I'm going to be preaching from
Exodus chapter 17, but I'd like to read a verse of scripture
in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 first. Verse four of 1 Corinthians chapter
10, and they did all drink. the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Now, would you turn to Exodus
chapter 17? 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 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, Wherefore,
is this that thou hast brought us out of Egypt to kill us and
our children and our cattle with thirst? Now, does this sound
a bit like The way chapter 16 opened. Look back in chapter
16. And they took their journey from
Elam and all the congregation of the children of Israel came
into the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai on
the 15th day of the second month after their departing out of
the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children
of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
And the children of Israel said unto them, would to God. that
we died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we
sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full.
For you brought us forth into the wilderness to kill this whole
assembly with hunger." Now here they are repeating the same thing.
Now you remember what took place in chapter 16 from last week.
They cried out like this, and the Lord in his mercy gave them
manna from heaven to eat. Bread that came down from heaven. Scripture actually calls it angel's
food, manna. Now, they had manna for breakfast
that very morning that they cry out like this. Look in verse
7 of chapter 17. And he called the name of the
place Masa 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, that statement was
made after they had manna for breakfast. Is the Lord among
us or not? Now, what this shows me is how
ridiculous and evil unbelief is. Eating manna that very day,
they still said, is the Lord among us or not? Is the Lord
among us or not? How many times have you asked
that question? Is the Lord among us or not? Is he with me or not? Now, there was no reason for
them to ask that question. It was ridiculous, wasn't it?
I mean, they had man of that very day. It was evil, yet it
was the sin they kept falling into. Unbelief. Is the Lord among us or not?
Has he brought us out here into the wilderness to kill us? Now,
what is unbelief? Perhaps the best way to answer
that question is try to answer what the opposite of it is. What
is faith? What is faith? Do I have it?
And if I can understand what faith is, I'll understand something
about what unbelief is. You know, before I believed,
I didn't have any understanding about what faith was. And it
wasn't until I had faith that I had some understanding of unbelief.
When you have faith, then you know how evil and how ridiculous
and how excuseless unbelief actually is only when you're given faith.
So for us to understand something about what this thing of unbelief
is, what is faith? Well, quite simply, faith is
believing God. I love the simplicity of that
answer. It's believing God. God says it. That settles it? I believe it. The order that people use is
wrong. God said it. I believe it. That settles it.
No. God said it. That settles it. I believe it. I believe what God says. The
great example is Abraham. You remember, God appears to
Abraham. He says, Abraham, look at the
stars. See if you can count them. So
shall thy seed be. Now, at that time, Sarah had
already gone through the process of menopause. It was impossible
for her to have a baby. He was an old man. It was impossible,
humanly speaking, for them to have a baby. But God says you're
going to have a vast multitude. And he believed God with no physical
evidence that it could be. He'd look at Sarah. It's impossible.
He'd look at himself. It's impossible. He didn't have
any kids. But God said it. That settled it. Abraham believed
God. That's what faith is. It's believing
the Word of God. You believe what you cannot see. You don't need to see it. If
God said it because God is utterly trustworthy, that settles the
matter. Unbelief is not believing what
God has said. And when you don't, if I tell
you something, if I say something to you and I say, this is this
is the truth. And if you say, I don't believe that. What are
you saying to me? You're saying to me that I can't
be believed. You're saying to me that I'm a liar is what you're
saying. If I say something and you say, I don't believe that.
Well, you're calling me a liar. And when I don't believe God,
here's the kind of sad thing about that is. Is. I want to tell the truth. I do. I want to tell the truth. I want
to be a truthful person. But. If I say I promise, that
means I don't always tell the truth. I'm telling the truth
this time. I'm not lying this time. But to say that of God. He who cannot lie. Let me show
you a couple of examples of this in the scripture. Turn to 1 John
chapter 1. Unbelief is maligning the character of God is impugning
the character of God. Look in first John chapter one. Verse. Ten. If we say that we've
not seen. What do we do? We make him a
liar. Now, how's that? Because he says
we have. Anything that my flesh is in,
anything that I've done, if I did it, it was sin. That's what God
says. I'm to believe that whether I understand it or not, whether
I see it or not. You know, you and I are not going to have a
proper understanding of how sinful we are. We're just to believe
what God says. God says, I've sinned. Even when I pray, even
when I read the scriptures, whatever I do, if my flesh is involved
in it, that makes it sin. The problem is me. That makes
it sin. Now, if I say regarding anything, I've not sinned. Well,
God says I have. So if I say I'm not, you know
what I'm doing? I'm calling God a liar. That's what John says
here, isn't it? That's the enormous wickedness of unbelief. When
I fail to believe what God says, I'm calling God a liar. Look
in 1 John chapter 5, verse 8 And there are three that bear
witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood.
