I'm going to bring a message
this morning from Numbers chapter 20, if you want to be turning
there, Numbers 20. I've read through this passage in
times past, and frankly, this message was prompted by my interest
in this particular subject. What's taking place here is the
nation Israel is near the end of their wilderness journey.
And some events take place here. Words are spoken and actions
taken that result in God telling Moses and Aaron that they would
not be allowed to go into the promised land. And frankly, I've
always I've never really studied that and I always wondered why
such a severe punishment. Here's Moses, the leader of a
people. who simply acted in accordance, actually
partly from a motive of anger over the people's rebellion.
And God took pretty drastic action here, or it seemed that way on
the surface. But what we'll see is that, in
fact, God, as we know He always does, acted very justly in this
account. And there's some great lessons,
I think, in that. in Numbers chapter 20 here. I've titled
the message, which kind of tips you off where I'm heading, For
the Sake of God's Elect. For the Sake of God's Elect.
And our text will be verses 7 through 13, but we'll begin back in verse
1 just to capture this all in context. So read with me there
where we see the words, Then came the children of Israel,
even the whole congregation, into the desert of then in the
first month. And the people abode in Kadesh,
and Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, died there and was
buried there. And there was no water for the
congregation, and they gathered themselves together against Moses
and against Aaron. And the people chode, that is,
they were striving or contending, murmuring, complaining with Moses. And spake, saying, Would God
that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord? And why
have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness,
that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have
ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this
evil place? It is no place of seed, or of
figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates, neither is there any water to
drink. And Moses and Aaron, they went
from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces, and the
glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And then beginning our
text for today in verse 7, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and
Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their
eyes and it shall give forth his water notice the personal
pronoun there ascribed to the rock the personification of that
rock he shall give forth his water it shall give forth his
water and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock
so thou shalt give the congregation and their heart and their beast
excuse me drink And Moses took the rod from before the Lord,
as he had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered
the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them,
Here now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock. And Moses lifted up his hand,
and with his rod he smote the rock twice. And the water came
out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beast also. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron, Because ye believed me not to sanctify me in the
eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring
this congregation into the land which I have given them. If we're to gain a sense, as
I think I did in my study, of why God really is telling Moses
and Aaron here they can't go into the promised land, we need
to first consider this central figure in this story, and that
is this rock. It's important, if we're going
to grasp why the gravity of the consequences that Moses and Aaron
endured here, not being able to realize their dream of taking
the people into the promised land, into the land of Canaan,
then we need to understand what is represented by this rock.
Be turning with me to Deuteronomy, the next book over, chapter 32.
And as you do so, I want to suggest to you just right up front that
this rock is representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, the rock
of our salvation, Christ, the once smitten rock. And you may recall that actually
this figure of the rock had taken place, or had occurred and been
recorded back in Exodus chapter 17, early in the pilgrimage,
in the wilderness journey of Israel. Shortly after they crossed
the Red Sea, they'd just begun their journey, and the people,
as they often did, went through this cycle of murmuring, complaining,
chiding, as we read here. And God commanded Moses to take
the rod that he had smoked the river with back in Egypt and
turn the water into blood as one of the plagues that was in
part the reason that Pharaoh ultimately let the people go
out of slavery and bondage there. And he told him to take that
rod and to smite the rock. He commanded him to do that in
Exodus 17. And the water gushed forth from
that rock. And I want to suggest to you
that that rock is recorded in Exodus 17 and is recorded here
in Numbers 20. Whether that's two different
rocks, in either case, they're both representatives of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look with me in verse 1 of Deuteronomy
32. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I
will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine
shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as
the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon
the grass. Because I will publish the name
of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock. His work is perfect, for all
His ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He." You see, he's speaking here of the God-man.
just and right as he, in his very work of satisfaction to
justice, he says he was without iniquity. Just as we read in
the New Testament, he, Christ, the God-man, he was made under
the law that he might redeem them which were under the law.
