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. And there was no water for the
people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide
with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And
Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Do you tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there
for water. And the people murmured against
Moses and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us
up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with
thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lord,
saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready
to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses,
go on before the people and take with thee of the elders of Israel
and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand
and go. Behold, I will stand before thee
there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock
and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight
of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the
place Massa and Meribah because of the chatting of the children
of Israel and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord
among us or not? It's almost unbelievable that
they would fail such a simple, clear test time after time after
time. Almost. It's almost unbelievable. It's easy to see in someone else,
isn't it? It says when God let them go
three days without water in chapter 15 that he proved them there,
which as we saw means to test. When God tested their faith they
failed there and murmured against God. Then in chapter 16 they
got hungry Surely now, having been tested
already, in almost the very same way, they will call upon the
Lord. Surely now they will ask instead of murmur, instead of complaining, instead
of charging God foolishly. That's the way the wording is
in Job chapter one, verse 22. When the Lord tried Job, It says, in all this Job sinned
not, nor charged God foolishly. That's what you're doing when
you murmur and complain you're charging God with wrong. And
I am too. Surely they'll ask. Surely they'll
just ask. Why did James say you don't have
what you need? Because you don't ask. Almost unbelievable, isn't it?
You could train a monkey by now, surely, to do what they can't
do. You reckon? Now here again, the people get
thirsty in chapter 17, and again, they fail. And here's the question. This test has one question. I took tests before that had
hundreds of questions. This test has one question and
one answer. One right answer. The question
is this. Can I, will I, do I trust the
Lord? Another way to ask the same question
is this. Do I believe God? Do I believe God? This is the
question that our Lord asked a blind man in John 9, 35. Jesus
heard that they had cast him out, and when he had found him,
he said unto him, Do you believe on the Son of God? That's the
question. The same question here. They
were tested with that same question, unspoken, but clearly implied,
clearly set forth. Are you gonna trust God or are
you gonna murmur and complain against him? It's the same question
our Lord asked those blind men in Matthew 9, 28. When he was
coming to the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus saith
unto them, believe ye that I am able to do this. And they said unto him, yea,
Lord. Yea, Lord. Do you believe God? God had said
to these people, these Hebrews, these Israelites, in Exodus 3,
7, the Lord said, and he told Moses, you go tell them what
I said. I have surely seen the affliction
of my people, which are in Egypt. I've heard their cry by reason
of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And I am come
down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to
bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large
unto a land flowing with milk and honey. Unto the place of the Canaanites.
He's pretty specific about it. I'm going to bring you up out
of Egypt and I'm going to take you to this place. The place
of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites
and the Hivites and the Jebusites. That's where I'm going to take
you. And the people of Israel here in our text said in verse
three, wherefore is this that thou has brought us up out of
Egypt to kill us? Why'd you bring us up out of
Egypt to kill us here? And our children and our cattle
with thirst. Is that what God said he was
going to do? Bring you up out of Egypt to kill you? I wonder if I, if we, have any
idea what an insult to God it is when we do not believe what
He says. Or do we have any idea what it
is to insult God? If you don't believe what I say,
that's one thing. But if I say what God said, and
you don't believe what God said, that's another thing altogether. John said in 1 John 5 10, he
that believeth not God hath made him a liar. If I tell you something
and you say, I don't believe that, what are you doing? You're calling me a liar. And
that's all right. But if it's God, it's not all
right. He hath made God a liar because
he believeth not the record that God gave of his son. Paul said in Romans 3, 4, let
God be true. And every one of you and me and
everybody we know and everybody on this earth, a liar. If we
don't believe God, if we disagree with God, if we go contrary to
God, oppose ourselves to God, we're liars. And God's true. David said, Lord, you're clear
when you judge me. You're justified in condemning
me. Now listen carefully, please. We have examples of great faith
in the scripture, don't we? We just mentioned Job. In all
of this, he was tried his test. It was the same question But
the circumstances in which it was asked were a lot more difficult
than these Hebrews ever went through. We have examples of great faith
in the scripture, and we have examples of great unbelief, such
as in our text, even in the same person at different times in
the scripture. We see that, don't we? Abraham believed God, and
it was counted to him for righteousness. But he also told that wicked
king, she's my sister. Peter pulled out his sword. He's
ready to take on a band of soldiers. Strong said, that's about 600
soldiers. Peter, what are you doing pulling
your sword out? It's on, that's what. And then a little while later,
We see Peter standing warming his hands by the fire, denying
his Lord for the third time. What's the difference? And will you believe? Will you
believe? Will I? Do you believe? When tested, In this way, will
you fail as Peter did? Or will you honor God as Job
did? Are some sinners better than others? Is the difference
within the sinner? Here's the answer to that question.