And these three agree in one. And if we receive the witness
of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness
of God, which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness of himself. He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his son. Unbelief is not believing
God. That's why it's such a crime.
What am I doing? If God says something and he's
given this word, this is the word of God, it's what he says.
And if I fail to believe what he has said, what am I doing?
I'm calling God a liar. What is faith? It's believing
God. What is faith? It's trusting the Lord Jesus
Christ. Faith is believing the word of
God. Faith is trusting. Faith is relying on. I'm relying
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Right now, I'm trusting who He
is and what He did as all I need to make me perfect before God.
Are you trusting Him? Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. And I'm persuaded that He is
able to keep that which I've committed to Him against that
day. I've committed my soul's salvation to Him. I was telling
the men in the back, last night, Lynn and I were in Cincinnati.
It was our 25th anniversary. And she took me there to a ball
game. We were up on the 19th floor
of a hotel in downtown Cincinnati, 1.30 in the morning. All of a
sudden, the alarm went off, the fire alarm. 9-11 was the day.
9-11 was the day. And you know what I was thinking?
I mean, I thought, this is it. The terrorists have taken over
this place. I really believed it. I thought, this is... I thought,
am I going to die of smoke? You know, whenever you smoke
inhalation, or however you say it, or am I going to be burned
alive? What's going to happen to me? I thought I was going
to die, but you know what? By the grace of God, I had peace.
I mean, I didn't want to suffer physically, but I had peace.
You know why? Because I'm persuaded that He
is able to keep that which I've committed to Him against that
day. I have committed the entire salvation of my soul to His keeping,
and I'm persuaded that who He is and what He did is enough
to save me. And I can look at death because
of that without fear. Isn't that a blessing? Oh, thank
God for that. Faith is trusting the Lord Jesus
Christ, so unbelief is saying He's not trustworthy. What He did is not enough. Now, after all they had seen,
Here they are failing to trust Him again. We would have been
better off dying in Egypt. We're going to die of thirst.
Here they are repeating the same old sin over and over again. How ridiculous, how evil, how
sad, and how just like me and you. How just like. me and you. If we didn't already have some
understanding of the sinfulness and depravity of our own hearts,
we'd be at a loss concerning the wickedness of their conduct.
Here they had manna for breakfast that morning. How can they doubt
God already? How can they say we would have been better off
dying already? The fact of the matter is they mirror you and
I. Now back to our text in Exodus
chapter 17. Verse 4. And Moses cried unto the Lord. Can you imagine how discouraged
he was at this time? He cried to the Lord before in
chapter 16. And he brought the man and so on. And here they
go doing the same thing. And Moses cries unto the Lord
saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be all ready
to stone me. They were so upset with Moses.
They were talking about stoning him, putting him to death and
getting back to Egypt. That's how wicked this bunch was. Verse 5, And the Lord said unto
Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders
of Israel, and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take
in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee
there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite The rock. And there shall come water out
of it that the people may drink, and Moses did so in the sight
of the elders of Israel. So the Lord tells Moses what
to do. You take the rod, that rod that has been used for judgment,
and that's what it's been used for. Remember how that was used
to judge the Egyptians and the ten plagues. Moses will always
use the rod. Remember how he smoked The Red
Sea with the rod and it divided. This was the rod of judgment.
He said, you take this rod of judgment and you go to Horeb. Well, where's Horeb? We're introduced
to Horeb in Exodus chapter three, verse one, where Moses saw that
bush. That burned and was not consumed. Mount Horeb was where that took
place. And on that bush that burned and was not consumed,
we see clearly the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The wrath
of God came upon him, but it couldn't consume him. As a matter
of fact, he consumed the wrath. He put away the sin of everybody
he died for, and there completed him. So really, in Horeb, we
have the place of the gospel. We have that that's the gospel
as clearly as it could be preached, the bush that burned and was
not consumed. Christ couldn't be consumed by
the wrath of God. He consumed the wrath. And now
there's no wrath for everybody he died for. Oh, what is the
gospel here? We have the gospel again right
here from Mount Horeb with this rock that is spitting. You know,
the Bible has only one message. You believe that? The Bible has
only one message. It's told in a variety of different
ways. Beautiful illustrations, but
the Bible has only one message. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Have God can be just and justify the ungodly through
the work of Christ. And here we have it again in
this rock, Smitten. He says, I'll stand before thee
on this rock in Horeb. I'll stand before you on the
rocks, smite the rock, take the rod of judgment and smite the
rock. And waters will come out. Now,
let me ask you a question. Where's the last place you'd
look for water? Last place you'd look for water
is in a rock, isn't it? Now, this is the gospel. Remember
that verse of scripture I read in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4.
