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. There are several lessons in
this first verse that every believer should remember every day, but
we don't. It's so good to be reminded of
these things. Peter said, I'll put you in remembrance
of the things of God as long as I'm here. First of all, the
Lord has saved us from Egypt, and I'm sure these Israelites
were still talking about the plagues and the Red Sea, still
singing songs, don't you imagine, for a while until they got so
thirsty. Before long, the Lord begins
to withhold his water from them for a little while. That's what
happened. We don't usually look at it that way. It wouldn't have
read that way in the papers, would it? It would have said,
Mother Nature's dried up, you know, or something. But God withheld
his water from them. That's what happened. Religion talks about how the
Lord wants you to never get sick and never be deprived of any
luxury. that your heart desires or never
have any trouble in this life. If you do, it's because you don't
have enough faith, they say. They're liars. The Lord deliberately
tries his people. He deliberately withholds his
mercies at times for a good reason. Now think about this now. They went into the wilderness
and found no water for three days. The God who brought them
out of Egypt can make water come out of a rock if that's what
he wants to do. He can make water come out of
a rock and they found no water for three days. Now what happened
here? He arranges it so in his good
purpose of grace toward his people that the ones that he loves,
the ones whose cry he said he heard from heaven when they were
in Egypt and under the affliction and bondage and oppression of
the Egyptians. God said, I heard your cry and
I've come down here to save you. The one who heard them, he deliberately
arranges it so that they go thirsty for three days. Now think about
this. We have to try to enter into
this or we won't learn. Going without food for three
days would be a terrible trial. Going without water for three
days is DEFCON 1. All the bells are ringing and
all the lights are flashing and all the red flags are going up.
Three days without water. So even considering this as any
trial that God sends to his people teaches us that God who loves
us and controls all things for our good considers it good for
us to go thirsty sometimes. That puts a little different
perspective on it, doesn't it? When you're thirsty, it's hard
to realize and understand this. Job didn't understand, did he?
But God deemed it good for you to afflict you. That's what happened. Do we understand that, I wonder,
as we go through this life and suffer some things? Why would it be good for us to
go thirsty? Can you think of any reasons?
I can think of a few from the Word of God, just without really
thinking that hard about it. There are many others, but do
you reckon God would do that to keep us humble? We tend to get high and mighty,
don't we, when we have everything we need. We tend to get independent. You think He would do that to
make us truly thankful for what we do have from God? You think
He would withhold some things to cause us to be thankful for
what He hasn't withheld? So that when He gives water,
we say, oh, thank you, Lord, that water's so good. You think He would afflict us
to keep us leaning on the Lord Jesus Christ? David said in Psalm 119 71 it's
good for me that I've been afflicted that I might learn my statutes
You ever thought about that Experiencing trouble causes us to live and
to know the truths that we know in our head already. I I know by experience. How about
you? Think about this. Do you know
by experience that God is a very present help in trouble? Could you tell somebody that
with conviction? Being confident that you know
that you're right about that? You know, a lot of people have
memorized that verse. It's Psalm 46.1. I know you've
heard that language before. A lot of people memorize that
God is a very present help in trouble. But I've experienced
that Psalm, haven't you? Have you? I'm not just quoting a scripture
if I say that to somebody. I don't know it like a lot of
other people do. And I don't know it like I ought to know
it. I know that. I don't know it like I probably will know
it someday. But I can tell you from my heart,
God's a very present help. when you're in trouble. I'm sure that the Apostle Paul
knew before he had that thorn in the flesh. You remember when
the Lord gave him a thorn in the flesh and he prayed unto
God, he said, I asked the Lord three times to remove that thorn
in the flesh. And God's answer was this. My
grace is sufficient for you. If you would have asked Paul
before he ever had the thorn in the flesh, is God's grace
sufficient for you? He'd have said, oh, yes. But he didn't know it. Not like
he would. God gave him a thorn in the flesh. It caused him to cry out. Caused
him to experience this truth. And after a while, he really
knew that God's grace is sufficient. Because then he'd experienced
it. You see what this is? You have to live a while with
a thorn to really learn it. We know that's right. We believe
in that. But do we believe it? You see what David was saying
now? It's good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might
learn. The statue, learn that word,
learn that truth. Another lesson here, remember
where they are now. They're in the wilderness. That
word is desert. We use the word wilderness for
a lot of, you know, the mountains or the forest. This is a desert
place. And they found no water. That's what a desert is. It's
a place where there's not any water. They've been delivered
from Egypt now, but they're still in the wilderness. And we see
spiritual truth here, don't we? Believers are delivered from
this present evil world right now in the sense that we're not
of this world. The Lord has separated us from
this world. He's taken us out of this world.