And it says of him that he, so we needed a representative, see,
that was suitable to us. He had to walk on this earth,
take into union with deity, humanity. But yet it says he was likened
to us in all ways except without sin, just as we read here in
verse 4, without iniquity, just and right as he. This is speaking
of the just satisfaction that Jesus Christ made at the cross
of Calvary, in perfect obedience to all of God's revealed will,
even in obedience unto death, for he did that, as we know,
for a people, that he was a substitute for a people. The chosen, just
as this nation Israel was being delivered into a promised land,
Christ came for an elect people, spiritual Israel as the Bible
calls them, who is chosen unto eternal salvation in him. And because they were sinners
that he represented, you see the law had to be satisfied in
penalty also. So therefore he bore their sins
and paid a debt they could not pay. That is what the Bible means
when it speaks of the very righteousness of God that is revealed in the
gospel, the good news of how God saves sinners that we set
forth. Note there, as it continues in Deuteronomy 32, he says, they
have corrupted themselves. Their spot is not the spot of
his children. They are a perverse and crooked
generation. So we've got sinners here. And
he says, Do ye thus requite the Lord? That means, do you think
you can make payment for this? That's what that means. O foolish
people and unwise, is not he thy father that hath bought thee? He purchased the people. Hath
he not made thee and established thee? So we see here in Deuteronomy
chapter 32 that Jesus Christ is the rock. He's referred to as a rock. Now,
you may say, well, how do I know that's the rock that's alluded
to in Numbers chapter 20 and Exodus chapter 17? Well, we'll
look at that in just a second. But for now, look on over in
verse 15 at the latter part of that of Deuteronomy 32. Speaking
of Jeshua, he says, Then he forsook God which made him, and lightly
esteemed the rock of his salvation. So there we have that reference
to Christ, the rock of his salvation. I don't want you to turn there
yet because we're going there later, but in 1 Corinthians 10,
we have it set forth very specifically there. There Paul is relating
to the church at Corinth that about the nation Israel and their
wilderness journey, and he talks about the manna that came down
from heaven, and he speaks of the water that flowed from the
rock, and he says very specifically there, and that rock, in verse
4, was Christ, the very rock that we're looking at in Numbers
chapter 20 today. Now, I set that backdrop because
I don't think we can fully appreciate what took place here and the
gravity of the consequences of what Moses and Aaron did in a
moment of unbelief here if we don't keep in mind the picture
that was represented there. You see, if in fact God took
such severe consequences based on a picture and a type, we dare
not think that he will at all relinquish anything pertaining
to his glory in the rock of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So to help us understand, I want us to just first consider some
aspects of the nature of this sin, this folly, this failing
of Moses and Aaron. And then I want us to look and
consider some aspects of the consequences that were meted
out by God. First, the nature of the sin.
If you look back in Numbers now, chapter 20, verse 8, You'll see
that God's instructions were very specific. He said, speaking
unto the rock before their eyes. And then in verse 10, we see
that contrary to those very specific instructions, that Moses spoke
to the people rather than to the rock. And instead of speaking
to the rock, he smoked the rock. And he didn't smite the rock
only once. God had commanded him to do now
back in back years earlier when they first began their wilderness
journey But he smoked the rock twice and we'll look at the significance
of that in a moment But for now, I want us to see that on the
surface we have a the sin is one of just plain disobedience
Moses and Aaron here did not follow God's very specific instructions
Secondly, it's a sin of unbelief. Now, how do we know that? Look
down in verse 12. At the latter part of verse 12,
or the beginning of verse 12, he says, Because ye believed
me not. Unbelief. There's two ways we
can look at that unbelief. Some believe that it was unbelief
by way of lacking confidence or expressing doubt in what God
would do here. They conclude that by virtue
of the fact that In verse 10, he says, ìBut here now, you rebels,
must we fetch you water out of this rock?î That phrase, ìMust
we fetch you water out of this rock?î might be construed to
mean, ìCan we fetch you water out of this rock. We'll see,
almost as if in doubt. I don't believe that's the connotation
given the context and other scriptures that we'll look at that pertain
to this event here. But if it is, and I could be
mistaken, if it is, that's certainly unbelief, to doubt whether God
could or would do what he said he would do. But I believe that
this unbelief here is by way of misdirection, and let me explain
that. That is, I believe that at this
moment, in a moment of weakness, this great man Moses, look, not
only chosen as among this nation to lead this nation, God's chosen
people, temporally, into a land of promise. But Moses, who was
one of the very elect of God from all nations, chosen unto
eternal salvation, as the Scriptures attest to it, Christ himself
said, Moses wrote of me. So we know Moses was a believer.
