Turn back in your Bibles, if
you will, to Exodus chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17. You also can
follow me in your pastor's commentary as we will be working through
the seven points in our outline today. The title of our message
is, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Is the Lord among us or not? Can you imagine them asking that
question? Yes, you can. Because you ask
it every day. Truth be told, the Word of God
is such a mirror to us, isn't it? It's just there is no book
in the universe that tells the truth about who we are and how
depraved we are, and how weak we are, and how flawed we are,
and how fickle we are, like the Word of God. No other book paints
the picture like this. And if that's true, if what I
stated is an absolute truth, that there's no other book in
the world that will actually tell you the truth about yourself.
You know what that means? Every other resource outside
of Scripture is a liability. Because you might be told by
other resources and other means that you're all right, But the
book will tell the truth about us. This is often why people
don't read the book, because the book is a real mirror. So,
you know, you can make some mirrors and you can distort that mirror
that you make and you can make that mirror make you look good.
But it's not the truth. The scriptures have been to tell
the truth about who we are. And this is one of the ways you
can know that you are healthy is because you have a high regard
of scripture. This is also another way by which
you can know you are not healthy when you run from the word of
God. Mirror, mirror on the wall. Now, we all want a mirror because
we want a reflection of ourselves as positive and hopeful. But
what God says is we need to have the mirror of biblical truth
so that we can respond accordingly. Now, again, the title of our
message is lead me to the rock that is higher than I. And I
intentionally had us to read Psalm 61 verses 1 through 7,
which was a Psalm of David, the king of Israel, at a time in
which David found himself struggling with the providential issues
in his life. And he had come to discover that
it was possible for him to rely upon all sorts of other resources,
but only to find that they failed him And until he called on God,
now I want you to mark this now, to lead him to a rock that was
higher than him, he found that he stayed in trouble all the
time. That's a good piece of advice, isn't it? Now when you
are the king, that means you are the sovereign and you have
authority over everyone under you and there's no one higher
than you, humanly speaking. It's very easy to think that
the buck stops with you. But now when you are really dealing
with your soul, this is what you'll come to learn. You need
to be led. We need to be led to a rock that's
higher than us. If our problem is going to be
solved, we need to come under the authority, the influence,
the power, the control, of a rock, of a Gibraltar, of a foundation
that's greater than ourselves. And so we can learn from David.
There are times in our lives when situations occur that's
too great for us, too difficult for us. And if we don't quickly
learn to ask God to lead us to a rock that is higher than ourselves,
we're going to lean on resources and things that will ultimately
fail us. That's the case before us. Let's
go to work. We are still working through
our excursion through the wilderness with the children of Israel.
We have 12 journeys that we have intended to engage upon. We are
on our third journey in the study. However, where we are in Rephidim,
which is a deep portion of the wilderness of Israel coming from
Egypt headed towards Canaan. the wilderness of sin. They are
in a deep, deep portion of the wilderness now. And this area
in which they are in is extremely arid and dry and parched. If one were to take the time
to actually do a more topological exposition of where we are, we
could say that we are in Death Valley for real. There are portions
of a desert scenario where there is comfort and where there are
trees and foliage and little pockets of water in any given
desert. But then there are portions of
the desert where there is no water at all. Not only is there
no water around available to drink, nothing is possessing
water, no cactuses, no trees, nothing absorbing water to which
you can suck on the cactus or the tree or the shrubs to acquire
water. We are in a place right now,
according to our text, where there is no water at all. The Holy Spirit is very clear
when He says this over in verse 1. And all the congregation of
the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after
their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord, and
pitched in Rephidim. Rephidim. And there was no water
for the people to drink. Test number three you see our
Lord is Going to lead the children of Israel according to a covenant
promise that he made with their fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob
Successfully to the promised land they're gonna get there
aren't they? But their journey is going to be such that is going
to try and test and prove everybody with regards to two things their
faithfulness to God and God's faithfulness to his covenant
promise Now what that circumscribes is your life in mind. Our life
is typically Represented in this wilderness sojourn where we are
headed somewhere if you're a believer in Christ I mean a real believer
you're headed somewhere and where are we headed Saints glory? Will you please hurry up and
know that I? We are headed to glory. We're not stuck in this
world. We're not even vacationing here. We don't have an inheritance
here. There's no lot on planet earth for those of us who have
gotten a glimpse of the glory of God in Christ. We are upward
bound. We are heaven bound. We are looking
towards Christ, our end game, our termination point, the place
where we culminate our journey is glory. So we are just a passing
through. You may call me Mr. Sojourner,
if you will. I'm a stranger in a pilgrim here.
With that attitude, it is essential for you and I to recognize that
the several stops that we have to make on the way are going
to be stops wherein you and I must learn how to negotiate the covenant
terms between us and the God who has redeemed us out of darkness
and is leading us into the light. And so what we have before us
today is another test, another time where God is going to prove
his children. Didn't we learn that in the first
encampment when God brought Israel out of Egypt and he settled them
right outside of the Red Sea, their first encampment in the
wilderness of sin? The text says, and there God
proved them. In our second account, it says,
and God would prove them there. And in this account, he's going
to prove them as well. For us, this is the third encampment
for you and my eye. But in the biblical narrative,
if you use numbers 33 as the grid, remember there are 42 encampments
for their whole 40 year journey. We're actually on the fifth encampment
here. So there are two encampments
that God did not decide to give us the historical account about
because he wants us to learn from this encampment what he
wants us to learn. Now let's set the context. and
see if we can make application as we go. The children of Israel
are a redeemed people, are they not? God redeemed them out of
Egypt by an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, did he not?
