Bitter Waters of Marah

Now then, let me read verse 23,
24, 25 of Exodus, chapter 15. I'll give you this time. And
when they came to Merah, they could not drink the waters of
Merah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was
called Merah. And the people murmured against
Moses, saying, what shall we drink? And he cried unto the
Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast
into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There it was made
for them a statue and an ordinance, and there it proved them. This
15th chapter of the book of Exodus has been a real blessing in my
heart and I rejoice in the song of Moses. I have been blessed
greatly by my meditation upon the song which they sang after
they had been delivered from the Egyptians, upon the mighty
arm of the Lord, as they crossed the Red Sea on dry land, and
the army of Pharaoh, his chariots, his horsemen, his captains, were
all destroyed in the water. But after this great victory
and this great deliverance of the Lord, we find that they went
into the wilderness, I'm sure, and they went three days, this
is in verse 22, in the wilderness and they found no water. They found no water and come
to a great trial in their experience. And I believe that we are to
learn a lesson. from this that many times right
after a great deliverance, many times after a great time of victory
in the heart and life of God's children, many times after an
answer to prayer or when the Lord has manifested himself to
you and drawn up very near to you and has greatly strengthened
your faith and confidence, Then right on the very back of that
comes a very serious and very difficult trial. And this is
exactly what we have here this morning, the children of Israel
in three days after the Red Sea deliverance. comes to a place
in the wilderness, and they have found no water, and they come
here to Merah, and they could not drink of the waters of Merah,
for they were bitter. Here they are, very thirsty,
and very thirsty, and they come to these waters, and they're
not able to drink. Now I'd like to say concerning
the great trials that people of God have That there's something
that I just like to impart to you at the outset this morning
being that we should be talking about the trials of God's people
and the test of God's people and all this morning I'd like
to say that trial and jubilation are not the end of the Lord in
the life of God's people I know sometimes we think that trials
and the Lord humiliating us, humbling us, grinding us low,
that it must be the end of the Lord. This must be what God has
in mind. This must be the end of the Lord.
But if you would look with me quickly in the book of James,
Here in the book of James chapter 5, I read in verse 11 these words,
and this is a blessing to me. It says, Behold, we count them
happy which endures. Ye have heard of the patience
of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is
very pitiful and of tender mercy. Now, the end of the war is not
trial and humiliation for his people, but it is in order that
he might reveal his pity and his mercy and his kinder heartedness
toward us in giving us and blessing our latter end. Now, the wilderness,
and when I talk about the wilderness, because you understand, what
the wilderness meant literally for the children of Israel. It
was their place of their wandering, it was the place of their pilgrimage. But the wilderness for you and
I is our lives as God's people, as we make our pilgrimage through
this world, through this world as we find it here in our day
and time. Now the wilderness may, and it
will make manifest the weakness of the saints of God, and He'll
make manifest their failures. But this is only to magnify the
power and mercy of Him who has brought us to the place of testing,
who has put us into the wilderness journey. It's to magnify, I say,
the power and the mercy of Him who brought us into this place.
Now God has brought us into the place where we find ourselves
this morning. And God has in view our ultimate
well-being. He is not just out to crush us.
He is not just out to force us down and to press us down. This is not God's end. God's end is to do us good. God's end is to manifest Himself. Now God's purpose in leading
his people through the wilderness was and is not only that he might
try and prove them, but that in the trial he might exhibit
what he is for them in delivering them and bearing with their failures
and supplying all their needs. Now this is God's purpose in
that. God's purpose is not only to show you your weaknesses and
failures in your trials, but it's also to manifest and to
exhibit what He is for you. What it is that He is doing for
you in delivering you and finally bringing you into the promised
land. Now then, just that word, I wanted
to give you that word because I think sometimes that when we
are a fresh soul, sometimes when we are greatly and severely tested,
that we get the idea in our minds that the Lord is just out to
crush us, and that he's just out to humiliate us and to bring
us low. But that's not all of it, and
I've tried to explain that to you this morning, that in our
pilgrimage, we will have that. But we also will see the power
of God, we'll see the mercy and goodness of God, and we'll see
His grace greatly bestowed upon us, and see His help, and see
His long-suffering patience toward us. Now let me begin my message
on these three verses today. and I'm talking about the Bitterwater
Suite. That's the title of the message
this morning. The Bitterwater Suite. And I like to say at the
outset that the children of Israel after the flesh were atypical
people. The dealings of God with them
were typical and figurative of his dealings with the spiritual
Israel. Now when I speak of the spiritual
Israel, I'm talking about the living family of God. I'm talking
about God's elect people. I'm talking about believers in
Jesus Christ. I'm talking about those who have
hope and who have trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when we're
able to see this, when we're able to see that the children
of Israel, after the flesh, that they were typical people and
that the dealings of God were typical and figurative of His
dealings with the spiritual Israel, I believe that we can then read
the Old Testament with an enlightened eye, that we can read the Old
Testament and that we can see in them our own features and
read in the stories of the Old Testament the dealings of God
with them the dealings of God with our own soul. We can see
what God is doing spiritually in the lives of His own people.
