Would you turn with me to the
17th chapter of the Book of Exodus? While you're turning there, Joe
McSherry came by and said, Joyce is doing much better and getting
stronger. I was very happy about that.
She's going to be in St. Joseph East for another three
weeks taking antibiotics. And also, you may know that There's
a man by the name of Harold Camping that predicted that this Saturday
was going to be the end of the world. He made that prediction
before, back in 93 or 94, and he miscalculated. And he's made
this other prediction. As a matter of fact, he put a
full-page ad in the USA Today warning about it. And two things. I hope he does come back Saturday. Second thing is, I know he won't. Now, we read in First Corinthians. Chapter 10. They did all eat or drink the
same spiritual drink, but they drank of that spiritual rock
that followed them and that rock was Christ. Now, how in the world
can a rock follow them? Well, if water could come out
of that rock. That rock could certainly follow
them. And the language Paul uses is
that rock was Christ. He doesn't say at that time that
that rock represents the Lord Jesus Christ. He says that rock
was Christ. That's what he says, and that's
the way I'm going to take it, a pre-incarnate appearance of
the Lord Jesus Christ following the children of Israel throughout
their journeyings. And Exodus chapter 17. Now, before
I read this passage of scripture, let me remind you that morning
They had manna for breakfast. We read about the appearance
of manna in Exodus chapter 16. And just a few days before, at
the most a couple of weeks before, they had passed through the Red
Sea as on dry ground. They had seen the deliverance
of the Lord, what He had done for them. They had manna that
very day. What blessings these people experienced. Supernatural, miraculous blessing. And with all that in mind, verse
1, and all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed
from the wilderness of sin after their journeys according to the
commandment of the Lord. and pitched in Rephidim, and
there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore, the people did chide
with Moses. That word chide means they found
fault. They criticized. They were angry
over the predicament they were in. It didn't seem right. And so they found fault with
Moses. And said, give us water that
we may drink. And Moses said unto them, why
chide ye with me? Wherefore, do you tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there
for water. And the people murmured against
Moses and said, now look at this accusation they bring against
Moses and bring actually against the Lord. Wherefore, is this
that thou has brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle
with thirst. Now, if If there was ever an
ungrateful, unbelieving, mistrustful, wicked group of people, it was
this group. The sad thing is, they give us
a picture of ourselves. Now, there are three things pointed
out about them at this time. They chided. with Moses. The word means they had a controversy
with him. They found fault with him. They criticized and they complained
at him actually accusing them or accusing Moses of bringing
them out in the wilderness simply to kill them with thirst after
all Moses had done. Look at this accusation. And
then it's also said that they tempted the Lord. Look what it
says in verse 2. Why chide ye with me at the end
of the verse? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord? Now, what does it mean to tempt
the Lord? Hold your finger there and turn
to Matthew chapter 4. In verse 16 of chapter 3, we
read in Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the
water, and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him. And he saw the
Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And, lo, a voice from heaven
saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. You reckon the devil was there
when that happened? I have no doubt that he audibly
heard those words from God. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. Then was Jesus let up of the
spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And
when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward
and hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God. If God said, this is my son,
is there any reason for an if? If you are, prove it. Command
that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, it's
written. I love the way the Lord uses, and it is written. You
know, he could have just destroyed the devil at that time. He could have tortured him, punished
him. He could have done anything he
wanted. But how does he answer the devil? Same way you and I
are to answer everything. It is written. That gives us
some idea of the importance of the scriptures. This is what
our Lord used. It is written. That settles the issue. It is
written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh
him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of
the temple. He was way high up at the very
top of the temple in Jerusalem. And he saith unto him, If thou
be the Son of God. There's that if again. Cast thyself
down, prove it, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge
concerning me, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest
at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against a stone." Now prove
it. You say you're the Son of God. If you are, prove it. If
you jump off, God promised the angels will catch you. Now prove
it. Jesus said unto him, it's written
again, Thou shalt not tempt. the Lord thy God." When God says
something, it's settled. Don't tempt Him. Don't ask Him
to prove what He says in His Word. Bow to the authority of
His Word. And to not do so is to tempt
the Lord God. Now, Moses says, Why tempt you
the Lord? Verse three, And the people thirsted
there for water, and the people murmured against Moses. They
complained bitterly with obstinance. Now, how evil were these people? Now, you think about this. First
of all, they criticized Moses. They found fault with Moses.