God himself bought them out of Egypt through the Red Sea by
blood, did he not? Therefore God, Jehovah, is their
redeemer, is he not? They are therefore a redeemed
people under the authority and the purchase of a king. This
king is Jehovah, and he has now a whole people group who are
both his servants, because when someone purchases you, you are
owned by them, and they are his son. Exodus chapter 4, bring
my son out of Egypt. So there is a relationship between
Jehovah God and the children of Israel that constitute the
king over his subjects, but also a father over his son. Now these people who used to
be former slaves in Egypt, anybody know what I'm talking about?
Are now bought by a price and are ruled by a new king under
new management And they are called upon to learn a whole new constitution
a whole new treaties a whole new covenant a whole new way
of life This is what the journey is about how to walk with the
god that redeemed you That's what this is all about and you
and I have learned the fundamental principle to which god is calling
them is what we call the obedience of faith Without faith, it's
impossible to please God. Everyone that is coming to God
must believe that he is and is a rewarder of them that diligently
pursue him. So the journey is a journey of
faith on the part of the people that trust God. But you and I
have to learn what it means to walk by faith. Do you believe
that? A lot of folks are not walking by faith, they're walking
by sight. A lot of folks are not walking by faith. They're
walking by a certain set of assumptions that do not correspond with the
word of God. And as such, their journey through the wilderness
is hazardous. Now mark this now, and it will terminate in a failure
of them obtaining the promised land. To the extent that the
man or the woman that does not learn what it means to walk with
God, your life in this wilderness sojourn is going to be miserable. This is the lesson we're learning
and the New Testament tells us be careful to learn the lessons. First Corinthians 10 tells us
all these things that are going on in the wilderness are examples
to us. The word example there means
types. That means there's a pattern and a typology in the Old Testament
historical narrative. Where in that typology you can
find yourself. You can find yourself in the
typology either trusting God or rebelling against God. Either
resting in the Lord or running from the Lord. Either looking
vertically or bound by what we learned last week is the horizontal
what? Dilemma. And thus complaining
about secondary causes, human means, and the instrumentality
by which you are being led. Here we go again with the children
of Israel complaining. Now they're complaining in the
face of enormous testimonies. God is a God of testimonies,
isn't He? We've learned that His essential nature is that
of light. And when God says He is light, that means everybody
is going to reckon with God. He's not so hid, so obscure,
so veiled that people don't know that He's there. They simply
deny the glory of His existence. But being the God of light, God's
gonna show his people things. For instance, do you know this?
That the children of Israel that are complaining in our text right
now, they have several things to their record for which I don't
have any idea why they're complaining. One, they've got the true and
the living God on their side. Secondly, they've got the God
that delivered them from the greatest country in the world,
that's Egypt. Thirdly, they saw the testimony of God not only
delivering them out of Egypt, but destroying Pharaoh in their
face. so that he drowned with his horsemen
in the Red Sea. It was such a great plundering
and destruction of their foes, they was able to go back, as
I said, and get the gold and the silver off the chariot to
take with them. Fourthly, they came out of Egypt
with great riches as God had told their father Abraham that
they would. They are sojourning through the wilderness on the
basis of a definite atonement type by which they know their
sins typically are forgiven and God is present with them. What
do you mean present with them? In the cloud. Do you know the
cloud followed Israel everywhere it went in that wilderness sojourn
to let them know that God was with them? Jehovah Shema. Do you know the fire was with
them every night to let them know that God was with them?
The Lord our God is a holy God. to separate his people from the
world. They had the presence of God's
glory with them every day. They had the testimony of God's
power with them every day to have delivered them out of Egypt.
More than that, they had the immediacy of the revelation of
God's covenantal promise every time they cried out to the Lord.
Didn't he do something for them? Every time they cried out to
the Lord, God delivered them. He showed Moses a tree. Remember
that? When they were at the place where
the waters were bitter. And that tree was cast into the
water and the waters became sweet. God provided for them, didn't
he? This is what we call Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will what? Provide.
The Lord then met their need in the area of bread. There was
some hungry folks crying out. Can the Lord provide a table
in the wilderness? And the Lord rained manna from
heaven. They did eat angels' food. They ate that spiritual
meat that Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 10. And they ate
it every day, didn't they? God promised that he would provide
them a meal every day, day by day, feeding on Christ. And then
God also gave them broiled chicken in the evening. It used to be
baked and fried, but today it's broiled. Broiled chicken for
you health folks. And God took care of them. So
now think with me before we get into our text. How do you complain? How do you complain against a
God who has been so good to you and is thus good to you to this
moment? Somebody tell me how you complain
against a God like that. The problem is with us, it's
not with God. It's never with God, it's always with us. But
here the children of Israel are once again in the midst of a
situation where they are chiding. And I mean chiding. I mean, you
know what the word chide means? It's one of those nice old Saxon
words for being ticked off. And ticked off is a clean term. These people are so perturbed.
They are so hot. They are so enraged. The word
is furious. I'm talking the whole group.