Turn to Luke 22, verse 31. The Lord told Peter He was going
to deny Him. Peter didn't believe Him. Luke
22, 31, the Lord said, Simon, if the Lord spoke your name,
would it get your attention? And if he spoke it twice, would
that get your attention? Behold, Satan hath desired to
have you. Just like he did Job, Satan appeared
in the presence of God somehow or another. I don't understand
that. But God said to Satan, have you considered my servant
Job, knowing that he had? knowing what Satan's up to. And Peter, Satan's desired you,
that he may sift you as wheat. He'll go as far as God lets him
go. If God lets you go altogether, you're a goner. You're done for. He'll absolutely annihilate you,
but I've prayed for you. The Lord intercedes for His people. What did you pray for, Lord?
That your faith fail not. That the very thing that happened
to these Hebrews in our text not happen. Now, how is it not
going to happen in your case? You tell me that. At times we're
enabled, like Moses, as described in Hebrews 11, to esteem the
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of this world.
And at other times, we're like the psalmist who wrote Psalm
73, who said, when he saw the prosperity of the wicked, he
said, barely I have cleansed my heart in vain. But bless God,
our Savior does not permit our faith, the faith he gave us, to fail. And like that same psalmist who said later, Sometimes we're
unable to say this too, when we look back at our own failure. He said, so foolish was I and
ignorant. I was as a beast before thee. Did you think as we read of the
repeated failure of those Israelites, what a bunch of idiots. Oh, but have you ever looked
in the mirror and said the same thing? What an idiot. That's what the writer of Psalm
73 said. I was like a beast, so ignorant,
so foolish. Isaiah said in one three, the
ox knows his owner and the ass his master's crib, but Israel
does not know. You're dumber than an ox. Did
you know that? And I'm dumber than you. It's
just the truth. My people, God said, doth not
consider. Turn to Mark chapter 9, Mark
9, 17. One of the multitude answered
and said, Master, I've brought unto thee my son, which hath
a dumb spirit. And whoresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him. And he foameth and gnasheth with
his teeth and pineth away. Can you put yourself in this
man's shoes? Could you see your son like that?
I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out. They
couldn't do it. And he answered him and said, O faithless generation,
how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?
Bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him,
and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tear him. And he fell
on the ground and wallowed, foaming. What a miserable case. And he
asked his father, how long is it ago since this came unto him?
And he said of the child, and oft times it hath cast him into
the fire and into the waters to destroy him. But if thou canst
do anything, have compassion on us and help
us. And listen to our Lord's answer to this man in his desperate plea. Jesus said unto him, if you can
believe, if you can believe, can you? Can you? All things are possible to him
that believeth. And straightway the father of
the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help, help. How can we ever say I believe without also saying help? Help. Help thou my unbelief. All things are possible to him
that believeth, because faith lays hold of Christ, who doeth
all things. With men it's impossible. But
can you believe? If you can believe. This is the simple lesson of
Exodus 17, one through seven, where we read a moment ago. Now think about this. Simple.
We have a physical need described in that passage and a physical
remedy that pictures a spiritual need and a spiritual remedy. What was the physical need? Thirst. What was the physical remedy?
Water. What was the spiritual need?
Unbelief. Unbelief. They murmured against
God. They sinned. What was the spiritual remedy?
Christ. The rock. That rock from which
flows living water. The rock that was smitten so
that God's water might flow to sinners. Turn to 1 Corinthians
10. Verse 1, 1 Corinthians 10, 1. 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
and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea and
did all eat the same spiritual meat. We saw that, that bread
that came down from heaven. Christ said, Moses didn't give
you that bread. I am the true bread which came
down from heaven. And did all drink the same spiritual
drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed
them. And that rock was Christ. That
rock was Christ. You see the spiritual need and
the spiritual remedy. This is more than just a story
about God overcoming our problems. That's where religion goes with
this. I've heard them do it. I've heard them do it with passage
after passage, with the whole Word of God. Religion would say,
nothing can happen today. You see there? Nothing's going
to happen today that me and God can't handle. That's a complete miss. Complete miss. This is not God
overcoming our earthly problem. God created the problem. God's got plenty of water and
He gives it when and to whom He pleases. There's not a lack
of water. There never was. There never has been a lack of
water. God's got all the water. He's got plenty of it. Christ
deliberately withheld His water from them to teach them, not
that He's able to overcome their difficulties in this life, but
to teach them their need of Him. That rock was Christ. Their hope
was Christ. Their life was Christ. You don't need water. You need
Christ. Some water would be good, or
maybe not. It might be better if you didn't
have any water. If I didn't, I got some water right here. I'm thankful for it. Christ, I started to say is a necessity.