He's revealed to us that we're chosen out of this world. We're
not of this world, but we're still walking in the wilderness,
aren't we? We did, in time past, walk according to the course
of this world, in the loss of our flesh, satisfying the desires
of the flesh. But God, who's rich in mercy,
loved us with his great love, and has quickened us together
with Christ. And we're not of this world, and we don't walk
according to this world anymore, but we're still walking in the
world. We're still in the wilderness, delivered from Egypt in a sense,
but we're still here in body. And spiritually speaking, this
desert, there's no water here in this world, is there? It's
a desert place spiritually. Do you see those two words in
the text? No water, no water. Do you find it so in this world?
Do you know that that's right? There's no water here for us. You go out in this world for
a little while without the gospel. It doesn't take long for you
to dry up, does it? Oh, we get so dry so quickly. How can there be water in a desert?
This world is a spiritual desert. It's a wasteland. But how are
we going to find water in a desert? How can the Red Sea stand up
like two walls and create a dry pathway? By God's grace, that's
how, and power. And that's how we'll find water
in the desert. Because the Lord loves us and takes care of us
every step of the way. No, a believer can't survive
long in this world without coming to the rock from which the water
flows. If it wasn't for that rock, God's
people would have starved to death, and that's true now. And this is you and I. I know
that the Lord had not yet given them that rock that followed
them through the wilderness, you know, that Moses was commanded
to smite the rock and water flowed and Millions of people drank
from that rock. But the same principle is taught
here. If a believer is going to have any refreshment in this
world, any life-giving water in this world, he must have it
from the only source. There's just one source. 1 Corinthians
10. 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. They didn't just eat the same
manna and quail, they ate the same spiritual meat. And did
all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that
spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. That's what Paul said. That rock
was Christ. That wasn't just H2O. That was
spiritual drink. And let me say this, spiritually
speaking, that rock still is Christ. He follows us through
the wilderness and gives us sustenance, gives us life, sustains us, refreshes
us. We still drink of the same spiritual
drink from the same rock. Because that rock is Christ. That's what's being taught in
our text, even before that rock was given later. And that water's
Christ. Our sustenance is Christ. Our
life. Christ is teaching his people
this, even then, and as we sit here. Without me, you have nothing,
you are nothing, and you can do nothing. That's why he dried
up the water, to show them where water comes from, to show them
who the water is, who their hope is, who their very life is. All
we have is Christ in this world. We have nothing else. Can you
survive in this world? All we have is Christ and what
we need to learn also is that all we need is Christ. Don't need anything. This world
crucified to us and us to this world, and that's fine. All we need is the Lord Jesus.
God is teaching us this, that as we go through this wilderness,
he still teaches his people that, that we're utterly dependent
upon him for salvation. He's the one that brought us
out of Egypt. If he doesn't hear our cry and come down, we still
going to be in Egypt. And still, as we walk through
this wilderness, we're still just as dependent on him as we
ever were. Verse 23. When they came to Merah, they
could not drink of the waters of Merah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was
called Merah, which means bitter. Can you imagine this scene, though,
when they first came upon this water? Three days thirsty, and
there's water. There's water. There might have been a mad dash
to the edge of the water, don't you imagine? But, sadly, it could not do for
them what water does. It could not quench their thirst. It could not sustain life. They
could not drink of it. And this is us and all mankind
by nature, particularly in false religion. And everybody's religious
somehow or another. We look like water, don't we?