They set in judgment of Moses. And how evil it is when somebody
hears the gospel and sits in judgment on it and criticizes
it and says, I wouldn't do that way. How can it be fair for God
to do this? How can it be fair for God to
save some and pass by others? How can that be fair? Sitting
in judgment on God as if we're God's judges and we have the
moral authority to sit in judgment upon him and to tempt him, to
not take him at his word and to murmur and complain. That's
what these people were doing. Now, verse four. And Moses cried unto the Lord,
saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready
to stone me. And here's a valuable lesson. What do you do when you don't
know what to do? Cry to the Lord. That's the only safe place to
be. Cry to the Lord. And the Lord said unto Moses,
verse 5, Go on before the people and take
with thee of the elders of Israel and thy rod, the rod of judgment,
wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go. Behold,
I will stand before thee upon the rock in Horeb, the place
where there was the giving of the law. Now picture this. The
Lord says, I'm going to be standing on top of that rock. I'm going
to be standing on top of that rock. And thou shalt smite the rock. The word smite is also translated
in the Old Testament, slay, slaughter, kill. Thou shalt smite the rock, and
there shall come water out of it." Where's the last place you'd
look for water? In a rock. But when that rock
was smitten, there shall come water out of it, and 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 chiding of the children
of Israel and because they tempted the Lord saying, is the Lord
among us or not? Now, the Lord had given unmistakable
evidence that he's with them. And here they say, is he with
us or not? I wonder how many times I've
asked that question. Is he with us or not? Now turn to Psalm 78. Psalm 78. The psalmist comments
on this. And he says in verse 15. He claimed the rocks in the wilderness. And gave them drink. as out of
the great depths. Now notice it says in that rock
we have the great depths of the ocean. Now this tells us of the
great depths of grace that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. An
inexhaustible, bottomless, boundless source of grace. The great depths
that were in that rock. And when it was smitten, what
happened? Verse 16, he brought streams
also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. That's what took place as a result
of the smiting of the rock. Water came out. Now go back to
our text in Exodus chapter 17, verse 6. And these people were evil and
these people were thirsty And there's no way they could come
up with water. And the Lord tells Moses, I'm going to stand on
top of that rock. Now, when Moses hit the rock,
I don't know who was standing on it, it said something. But
when that rock was smitten, water came out and was provided for
that bunch of rebels. Now, water came out of a rock,
that's a miracle, isn't it? But the rock had to be smitten. Now, why is that? Why did the
rock have to be smitten? And I'm sure he didn't just give
it a pack. I mean, he smoked that thing.
Why did the rock have to be smitten? Because that rock was Christ. And for me or you to be saved. For me or you to have the water
of life. For me or you to have the grace
of God, for me or you to have the mercy and the favor of God
and the blessing of God, for me and you to have anything from
the Lord, Christ had to be smitten. You see, God is just. God is
holy. God is righteous. Sin must be
punished. If God will just let my sin go
and sweep it under the carpet and forgive me anyway, he would
cease to be God. He would lose his justice. He
would lose his righteousness. God can't do that. God shall
not the judge of the earth do right. He can't just let up and
let sin go unpunished. But here's the gospel. He took
my sin. And he put it on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and it became his sin. And he became guilty of that
sin. And the justice of God smote
him. Awake, O sword, smite the shepherd. And that's precisely what was
taking place. And because the Savior was smitten,
The streams of water, the streams of mercy, the streams of grace
come out to unworthy, ungrateful, sinful, evil men and women. How does that sound to you? If
I just described you, it sounds good. If I didn't describe you,
you probably don't think much of it. But if I described you,
it sounds good, doesn't it? the smitten rock. What I deserve for my chiding,
my mistrust, and my complaining, he took. And when he was smitten,
the water of life came out of that smitten rock for the thirsty
soul to drink. You know, the Scripture says,
blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Now, what is this thing of thirsting?
It's a conscious absence of water. And it can't come from you. It's
got to come from outside. When you thirst after righteousness,
when you hunger after righteousness, you have a conscious absence.