And yet he had a moment of weakness here. And I believe that what
he was doing here, he He, whether intentional or not, by his very
words, he was directing men, or misdirecting men, away from
looking exclusively to the sole source of water and life, the
rock, which he was commanded to speak to. Note in verse 12
that the description of unbelief is a little more specific than
just because you believe me not. He said, because you believe
me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel,
to set me apart in their eyes. And I believe when we have the
words, the translation here is a good one, and that when Moses
says, here now, you rebels, must we fetch you water out of this
rock? He is contrasting himself out
of anger, out of an anger that really might seem justifiable
to us, for these were rebels. We have that all throughout Scripture,
how God continued to bless them, but they didn't do a thing to
earn it. They continued to murmur, continued to complain, and they
were being rebellious. And so Moses here, disgusted
with that, in anger, provoked by those very words, he says,
now you rebels, Must we fetch you water out of that rock? In
other words, you're not like me, you rebels. And do I have
to do this for you, so to speak? You see, even though he even
though we know Moses knew better at this moment, he was he was
really striking at the glory of God, because God's not going
to share his glory, not in the deliverance of a people, because
this is to be found exclusively in the rock. Eternally speaking
in Christ Jesus from whose side the water of life flowed freely
in his substitutionary death on the cross As we consider this
the nature of this sin Keep in mind who? Who was committing
this sin whose folly we're looking at we're looking at Moses Moses
who God said of in Numbers chapter 12 now the man Moses was very
meek and above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.
And yet Moses, the meekest of all, in a moment of anger, provoked
by the people, we see him display a sin of unbelief, a sinful pride
that plagues all of us as sinners. And you know, I think back on
my own experience, and I know more so in years past, and hopefully
even less so in years future, but I was often prone to, when
I would share the gospel, in particular with family or friends
that I really cared about, and share the gospel with them and
know that it's a reasonable message. God says it, doesn't He? Come
let us reason together. And wonder why men couldn't see
what I could see. Well, I knew why they couldn't.
In the heat of an argument, a debate, which we shouldn't get into,
but in trying to persuade men, as we should try to do, about
the truth of the gospel, if you take your eye off of the cross
and how you're blessed in Christ, there's a sense where I often
would think, well, if I had just said this, if I could have just
Put it this way, there's no way he could argue against that,
or she could argue against that, why it would be so clear. And
you know, when we fall into that kind of thing, it's like we're
saying, we can fetch you some water. If I'd only said it a
little better, it'd make a difference. You see, we forget momentarily
anyway, that no, you see something that seems so reasonable now,
But the reality is, you didn't see it before. Why? Because it's dead. And dead men
can't see. And the Bible says that's the
way we all start out. Spiritually dead. Void of all
spiritual faculties. So who made me to differ? You
see, we forget. I had no more to do with being
born spiritually than I had to do with being born physically.
When did you decide you would be born, Jim? You didn't have
a thing to do with it, did you? And neither do we. And yet, sometimes
we forget that. And we, inadvertently maybe,
but no less serious, we might point men to us, to our eloquence,
our debating skill, our logical argument. So we dare not do that. It reminds me of, it wants me
to make my mantra that of Paul in 1 Corinthians 2 when he says,
I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. We also see here in Numbers 20
over verse twenty-three, Aaron is going up in the Mount Hoare
to die, because he's not going to go into the Promised Land.
