' anger
to unbelief. because sometimes anger can lead
to unbelief. Now Moses was a believer, Aaron
was a believer, but they had this moment of unbelief. And understand that now, we're
believers. Just like the old preacher said, a believer, a
sinner saved by grace is not in a state of unbelief, but there's
still unbelief in us because of the flesh. And we have to
fight it. And I'm gonna talk about that in the next message.
But he says, you believe me not to sanctify me in the eyes of
the children of Israel, to set God apart. Here's the truth of
God that glorifies him and honors him. And what you did didn't
do that. He says, therefore you shall
not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
In other words, Moses was then forbidden to bring them into
the land later on. Now we know that God said the
whole generation was gonna perish in the desert, they're gonna
die in the desert except for Joshua and Caleb. So we already
knew Moses wasn't gonna take them in. Because God already
said it's going to be two men, Joshua and Caleb. Joshua representing
Christ, Caleb representing the faithful people of God. So when
you read things like this, now people naturally in a human way,
they kind of devise a way and they say, well, you know, it's
like Moses bargaining with God or, you know, like you heard
me use the analogy, most people think of God as a cosmic chess
player. He makes his mood, we make our
counter move and vice versa. Or he's the cosmic janitor, we
mess it up and he comes behind us cleaning up the mess. That's
not what it is. This was God's purpose all along,
friend. God right now is working all
things after the counsel of his own will, even in the rebellion
of the people of Israel, and even in the unbelief of Moses
and Aaron when Moses struck that rock. This isn't an afterthought
with God. This is God working out his sovereign
providence all along, and the reason is, he's teaching us a
great lesson. Moses represents the law. And
the law cannot get us into the promised land of salvation. That's
right. Joshua represents Christ. Only
Christ can bring us into the promised land of salvation. You
see that? And that's the issue. And then
the last verse here in verse 13, he said, this is the water
of Meribah because the children of Israel strove with the Lord
and he was sanctified in them. Meribah means strife. And even
though the people were in strife and they were unbelief, God was
still sanctified in them. God preserved them. God was faithful
to his promise. What does God do when he saves
us? He saves a sinner by grace and he saves us in spite of ourselves. And that's to the praise of the
glory of his grace. All right.