So stay with me because you need to understand that we're not
just playing theatrics here. There are times in our lives
when we are not focused on the things of God and the situation
gets backwards. And we get so furious. I mean, furious. The joy of the
Lord is on the other side of the planet when it comes to you. And your attitude is in the pit. And you are angry as all get
up. And mercy to the soul that comes
near you when you open your mouth. I'm telling you what's going
on. This is fascinating to me. You know, I studied the text
and I expound the text and I exegete the text, and then I have to
pick out the portions that I have to share with you. I say, Lord,
help me find the portions I need to share with you. But I can
stay stuck on verse one for the rest of the sermon, because it's
utterly fascinating how the Spirit of God is depicting the profound
angst and antagonism of the soul of the people against the providence
of God. And for me, again, it blows me
away that God has been so absolutely good to them. They forgot the
hole from which they were digged. They forgot the pit from which
they were hewn. They forgot the place from which
they came from. And they're talking like God
doesn't exist. Did you hear what they said? Is the Lord among
us? This is not a laughing word. It's not a laughing word, because
you may not say it verbally, But you say it a lot. The choices
you make, the things you do, the way you spend your time,
essentially says is the Lord among us are not. See, because
if you're sure the Lord is among you, that's going to advise everything
you do. It's going to shape your attitude.
It's going to determine your disposition of soul. It's going
to determine whether you are walking by faith and thanking
God and rejoicing in the Lord or in keeping yourself in a place
of humble, humble gratitude for all that God has given you. See,
if you are vacillating between whether the Lord is with you
or not, you are in trouble. You have lost sight. the glory
of God. You are double blind when you
have had all of these tokens of God's grace and his very presence
among you with his glory of the cloud and his glory of the fire
and his daily provisions in your life and you are raising the
question, is the Lord among us? We are in a mess, aren't we?
Boy, we tore up, aren't we tore up as folks? As church folk,
we are tore up. It just boggles my mind. No nation
on planet Earth has ever been taken care of like Israel. No
nation. You only have I known out of
all the people of the earth. You only have I dealt with like
this. No other people group had the presence of the true and
the living God. Manifest His glory with the power
that He did in their lives. And you know what this says? The level of depravity that exists
in our soul in the sight of the evidence that god gives us Is
such that we will go to hell walking in the light That's why you got to be careful
when you read your bible You can skip over this stuff by just
kind of throwing the stones on the top of the water And miss
the profound implications in the text This is why moses ran
to god and said god help These people are about to stone me. Did you get that? He understood
how serious this was. Do you remember that time when
David was fighting the wars of the Lord, and he was waging war
in a more defensive mode against King Saul, and he had to leave
the people back with the stuff, men, women, and children with
the stuff, and the Amalekites came down and took everything,
and then took David's wives and children, and when the men came
back from war, David is sitting on a stump while the men are
on the other side, brooding about whether or not they should kill
David because they feel like David has led them into a rabbit
hole. They'd have lost everything. You remember that? David's sitting
on a stump all by himself over there wondering, what in the
world I'm going to do? You know what the text tells
us? David had to recover himself and encourage himself in the
Lord. He had to remember that it wasn't
he who had called himself, but God had called him. He had to
remember that he was on the backside of the mountain Tending sheep
poop when God called him and anointed him and brought him
out now watch this now I'm just telling you these things are
transferred to us as a type and a picture Because our God is
the same yesterday today and forevermore And it's so absolutely
remarkable for me to see these things point number one in your
outline I want you to get this now. Let's run for a minute.
Are you ready? No water there No water there. That's the last
clause of verse 1 of chapter 17. And there was no water for
the people to drink. God did that. God led them right
there. God brought them to a place,
once again, where their resources dried up. The surrounding area
had no water to provide for them. I just told you this was a Very
parched land. And the water that was in their
body was already evaporating. You know, you and I are about
80% fluid. It don't take long for us to
dehydrate. And you're going to get nasty when you dehydrate.
It's just true. We are such weak, flawed people,
are we not? But God brought them there. He
brought them there to teach them a spiritual truth. He brought
them there to teach you and I a spiritual truth. Where are we? when we
have the true and the living God, the fount from which all
blessings flow, the God who in covenant mercy says that he will
provide for all of our need, he will meet all of our needs,
supply all of our needs according to his riches in glory through
Christ Jesus. Where are we when we are in a
place, now mark this now, where there is no water at all? We are in a test. We are in a
real test. Now the test will be, once again,
will you remember the Lord your God? Will you trust the Lord
your God? Will you call on the name of
the Lord your God? Will you worship the Lord your
God? Will you realize that the Lord
your God will take care of you here like he took care of you
there? Or will you begin to complain as if the Lord is not among you? Am I making some sense? No water
there describes not only the condition as it was in that day,
but it describes the condition of the world in which you and
I live today. I was thinking about that. What is the place
of no water? It's the harbinger of death.
It's the brink of death. It's the threshold of death.
No water, you die. Isn't that right? But what it
constitutes, ladies and gentlemen, is a state of condemnation, a
place of hopelessness. A state of condemnation, a place
of hopelessness. This is Psalm 107, verse four
through nine. We have that pictorial image
in Psalm 107 of the journey of the people of Israel and them
being tossed to and fro and at their wit's end, hungry and thirsty,
they cry out to God. Do you remember that account
in Genesis 37, where Joseph was taken by his brothers because
he had given the prophecy that he would be the ruler over the
whole family? and while they wanted to actually kill him,
instead they took him and threw him in a pit. You know what the
text says? It was a pit wherein was no water. You know what that means? They
wanted him to die there. Because some pits have water,
some pits don't. They were going to throw him
in a pit where he couldn't retrieve, come out, and he would have died
there. That pit of no water is the harbinger of death. You're
on the brink of death. You're under the sentence of death where
there is no water You are facing a calamity that will result in
your destruction where there is no water Can I tell you the
places that there is no water? There's no water in this world
There is no water in this world system There's no water to be
had under the systems of this world There's no water in the
entertainment of this world. There's no water in the doctrines
and ideology of this world. There's no water in this world's
system. This world's system promises
you life, but there's no life here. There's no water there.