And if you look there, it says, And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron in Mount Hoare, by the coast of the land of Edom,
saying, Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, for he shall
not enter into the land which I have given unto the children
of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water
of Meribah. And here's Moses in there and
saying, you bunch of rebels, do we have to fetch you water?
And God says, well, you're not going inland because you rebelled. So we see now we begin to see
something of the seriousness of their failing here, of their
folly. Even Moses was a man of clay,
just like the rest of us. So why was the consequence so
severe? Why was Moses deprived, probably,
of his greatest earthly dream? I mean, God had taken Moses,
appointed him to lead this people out of bondage in Egypt, had
used him mightily all this time, and here they're on the threshold
of going into the Promised Land, and Moses takes his eye off of
the rock and smites it twice, and God says, Moses, because
of your unbelief and not faith, that's setting me apart in the
eyes of the people, You're not going in. Well, notice again
there in verse 13, the latter part. Now, he said, Moses, you
did not sanctify me before the eyes of the people. You didn't
set me apart. And yet, see, in the latter part of that verse,
in God's actions here, he still was sanctified. He was set apart,
see, as the sole source of the sustaining water of life. These
people would possess a land, as he said, that he had given
them And they would do so without their leader, Moses and Aaron. God's seeing to it that they
see he's given them that land. In Deuteronomy 3, turn there
real quickly. This verse and another we'll
look at is where I derived this title from, for the sake of God's
elect. In Deuteronomy 3, Moses is approaching
God once again after this event, and he's asking Him to let him
go on into the promised land. And in verse 23 we read, And
I besought the Lord, this is Moses talking, I besought the
Lord at that time, saying, O Lord God, thou hast begun to show
thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand. For what God
is there in heaven or in earth that can do according to thy
works, and according to thy might." You see, we see here, this isn't
a put-down Moses sermon. We see Moses, he knew that it
was all of God's might. And so he says in verse 25, I
pray thee, let me go over and see the good land that is beyond
Jordan, that goodly mountain in Lebanon. And look what he
tells the people, though. He says, but the Lord was wroth
with me for your sakes. And he would not hear me. And
the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee speak no more unto
me of this matter. That's enough, Moses. I don't
want to hear about it anymore. But he goes on in verse 27. He
says, Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, Mount Pisgah, and
lift up thine eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward,
and behold it with thine eyes. For thou shalt not go over this
Jordan You see, Moses, as one of the elect, the chosen unto
eternal salvation, he's going to go over another Jordan, so
to speak, into a land of promise, to the heavenly kingdom itself.
So this is a small consequence when compared to that, that he
was kept out of this land. But we see here, I believe, is... and by the way, you need to know
this. There are some who translate that where it says, and where
I wanted to point your attention, in verse 26, when he says, The
Lord was wroth with me for your sakes. Some translate that to
mean, and it is properly translated, for your account, or on your
account. Well, some take that phraseology,
and they take it a step further, and they believe that here God
is saying that the Lord was angry with you on account of what you
did. But I don't believe that's a connotation, and as we'll look
further I think you'll see that as well, of what is meant here. But isn't it good to know that
our mistakes, our folly here, will not thwart God's purpose? to receive all glory and all
honor. He turns this folly, this failing
of Moses, into an example of the certain and unfailing, absolute
certain faithfulness of God to deliver his people to salvation
in the smitten rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was smitten
at the cross of Calvary. Turn to Psalms 106, and we'll
see this, as I said, in another place. In Psalms 106, we have
recorded the story of the nation Israel, of their rebellion over
and over and over again. And we have a series of instances
such as this cited. And we have set forth God's goodness
and his mercy, a beautiful picture of the fact that shows us that
we can't merit our deliverance eternally no more than they merited
their deliverance into the promised land of Canaan. You see, it's