Now the Lord dealt with them outwardly, He deals with His
spiritual Israel inwardly. Now let me explain this if I
can. Now, their stay in Egypt prior
to their having been brought out of Egypt, this typified the
death and the darkness of the people of God before they're
quickened by the Holy Spirit, before they're brought out of
sin into the liberty and life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
the Paschal Lamb, which you people are familiar with, spoken of
in the 12th chapter of the Book of Exodus, of which they partook,
and the blood sprinkled upon the little messiahs showed forth
the redemption of Jesus Christ and the application of his precious
blood to the soul. Now I'm explaining here how that
the outward dealings of God with Israel, how that it typifies
his inward dealings with his spiritual people. Now then, the
passing through the Red Sea signifies the baptism where they were baptized. We see that when they went into
the waters, they came through the waters, the waters were on
both sides of them, and they passed through the water, and
scripture speaks in the New Testament of this being a baptism. They
were all baptized unto Moses in the sea. And they're seeing
their enemies, that is the Egyptians, when the Egyptians are saying
we'll do the same thing. Children of Israel have it through
on dry ground, and the Egyptians said we'll do the same thing.
It's like the scripture we read here this morning said, we will
fulfill our lust. On them, we'll take our sword
and destroy them. And they pursued the Jehovah's
Witnesses into the waters. And God with his hostiles blew
upon the waters. And the waters came over the
Egyptians and covered them. And their bodies came to the
surface and floated over to the side. And when the Jehovah's
Witnesses looked upon their enemies dead upon the seashore, this
signified the retorsing of a child of God and finally his sins have
been cast into the sea and that they've been buried there. Now
there's an old poem that I love this poem. I mean it's been a
great blessing to me and I'd like to share it with you because
here is what we see for the spiritual Israel. We see in these dead
bodies on the shore, along the bank of the Egyptians, we see
our sins that have been cast into the depths of the sea. Listen
to the words of this old poet. I will cast into the depths of
the fathomless sea, all thy sin and transgression, whatever they
be. Though they go up to heaven,
though they go down to hell, they shall sink into the depths
And above them shall swell all thy waves of forgiveness, so
mighty, so free. I will cast all your sin into
the depths of the sea, into deep silent depths far away from the
shore, where they never rise up to trouble no more, where
no war-reaching tide with its pitiless sweep may stir the dark
waves of forgetfulness deep. I have buried them there, where
no mortal shall see. I have cast all your sins into
the depths of the sea." Now then, God has dealt that way with the
spiritualism. He's cast our sins into the depths
of the sea. But now let's come here to the
message here of the text this morning. I believe that the children
of God, the children of Israel, they literally expected that
Jehoiachin would come immediately. They did not believe that the
Lord could be so merciful and kind and deliver them with such
a great deliverance. And then such a heavy trial would
come upon them so quickly. Now, what was this trial? Well,
in verse 22, you find that they found the water. That was the
trial. That was indeed the trial. Now, in this human climate, We
can scarcely conceive what a violation this must have been to be without
water for three days. No water to drink, no water to
wash with, and this was a vast multitude amounting to about
two million people that had been brought out, brought through
the Red Sea by Moses and the power of God, and they were wandering
here in a barren desert A scorching sun above and sand beneath. Men,
women, and children, cattle, they were all dying for thirst.
Three days they had no water. They had found no water. But
then water is discovered. Somebody sees this group of palm
trees and sees as they look down upon it the glittering and shining
of a pool of water. And I believe that there was
great joy that must have filled the camp as this great host of
men and women and children and cattle as they were going along
when they found this water. They could see it down below
them. And they could, as they got to
the pier, there's somebody that probably came first, ran ahead,
and they said that we cannot drink this water. We cannot drink
this water. Because the waters were bitter
and brackish and they could not drink the water. Well, what did
they do? Well, what you and I no doubt
would have done, verse 24, it tells us, and the people murmured.
