God Proves Us

All right, brethren, let's turn in our Bibles to Exodus 15. Exodus 15. We're gonna begin reading in verse 22. Exodus 15, 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 found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink?

And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. And there he made for them a statute and an ordinance. And there he proved them and said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt 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.

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. Now the Lord delivered the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage through the Passover lamb. And the scripture says, They came out with a high hand. They came out rejoicing. And the Lord brought them to the Red Sea, and he purposely hemmed them in on all sides. And here comes Pharaoh and his army. And they began to murmur.

But the Lord delivered them across the Red Sea. Scripture says, Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians and the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses. The entire 15th chapter is a song of praise to the Lord. You know, when the Lord first delivers one of his people, when he first delivered us, I remember thinking things are gonna be, it's gonna be smooth from here on out. I thought of this again the other day when I saw Isabel and Sophie Stoniker be baptized, and I was thinking how good that felt, and how you think it's gonna be easy now.

And it wasn't very long, and we found out we're still a sinner in our flesh, and trials and troubles came. Well, it wasn't very long for them here in our text. It says, they went three days in the wilderness and they found no water. Not long after the Lord delivered us, we found ourselves thirsty. We came into a trial and we found ourselves thirsty.

And I can remember, this is what we all do. We look here and there and we think we found something to quench our thirst. And if it's something in this world, or if it's something of us that we think's gonna quench our thirst, make us happy, the Lord is not gonna let that quench your thirst. They salt water. and they thought they found something.

Verse 23, when they came to it, they could not drink the water because it was bitter. Since the Lord first delivered us, since he first delivered us, many times that's been our story. You believe the Lord, you trust the Lord by his grace, but so many things in this life, so many things that we think's gonna make us happy or gonna be some peace for us in this world, and you find out it's bitter. What's the Lord teaching us by these things? Every time we find the waters bitter, here's the lesson. I mean every single time. Every time that we come into trouble and affliction, This is what the Lord is teaching his child every single time.

Right there in verse 26, I am the Lord that healeth thee. Jehovah Rapha, I am the Lord that healeth thee. Since the Lord called us in every trial we go through, the Lord is teaching us over and over and over, he alone is salvation. We're not gonna find anything in us. We're not gonna find anything in this world that will last or be of true profit to us eternally. The Lord is salvation. He is the one who heals his people. And he's teaching us this every time we go through trouble. This is what he's teaching us again and again. I am your salvation. I am your all. I am the Lord that healeth thee. Now, if we are the Lord's, if we're his, then whatever we find that we think will quench our thirst, if we found it ourselves, if it be of us, if it is of this world, it will be better. it will end up bitter.

In verse 22, they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. God will not let his child do the finding when it comes to spiritual thirst and quenching us spiritually, profiting us spiritually. God is not gonna let his child be the one that does the finding. We're not gonna find it in this wilderness of this world, and we're not gonna find it in the wilderness of this flesh. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water.

And unless God intervened, unless God graciously interrupt us, a sinner will keep looking for water where there is no water to be found. He'll keep looking for salvation where salvation is not to be found, where spiritual profit is not to be found, unless God intervened.

And that's so of his people, too. We have to keep being taught the gospel over and over, and we have to be reminded continually of what we already have been taught, because truth of it is, we're slow learners. We're slow learners. Canst thou by searching find out God? God's not gonna let us on our own find out God, because we would glory. We would pat ourselves on the back. We would boast.

God keeps teaching us what he taught David. The Lord put David in the wilderness, away from the gospel, away from the place where he could worship the Lord, where God said he'd meet with his people. picture of us thinking we're separated from Christ for a season, or being away where we can't assemble with his people. And this is what he wrote. It says, this is a psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. This is what God taught him. This is what God's teaching us. He said, oh God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee.

My soul thirsteth for thee. and my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. The Lord's gonna keep us knowing that in us, it's a dry land where no water is. I mean, looking to our works and our flesh. And he's gonna keep us knowing this world is a dry land where no water is.

God gives his child a thirst for Christ in the soul. And remember, he said, he said, he that believeth on meal never thirst. That means he's going to keep giving you the living water. But just like when you eat a meal and a little while you get hungry again, we hear him and a little while we want to hear him again. And we get thirsty.