not by our merit at all, but it's a product of God's grace
and goodness. And in verse 32, we have cited
here what took place in Numbers chapter 20. It says they angered
him also at the waters of strife, that's at Meribah, so that it
went ill with Moses for their sakes, for the sakes of his chosen
people here. Because, you see, they provoked
his spirit. Now, if we stop there, we'd say,
oh, it went ill with Moses because of what they did. Because they
provoked his spirit. But it doesn't stop there. So
that he spoke unadvisedly with his lips. So that Moses spoke
unadvisedly. In fact, I started to make the
whole message, Pilate speaking unadvisedly. For we see here,
this is a serious thing that took place. speak unadvisedly
when we it's no small thing to direct people's attention distract
them away from the rock of our salvation from the cross of Christ
and what was accomplished then and there when he was smitten
look once that when we speak of the once smitten Savior was
speaking of the completeness the finishing it was done is
the book of Hebrews tells us in chapter nine he entered in
into the holy place, and what does it say after that? Having
obtained eternal redemption. It's done. That took care of
it. There was a finishing then and
there. We see in this, I think, a lesson as we consider the consequences
here, that we're not to look to men, but we're to look to
God alone. God, who in Christ fetches us
the water, the source of life. So as great a leader as Moses
was, They weren't going to be delivered into that land by him.
And so we say we should not follow me and we should be like Paul,
who said, You follow me only as I follow Christ. And. God acted in Christ, just as
he acted here for the sake of his people for all eternity at
the cross of Calvary. We also see here that we ought
not to look to types But rather, what is typified? You know, the
nation Israel was was it appears that most of the nation Israel
look to all of the ceremonies that God had commanded Moses.
The New Testament tells us was to be a picture, a schoolmaster
to teach them of Christ. And yet they took confidence
in them. You know, they they their confidence
was in the blood of bulls and goats, which Hebrews tells us
could never take away sin. instead of what was typified
by that sacrifice of that unblemished animal, the sinless, spotless
Savior. And so we shouldn't look to the
types either. We take as ordinances today,
as God commanded His church, the Lord's table and baptism.
But there's no saving power in that little glass of wine or
that unleavened bread, but oh, there's wonderful power in what
we remember therein, in His broken body and blood on the tree. And
there's no saving washing away of sins takes place in this baptismal
pool back here either. But oh, there is a washing away
by what's represented there. That's a profession of what Christ
did. And when we were buried with
him, and when we rise based upon the very merits of what he accomplished
being imputed, accounted to us, So we don't look to the types
here, we see. Moses and Aaron were wonderful
types. Moses, the law. Aaron, the first high priest,
typifying Christ, our high priest. But we don't look to the types.
You see, the types didn't deliver them. I'm reminded of what Bill
told us last week. I love that example he gave about
on his way to Ashland, when they would get there and the kids
would see the sign, entering Ashland so many miles, he said,
we didn't stop at the sign. We go into action and that's
what God's preachers are to be, is just to be signs pointing
them to Christ. And here in a moment of folly, Moses misdirected people's
attention away from the rock. But do you see in all this how
great God is? His counsel, his purpose, shall stand, Isaiah
46.10. And just because God sovereignly
uses means, such as allowing things to go ill with Moses,
what? For their sakes. It's not a sanction of our actions. God doesn't even... He does not
only use believers, those who have been justified, but He also
uses evil men. He used King Cyrus, a pagan king,
to deliver the nation Israel out of Babylonian captivity.
He used Judas. to betray Christ and he said
in the New Testament, he didn't do anything except that which
God had ordained. But do we credit Judas with that? No, it says Judas did it out
of the evil of his own heart. He wasn't doing it to try to
fulfill God's secret purposes. And that is good news. It is
good news that to know that as servants of God, as we proclaim
the gospel to people, it's good to know that it's not in our
hands at all, that we can't botch it. And of course, if we could,
it wouldn't be grace anyway, would it? So we don't justify
our sin, even when God brings out things that are good for
the good of his people. In fact, when you think about
it, Winston read Romans 8.28 back in the ten o'clock hour.