There's no water in the flesh. When you walk in the flesh, no
water there. You can expect to dry up, and if you continue walking
in the flesh, you know what the text says? You'll die. You'll
die. For the carnal mind is enmity
against God. There's no water there. You're
gonna dry up. You're gonna dry up if you are in the world of
sin and iniquity and rebellion against God. If you think that
one can continue to walk in a state of open rebellion against God,
you're gonna die there. There's no water there. There's
no water. There's no water in the philosophies
of this world system. They come to you with all their
doctrine and it seem like it's water and you're ready to jump
in and drink. only to find out it doesn't satisfy. It has no life in it. Listen,
it may satiate your flesh, but it doesn't reach your soul. No
water there. No water there. No water in this
world. No water. Listen, there's no
water in anything outside of the true and the living God.
No water. See, the water that you and I are talking about is
the water that's necessary for the soul. It's necessary for
the soul. It's necessary for the soul.
So God brings his people in his loving mercy often to a place
where they are made to be thirsty. Made to be thirsty. You wonder,
why is he drying up my life? Why is he shriveling up all my
resources? Why is my joy dissipating? Why are all of my carnal pleasures
now seeming to be empty? God is bringing you to the place
where you realize no water there. No water there. No water there. And he'll leave you there long
enough. See, in the historical narrative here, we go again,
we've actually moved from our previous encampment to two other
encampments that would lead us to this encampment. So a million
and a half plus people have walked now some several dozen miles
for three encampments to come to this one. So we have exerted
a lot of energy, haven't we? We're still in a wilderness where
there are no resources, aren't we? We're still depending on
God, aren't we? And our own resources are depleting. What kind of walk must a man
or a woman have in that kind of situation? We must walk by
what? And without it, without it, you
are in dire trouble. So this is where God has us,
which brings us to point number two. Point number two, they thirsted
for water. You got that? They thirsted for
water. Look at verse two, wherefore
the people did chide with Moses and said, what? Give us water
that we may drink. God brought them there too. Do
you know there are people all over the world who never make
that request? How frequently do you meet people
who say, give me water to drink? There's the depiction that goes
on in our world that everybody's looking for God. Can I tell you
something? That's the furthest from the
truth. Not everyone is looking for God.
In fact, I would love for you to do this test between now and
next week. Don't ask nobody, but just observe,
because people know how to be religious. See, because if you
ask people, are you seeking for God? Oh girl, please, sure I'm
seeking God. But don't ask. Just watch them.
And watch to see if an individual will come to you and say, you
know what? I'm seeking God. I want God. I need God. See, this is what corresponds
to the idea of give me water to drink. Give me water to drink. Observe and look and see how
many people you know who are hungry and thirsting for the
true and the living God remember what David says my soul My soul
pants after God as the heart pants after the water brook that
little heart that little deer Longs for water because his heart
beats twice as fast as ours. He sweats profusely He has to
drink a lot of water And ought the soul not seek God with that
same kind of passion? But I'm here to tell you, you
will not meet people with that kind of hunger for God. Just
watch them. Can I share something with you?
People are not thirsty by nature. To be thirsty by nature is a
gift from God. To be thirsty by nature in your
soul is a gift from God Almighty. When a man or woman comes to
the place where, you know, I'm not satisfied with what I'm doing.
I'm not satisfied with where I'm at. I'm not satisfied with
my resources. I'm not satisfied with my life.
I need God. Now God's beginning to, watch
this, bless them. Blessed is he that hungers and
thirsts. Hungers and thirsts. Hungers
and thirst for God hungering and thirsting for God is a gift
you guys got that it's a gift from God You don't meet people
with this gift. Let me share something with you Everybody's
happy that you meet because they've got a false water source from
which they're drinking They're drinking from whales with a false
water source. They're drinking from places
that may temporarily satisfy their flesh But they're not looking
for the water of life. Remember that woman that Remember
that sister? Remember that sister who thought
she could find satisfaction in relationships, sexual relationships? And so she gave herself over
to husband after husband after husband, boyfriend after boyfriend
after boyfriend. You remember that sister in John
chapter 4 where her problems met up with the Savior by an
act of providence where Christ said, I must go through Samaria. And he met her at the well. And
he said to her, woman, if you knew the gift of God and the
one who it is speaking to you, you would have asked for the
living water. And then she said very clearly
in the obedience of faith, give me this water. Do you know why? Because God had already begun
to dry her soul up. and calls her to realize there
was nothing in the world that could meet her need but God.
You know what she said in that account? She says, Lord, if you
give me this living water, watch this. I want you to get this.
I will never come to this well again. I will never come to this
well again. See, she was coming to that temporary
will, but she was suffering the ignominy and shame of coming
to that temporary will. But that temporary will was the
only will available for her to get water. And yet that water
was not satisfying her because her condition was growing worse.
That's the blessed work of God in drying up the soul to make
the soul cry out for thirst of the living God. And I'm submitting
to you, ladies and gentlemen, as we move to our third point,
you don't have many people thirsting after God. It's a blessed work. We see this in Matthew 5. Also,
it's a work of the Spirit through the law of God. When God's going
to bring you to that place of hungering and thirsting for Him,
He has to bring you to an awareness of your true spiritual need.