But God's going to keep teaching us that our flesh is not going to quench that thirst, nothing of us that we do is gonna quench that thirst, and nothing in this world is. That's so for God's child, because God's gonna see to it that that's so. We're not gonna find anything to quench our thirst except in Christ. Over and over, we think we've found some water, but God won't let it quench our thirst, and by God's grace, not only that, it turns out to be bitter. It turns out to be bitter. They came tomorrow and it was bitter. They couldn't drink it. It was bitter.

God's gonna keep teaching us that our sinful, fleshly nature is nothing but bitterness. All it produces is bitterness. And we're not gonna find any lasting comfort or help or security in this world. God keeps teaching His child that due to our sin, Due to our sin nature, we're entirely destitute of spiritual life in that part, in the sin nature. We're destitute of spiritual life or finding it in anything else in this world. This cursed world is gonna be bitter to God's child because God is gonna keep showing you its bitterness. It will not save. The cares of this world choke the word, and you become unprofitable.

Through trials, and God leads us. God was leading them, and he leads us through this wilderness. And we come to these trials, and it's God teaching us. It's God proving us personally that Our sinful nature is only bitterness and it only produces bitterness. Paul said, when I would do good, evil's present with me. The purpose of this is so we don't start trusting in ourselves and our works. Listen, the people, soon as they get there and they see this water's bitter, did they turn to the Lord? No, they began to murmur against Moses saying, what shall we drink?

Now over and over this happens. When the Lord sent Moses into Egypt to declare that he was delivering them out, Pharaoh made their lives bitter with hard bondage and the people began to murmur against Moses and say, leave us alone. And then he brought them out by the Passover and they rejoiced. Well, they get to that Red Sea, they're hemmed in on all sides, they start murmuring against Moses again. The Lord delivers them out. He destroyed the Egyptians, and they thank God. They began to thank God, and they believe Moses was his servant.

Here they are again. Come to some bitter water, and they start murmuring against Moses. We're not talking about a few folks now, we're talking about With children, wives and children, it's probably a million and a half or more. It's a lot of people. And here they are murmuring against Moses.

Now the scripture tells us that we're to learn from this. Paul said, neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. That's coming from sinful flesh and that's what our sinful flesh is. And the only thing a sin nature produces is sin. That's all. And it produces bitter. And the natural way is to not trust God. The natural way is to murmur against God. The sinful nature in a man is to murmur and blame God. All glory belongs to God for saving us. All glory. Because this is what we all were in ourselves.

Yet when we were dead when we were out strength without strength Christ died for the ungodly How often have you been offended by somebody? And you didn't want to have anything to do with them well, we couldn't have been more offensive and Yet Christ came and laid down his life for his people You wanna talk about grace, you wanna talk about an unchangeable love, an unchangeable grace. When we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. Now, the Lord heals us in the only way that, now that's us, that's everything we just saw is all we bring to the table.

Sin, murmuring, complaining, looking everywhere but toward God, and then blaming God for it all. This is us by nature. Now if we're gonna be saved from this, how are we gonna be saved? It's gonna be the Lord. It's gonna be the Lord. Now here's how the healing comes. The Lord, Jesus Christ, intercedes for his people. He intercedes for his people.

Look here in verse 25, and he cried to the Lord. Now I know what you're gonna say, that's Moses crying to the Lord, that's not Christ crying to the Lord. Well, I've said this to you before, when you look into these scriptures and you see something sinful and something that, see somebody doing something sinful and something that's against God, see yourself, your natural self. And when you see somebody doing what they ought to do, first, see Christ, look to Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the advocate for his people. He's our righteousness at God's right hand. The scripture says, John said, I'm writing this to you that you sin not. Lord's people do not want to sin. We'll be so glad in the day when we do not sin, when we're with Christ and can serve him and believe him and rejoice in him and praise him with no sin. But the next word is, and if you do, if any man sin, and really the word is when you do, we have an advocate with the Father. You know, that's not how, that's not how most folks would encourage people not to sin, is to say, don't sin, but if you do, we have an advocate. But spiritually, when you're taught of the Lord, that is your motivation not to sin, because I have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ is my righteousness. I have that because of what he did for me. That's what makes me not want to sin. That's my motivation. It's the love of Christ.