All things ultimately work together for good to them that love God,
to them that are called according to His purpose. So based on that,
if we took the notion that, well, if God's going to use it for
my good in anything I do, well, we'd just be fine sinning all
the while, I guess. Now, we know better than that.
But what we see in this story, or what I claim, and I want to
share with you, is I see both a great caution, but also a great
comfort. You see, there's a caution here.
We see the seriousness of speaking unadvisedly, of directing men's
attention away from the cross and what took place there. But
we also We can take great comfort. And frankly, if that's all I
knew was how serious it was to direct men, whether intentionally
or not, away from the cross, I couldn't stand up here. But
I take great comfort in knowing I can't botch it. God's purpose
shall stand. And that is a wonderful comfort.
You know, we might consider that Moses here simply misunderstood. I know until I started studying
this, and if we forget about the picture of Christ as our
rock, we might say, well, wait a minute. Now, God had already
told him one time years earlier to smite the rock. He'd instructed
him to do that. How could this be so bad? He
just got it a little wrong. Maybe he just didn't hear him
right. But he's still smiting the rock. He's angry with the
people because they're such rebels. But you see, not only did he
disobey and not speaking to the rock, but rather striking it.
But he struck the rock twice, unlike what took place in Exodus
17. You see, in smiting the rock
not once, but twice, I believe we have pictured an aspect of
unbelief by which men deny the efficacy, the sufficiency, the
certain accomplishment of what took place based solely on Christ
at the cross in his death once for all of the elect. We see
here a vivid example of God's jealousy for his own glory. And
we see why speaking unadvisedly, distracting men away from that
rock is such a big deal. You see, when we distract or
misdirect men away from Christ, the once smitten Savior, What
we're doing is we're either putting something in place of what Christ
alone accomplished in the salvation of sinners then and there, or
else we're adding something to it. And that something in place
of or something added in addition to it is typically, it's not
typically, it always is. It's the work of man. It's something
we imagine that God does in us, by us or through us. that we
have some part that would distinguish us and have some part in our
deliverance. We imagine we fetch ourselves
some water here. Natural man and his religion,
the religion we all start off on, we sadly profess an interest
in Jesus Christ, some even in Christendom, in Christ and his
death on the cross, and yet They smite the rock twice, so to speak.
They do so when they imagine that Christ in his finished work
and establishing righteousness in perfect satisfaction to justice,
many not even aware that's what took place, but even so, even
if they are, when they think that what he did on the cross
is not enough, that when he cried out, it is finished, that it
truly wasn't finished, that there remains something to be done
by me, the sinner, in order to appropriate that blessing when
he was first smitten, you see, that's something more is a second
smiting, so to speak. Something needs to be added,
and that something is what takes place in the religion of works.
That is salvation condition some way, some degree on me, the center.
And so here, Moses, we know knew better. But in this moment of
sin of distraction, His actions, I believe in unbelief here, they
typify the actions and the faults of men and women who sadly remain
in unbelief. who remain deceived into thinking
that salvation, somehow, there's something more. Here's how it
takes place, usually, or here's how it's voiced often. When you
share the good news of how God saves sinners based on that perfect
satisfaction Christ made, and that alone, they go, yeah, I
agree with everything you say, but you've got to believe. That's
how they put it. And a lot depends on what you
mean when you say, you've got to believe. You see, believing
is absolutely necessary, but only as an evidence, not as a
cause or ground of God's blessing. And to get those backwards is
fatal. A failure to recognize that true
God-given faith, true belief in Christ is a rock of our salvation,
that it's a fruit and effect of his being smitten once on
the cross of Calvary. In other words, that he really
got the job done completely. So as to make sinners stand just
before God, not guilty, you see, is a sad commentary on most of
this religious world. Instead, men imagine that they
acquire for themselves what Christ didn't quite finish acquiring.