Often that requires you being confronted with biblical truth.
And this is where the job of the believer comes in. Here you
are, you're seeing people all over the side of the road, feet
drying up, shriveled up, dehydrating spiritually, and you won't tell
them what they need. See, it's the law of God, the
word of God, the testimony of scripture that actually exposes
us in our true needs. to tell us, ho, everyone that
thirsteth, come to the waters and drink. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? But we won't tell them, you need
God. Even though we see it written
all over their face. We see it written all over their face.
You and I are supposed to be a blessing to people. When they come complaining
about this and, you know, the same complaints you have, rather
than commiserating with them in their complaints, you know
how we do? We just jump right on into that empty dry hole with
them. like we don't know where the well of water is and we start
commiserating with them in their empty well experience both of
us dry now you supposed to be a well of salvation according
to Isaiah chapter 26 from which people can draw the waters of
life from you and you in that empty hole with them it's true in my observation it's
true we are amiss and I'll call it The world is perishing in
a famine, an absolute famine. And we are supposed to be the
ones who have experienced not just the will, but the felt of
every blessing, which can never be plumbed or exhausted. And
we won't lead them to the rock that's higher than them. We will
affirm their rock and sit on the same rock with them and die
with them. Am I telling the truth? I am
telling the truth. I just got to let you know, this
is what's going on. This is what's going on. The
blessing of folks being thirsty is that the Spirit of God is
working with them to show them their true need, to show them
their true condition. And you as the believer can give
them a cup of cold water. a cup of cold water, drink this
one and follow me to the well. Did you guys get that? Drink
this cup and follow me to the well. But when we are dried up
like them, we can't do any better for ourselves or for them. But to be thirsty is a gift from
God. Not everyone is thirsty. Many
people are satisfied with their lot in this world. Just utterly
amazes me. But when God begins to deal with
you, when he begins to draw you, when he begins to dry you up,
when he begins to show you that you are a prisoner in the pit
and the pit has no water in it, you might then start calling
on God. The other thing about this pit
in which there is no water and the thirst, the thirst, as I
said, is a symbol of and a symptom of the work of the law showing
you and I that we are under the curse. Do you remember when our
master hung on Calvary's tree? Why did he hang there? Was he
guilty in himself? Had he committed any sin? Was
there sin in him, around him, by him? He knew no sin, did no
sin, in him was no sin at all. No one could convince him of
sin, but there he is hanging between heaven and earth, cursed,
right? And you know what he said hanging
on that tree? Are you ready? I thirst. That's one of the seven
words. Stay with me now. This is my
master. who took my place and hung between
heaven and hell and experienced a parching in his soul, a famine
in his soul of which I was supposed to experience. My substitute
said, I thirst. You know what that meant? He
was under the wrath of God. He was under the curse of God.
Let me share something with you. There is no water in hell. There is no water in hell. This
is what I'm getting at. We're drying up. We're parched. We're famished. We're utterly
dehydrated spiritually. And that will be the eternal
condition of men and women everywhere. And you and I say that we have
a savior who delivered us from that, right? I believe that.
But do you know he had to experience that thirst? And you and I ought
to be taught by that. Watch this now. That if my master,
the God-man, the mediator between heaven and earth, the mediator
between God and man, had to experience such a thirst, I don't want anybody
in the world to have to experience that. That's what my master's
supposed to teach me. I'm not supposed to be comfortable
with people in a state where they're condemned and they're
condined to hell because they don't know where the water is.
I'm not supposed to be comfortable with that. either you either
the idea of thirsting then is being in danger of on the harbinger
of destruction point number three in our outline let's work this
through verse two and three says this wherefore the people did
chide with moses i told you what that meant they got very angry
they were furious they were talking so bad that they had turned into
a great mob ready to kill him give us water that we may drink
now you see the request here moses give us water that we may
drink this is the insanity the insanity of believing a human
being can meet your needs. And Moses said unto them, why
are you chiding with me? More yet, why do you tempt the
Lord? You see where Moses was stuck?
Here's where he was stuck. Moses was stuck between the insanity
of the people stuck on a horizontal dilemma and the implications
of their request over against the God who was sitting right
there with a cloud and the fire. He's right there. Stay with me. God's right there. Moses can
look... Why are you talking to me? He's
right there. The cloud, the fire, He's right there. You just had
biscuits this morning. Hang out a few minutes, you're
gonna get some chicken. You want water? Ask Him. But see, what
I'm getting at is this. When we have failed to look up,
and maintain a priority of a relationship with God. Our complaints are
always horizontal and they are irrational. They're irrational. They can't meet your needs. No
one can meet your need in your soul but God. Rachel, she got
a husband that worked 14 years for her. That's love, isn't it?