And the people murmured against Colesus, saying, what shall we
drink? Well, they murmured against Colesus
for bringing them out of Egypt. They had very short memories,
and they forgot their bondage, I'm sure, but they murdered against
Moses. They were up against this great
trial, and they murdered against Moses because he drove them out
of Egypt where they had the beautiful Nile River. And they had now
run the wilderness with all the privations of the wilderness,
and so they murdered. Well, what did Moses do? Did
he encourage their murdering or take part in their rebellion? No. He did what every child of
God must sooner or later do. Look in verse 25. And it says,
and he cried unto the Lord. He cried unto the Lord. Well,
did he cry in vain? No. Was the Lord God for all
but not a man? Was his hand shortened? that
it could not save or if you're heavy that it could not hear
no God heard him when he cried and the same almighty arm that
had brought them through the Red Sea found a way of escape
in this situation he found a way to deliver them in this situation
and the Lord in verse 25 look at it here in the second part
of the verse And the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had
cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. So the Lord
showed him a tree, which he cast into the waters here. Now below
this morning there are four things that I want to share with you
that I find in this portion of the Word of God. There's four
things that I want to talk a little bit about. And number one is
the bitter waters of Mary. Number two is the murderings
of the people. Number three is the cry of Moses. And number four is the healing
of the walkers. I want to talk about those four
things. in the time that it's allowed
to be this morning. Now, in looking at the waters
of merit, and that'll be our first topic this morning, it
seems that we have to consider two things. Number one, what
these waters spiritually and typically represent. Number two,
what is meant by the bitterness of these waters. Now, I want
to make this statement. I believe it's a good statement.
Arthur Pink made this statement, and I wrote it down, and I want
you to listen to what it says. The first stage in our journey
must proclaim to us, as to Israel, what the true nature of the journey
is. It is Merah. It is Merah. It is the waters of Merah. Now,
the word Merah means bitterness. That's what the word means. It
means bitterness. Now, in beginning to open up
what these waters spiritually typically represent, I'd like
to call to your attention a couple of scriptures. Number one, if
you would turn to the book of Ruth, the book of Ruth this morning,
chapter 1 and verse 20. I want to, in opening up this
and showing you where I get what I'm saying about these bitter
waters of Pharaoh, I want to show you the scriptures that
leads me to this conclusion. In the book of Ruth, I read from
the first chapter there of the book of Ruth, that Ruth and her
husband had went into oil because there had been a famine. in Bethlehem,
and they went into Moab there to stay a while. And they stayed,
I suppose, better than ten years in that country. And in that
time, Neoma was her husband, and she had two sons. And her
husband died, and her two sons were married, and her two sons
also died. And so Naomi would go back to
Bethlehem, Judah. And so her daughter-in-law, who
was very close to her, they would go with her. And she tried to
discourage them to stay there in Moab. But they would not,
where one of them did stay, but Ruth went along with her. And when they got back, over
to Bethlehem, Judah. We read in verse 19 of Ruth 1,
So they, too, went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came
to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city
was moved about them, and they said, Is this the omen? Is this
the omen? And she said unto them, Call
me not Naomi. Now, the word Naomi means pleasant.
Call me not Naomi. Call me Mara. And the word Mara
means bitter. Call me bitter, for the Almighty
hath dealt very bitterly with me, and I went out full, and
the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye
me the old me, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and
the old Mary hath afflicted me? And so I get from this that Naomi,
she understands the meaning, the Hebrew word mera means bitter. She said, don't call me pleasant
anymore, but call me bitter. Call me mera. Now then also,
if you would, turn to the book of Job, chapter 27. The book
of Job, chapter 27. And let me look with you this morning, I
wanted to hear it says moreover Joe continued his parable and
said as God lives Who have taken away my judgment and the all-mighty
who hath vexed my soul now the word vexed here is the same word
in Hebrew and the word means made my soul bitter and The Lord
hath made my soul bitter. The Lord hath done this. Now,
I want you to remember that both Naomi and Job here, and I believe
this is a fair conclusion of what they've said, that they
felt that the Lord was responsible for their bitterness. They felt
that the Lord had brought them into a very state of situation
conditions which were better to their soul, and they recognized
the hand of God in it. They recognized that the Lord
had brought them into this place. Now, these waters, to my mind,
these waters over in Exodus, chapter 15, these waters, to
my mind at least, denote things in themselves that are perfectly
suitable and adapted to our national constitution and yet things that
are invigorated by sin. Invigorated by sin. Now, by the
bitterness that is in these waters, my understanding is sin and its
necessary consequence. Never failing attendant to sin
is sorrow and grief. and affliction. Now, I want you
to follow me now as I try to send forth some things here to
you this morning that I believe that will be of help to you.