But when you do, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now, whether it's the first day the Lord delivered us, or you've been three days in the wilderness, or you're nearing the end of your journey, the only way we're saved and kept is by Christ interceding for us the whole way.

Now, Moses is the preacher who the Lord is using to lead them, but Moses is a sinner like them. The only reason Moses did what he did is because Christ worked this in him. Did not Christ say, without me you can do nothing? So Moses cried to the Lord.

How'd he do that? The Lord worked that in him. The Lord worked that in him. The psalmist said, when thou saidst, seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. He puts prayer in the heart. Paul said, we don't even know what to pray for as we are. The spirit helps our infirmities. with groanings that can't be uttered. He makes intercession for us with groanings that can't be uttered. He sent forth the spirit of his Son in your heart, crying out, Father, he brings you to pray to him. So we're gonna give God the glory for Moses crying to the Lord.

Now the Lord said, blessed are ye poor, blessed are you that are me. We're going through Luke. There's what it is to be poor and meek. Every time Moses was murmured against and every time he faces trouble, you know where Moses was? He's on his bow down in his heart calling on God to help. That's meekness. That's to have a poor and contrite spirit is to know you have no strength in yourself. The Lord is your only strength and you're dependent on him. That's why Moses is called the meekest man in the world. He was constantly crying to the Lord for help. and crying to him for strength. People think meekness is being a pushover. Moses was a very strong man. That's not what being meek is. Being meek is knowing you're utterly dependent on Christ for everything.

So while the rest were murmuring against him, he's crying to the Lord for help. And then the Lord always answers the prayer. I'm showing you we're saved because Christ intercedes for us. He's at God's right hand interceding. He puts prayer in the heart to call upon him, and the Lord answers the prayer he put on the heart by turning us to Christ and him crucified. This is the answer for everything. He turns us to Christ and him crucified.

Verse 25 says, he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. Christ is the tree of life. Christ is the olive tree. His people are made to partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree. He's the tree of righteousness. We're the branches. Christ is the tree, and this tree particularly represents Christ and Him crucified. Christ and Him crucified.

Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law Being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. When the Lord first saves you, he's gonna bring you to see this tree, particularly Christ crucified. And when you're in trouble, the way he's gonna heal us and save us is he's gonna show you that tree Christ then crucified. Why did y'all preach Christ and Him crucified? Why was Paul saying, I was determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Because Christ is our salvation. And Him going to that cross for us is how we know God's holy character. And we know God is holy and will by no means clear the sin. And yet we know God's merciful and will to cross on that tree. And we see how mercy and truth meet together. How could God be righteous and execute all his people who sinned against him so that his laws upheld and yet at the same time be merciful?

Only in the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. He's just and the justifier. He sent his son. We see that looking to Christ crucified. And right here we see when we're in the affliction and we're in trouble, the way the Lord's gonna heal us and he's gonna save us is he's turning us again to the tree, to the Lord Jesus Christ crucified in place of his people. Our Lord Jesus drank that bitter cup. He drank the bitter cup of justice that was owed to his people. And he drank it dry. And now he gave us the sweet wine to remember his precious blood by which all our sins have been blotted out. And that's why God remembers our sins no more. It's because the Lord Jesus Christ put them away and God is just to be merciful to us. Christ is Jehovah Rapha. Everything God has to teach us is in Christ. He's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He's God. He's man. All God and all man.

And he is, he is all our salvation. He's Jehovah Ray for the Lord that healeth thee. And he leads us through this wilderness. And every trial that comes about, he's ruling the whole thing. to show us that everything outside of Him and anything we look to to try to save us is gonna be better waters, everything. And He's gonna keep teaching His child that.

It's only by Him that we're healed. He, his own self, bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. He's our healer. He healed us. Now that tree was there the whole time. Christ is present with his people all through this wilderness. He's with us all the time. He said, I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you. But Moses didn't find that tree, the Lord showed him that tree.