We look like what we're supposed to be, what we ought to be. False religion promises quenching
and life, but they can't deliver. You remember when our Lord went
up to that fig tree in Matthew 21, 8? It says, now in the morning as
he returned into the city, he was hungry. Our Lord Jesus Christ
was hungry. And when he saw a fig tree in
the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only. You reckon he knew that before
he came up to it? He's teaching us something here.
He's teaching his disciples then something. Teaching us something
now. There was nothing but leaves on him. He said unto it, let
no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. And presently the fig
tree withered away. That's a picture now. He's teaching
the same truth there that he's teaching here in our text. As
we are by nature, we may put on a good show. And as I said,
religion gives the appearance of having something good. This
tree was a fig tree. It was identifiable as a fig
tree, but it didn't have any figs on it. It was useless. It had leaves. I'm sure the leaves
look good. It withered away after the Lord
cursed it, but before the leaves were probably plush and green. but it had no sustenance. And
this is us by nature. And as I said, particularly false
religion. Listen to Jude 12. In the book
of Jude, the ones that are described there, he said they've crept
in unawares. They've come into the church.
They've presented themselves in God's church as something
they are not. And listen to the language of
it. He said, these are spots in your feasts of charity. And
when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear, they
have no sense of awe or dread that they're playing church before
God and that they're deceiving people, that they're a bane to
the people of God. There ought to be a dread to
defy the holy God, but they don't care. They don't have any fear.
Clouds they are without water. carried about of winds, trees
whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the
roots. That you see the parallel between
this and these waters. There's water. Can you imagine
the shout that went up in the camp? There's water. Our thirst
is going to be quenched. And they went to it and it was
worthless. You couldn't do anything for them. Clouds give the promise
of rain, a farmer whose crops are dry. What's he looking for?
He's looking for clouds. But these clouds that Jude describes
have no water. They give the promise of blessing
and life, but they have none. And you see how that's us. We're
hypocrites. We pretend to be something that
we're not by nature. We sing, oh how I love Jesus,
and we hate him in our hearts. We may look sweet, but we're
bitter. Second Peter 2.17, Peter described the same thing here. This is the reprobate, but that's
what we all, by nature, we all, by nature, are children of wrath.
These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with
a tempest. to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever,
for when they speak great swelling words of vanity. Now listen to
what he's saying. Turn over there real quick if
you want to. I don't want to be long tonight, but I want you
to look at that in 2 Peter 2.17, because here's the parallel just
plainly drawn out. When he says wells without water,
I've told you what he's talking about, but look at it. I didn't
make it up. It's right here in the words. They're wells without
water, like clouds without water. What's a well for? It's for holding
water. That's all a well is good for.
It's for holding water, so when you're thirsty, you can come
get you a drink. What's a well without water? It's a waste of
space, that's what it is. And that's us, by nature. They're
wells without water, 2 Peter 2.17. clouds that are carried with
a tempest to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever
for when they speak great swelling words of vanity they allure through
the lusts of the flesh what's a well to somebody that's thirsty
it's alluring isn't it there's a well let's go get some they
allure through much wantonness those that were clean escape
from them who live in error look at verse 19 while they promise
them liberty. They can't deliver on it. They
themselves are the servants of corruption. Servants of corruption
can't give you liberty. They can talk about it now. They
can talk about coming down the front and you'll be saved. No,
you won't. That's a well without water. Now this is all of us by nature.