And so they add something. And they call it grace, but they've
really made it no grace at all. They smite the rock again, is
what they do. Well, there's good news in this
passage, too. And the good news is the certainty of salvation
in Christ there. Why would we want to cling to
some idea that something I do or something done by me makes
a difference, a sinner, when I can have the impeccable perfection
of the Lord Jesus Christ as my own? You see, if it was made
my own, that's what he will, in God-given faith, reveal to
me as a fruit and effect of having completed all of that work at
Calvary. Turn to 1 Corinthians 10. I told you we'd look there,
and I want you to see that passage real quickly. Paul here talking
to the church at Corinth, and here he talks about this rock
that's mentioned in Numbers and in Exodus, I believe. In verse
one, he says, moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be
ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all
passed through the sea. He's talking about the nation
Israel now. And he says, we're all baptized under Moses in the
cloud and in the sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat. Speaking of the manna that fell
from heaven and did all drink the same spiritual drink for
they drank of that spiritual rock. that followed them. Now,
that's some believe that that rock that he struck in Exodus
17, the rock actually followed them as they meandered through
the wilderness. Some believe that the waters
that gushed out followed them during much of their journey.
I don't know, but the important thing is the last phrase of verse
four, and that rock was Christ. goes on and says, "...but with
many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown
in the wilderness." Now these things were our examples. Unless you think I'm making up
a picture here, that we're not to attend to. No, he says these
things were examples to us, to the intent we should not lust
after evil things, unlawful desires, as they also lusted. And he continues
there listing things, neither be ye idolaters. And he goes
on down, and in verse 11 he says, Now all these things happened
unto them for in samples, that is, samples or types, as your
notes may tell you. And they are written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore,
let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall." Why,
Moses, the meekest of all, you see, suffered the consequence
of sin. We all are in need of a righteousness
we absolutely have no chance of producing. There hath in verse
13, good news here, no temptation taken you but such as is common
to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. And
that way of escape is in that rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're brought back to him if
we if we have already been given the gift of faith to look to
him and him alone We're brought back to look there for our only
hope and our certain hope of salvation and that's good news
for centers such as we are For me and for you for even Moses
as we read in Deuteronomy 32 He is the rock his work is perfect
for all his ways are judgment A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right as he." You see, that's why it's certain. Justice
was satisfied. Just as sin demands death, righteousness
demands eternal life. In Numbers chapter 20, our text,
at the end of verse 11, even after Moses had spoken unadvisedly
to these bunch of rebels, still we read, "...the water came out
abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beast also."
And then at the end of verse 13, as I pointed out earlier,
we read that he was sanctified in them. And what certainty that
rebels such as these, rebels such as we, would be blessed
by water that flowed from this rock. As a songwriter put it,
let the water in the blood from thy wounded side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure, save from wrath. You see, that would
be my just punishment. I needed Christ to put me away,
save from wrath, and make me pure. You see, I need that perfection
before Him, too. So that, as the Scriptures put
it, I'm accepted in the Beloved. I stand before Him unreprovable,
holy, a mediator, Moses, who shamefully directed people away
from the rock, as God had instructed him to in this one occasion.
stands before him unreprovable, unblameable. Wow. Isn't that
good news? Revelations 21, you don't have
to turn there. John's writing and he's speaking
of Christ. In verse 5, he says, And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, to
John, he said, Write, for these words are true and faithful.
And he said unto me, this is what he told him to write. And
he got his attention. He said, Now you write this. And this
is what he said, It is done. There's no smiting of the rock
twice. He said, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end, the finishing. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. And I know
that that passage will bring to mind for many of you, that
famous passage in Isaiah where God's speaking through the prophet
in chapter 55 and he says, Everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters. And who comes to the waters? He that hath no money.
Come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. That same hymn, there's a phrase
in there that says, In my hand no price I bring, but simply
to thy cross I cling. You see, that's what it is to
look solely to Jesus Christ and salvation. conditioned on him,
that is, he meeting every single requirement, the once smitten
Savior, the rock of our salvation, smitten for the sake of God's
elect.