We have to be turned to Christ and Christ is gonna get the glory for turning us. We have to see Christ crucified and he alone makes the waters sweet. He's the only one that does it. And the tree only healed and it only made the water sweet when the tree was put in the waters.

Christ in you is the hope of glory. The way the Lord gives us a new spirit is a new spirit we didn't have, Christ enters, and we're healed when Christ is formed in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. A new man is born, a new babe is born of incorruptible seed.

And that's when he gives you faith to look out of yourself to him only, to Christ only. And then through faith, giving you faith to trust, God imputes Christ's righteousness to us. Do you know what that means? By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. By God imputing righteousness to us. That means you could take every law that God ever gave, every law. I think they say there's 613 laws. When God imputes righteousness to you, he's saying you have never disobeyed him. You've kept his law, you've honored him in everything you've ever done.

That's what it is to be righteous, to be perfect before God. He says he made us the righteousness of God in him. And it's by Christ coming in and giving you faith and making you look to him only. And our new man and the Lord Jesus Christ are one, inseparably one. We look only to Christ to save. He is our salvation. He is our salvation. We're sanctified and set apart because God chose us in Christ.

Christ went to that cross and by his one offering, he said, thy law is in my heart. He said, I came to do thy will, O God. And by him doing the will of God, scripture says, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the Lord Jesus one time. That he might sanctify the people with his own blood.

He suffered without the gate. And then when he gives you a new heart and faith to trust him and repentance from you, from looking at yourself or anything about yourself or anything you've done, he makes you go without account to him. He separates you out to him. And when he's truly sanctified you, then you know he is your wisdom, your righteousness, your sanctification, and your redemption. And he keeps you partaking of his holiness by continuing to lead you just like he's doing right here in this passage. Not letting you trust in anything that would poison you like these bitter waters, and keeping you knowing he only is the one that heals you. And it says here now, I want you to Come to this last point. Let me say this before I get to this point.

If you hadn't got to just what I'm saying, I'm saying stop looking to you. Stop trusting anything you've ever done. Stop thinking that God's going to be pleased with anything you produced. And look to the Lord Jesus Christ only. Look to him only. Cast all your care on him. That's what I'm saying. And I'll tell you what, if you do, and if you cast all your care on him, he's gonna do it in such a way that you're gonna know he even made you do that. And you're gonna glorify Gloria and him for that. But you look to him, he is the only savior for sinners. He only. Now here's the last thing I want you to get. Read verse 25 with me, the second part.

It says, there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them. And he said, if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt 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. Now a carnal man will hear this, and he'll immediately run to the law of Sinai, and he'll try to work himself into God's favor. God hadn't given the law at Sinai yet, and that's not what God's talking about right here. God is teaching right here.

It says there God proved them. He proved them. God's trials are not to prove to God anything about us. God already knows everything about us. God's trial is Him proving to us. And it's God teaching His elect the same lesson over and over. Everything I've been saying to you so far. You consider what God proved that day. Let's just look at what we've just seen here. We see two different ways right here. The children of Israel's way and the way Moses went. Now let's think about what the children of Israel did.

They looked for water themselves and found none. Did they look to Christ when they found no water? Nope. Did they look to Christ before they started looking for water? No. All right, when they found water, the water was bitter. Did they look to Christ? Nope. They murmured against God by murmuring against his servant Moses.

Here's the first lesson. This is what God's always teaching us in every trial. All flesh is grass. The goodliness thereof, the best you can produce, the flower of the field is gonna fade and wither. And you know what the scripture says, Isaiah 40, because the Lord blows upon it. He's gonna make sure it don't bloom, keep blooming. All flesh is grass. We were lost, we were unable to find the water of life that we needed. We only produced bitter waters of sin. Sin is all we are, sin is all we produce. All right, now consider Moses.

What did he do? He cried to the Lord. Why? The Lord made him. Then the Lord showed Moses the tree. Then the Lord told Moses, cast the tree into the waters, and Moses obeyed. Then the tree made the water sweet. And every bit of it was the Lord's doing. Every bit of it. Here's the lesson. I am the Lord that healeth thee. I am the Lord. So here's what you got. You got the way of man, sin. And you got the Lord that heals his people. All right? God said, obey the voice of God our Father and do what he commands. Obey his voice and do what he commands. Turn with me to Matthew 17. What does the voice of God the Father command us to do? What does he command us to do?