You know, you don't have any. But you thirst for it. You thirst to be found righteous
before God. Do you know where the waters
of grace that you drink come from? That's Smitten Rock. Romans 8.32 says, for he, listen
to this scripture, for he that spared not his own son. He smote him. He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not? What could possibly prevent him
from freely giving us all things. Thank God for the smitten rock. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise. Now would you turn to Numbers
chapter 20, verse 1. Then came the children of Israel,
even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin, in the
first month, and the people of Bod and Kadesh. And Miriam died
there and was buried there. And there was no water for the
congregation. And they gathered themselves
together against Moses and against Aaron. and the people chode with
Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we died when our brethren
died before the Lord? Why have you brought up the congregation
of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should
die there? And wherefore have you made us
to come up out of Egypt, to bring us into this evil place? It is
no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates,
neither is there any water to drink." Deja vu. The precise same sin. Now, one question I have. You know, Paul tells us that
that rock followed him. And that streams of water came
out of that rock. Was that rock not there anymore?
Look at number 21, verse 4. And as they journeyed from Manhor
by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom, and
the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way,
and the people spake against God and against Moses, wherefore
have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
For there is no bread. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
They had manna that very morning. Manna that very morning. Yes,
there was bread. They were lying. There's no bread, neither is
there any water, so I'm assuming they were lying about that too.
And our soul loatheth this light bread. We're sick of manna. We
can't handle it anymore. We're tired of it. That's all
we have. Manna in the morning, manna for
lunch, manna for dinner. It's light bread. It's insubstantial. We're not getting enough out
of it. So we see they lied there. So what makes us think they weren't
lying this time when they said there's no water, they couldn't
see it or something took place? I don't know. But back to number
20. Verse six. And Moses and Aaron
went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation. And they fell on their faces,
I imagine they were what's going to happen now, the Lord's going
to judge us now. And the glory of the Lord appeared unto them,
and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod." Now, look down in verse 9, and
Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded it. Look back in number 17 for just
a moment, verse And the Lord said unto Moses, bring Aaron's
rod again before the testimony to be kept for a token against
the rebels. And thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from
me that they die not. Now the rod here is not the rod
that he smote the Red Sea with and that he used against the
Egyptians. The rod here is Aaron's rod that budded. The rod of the
priest. Now back to Numbers chapter 20,
verse 7. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Take the rod the rod that budded, and gather thou
the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak
ye unto the rock before their eyes. And it shall give forth
his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the
rock, so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts
to drink. Now, what was different from
the last time? The first is a different rod.
It was the rod of the priest. He didn't bring Aaron with him
the first time. Aaron represents the priesthood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. What does a priest do? A priest brings men to God. And that's what our Lord did.
But did you notice the main difference, though? He didn't say smite to
rock, did he? He said, speak to the rock. It's already been smitten. It's
never to be smitten again. Speak to the rock. And that same
word is translated in Proverbs 8, 23, give entreaties. Ask, speak to
the rock. Not smite. Now, why? What's the significance of that?
The Lord is only to be smitten once. Why? Because He did what He intended
to do. When He was smitten, all the
sins of all of God's elect were placed upon Him, and He was punished
for those sins, and He satisfied the justice of God, and there's
no reason to smite again. It would be a horrible thing
to smite that rock again. That would be saying God wasn't
satisfied. Something else needs to be done. This was a very important
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he says, speak to the rock. Speak. That's all. You know,
you can speak to the Lord right now. You can. You can speak to
the Lord and he'll hear you because that rocks already been smitten
and the way is open for you. There's nothing regarding God's
justice that would prevent him from hearing you because sin
has been dealt with. If you come into the Lord's presence
in the name of Christ, you speak to the rock. Verse nine. And Moses. Took the rod from before the
Lord. As he commanded him, And Moses
and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock. Now,
I don't have any doubt that Moses had a real problem with his temper.
I mean, you can see that over and over and over again through
the scriptures. He was a hothead. I mean, he'd get mad. I was reading
where he came down and he took the law and threw it down and
broke it and threw it down in a golden calf. He made the children
of Israel drink it. He was a hothead. Well, let's
go on reading. And Moses and Aaron gathered
together before the rock, and he said unto them, Here now,
ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses
lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smoked the rock twice. He disobeyed God. And the water came out abundantly,
and the congregation drank, and their beasts also And the Lord
spake unto Moses and Aaron and said, Because you believe me
not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore,
you shall not bring this congregation to the land which I've given
him. You know, Moses wasn't allowed
to go in, was he? He saw the land from far off from Mount
Pisgah, but the Lord wouldn't let him go into the land because
of this event. And it also is to teach us That
Moses represents the law. Laws don't bring us into glory.