God made us for his glory, for his pleasure, and we've got nothing
to give. Nothing to give. But there is a way that we can be made something
that we're not by nature. We can be absolutely, utterly,
eternally, radically changed. verse 24, and the people murmured
against Moses saying, what shall we drink? One more word on our
problem before we talk about the remedy. This is us here also
in our sin nature murmuring against Moses, which God said in another
place, he said, they're murmuring against you, but they're not,
it's not you they have a problem with. They're murmuring against
me. They're murmuring against God. That's who That's what all
murmuring is against God. Did you know that? If God's on
the throne and you're complaining about something, you're complaining
about Him. This is our sin nature now. We
complain about our problems and blame God when we ourselves are
the problem. We complain about the bitterness
and we are the bitterness. Every problem we have really
is us. You know that, don't you? Why
were they in a desert to begin with? Anybody? You have to go way back to answer
that question. God put man in a garden when
he made him. What are we doing in the desert? Verse 25. in our text. And he cried unto the Lord. Have you ever? Now this is going
to sound like an unnecessary question, but
think about it now. Be honest with yourself. Have
you ever cried unto the Lord? And the reason I ask you that
is because if you haven't cried, you haven't prayed. You just
haven't. This business about having a
little talk with Jesus, that's profane. That's profane. Prayer is the expression of a
real need with the understanding that only God can provide that
need And it's done in worship of Him who hath supplied all
of our needs. He's crying to the one that delivered
them from Egypt. He's crying unto the one that
brought them through the Red Sea. He's crying unto the one
that destroyed every enemy they had right before their eyes. We got to have water, Lord. Got
to have water. We do it in worship of him who
has supplied all of our names with thanksgiving for all that
he's already done That's what prayer It's a cry Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the lord shall be saved You know how you call upon the
name of the lord I'll tell you how you don't do
it. You don't do it by repeating a prayer after someone that somebody
else wrote at the front of a church. That's not how you do it. You
know that. He called upon the name of the
Lord. You're calling upon the God of
all grace and saying, I need grace. You're calling upon the
merciful God and saying, I need mercy. You're calling on the
God who made all the water there is and dispenses it as he pleases
and saying, I need some water, Lord. Will you give me some water? You see what I'm saying? He called
upon Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. And the Lord showed him a tree. What did the Lord show you when
you called upon him? Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the tree. He showed me himself. He showed
me how he can be just and justify me through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus. He showed me the precious blood
of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot with
which I was redeemed from all of my sin. He showed me a tree. Have you been showed the tree
by God Almighty? And he cast the tree into the
water and that which was bitter, defiled, useless, a mockery to
God's people, and unable to fulfill the purpose for which it was
made. But he cast in the tree, and the water became sweet. The tree was cast in. Christ
in you is the hope of glory. By nature, we're fig trees with
no figs on them. But now listen to the word of
our Lord Jesus Christ. John 15 8. Herein is my father
glorified that you bear much fruit. Fig tree without figs on it by
nature. But he said my father is going
to be glorified because you're going to bear much fruit. So
shall you be my disciples. How in the world are we going
to bear any fruit? We just read verse 8 of John
15, in verse 5 the Lord said, I am the vine and you're the
branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, you
can do nothing. That's how we bear fruit. We
abide in the Lord Jesus Christ, the vine. The tree changes us. A revelation
of the tree to be shown the tree by God changes us and makes us
what we are not by nature. And the tree does something else.
Now it changes us. We're the water in a sense. But
here's here's another lesson here. The tree does something
else. The waters of Mara were the waters
with which God will quench his people's thirst. They're going
to drink that water and they're going to be fully satisfied by
drinking that water. But notice these words in verse
23 back in our text, they could not drink the waters of Merah. God going to quench their thirst
with those waters. But as they were before the tree
was shown, they can't drink of them. They can't drink of it.
And again, this is us by nature. We hear the gospel, that by which the tree is revealed. The Lord said, come unto me and
drink and live. We hear that gospel, but we hear
it with dead ears and the water's bitter to us. We cannot drink
of it. We cannot drink of it. But once
God shows us the tree, and Christ crucified is revealed
unto our very souls, the water not just drinkable after that,
it's sweet. It's sweet. Can you imagine how they drank? Once the tree was revealed and
cast into the water, can you imagine how they drank? Do we drink like that? David said, as a heart panteth
after the water brooks, so my soul thirsteth after the living
God. Are we hypocrites or can we really
say that? Sometimes I wonder, do you? The tree had been there all along. It wasn't far. When they walked up to Mara there
and saw the waters, I'm sure that their eyes probably glanced
across that tree. But the Lord had to show it to
Moses. He had to show it to him. In
verse 25, it says that in our text, and he'll have to show
it to you as well. He'll have to show it to you. The tree you see can only be
seen by revelation. Everybody knows that somebody
named Jesus died on a cross. But if God's going to make that
which is bitter sweet unto you, he will reveal unto you the one
who died on that cross, why he died, and what he accomplished
when he died. You see, that's what Paul's talking
about when he says, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's not talking about a piece
of wood, you know that, or a piece of jewelry, Some statue out in
front of a church or in a church. He's talking about what happened
on that cross. He's talking about the one who hung there. He's
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ crucified. The same message
that he said, this is what I preach. Christ crucified. That's the
cross. That's the message of the cross.