Isn't that love? Come to find out she can't have
no babies. She gets mad at Jacob. Give me children or I die. Jacob said, am I God? Irrational. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Watch this, irrational. All she had to do is pray to
the Lord who knows how to open up the womb. He gives, he takes
away all the fruit of the womb is the Lord. She was Jewish,
she should have known that. Irrational. Are you guys with
me so far? All right, then I can go on because
it's important for us to be able to allow these things to manifest. the truth of the text in a very
contemporary way in our own personal life. We can get really upside
down. Verse three, and the people thirsted
there for water and the people thirsted there for water and
murmured against Moses and murmured against Moses and said, wherefore
is this that you have brought us up out of Egypt to kill us
and our children and our cattle? Now they want to get human, you
know, animal rights on me now. Now, let me share something with
you. Here it goes. This is my observation. I'm just I'm just
telling what I've learned over the years. When the folks go
to complaining, they complain about everything. They complain
about the major things and the minor things, the big things,
you know, because while they complaining, they might as well
complain about everything. Oh, by the way, they're just
complaining. It's really an amazing phenomenon
to observe people, especially ones who say they know God. It's
just remarkable. Remarkable. Like God didn't make
the cattle. I'll tell you something, the
cattle weren't complaining. And if the cattle could talk,
you know what they would say? Don't put us in between you and
God. The Lord led us out by an outstretched
arm and a mighty hand. He got us thus far, the cattle
said. The Lord can take care of us
in the middle of the wilderness. You gotta work on your walk with
God. We'll work on our walk with God. Point number three, because you
and I understand that the Old Testament Material, historical
narratives are really a gospel paradigm. We call it biblical
theology. We have not tapped into the redemptive truth until
we start looking at the language that corresponds with the gospel
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Are we not telling the
truth? So now the scenario is set up for God to teach us something
about redemption here. The request that was given by
the people to Moses although unjust and irrational, points
to a typological reality that you and I must correspond with. And that is this. While Moses
represents a number of things in the scriptures, he predominantly,
particularly in the case of national Israel, represents the law of
God. It is for this reason in the
New Testament, the New Testament writers, the apostles and Jesus
himself personified the law under the term Moses. Moses gave you
this commandment. Moses gave you this writing.
The whole of the Old Testament is under the rubric or term Moses. Because Moses represents the
Old Testament. Are you guys following me? And
so the people of God here are crying out to the law of God. the law of God to do something
for which the law of God was never designed to do. Do you
know that the law of God cannot give you life? That the Ten Commandments,
as holy and just as they are, cannot produce in you the satisfaction
of the soul? You and I have learned again
and again and again that by the words of the law, no flesh shall
be what? Justified in the sight of God.
So the people of God are going to be taught now that they will
not be made right with God. They will not be kept by God.
They will not be preserved by God. They cannot be saved by
God by running to the law, which truth they failed again to comprehend
over and over and over again. But here's what Moses does to
teach you and I that when you are in a way where your soul
is dry, let me make the application before I show you the typology.
When you are in a way where your soul is dry, what you need to
do is get honest with God. And then when you go to the word,
having gotten honest with God, he can do something through the
law of God that's necessary for you to enjoy satisfaction. In this context, When they came
to Moses and said, Moses, give me water to drink. You know what
Moses did? Moses ran to God again. Look at verse four. And Moses
cried unto the Lord saying, what shall I do unto this people?
Do you see it? Now, what this typifies in the
redemptive sense is this, that the law of God has no ability
to save you. It has no ability to redeem you.
We learn this in Romans chapter 8 verse 3. For what the law could
not do, could not do, this is the word adonati, was powerless
to do, had no strength to do, no ability to do, the law of
God, commandment keeping, thou shalt not, what the law could
not do in that it was weak through the flesh. Are you hearing me? Whenever you go to the law of
God to try to enter into a sort of performance-based relationship
with God, when your problem is directly with God, you will never
find the remedy in the law. The law has a purpose, but it's
not to substitute your relationship with God. The law has a purpose,
but it's not to get in the way between you and God so that you
can start doing little nicety things. to cover up your iniquities
and your transgressions, the law then will serve as an impediment
between you and God, and the law will never do that. Do you
know the law will never rescue you from God? When you open the
law book up, it'll simply be a mirror to tell you, you better
get running. You better get running. Are you with me? So Moses runs
to God as the scripture says, for the law was weak through
the flesh in that it could not give them life. The scripture
tells us very plainly that the law, if it had the ability, Galatians
321, if there was a commandment given that could have given life,
then verily life would have come through the commandments. Folks
go to church. We come to church. We love our
church. We love it imminently. We love
the people of God. We love the saints of God. But
here I'm here to tell you, church can't save you. The law of God
can't save you. You better love the church. You
better love the law of God. God uses it. I feel so sorry
for people who play down the church and play down the law
of God, play down the instrumentality. Listen, he uses those means.
Am I telling the truth, saints? But I'm here to tell you, if
you seek any other way but a direct beeline to God, when you are
in trouble, you are committing the greatest idolatry, even when
it comes to Moses. God will never let Moses or Aaron
or Paul or any of the writers of the New Testament be your
salvation. They will only point you to Christ. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
They will only point you to this. Moses goes and prays to God because
of his own internal weakness. And he's going to do this all
the way through the wilderness. Every time those knucklehead people
say, Moses, deliver us, Moses is going to run and pray. That's
what leadership does. That's what leadership does.
When your children come to you, parents asking you to do something
that you don't have the capacity to do, you go wait right here. and you go to your closet and
say, father, my children got a problem and it's too big for
me. Will you stand in the gap between
me and them and meet their needs? Your wife come to you husbands
and they want you to fix the problem. You say, honey, stay
right here. And you make a beeline to the
closet and say, Lord, She didn't ask something way too big for
me. You got to stand between me and
her and meet her needs. When your husband comes to you,
wives, and demanding something about the need of the satisfaction
of your soul, I'm talking your soul, your soul, no human being
can penetrate into that realm, that dimension. That's between
you and God. That's the sanctum of God. Are you hearing me? Just
say it. Listen, honey, stay right here.