No, Christ is the necessity. You really just have one need.
Isn't that right? We know that, but do we know
it? Paul, after knowing the Lord for so long, said, oh Lord, that
I might know thee. You know what he meant by that?
We still hadn't got it, have we? We have one need, one necessity,
one thing is needful. Let me read this to you again. This is my favorite poem. I know
I have a different favorite every week, but listen to this. Jesus,
Lord, engrave it on my heart. engraving on my heart, that thou,
the one thing needful art, I could from all things parted be, but
never, never, Lord, from thee. And this is a good place to start.
Needful is thy precious blood to reconcile my soul to God. Needful is thy indulgent care
Needful thy intercessory prayer. I've prayed for you, Peter. Needful thy presence, dearest
Lord, true peace and comfort to afford. Needful thy promise
to impart fresh life and vigor to my heart. Needful art thou,
my guide, my stay through all life's dark and weary way. nor
less in death thou wilt needful be to bring my spirit home to
thee. Then needful still, my God, my
King, thy name eternally I'll sing. Glory and praise be ever
his, the one thing needful Jesus is." Have we learned that? That's
what our text is teaching. Not that if you have a flat on
your way to work tomorrow, you know, the Lord will get you through
it. He's the one that gave you the flat. If he puts you through
any kind of a test, whatever it is, if you lose everything
you have, he's the one that took it from you. Why? If he does, God does everything he does to
exalt his son. to reveal our need of His Son. John said, I've written everything
that I've written that you might believe on the name of the Son. God is revealing that we must
have His Son. When Paul preached from our text
to the Corinthians there, where we read it, that rock was cry.
He took our text tonight and preached to the Corinthians there.
He speaks only of spiritual drink there. Not physical. Well, it's
pictured by our physical need for water, which is our most
urgent physical need. That's why it's such a beautiful
picture. But our only true need is spiritual drink. What is that? What quenches the soul? What
is life to the soul? Listen to what our Lord Jesus
said in John 6, 53. He said unto them, verily, verily,
I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink His blood, you have no life in you. It doesn't matter
how much water you got, how much food you got, how nice of clothes
you got, you're dead while you live if you don't have Him. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day, for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. My one problem is sin. If I truly know that, then what
am I thirsty for? Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. If your one problem is sin, what
are you thirsty for? You've got to have righteousness. Blessed are they that thirst
after righteousness. Why? They'll be filled. Everybody
that's thirsty is called to come. And when He calls, they come.
If sin is my problem, and my need is righteousness, how do
I obtain it? How do I obtain righteousness?
How do I get some water? The same way we get everything
we get. Ask. You're going to have to
get it from God. You can't produce any. You're
not going to find any. How do I quench this thirst?
Turn to Romans chapter 3. How do I quench? this desperate,
desperate thirst, pictured here in our text, Romans 3 20. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
God's sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. There's our thirst. That's our
need right there. Physical need in the text, picturing
a spiritual need, which Paul preached it that way, didn't
he? That spiritual dream, that's what they needed. That's what
God was teaching there. But now, the righteousness of
God without the law, without you keeping God's law, without
you being perfect, without you establishing your own righteousness,
quit going about to do that. The more you go about to do that,
the more evil you are. You're self-righteous before
God. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. It's not new. It's
not a new message. It's the same message from the
beginning, even from our text in the book of Exodus tonight. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe. That's why all things are possible
to them that believe. not because of your great faith,
but because of the great object of your faith. For there's no difference for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Oh, but
we're justified freely by his grace through the redemption. My blood is drink indeed. Through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood. To declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness.
What are you thirsty for? Righteousness. It's my one need
before God, I've got to be righteous and holy or I'm doomed, I'm damned
eternally. God declaring His righteousness
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You have this
righteousness, you have this thirst quenched through faith
in His blood. To declare His righteousness
that He might be just, that He might be God, that He might be
holy, and declare you righteous, just the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus. So how is my thirst for righteousness
quenched? Through faith in his blood. The remedy to my need, my one
need, is the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. To drink
the blood of the Son of God is to have faith in His blood. It's
to trust that His blood is sufficient. That He wasn't just shooting
for it when He died on that cross. He was redeeming His people by
that precious blood. He wasn't trying to do anything.