I wish you this morning that there had been a time in my life
I had never heard anybody preach a message like this. I never
heard anybody expand on these three verses out of the book
of Exodus. And I want you to understand
that there is a soul meaning, that there is a soul truth here
that you need to have in your heart. And if you would go on
through this world, and if you would have any sort of help on
your way in your pilgrimage, I believe it's necessary for
you to understand these verses this morning that we're dealing
with. Now then, I want you to know
that God created this world and He pronounced it very good. The
waters then were sweet. The waters were sweet. Man in
his primitive entity was adapted to the world in its original
purity. Man was adapted to that. But
sin entered into the world, and did not sin. Satan was allowed
to cast bitterness into these waters which God Almighty had
made. and we're pure and ever since
sin and sorrow has invigorated all the circumstances of life. Beloved there inside, we know
that sin has invaded and that sin has invigorated everything. It has impinged the circumstances
of life. Let me illustrate this if I can
this morning. First of all, think of the world,
if you will, and I believe that this world is fair even in the
ruins. I believe that God made this
world, and I believe His creation is beautiful, and I believe it's
glorious to look upon. And I also believe that there
is natural beauty. Even though that this world has
been shattered by the fall, there is a natural beauty which is
unsurpassed. There is a tremendous beauty
in what God has made. But though outwardly lovely,
sin has marred everything. This world has a curse upon it,
and the curse has been placed upon this creation of God by
sin and the cause of sin. Now if you would think of a city,
I believe this is a good way to illustrate it, and this city
is sitting in a beautiful valley. And you come over, maybe a mountain,
and there down below you is this beautiful city laid out in this
valley. And you would think, well, if
there's any place on earth where there can be happiness, there
must be innocency and happiness in that beautiful village there. But beloved, I say to you this
morning that if you were to go beneath the surface, if you were
to penetrate beneath the surface of that beautiful city that's
sprawled out there in that valley, you would find that it's but
a den of drunkenness, it's but a den of violence, it's but a
den of immorality, it is a den of sin! because of the fact that
there's not a country, there's not a town, there's not a village,
there's not a family, there's not a person in which sin is
not, in which sin is absent. Every man has sin in his heart. Every town, every country is
cursed by this thing of sin, and sin has engendered everything. Now, let me go on a little bit.
I'm trying to illustrate my point, and that is, now, for example,
think of your long occupation in life. Think of your job. Think
of your business. Think of your farm, your hauling,
the way in which you earn your daily bread. Think of this. Now,
these are streams of water that are necessary to your actual
existence. I'm talking about your local occupation. And yet,
sin and sorrow impede all. Disappointment and vexation. Temptation. Loyalty. Meanness. Everything that you set your
hand to. So, if you would select your
thirst at these streams, For example, if you would slap your
thirst and say, I'm living from a job. That's what I'm doing.
I'm living from a farm. I'm living from a business. And
I get my pleasure out of my business, out of my calling. I get my pleasure
out of business. These are waters of miracles,
and if you're a child of God, you will find that these are
bitter waters, and that you cannot drink, you cannot be satisfied
by the drinking of these waters. And I do not believe, according
to my experience, that you can carry on your woeful calling
without some sin. being intermingled therewith.
I believe that sin will enter in. I don't mean open and allowed
sin, but sin will interfere, and it will intrude, and it will
prevent, and it will work its way in, and there will be bitterness. And if yet not sin, there will
be some sorrow and disappointment attached to your job and to your
calling. Now, there'll be nothing in conscience
against you carrying out your daily business and your concerns,
Yet there will be losses and crosses, bad debts, disappointments,
and vexation from other people. And thus, when you would drink
from this cup, this cup, beloved, is full of bitterness. It's full
of bitterness. Now, look at the relations of
life. Consider a young couple. getting married, how happy they
are. They never dream of trouble and
sorrow. They never think that there's going to be any problems. They never think ahead. And I
suppose that there was probably a reception here last night,
maybe even a wedding, I don't know. But it appears that they
got drunk before they left and didn't even take the vehicles
with them. But I want to say this to you this morning, that
most of the time when young people get married, they don't have
any idea of anything but happiness to follow. And all this white
gold's in, but let them live just a few years, let them have
some children, get in the middle of life. Mutual brothers to each
other become mutual legs to one another. Friends who once seemed
so true turn into enemies. Relatives from whom we should
expect every kindness go cold and hostile toward us. So all
these domestic relations in various instances are marred and embittered
by sin or sorrow. So that when, like the children
of Israel, we would shoot down and drink at these sources of
happiness, and they would be sources of happiness, but for
the marred state of the world, that sin, which are in men's
hearts, we cannot drink the waters, they are embittered. They are
bitter waters. And let me explain further. And
so that the human body, and I'd like to say a word or two about
that, God made Adam healthy, just as He made the soul pure. But when sin entered into the
soul, sickness also came into the body. How many of God's people
have their lives in bitter through ill health, and all their prospects
are broken up, and they're disappointed, and they're crushed, and thrown
down by a load of illness and bodily ailments. Now, here are
brothers of Mary. sorrow, vexation, bitterness,
disappointment, more of everything so that we cannot dream of the
otherwise streams because they're different. They're America. And
might I say it's a mercy, I suppose, that we cannot, because could
we drink them? We would never want other waters.
We would never want to drink of that river which makes glad
the city of God, if we could drink of all of those waters
that I referred to and mentioned here this morning, which I said
are America. They're America. Beloved, if we could take our
fill of earthly comfort and worldly happiness, we would never want
the constellations of the blessed spirit of God to break out of
the folds of the Lord Jesus Christ. We never want to. We never have
any appetite. We never have any thirst for
these things, which is very disappointing to have bitterness in everything,
isn't it? Very disappointing. Especially those things on which
we would derive the most pleasure, we look for the most pleasure.