And you, wives, pray for your husband. y'all know how to do
that pray for your husband because you need God your children need
God and ladies you need God directly directly learn to use the Word
of God appropriately go to the God who gave you the word so
that when you go to the word he'll show you God you guys got
that Otherwise you never go into the book. You always go into
sources and means and all this other stuff and there is no water
there Can I keep talking? There's no water there and your
soul will dry up your soul will dry up your soul will dry a point
number three the insufficiency of the law to give life The insufficiency
of the law to give life They were so perturbed with Moses
Moses saw that they were ready to stone him You know when a
thing ain't working you gonna get rid of it That thing ain't
working, you're gonna stone it. This here is what we call a foreshadow
of the law's inability to bring the people to a place of a right
relationship with God. That's the insufficiency of the
law. And so what does God do? Look at point number four. Moses,
the forerunner, a type of the law of God. Because here's what
God says. And we're in verse five. God says unto Moses, go
on before the people. Do you see that? I love it. Go
on before the people. and take with you the elders
of Israel. Oh, and by the way, take your
rod with you, wherewith you smote the river, take it in your hand
and go. Do you know what God just told
Moses? He says, take the elders. That would have been 12, one
representing every tribe. And he would have said to the
people, like I told you, when you come to the record, stay right
there. And he would have taken by the will of God, the 12 leaders
of Israel, 12 elders, and went to a place where God would show
him, leaving the people back there. Are you following me? He left the people back there
and he took a chosen few who would be witnesses of a revelation
that God would manifest again in the life of Moses that would
correspond to the gospel for us. God knows the need of the
people. God knows He's going to meet
the people's need. Is God going to meet our needs? Because he's
a covenant-keeping God. It doesn't have anything to do
with you and me. It has everything to do with God's own faithfulness,
right? Faithful is he who has called us, who also will keep
us and perform that which he has called us for. God will do
it, but he's going to do it his way. And in the process of doing
it his way, you're going to learn to love the Lord your God and
trust him and bring glory to him as he would have us to do,
even if it means shriveling up your soul. So Moses serves at
the forerunner. Here's what he's doing God saying
you guys go ahead leave the people there and I want you to mark
what he says over in verse 6 behold I will stand before you there
in the place where I will have you to go there upon the rock
and where Now see we are one journey away from the covenant
being established and the law given which means The children
of Israel typically experienced forgiveness and redemption and
sanctification and consecration before they were given the law,
which means they were never saved by the works of the law in the
first place, which means this law covenant that was given to
them was added, as Paul said, because of transgression and
sin. It wasn't given as a basis for their salvation. It was given
as a mirror and as a set of parameters to hedge them in until they made
it to the promised land. Are you guys following what I'm
saying so far? They've already tasted grace. They've already
tasted redemption. They've already tasted the blood.
They've already tasted the power. They've already tasted the provision.
But now they're going to come to learn something about God's
character in the law. That's next week. Today, however,
they are in Mount Horeb, which is the same as Mount Sinai. They're
right down the street, Moses and these elders. And these elders
are about to witness something that every believer must witness
if they are to be saved. This is the testimony we've been
talking about in the Friday study. God has a testimony, doesn't
he? God has a witness that he's burying in the world, doesn't
he? God has a message for the human race, doesn't he? And only
those who are privileged to see the testimony of God can then
be witnesses with God. Ye are my what? So notice what
God said. Behold, you go before, meet me
at the rock, and I'll stand before you there upon the rock in Horeb. Moses here is a type of the law
of God. The elders serve as witnesses
of what this specific purpose of the law will perform. The
elders here are a type of the prophets of the Old Testament. The prophets who preached Christ
in the Old Testament. The Bible tells us in Acts 10,
43, and in 1 Peter 1, verse 10, that all the prophets from Moses
all the way up, watch this, they only pointed to Jesus Christ. I mean, a whole ministry of the
Old Testament prophets was all about Christ. Revelation 19,
10, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of what? Prophecy.
Now mark this then, these elders, represent men and women who would
observe and recognize the testimony of God by which they could tell
the people God is faithful. This exclusive revelation that's
about to be given to them is critical to the answer of their
request that God might give them water. It brings us then to point
number five. God's endorsement of Christ as
the source of life. Moses the thirsty They're chiding
with you and they're tempting me. Leave them right there. You
come with the elders, the people that will witness this. And I
want you to come to a particular rock. And there on that rock
will I be. And this is what I want you to
do. I want you to take the rod wherewith you smote the river
in Egypt. And I want you to smite this
rock. And I want these men to watch
what happens. Now, ladies and gentlemen, undoubtedly,
the rock to which God led Moses is a picture of Jesus Christ. Without a doubt, Jesus Christ
is the place to which God leads all men who are in need of the
water of life. Christ is the rock. Christ is
God's rock. Christ is God's endorsement of
life. Christ is God's foundation. Christ
is God's sure foundation. Christ is God's tried stone. Christ is God's living stone. Christ is God's assurance to
sinners. The rock constitutes a foundation. The rock constitutes assurance. The rock constitutes stability. The rock points to Christ. Now,
there's something that must occur in order for water to come out
of that rock. Moses is a type of the law. Christ is typified by this rock. Christ now stands as the sinner's
substitute. He is the mediator that the law
must execute full and exact punishment on. For the law only works wrath. The law only punishes sin. The best the law can do, apart
from punishing sin, is to show you your sin. What can I do with
the law of God? Read it. It'll be a mirror to
you. What will the law of God do? It will show you your sin.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin, right? You read your
Bible, and this is why you're jacked up all day, because you
see your sin. I'm telling you the truth. God says, Moses, you
take your rod. And I'm getting ready to satisfy
the thirst of more than a million and a half people out of Iraq. I want you to hear this now.