He wasn't making anything available. He was saving His people. He
was redeeming them once for all. He sanctified them forever. with
that precious blood. Have you ever been deeply thirsty
in this world? Now think about this. This is
the illustration. This is the picture that we have
before us. Have you ever been needfully
thirsty? Needfully. I have a time or two. It's been a while. When I played
football in high school, we We would have practice, football
practice, in the Texas heat. And it was absolutely brutal.
And you just didn't say to the coach, hold on a second, coach.
I'm going to go get me a drink of water. You drink water when
the coach said it's time to go get a drink. And he didn't say
that much. He didn't say that much as much as I would have.
And when he did say it, you'd get a cup about that tall. with
a bunch of ice in it. And you might think the ice,
well that's good, he gave you some ice. No. Because you can't
eat that ice in the 30 seconds they gave you to drink. You got
to slam down whatever liquid was around that ice. And it wasn't
near enough. It didn't come anywhere near
quenching your thirst. It wasn't until after practice
that I would just grab a 32 ounce Gatorade and just sit there and
and savor it. Truly quench my thirst. What
a feeling. It's exhilarating and it's just
absolutely, you can just feel life coming back into your body. You know what that feels like
spiritually? Here's what that feels like to me spiritually. When I'm able to say from my
heart now, with confidence, not in myself, but in the one of
whom I speak, when I'm able to say from my heart, who is he
that condemneth? It is Christ that died. That's life to my soul. That's
a cold drink of water in the desert right there. Who is he
that condemneth? It's Christ. It's the Lord Jesus
Christ, the one pictured in this book, the one revealed in this
book, that died for me. Have you ever had a drink of
his blood? Do you have any idea? I don't
much know what I'm talking about. Do you have any idea what I'm
talking about? Do you trust him and his redemption
of sin by his precious blood in so much that you can say, Who's going to condemn me? Christ,
my Savior, died for me. Believe ye that He is able to
present you faultless before the presence of God's glory with
exceeding joy. Do you believe that? Because He has died and redeemed
us unto God by His precious blood, He's able to present you That's a spiritual drink. And he said, if you ever drink
of that, you never thirst again. You'll never go through, you'll
never lack. God told Moses to smite the rock. Isaiah said, we did esteem him,
the Lord Jesus Christ, stricken, smitten, and afflicted. But he was wounded. He was smitten,
but not like we thought. Generally speaking, this world,
not like we thought in our natural condition, he was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was on him. And with his stripes,
we're healed. Have you drunk from this smitten
rock? The rock was to be smitten once
and once only. And that's significant. Moses
smote the rock a second time in Numbers chapter 20. You may
want to read that later. Numbers chapter 20, it says that
Moses stood up before the people. He was angry because of the unbelief
of the people. They were murmuring it. at every
turn, and he said, must I fetch you water out of this rock? And
it says he smote the rock twice. And I'm pretty sure that he didn't
hit it twice that time. What that's saying is he smote
it for the second time. Rock already been smitten. God didn't tell him to smite
it again. What God did say to him in verse
12, It says this in verse 12, because he smoked that rock the
second time, the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, because you
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've given them. What a terrible consequence.
Do you know how far Moses had come? Do you know how badly he
wanted to enter in where God had promised in the text we read
a while ago? Forty years before, I'm going
to take you out of Egypt and I'm going to put you right there.
You know how bad he wanted to go in there. Why such a terrible consequence
for smiting the rock a second time? Because that rock was Christ. And Hebrews 10.11 says this,
Every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat
down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified." He had to be offered
but once because by that one offering, he accomplished everything
he offered it to accomplish. It's finished, there's nothing
left to accomplish. Moses, don't smite the rock again.
No, what God told him to do in Numbers 20 and verse 8, he said,
take the rod and gather thou the assembly together, thou and
Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their
eyes. What do you think he said to
the rock? What would you say to Christ
if you wanted what only he could give, if you had a need? The reason they were coming to
the rock was because they had a need. What would you say to
him? Listen to what he says. Speak
ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth
his water. I like that, his water. And thou
shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock, so shalt thou
give the congregation and their beasts drink. The Lord Jesus
Christ has been smitten. He must be smitten. Paul opened and alleged that
Christ must needs have suffered, but he just was smitten once.
And by that one sacrifice for sins forever, he perfected them
that he sanctified with his precious blood. And that's just a simple,
victorious, clear message of Christ's effectual atonement.
That's denied by almost everybody in our day. The Lord Jesus has been smitten.
What's to be done now? Speak to the rock. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Call upon him from your heart
and he shall give forth his water unto you. And whosoever drinks of this
water will never thirst again. That's bowing prayer.