Paul said that rock was Christ. That rock was Christ. Now, we have a desperately wicked
people unable to trust God, and they kept falling into the same
sin over and over and over again. Unbelief is that sin that did
so easily beset them. Unbelief is the sin that does
so easily beset us. And here they go falling into
this same old sin. They were thirsting. They had
no water, but the rock was to be smitten. And when Moses smote
the rock, the waters gushed forth. This refers to Christ being smitten
by the wrath of God. Remember that Scripture in Zechariah?
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow,
saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep
will be scattered. Now, the question that arises
is why? Why was it necessary? for the
Lord Jesus Christ to be smitten. Why did that rock had to be smitten? Was it necessary? It surely was.
You remember when our Lord prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane,
he said, Father, if it be possible. If it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. Was it possible? Is there some
other way God could have saved sinners other than through what
the Lord Jesus Christ did? Could he have just decided to
save sinners some other way? If it was possible, he would
have spared his son this, you know that. He said, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will,
but thine be done. Now, why was this necessary? It was. Why? Well, let me give you the reason.
God is holy. These people were wicked and
unbelieving and ungrateful and unthankful, and there's nothing
about them that could possibly merit the salvation of God. God
is holy. We are sinners. We're really
typified by the children of Israel. Now, here's how God can save
people like this and still punish them. The sins of God's people,
the sins of the elect, the sins of those who believe, were laid
upon Christ. He bare in His own body our sin. He was made sin and God smote
Him. He bore all the wrath of a holy
God against sin. He became guilty. That overwhelms me. You know,
I've got all kinds of things. You know, I feel guilty all the
time about something. I mean, it's with me every day. There's never a time. I mean,
even when I think I believe, there's something I feel bad
about. Guilt. Guilt. It's with me all
the time. I feel guilty. I feel guilty.
It's a horrible feeling. Guilt. On the cross, Jesus Christ
became guilty. Not innocent, but you know sin
was charged to Him, so He went ahead and punished Him even though
He knew it didn't belong to Him. No, my sin actually became His. He became guilty before God. And the wrath of God came down
upon Him. Smite the rock! And it's only
through the smiting of that rock that the waters gush forth. The
waters of God's mercy. The waters of God's grace. The
waters of God's forgiveness. The gift of the Holy Spirit that
every believer is given comes gushing forth out of this smitten
rock. That's the only way that a bunch
of undeserving people can be saved. If the rock is smitten. Smite the rock. And the waters
will come forth. Now. Talk about Christ becoming
guilty. And he actually was guilty. The
sins of the elect became his, so as he was guilty before his
father. And just as truly as he was guilty,
you know what the truth is about everybody who believes? Not guilty. That's what justification is.
I am not guilty. I may feel guilty. Feel guilty
all the time. But I am, blessed be God, not
guilty. Perfectly justified before a
holy God. Now that's the gospel, isn't
it? Smite the rock and all the waters of mercy and grace and
forgiveness will come out. I think it's interesting that
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4, that this rock followed
them. This rock followed them. And
that rock was Christ. And I read different commentators
on it. And people were, they would go
back and forth. Some say, yeah, the rock actually
followed them. Some say, well, rock couldn't follow them. It's
just that the waters always followed the different streams. But what
I thought about it, if water didn't come out of the rock,
the rock would follow them. I'm sure of that. That rock was Christ. And here's the blessed thing. Christ is before us. He's the
object of our faith. We look to him. He's behind us,
taking care of us, following us. That rock was Christ before
us, behind us, surrounding us. What a blessed rock. Now, the story is not over. 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 abode in 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 toed with Moses and spake, saying, Would
to God that we died when our brethren died before the Lord.
And 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 out of Egypt to bring us
into this evil place? It's a place of both seed or
of figs or of vines or of pomegranates. Neither is there any water to
drink. Now, they were saying the exact
same thing. We've got no water. What happened
to the water? That rock was falling, and we
don't have any indication that it stopped falling, and we don't
have any reason to believe that the water ceased to come from
the rock. Why did they say this? Well,
this will give us a hint. Look in chapter 21 of Numbers,
verse 4. And they journeyed from Mount
Hor by the way of the Red Sea and encompassed the land of Edom.
And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the
way 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, neither is there any water. And our soul
loatheth this light bread. There ain't any bread except
for this light bread. There was bread. They were lying. Now, what that reminds me of
is unbelief is a lie. Unbelief blinds you. Unbelief
makes it to where you can't see things as they really are. I believe that water was there
all along, but they couldn't see it because of their unbelief. There's a spiritual lesson there.
Unbelief renders you unable to see things as it really is. Isn't that so? You know that
from your own experience. They couldn't see. So here they
are repeating the same sin over and over and over again. Does
that remind you of anybody you know? So what does the Lord say to
do? We'll look back in verse 6 at
Numbers 20. And Moses and Aaron went from
the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared
unto them. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Take the rod. Now, before we go on reading.