I want you to hear this now. That they will not see, but they
will experience. For they are not there. They're
still over in the place complaining and murmuring and bickering.
But this is how good God is. that he will still meet our needs
when we are in the midst of our carnality, with our mouths wide
open in contempt against God, and he will allow the water to
come down. Can you imagine it? Can you imagine
it? In this dry, parched land, the
elders are up around the corner. We don't know where they are.
And all of a sudden, they see water trickling down the mountain.
And that water turns from a trickle to a river, to a ocean. And it starts flooding the whole
place where these knuckleheads are. And it's fresh water. And it's clean, cool water. Water
in the midst of the wilderness. Is this not the way God works?
Now watch it now. Because today we are about to
partake of the Lord's table. The only reason for which you
and I can find satisfaction in God. is if Christ voluntarily
came under the curse and punishment of God's wrath. Moses, I want
you to smite the rock. And I want you to get the picture.
He didn't take his little cane and simply tap the rock. He told
Moses it was a type of the law of God to smite the rock. It was an act of fury. Smited with such vengeance that
you shock all the elders. Take this rock over to this massive
stone. This is oxymoronic. This is foolish. It doesn't make any sense. How
can Moses accomplish anything by taking a stick and beating
it over against a rock? Because God is in it. God is
in it. And the elders now are going
to be taught the superlative nature of the preaching of the
gospel of the crucified Christ in the salvation of sinners.
They are going to be taught that Christ is the life, Christ is
the way, Christ is the truth. But it will only happen when
he's crucified. They are going to experience
the horror of the judgment of God. The horror of it. Take that
rod, Moses, and smite it. Did you get it? Smite it! Make
the men feel the violence, the thrust, the weight of eternal
judgment on the Son of God. The weight of God's law. It's
just no play thing. The weight of God's wrath. The thunder of omnipotence up
against the only person who could bear the weight of the exacting
punishment. God's wrath the elders had to
observe it. He smote it one time with all
of his way And the rock cracked And the rock clay and the water
start rushing out and They were overwhelmed with the revelation
of his glory Overwhelmed. Look at God. Look at God. Look at God. Oh, my Savior standing between
hell and my soul to subject Himself to the wrath of God Almighty. And it worked. And it worked. And the water came out, gushing
out. And ladies and gentlemen, from
that day forward, everywhere they went, they had water to
drink. They had water to drink. Not
merely because of the Christ, but because of the crucified
Christ. Because of the death of Christ.
Because of the sufferings of Christ. Because of the one who
bore the wrath of God. We now can live! Live! Do you treasure life? Do you treasure your salvation?
Do you thank God for the redemption of your soul? Do you know what
price God paid to deliver you from the pit wherein was no water? It was the death of His Son.
The death of the Son of God. He had to be smitten, stricken,
afflicted of God. Smite the shepherd. and the sheep
shall be scattered. Smite him! He gave his back to
the smiters. And they smote him, didn't they?
They smote him! And God smote him. God smote
him. This is our glorious Savior. This is the one who has met the
need of our soul. This is the one who becomes the
door through which the water of life flows. The water of life. The water of life. my final point
point number seven the spirit of Christ in the water of life
they're crying out for water are they not they're asking for
water and the water pours out abundantly now the water in the
scripture constitutes four things and I just want to say them briefly
to you the four things that they constitute is life without water
there's no what life in anything physically But the life is on
the basis of, mark this now, righteousness. Righteousness. It means when Christ was crucified,
based upon his perfect obedience and righteousness, now God can
give life to guilty sinners. The life giving work of the Spirit
of God in raising men and women from the dead and giving them
a relationship with the true and the living God through Jesus
Christ is based on righteousness. Righteousness. Here's another
word you can use as a synonym for the water. Are you ready?
Salvation. Salvation. Salvation. This is the work of the Spirit
of God. His job is to bring you life based on the righteousness
of Christ, which is your salvation. It's your salvation and mine. This is the promise that God
gave when Christ died on Calvary's tree. When the seed would come,
when the seed would die, what the seed would send as a consequence
of His work is the Spirit of the living God. the Spirit of
the Living God. We have the Spirit with us today. Many, many women have been born
again today. We believe the Gospel, do we
not? We trust Christ as our only hope for glory, do we not? We
look to Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life
for us to be our only righteousness, to be our only sanctification,
to be our only redemption and wisdom, do we not? For us, Christ
is everything. But for us, Christ, also by the
Spirit of God, is the satisfaction of our soul. The satisfaction
of our soul. See, this is what God has revealed
in the gospel to me. Christ is all I need for the
satisfaction of my soul. And by the power of the Spirit
of God, He makes Christ to be so satisfying to my soul. that he is everything to me in
this life. And so when my soul gets thirsty,
to Christ I go and say, because of your once for all work on
Calvary, give me water that I may drink. Spirit of God, reveal
the glory of Christ to me all over again. Make it manifest
to my soul. Fill my soul, fill my hungry
soul, fill my thirsty soul with the water of life. so that I'm
not complaining against you and bickering against you, and so
that I'm not stuck looking at horizontal things. Meet my soul's
need with the only thing that can meet my soul's need, and
that's Jesus Christ, the crucified rock of God Almighty. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.