When Christ was transfigured and they beheld his glory, Peter wanted to build an altar to Moses, the law, and he wanted to build an altar to Elijah, the prophets, in addition to Christ. But the law and the prophets both bear witness of the same thing God the Father bears witness of. They both testify of the very same thing God the Father declares. Here's God's voice, here's God the Father's commandment.

Matthew 17 and verse five. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. Obey the voice of God and keep his commandment. There it is. What does Christ say? He said obey Christ's voice, hear him. What does Christ say?

Go to John 7. John chapter seven, and look at verse 37. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. What does he mean by come to him and drink? He that believeth on me, As the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Go over to John 4. The woman at the well, John 4. Obey the Lord's voice and keep his commandments.

John 4.10, the woman at the well, Christ said to her, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou would have asked of him and he would have given thee living water.

Now, the father says, hear his son. His son says, come to me and believe me. If you come to Christ and you believe Christ, you have kept everything the Lord's gonna give later at Sinai, you've kept all his commandments and all his statutes. And you have no sin whatsoever, but the, The point of that law is to show you, you need to go to Christ because you're not gonna be able to come to God in the law. You got to come one way. Christ said, he said, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. We have to come to God in Christ only, in Christ only. What if I don't listen to him? What if I don't obey his voice?

All those diseases that were on Egypt be on you. Christ didn't come to condemn the world. All those diseases are due to sin. You already have sin. You're already condemned. If he leaves you alone to yourself, you're sin and all you are is sin. What if I don't obey his voice? Here's what you do. If you try to come to God in the works of the law, here's what you do.

Jeremiah 2.13, the Lord said, my people have committed two evils. They've forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

If we hearken and believe on Christ, it's gonna be by God's grace and power. And when we do believe on Christ, God promises this. He says, they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of my house, Thou shall make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. He said, you'll never thirst. That's what he promised. He that believeth on me, I'll never thirst.

Where God has promised, I will hear his voice. Where has he promised I'll hear his voice? Now he said, listen to him, hearken to him. Christ said, come to me, believe on me. Where am I gonna hear his voice? Look at the next word in our text, Exodus 15, 27. Where am I going to hear Christ speak to me?

They came to Elam, where were 12 wells of water and three score and 10 palm trees, and they encamped there by the waters. How many apostles did Christ call and send forth to preach the gospel? 12. There was 12 wells of water here. How many disciples did the Lord send forth to preach that first time? He sent 70. There was three score and 10 palm trees here. palm trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. And what'd they do? They camped out there.

The Lord Jesus teaches us, go with me to Hebrews 10, he teaches us, you go, here's his command, he teaches us, you go where the gospel is preached, where I've exalted, where I've established my gospel to be set forth, you go there and you camp out there. and you'll drink the rest of your day. Listen now, Hebrews 10 and verse 23, this is what he says to you.

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. And he says, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. For if we sin willfully, after that we receive the knowledge of the truth.

Christ said, if you won't, the Lord said, and I'll tell you, if you won't hearken to my voice, if you won't hear the Father say, hear my son, and you won't hear the son say, come to me, and you'll drink, you'll have the water of life. Trust me and you'll have the water of life. He said, camp out where my gospel is and hear my gospel all your days.

If you forsake Christ, forsake him, there remains no more sacrifice for sin. That's what the Lord's saying in our text. If you don't believe my son and trust my son, there remains nothing but the diseases of Egypt because all you are outside of Christ is sin. That's it. It's not God's fault, it's not Christ's fault. It's what we are by nature.

So go to Christ, cast all your care on Christ, trust Christ, believe Christ. He said, I am the Lord that healeth thee. And if he heals you, you know what you're gonna do? You're gonna hearken to the voice of the Father, you're gonna hearken to the voice of the Son, and you're gonna trust Christ for all your salvation. That's what you're gonna do, and camp out where his gospel is preached and the water flowing. That's what you'll do. That's what he brings his people to do. All right, brethren. Let's, Brother Adam, you and Kalen.

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