It's very disappointing to find that they're bitter ones, and
that they're not satisfying. Well, folks, I believe we're
looking for some worldly happiness. As in children of Israel, we're
looking for what? I believe we are. And yet, no sooner do we
come to that scene of anticipated pleasure than we find it in bitterness. We find something disappointing,
something sorrowful, something vexation, or a vexation or a
devouring, some sin. I say sin bars everything. and is this pleasing? No, it's
not pleasing. This don't go down very easy.
At least it don't go down very easy with me. I don't know how
it goes down with you. Well, praise be given to the
second thing, and that's the murmuring of the rebellious flesh
against these dispensations. When the Lord has come present
to bless and smile upon the soul, it's very hard to handle the
trials of life without murmuring against it. There is a salt of
hand, my brother and sister. I don't know whether that's your
experience or not, but that's my experience. When it seems
that God will not let you even have a board, and I'm referring
now to Jonah. And you remember he went out
and got on that board when the sun was up, and just a little
while after that, he wilted and fell over. And when God won't
even allow you to have a board to rejoice in, that you cannot
sit down and say, now I'm going to have a little bit of rest.
And God will not allow that. Is it not very vexatious and
very disappointing and very contrary to every feeling or natural heart
that the Lord will never let us take comfort in anything but
Himself? Isn't that rather disappointing to the flesh? That the Lord will
let you take comfort in anything but Himself? And He shuts you
up to it and shuts down everything and says, now the only thing
you will ever have to come to is Him? And if you want to be
comforted, it's going to have to be in me, because your relatives,
and because of your family situation, and because of your sin, because
of your job, and because of your body, and its afflictions, and
ailments, and anything, you're going to be able to take any
comfort in with the Lord. Now, is that disappointing? Would
you rebel against that? Would you pray against that?
Well, these people, of course, they pray, and they murmur. Well,
when we stretch forth our arms to embrace the earth of joy,
we find that it suddenly snaps from our hands. So we learn,
when things go wrong in business, in ill health, in family, of
that continual cross that we're called upon to bear. But must
I leave the living family of God there? Must they stay there
in that state of rebellion, in that state of disappointment? Must they stay there? No. That
brings me to the third thing. And this is what a living soul
sooner or later must do. Moses cried unto the Lord. Now
what it says there in the book of, uh, in our text there this
morning, it says that Moses cried unto the Lord. This is what he
did when he found here that there was this water was bitter. Scripture
says verse, uh, uh... twenty-five well we do this do
we not we don't have anyone else to go to i mean when we find
the disappointment of everything around us and we find that everything
is getting better and we find trouble every way we look and
it is true regardless of what the philosophers say that a man
is born of a woman is born into trouble in this a few days after
full trouble And so, beloved, it ought not to be so, but I'm
afraid it is, that we only cry to God when we find that the
waters are bitter. And until we find it, we're generally
pretty well comfortable in just going along our own way and satisfying
ourselves to the best we can. in this world, but whenever we
find that the waters are bigger, then we begin to call upon the
Lord. Now, when we come to the waters of Mecca, disappointment,
the place of disappointment, there is, first of all, I believe
there's a struggle, and then the murmuring comes on, and then
there's a rebelling in our hearts, and we get hard, and we get uncomfortable,
and very hard with everything. But in tender mercy, the Lord
is pleased to raise up a sigh and a cry in soul when we come
to that place. Now, the grace of God enables
us to cry unto the Lord. Now, trials themselves will not
raise up prayer in the soul. They will crush prayer. Now, you listen to me here. Every
word. In the belly of hell itself,
where Jonah found himself, The only prayer that we would have
in our hearts the whole night would be the prayer that God
himself would bring in our hearts. Because we wouldn't be inclined
to pray, we wouldn't be inclined to murmur and complain, we wouldn't
be inclined to cry out and curse. God in heaven swear at our situation. That's what we put in nature.
We'd be inclined to do that. But if there were a prayer in
our hearts, in the belly of hell, I say it would be a prayer. Born
of the spirit of God in our heart, if there was a true prayer there.