Moses is not permitted to do it. It's Joshua, the Savior,
that brings them in. But Moses was not allowed to
enter the promised land because of this event. Now, why? What is the issue? Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. Now, I understand Moses' anger,
don't you? I mean, he was fed up with these people. I can understand
him acting this way. Here, you rebels, must we fetch
water out of the rock? Now, wait a minute, Moses. Since
when are you the one fetching water out of the rock? You know,
there's too much of Moses in this, isn't there? You know,
it makes me wonder about my preaching. You know, Moses, the Lord said
to him, he said, you failed to sanctify me. in the midst of
the children of Israel, you were the center of attention, not
me. I wonder how much that happens when men preach the gospel. But
at any rate, Hebrews chapter 10, what he was doing, this was
a type of Christ. Christ is to be spent once, not twice. Hebrews
chapter 10, beginning in verse 7. Verse 6, In burnt offerings and
sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I,
this is the Lord Jesus speaking, Lo, I come. In the volume of
the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offerings for sin thou wouldest
not, neither hath pleasure therein which are offered by the law.
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He takes away
the first, that first covenant. the covenant of works, that he
may establish the second, by the witch will, by God's will,
we are sanctified, made holy, through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ, once for all. Something that doesn't need to
be repeated. And every priest stands up 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. Now, those Old Testament priests,
you know what they didn't have? They didn't have a chair. You
look at the tabernacle and all the furnishings of the tabernacle,
one thing that was conspicuously absent was a chair. Why? Because their work was never
finished. They were never to sit down. 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's not to be smitten again,
because he did what he intended to do. He perfected forever those
who are sanctified. Now, what was wrong with what
Moses did? Well, first of all, it was an act of disobedience.
God said clearly, speak to the rock. And he smote it twice. The Lord said it was a failure
to believe him, and it was a failure to sanctify God's great name
in muddying an important type of the gospel. Christ was smitten
never to be smitten again because he actually accomplished what
he came to do. He saved his people from their
sins. When he said it is finished, by salvation it was accomplished.
I love to think about that. You know, men are guilty of smiting
twice if they believe in universal redemption. If you believe That
Jesus Christ could be punished for your sins, but you might
wind up in hell anyway and be punished for the same sins over
again. That's smiting twice. That's a denial of the justice
of God. But let me tell you another way
that we do it. It's unbelievers that do that.
Let me tell you what believers do when they do this. And I do
this. I'm afraid I do this every day. How many times? During a 24-hour
period, do you say to yourself, how could I be saved if I think
this and if I do that? How many times does that go through
your mind? Could I really be a Christian if I think that or
if I did that? How could I possibly? Am I fooling
myself? Am I really? And I understand
this fear I understand that. I'm not even criticizing that.
I understand it, because I do it all the time. But let me ask
you a question. If you didn't do that, did that
make you think, oh, I must be a Christian? That's looking somewhere other
than the spitting rock. The only reason for assurance
is Christ the smitten rock. When I start muddying that issue,
and this is something a believer does, and it's wrong. Moses did
it. Moses did it. He smoked the rock twice. When
I start thinking, how could I be saved if I... I understand that.
Because all sin... One of the reasons I think I'd
be glad if the Lord didn't come back on Saturday is because I
think that was sin. I wouldn't be sinning anymore.
That is such an attractive thing to me, to think to be without
sin, to be without unbelief. Oh, that's very attractive. You
know, John said, these things have I written unto you that
you sin not. That's what John said. Don't
sin. When you do, we have an advocate with the
Father. We had that advocate before the
sin. We had that advocate during the
sin, and we had that advocate right now. We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who presents his
righteousness before the Father. Now, these things write unto
you that you sin not. But when you do. Don't think
I must not be saved. Remember, we have an advocate,
a lawyer with the Father, one who's never lost a case, one
who is the son of the judge, and one who doesn't look for
loopholes and try to get us free without justice being satisfied,
but one who makes us plead guilty. And in pleading guilty, we're
justified. What a lawyer he is. Speak to the rock. Now, even
though Moses marred the tide. And really messed things up for
himself. He was going to the land of promise. Why is it that that water still
flowed out of the rock? God like that? I mean, Moses
disobeyed God. He smote it twice when God said,
you speak to it. But the water still came out. Well, here's why. God's blessings
flow to us in spite of us. I love what one preacher called
grace. He said grace is in spite of. Don't you know that so? Grace is in spite of. While the type may be marred,
the actual atonement of Christ cannot be marred. If we could mess it up and make
it ineffectual, we would, but thank God we can't. Speak to the rock. Speak. Even now, speak to the rock. and the waters will flow. Let's pray.