He preached the offense of the cross. He preached the glory
of the cross. and said, God, don't let me glory
in anything else but the cross. When he had to be revealed, the
cross had to be revealed to Paul just like it did Moses. The truth of God, how God saves
a sinner, how God can be just and justify a wretch like you,
got to be revealed, got to be revealed. Everybody knows, you know, about
the event. But few know the person. And
know the purpose. Know the power of His cross. God will have to show you that.
He'll have to show you. And then one last picture in
this water. It represents our sin problem as a whole. The water's
up. What changed when God showed
us the tree? We did. What else changed? Our perspective on the gospel.
Paul said, you teach now, Timothy, you teach those that oppose themselves.
If peradventure, God will grant a repentance and then they'll
say, that's the truth. What I've been hating and rejecting
and opposing all my life. What was foolishness to me before?
That's the truth. I couldn't drink before. But
now I can't get enough. He said it'll be a well of water
springing up in you. He that drinketh this water will
never thirst again. Never thirst again. And then
what else, Chad? This is a picture of our whole
sin problem. We need water. We've got to have
water. And we can't find any, and we
can't produce any. You're not going to find what
you need. I know that they put the bumper sticker on there that
says, I found it. I don't know what they found, but it wasn't
God's water. You're not going to find it. You're not going
to find it. He's going to have to show it
to you. That's different. That's not you finding it. That's
Him showing it to you. God gets the glory there, doesn't
He? You didn't find anything. You're not going to find it,
and you can't produce it. There again, let's just fan the
spark into a flame. You don't have a spark, and if
you did, you've got no strength to fan it. We're dead now. Our sin trouble is dire, desperate
trouble. And we're gonna be shut up to
the mercy of God in this, just like they were. That's the last
picture here. We shut up to the mercy of God. We got to have water, and we
can't find any water We're blind as a bat. If there was water
right there, we wouldn't know it was there. And we can't produce any water.
And when the water is presented to us, we can't drink of it. What's the remedy? God showed
him a tree. It's the same now as it was then. The tree, once the tree, the
one who died there, the just for the unjust that he might
bring us to God and what he accomplished there. He obtained eternal redemption
for us there. Once he is applied to our problem,
we no longer have any problem. Our sins are washed away and
we're righteous in the sight of the Holy God because of Christ
crucified. the tree. And he reveals that
truth to us. This is the same story that's
told in all of God's Word of our desperate need of the
mercy of God in providing that need and how he provides, how
he saves, how he gives life, who is life, It's the same story
all through God's Word told over and over again as we've seen
going through God's Word. It's the ancient, glorious news of God's free grace
in Christ. Ancient and yet more sweet every
time we hear it. Let's bow in prayer. Gracious Father, bless this truth to our hearts,
to the glory of our Lord Jesus. We know our tendency just to just to kind of go through the
motions. We know that without you, we
can do nothing. We can hear nothing. These words will be empty and
meaningless to us unless you, by your Holy Spirit, open our
hearts and cause them to ring in our hearts and cause us to believe. Give us, Lord, an understanding
of who you are and just what happened on that tree. The boundless mercy displayed
there. Your holy justice satisfied there for our scene. The love that you have for us put on display
there. Show us the tree, Lord. Again. To the glory of our Lord Jesus.
And God forbid, Lord, as Paul asked you so many years ago,
we ask the same. God forbid that we glory in anything
else. except our Lord crucified, risen and reigning for our good. Bless this church, Lord, and use us for that glory, the
glory of your son. In his name we pray, amen. Amen.