Afflictions, without the grace of God, only stupefy, only harm
you. They only deaden the soul. Now,
you can just think with me a little bit. I know there's some people
that say, well, when I get a little bit older and my health fails,
I'll worship the Lord. I'll pray to God. I'll be a brave
person when I get older and when I get afflicted like my grandparents
and so on and so forth. I'll be a brave man. I'll be
a brave woman. That's not so. It's not so. I
want to tell you this, that afflictions stupefy pardon and deaden the
soul. It's the grace of God that causes
there to be a sigh in the heart, a crying to God. It's of the
grace of God. How blessed it is to find a little
submission. In these times of rebellion,
in these times when we've come up against the block wall, when
we've come up against the bitterness that's in life, when we've come
up against the afflictions of life, what a blessing it is to
find a prayer in the heart. to find a sigh in the heart,
a looking along, a hungry, a thirst, a waiting upon the Lord. How
wonderful it is, beloved, to come to where we can cry unto
God facing the bitterness of life. Now the scripture says
that he that seeks shall find, he that asks shall receive, and
him that mocketh it shall be opened. Is it not a mercy to
have God to go to? But is it also not a mercy to
have a heart to go to God? I believe it is. Because, beloved,
I'll tell you, there's an awful lot of people that are in the
very grip of affliction and bitterness who never go to God, who never
look to God. Is it, and I believe it is, an
inestimable fate not only to have a broken breast, but to
have grace to go this long. I believe there's a great mercy
in that, brother, a great mercy in that. It's not only a blessing
that there's a mercy seed, but that there is a mercy that reaches
my heart to bring me there. I think that's a mercy seed.
A wonderful mercy seed. I pray that the soul will in
due time be a presence in the soul. And I think we're going
to find that right here. But now that brings me down to
the fourth point, and that is the healing of the waters. Look
here in verse 25. This is the part I've been trying
to get to all along. This is the part that I wanted
to get to. This is the message right here that I believe is
very important. And he cried unto the Lord, and
the Lord showed him a tree. The Lord showed him a tree, and
when he had cast it into the waters, the waters were made
sweet. Now, the reason why I rejoice
so much in this part of the message is because this is the energy. This is the cure for bitter waters. This is what must, what we must,
this is the pattern, this is the way in which we must go if
we would have the bitter waters of life sweeping. Now then, what
must we do? Must we dig an inch out of these
bitter waters and drain them off? No. No, that's not the thing. There must be a healing of the
waters. No need to throw away the waters. The waters must be
healing. Now, I say that, that I mean
that you cannot, you cannot drain off the bitter waters. You can't
do that. I mean, there's no way that you're going to get out
of this world without encountering matter. You're going to come
to matter in your building. You're going to come there, and
you're going to be thirsty, and you're going to be alone, and
looking for something, and you're going to come to matter, and
you're going to look at it, and you're going to taste it, but
it ain't going to be right. And it ain't going to taste right,
and it won't go down, and it's not right. Listen to me. and are extinct. Three days into
the wilderness, you're going to find water and you're going
to be thirsty, but you're not ever going to be able to slip
your thirst in these waters. These waters, you can't drain
them off. You can't get rid of them. They've
got to be eaten. They've got to be eaten. Now, how are they going to be
eaten? Well, the Lord showed him a tree. The Lord showed him
a tree. Now, this tree, beloved, I'd
like to say this morning is this tree, and I can prove this by
the scripture. It's the tree of life that he's
talking about. This is typical of the tree of
life. And the scripture says, I want you to turn with me to
two scriptures. One, turn with me to Psalm chapter one. Psalm
chapter one. And look at it, if you will,
Psalm 1 and look at verse 3. Now, I submit to you that you
may have never heard this before, but I submit to you that the
man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, forstanding the
way of sinners, will sit in the seat of his corn, but his lies
in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day
and night, that this is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.
That it's not talking about you, and it's not talking about me,
and it's not talking about any legal side of it. Of course,
I didn't comment on it. It's like this, but listen to
verse three. And he, the same person. shall
be like a tree planted by the rivers of the water that bring
forth its fruit in the season, if we also shall not wither,
and whatsoever we do it shall prosper." Did you ever see a
verse of scripture, when you think of it in this light, that
sets forth the Lord Jesus Christ in a clear light? The Lord Jesus
is like a tree that's planted by the rivers of the water. Now
I invite you to turn to the psalm of Solomon. The psalm of Solomon. And I want you to look in chapter
2. In chapter 2. Now, to me this is blessing.
And if you don't get to this point in this message, you've
wasted your time, and it's not going to profit you one bit to
hear everything I've said to this point. But if you listen
to what I'm saying, you'll get some help here. Okay, we get
to verse 3 in the song Solomon chapter 2 and listen to it as
the apple tree Among the trees of the wood so among the sons
of I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit
was sweet to my taste. Now then, I submit to you this
morning that this tree is the Lord Jesus Christ and the cross
of Christ. He bore our sins, Peter's sin
and 1 Peter, in his own body on the tree. The cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. This is the tree, through the
tree, the Bible says, for cursed is everyone that painted on a
tree. So this is a type of Calvary's
tree. Salvation through blood, pardon
through the atoning word of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was a
tree also we see shown to Moses. It was there before, but Moses
knew it not. Now this is significant. Notice,
we read there in this 25th verse, as soon as I get back here in
my Bible to it, verse 25, that the Lord showed him a tree. The Lord showed it to him. I
say that it was there before, but closest to him not. It needed
to be revealed to his eyes. The tree was standing there before
Moses saw it, and so is with us. The cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ, whether hidden from our eyes or not, if we're God's children,
we are, even now, even though maybe that we're still one of
the lost sheep, we are even now, as far as God is concerned, as
far as the purpose of God, we're even now reconciled to God, I
believe, in eternal justification for the elect of God. I believe
that from old time when God set his love and affection upon us,
when Christ the Lamb slayed from the foundation of the world,
when Jesus Christ, within the purpose of God, come, that we
were reconciled to God at the cross. I quote the people of
Wednesday night, I told them that I believe that when Christ
died on the cross, that every one of my sins were future for
every one of them. But yet I believe that when He
died on that cross, He died for my sins. That He put away my
sins. That I was reconciled with God
through the death of His Son. That all of this took place.
Now I wasn't listening. There came a time when that cross
had to be revealed to my eyes. There came a time when God had
to show me that cross. It was there. It's always been
in the heart of God from eternity. Christ the Lamb split him from
the foundation of the world. There came a time when it had
to be shown to me. Now I think this is beautifully
pictured. over at the 21st chapter of Genesis. Turn over there. Do you remember Abraham? He had
a wife by the name of Hagar. And there came a time in the
home of Abraham, Hagar was a type of the Jerusalem that's in Palm
Beach. Ishmael, who was Abraham's son,
thought maker. He was a legalist. He was a type of what the flesh
can do. There came a time in his life,
like there is in the life of every child of God, when what
the flesh can do has got to be driven out. If you don't worship
God, you've got to come down with a single eye and worship
what God can do, what He has done in your life, what the Lord
has done. And so, Abraham of the Lord rose
up early and took bread. This is the 21st chapter of Genesis,
verse 14. And of all the water, he gave
it up to Hagar, putting it on the shoulder of the child, and
sent her away. She departed and wandered in
the wilderness of Beersheban. And the water was spent in the
bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And
she went and sat her down over against him a good way off, as
it were, a boat stop, before she said, let me not see the
deafened child. And she sat over against him,
lifted up her voice, and wept. And God heard the voice of the
lad, and the angel of God called the hater out of heaven, and
said unto her, what hater of thee? Hater, fear not, for God
hath heard the voice of the lad, where he is. Arise, lift up the
lad, and hold him in thy hand, for I will make him a great nation. Now look at verse 19. And God
opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went
and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad to drink. God
opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. Do you suppose
that well of water was just created when she saw it? No, no, no. It was there all along. It was
there all along. And I submit to you that this
tree was there all along. It just needed to be revealed
to the eyes of Moses. And I submit to you this morning
that those that are the lost sheep, the cross, in the heart
of God that's been there for eternity, but it's not yet been
revealed to your eyes. It's not yet been shown to you
the meaning of the cross, the meaning of the death of Christ.
But listen to me. The cross of Christ is the same
one we get from our eyes and offered with God's children we
even now reconcile our exempted saving our salvation is already
accomplished the work is finished everlasting righteousness has
been brought in and we've been delivered so the wrath becomes
the scripture in Timothy 2nd Timothy 1 9 says who has saved
us and called us. He saved us at the cross, called
us in time, in our lifetime, and brought us to the Lord Jesus
Christ. But what we want then is a discovery
of this tree to the soul. And once there is a discovery
of this tree to our soul, Then, beloved, there can be the healing
of the waters. Now, it does not say that God
just had created that tree, but that he showed it to Moses. He
took the vein of Moses' eyes and his heart, and he showed
him the tree. And what is this, beloved, the
revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ? A revelation of the cross
of Christ. What is this, Bethlehem? Now,
then, Now viewing by the eye of faith
of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's true. As the Lord Jesus Christ,
as he came into this world, as he lived under the law, as he
suffered, uh, under the, what we might say, the hatred of his
enemies. And he went to the cross, hung
between heaven and earth, accomplished our salvation by the shedding
of his own precious blood. Now, if we get a view of that,
if that arises, if God sold it to us, I don't believe this will be an end. to that which makes the bitterness
of life, the bitterness of troubles and sorrows of life, I think
that that puts the sweetness back in life. I think it makes
life worth living. Let me try, if I can, to explain. Now, in all our work with Megan
and Franklin, I don't think we see as we ought. I believe it's hidden from our
eyes. We have no communion with the suffering of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We have no communion with the
meaning and the purpose of the cross of Christ. If we can see
Jesus as the tree of life, if we can see him as the healer,
and the Lord said, I am the Lord that healeth thee, if we can
see him as the one that heals the water, the living, the surviving,
I believe that if all the action was out of our hearts, it would
melt our hearts into contrition, brokenness, and create in our
hearts a love toward God, and a love that would enable us to
overcome. But all we can see is our trials. Our minds are wrapped up in darkness
as we grope for the wall like a blind man. That's all we see. We cannot seem to see anything
else. And we say, why is God so unkind? Why does he do this
to us? Why is he doing this? And we're self-fulfilled, self-pitying.
But what we need, beloved, is for the Blessed Spirit to take
the things in Christ and reveal them to our souls. What we need
is for the Lord to open our eyes and show us this tree. We need
to see that tree like Moses did. Now, next, I want you to understand
that it's not enough that there should be a tree, nor is it enough
that He shows it to Moses. I want you to see this. It had
to be cast into the waters. Now nothing but this tree cast
into the waters can heal the martyrs. It must be cast in. Now a Christ-received, a Christ-trusted,
a Christ-fellowship will sweeten the waters of life. Now, beloved,
you can try hours and ways to sweeten your business. You can
try any method that anybody would suggest to you, and I tell you
this morning that there will nothing sweeten the waters of
life to enable you to endure as a child of God in this world,
but a Christ-received, a Christ-trusted, a Christ-familieship. Christ's
presence in the heart. Now I talked about a man's occupation
a few minutes ago. Christ's presence in the heart,
Christ's fellowship daily in the heart will sanctify the worst
job that a man can find. You just put a man out here cleaning
chimneys, put a man out here hauling teapots, put a man out
here doing whatever, digging ditches, put a man out here doing
whatever you give him to do, if Christ's presence is in his
heart, if he is fellowshiping with Christ, if his heart's running
with God, I'll tell you what, that will sanctify that job.
It will sanctify that job. I don't care what that is. You
say, I'll never be happy working this job. You're a fool. It will
not change if you get another job. Not until this tree is cast
into the waters, you'll never be happy. And you'll find that
when this tree is in those waters, it'll sanctify the job. It'll
sanctify the job. But involving you. Now let me
say further that Christ's favor and presence and fellowship and
the sense of his love will make you, this morning, if you have
an illness, it will make you rather have a sanctified illness
than unsanctified health. You believe that? You believe
that? I said, Preacher, now that's hard to take. But I will tell
you this is true. Now most of us, go most of the
time without the presence of God, without the favor of God,
without the manifestation of the love of God, because we're
hardened in different, and because we're not praying equal in the
fellowship and equal with God, we are experiencing some grave
troubles. But listen, when you get ill,
and when your whole tent's coming down, and you're literally afflicted,
and your body is overhanging from the top of your head to
the sole of your foot, I want to tell you what. If you've got
the presence of Christ, if Christ is in your waters, in these bitter
waters, He'll sanctify those waters. If you'd rather have
that ill health than the good, unsanctified health. I'm telling
you the truth, and you may laugh at me, and you may scoff, and
you may ridicule me in your heart as I'm preaching these things
to you, but I tell you, O God, that for in the Word of God,
there is no other way to sweeten these bitter waters of life but
to cast in this tree of yonder. You've got to have this tree
in you, and if not now, Let me go one step further and talk
about relatives and so on. No, if you felt Jesus to be your
brother, if you knew God to be your father, I believe that you
would be so swallowed up in this spiritual relation that you could
say as to my worldly relatives, my earthly cousins, what are
they? What are they? Now, I'll tell
you what, we said, we don't want to give up on that either. I
don't give up on that either. I don't want to give up on that.
We just want to try to have a little happiness in this world. And
we don't want to give up on them and say, I don't want to take
that attitude. I want to try and keep working
things out with my relatives and with my family. I want to
try to keep my urban ties intact. Well, there's nothing wrong with
that. As long as you understand That
to have Jesus as your brother in God, as your father, is the
relationship that really is going to tide you over and get you
through. Because our relatives, they can
turn on you in a minute, and they can get hard time or hard
deal with it, and they cause you a lot of grief along this
way. But this, this one, this one, now, Jesus is more precious
than all worldly things. He is. And as the poet said,
how can I grieve thee since I cannot part with thee? And so, you know,
sometimes we think that because we've lost this one or that one
as our friend or lost them in death, that we just wear it around
our wrists. But, beloved, I tell you that
what God is doing, and I told you this at the outset, Because
He's not only bringing you into trial to show you who you are
and what you are, but He's also bringing you into trial to show
you what He is for you and what He is in power and in ability
to bless you and strengthen you and to keep you. Well, now, sin
has marred everything in your life. made you a wretch, and
given you a daily cross, troubles your mind, subjects you to fits
of despondency, and your spirit is plagued day and night. What
will sleep in these bitter waters but the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ? Pardoning love, atoning love, the sight of Christ and
embracing of His own as our all in all is a casting, beloved,
of the tree of life into the bitter waters.

Bitter Waters of Marah

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Bitter Waters of Marah

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