This rod is not the same rod that was used for judgment. This
is the rod of Aaron, the rod of the priest. Remember that
rod that budded? That was the rod of Aaron, the
rod that budded. Look down in verse nine. And
Moses took the rod from before the Lord. This rod was before
the Lord as he commanded him. It wasn't the rod he was carrying
around. It was the rod that was before the Lord. Look back in
Numbers, chapter 17, verse 10. Now, this is after the story
of Aaron's rod budding. Verse 10, 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 this rod was
brought before the Lord, and the Lord tells Moses, you take
this rod of the priest, this rod of Aaron, this is not the
rod of judgment, this is the rod of life, the rod of the priest. What does a priest do? He comes
into God's presence on our behalf. And let's go on reading, back
to Numbers chapter 20. Take the rod and gather thou
the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother. Now, if you'll
remember, Aaron wasn't even mentioned in this first time of the smiting
of the rock. Aaron wasn't around for that.
But now he wants Aaron to come. Who's Aaron? Aaron's the priest. He's the great high priest. Now
you bring Aaron now. And what do we do? Take the rod
and gather thou the assembly together and Aaron thy brother
and what? Speak ye unto the rock. Don't smite the rock. The rock's
already been smitten. That's irreversible. What Christ
accomplished is accomplished. That rock doesn't need to be
smitten again. Speak to the rock. 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. Speak to the rock. Verse 9. And Moses took the rod from before
the Lord as he commanded him. He took Aaron's rod. And Moses
and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and
he said unto them, Here now, ye rebels, must we fetch you
water out of this rock? Can you see where he... That's
not a good statement. Must we fetch you water out of
this rock? Moses was mad, and I understand him being mad. Moses
lost his temper. The Scripture actually says in
Psalm 106, when it's telling this story, that he was provoked
by the children of Israel to speak unadvisedly with his lips.
Remember that in Psalm 106, 32, 33? I can understand him being
provoked. He was mad. And look at the way
he talks. Here now, you rebels, must we
fetch water out of this rock? And what did Moses do? Verse
11, And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the
rock. Twice. The water came out abundantly,
and the congregation drank, and their beast also. And the Lord
spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because you believe me not to sanctify
me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall
not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
This is the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel
strove with the Lord, and he was sanctified in them." Now
here God tells Moses, because you smoked the rock and didn't
do what I told you to. You failed to sanctify me before
the children of Israel. Because of that, I'm not going
to let you enter the Promised Land, either you or Aaron. Now, that's severe. After all
Moses had gone through, and now he finds out here toward the
end, I mean, he'd been with him for practically 40 years, and
all of a sudden he finds out he's not going to enter into
the promised land. Now, why? What was so wrong with
what Moses did? Well, first, it was an act of
disobedience. God said, speak to the rock. Moses smoked the rock. It was an act of disobedience
and there are no little acts of disobedience. He's a big God. And there are no little acts
of disobedience, but God said to him, you failed to sanctify
me before the children of Israel. Now, how did he fail to sanctify? Well, that rock had already been
smitten. What smitten? And it was never
to be smitten again. Christ was once smitten, never
to be smitten again. Now hold your finger there in
numbers and turn to Hebrews chapter 9. Verse 24, For Christ is not entered
into the holy place made with hands, which are the figures
of the true, but into heaven itself now. to appear in the
presence of God for us. Is that powerful or what? Right
now, the Lord Jesus Christ is appearing in the presence of
God for me, for every believer. That's so wonderful. Let's go
on reading. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entered into the holy place every
year with the blood of others. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now. What's that next word? Once, in the end of the world,
hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,
and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many,
only once. He is not to be smitten again.
And unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time
without sin, unto salvation. Christ was smitten once and he
finished the work. There's no reason to smite again. Sin has been paid for. Righteousness
has been established. It's a done deal. It's a completed
work. It's a finished work. He's not
to be smitten again. And Moses was clouding this issue. Now, when Moses smoked this rock,
yes, he was disobeying a plain command of God, but he was clouding
the very issue of the gospel. Christ is smitten once. And it
accomplished what God intended for it to do. Sin was put away. Sin was wiped out. And the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ is given to every believer. And there's
no reason for him to be smitten again. Now, there are ways in
our minds that we can smite the rock again. For instance. A belief in universal redemption. believing that Jesus Christ paid
for the sins of all men without exception. He made a sin payment
for everybody. He wiped away everybody's sins
by what He did on the cross. But if He can do that for somebody,
and they end up in hell, and God's wrath comes down upon those
same sins that Christ died for, the rock's been smitten twice,
isn't it? That's all you can call it. The rock's been smitten
twice. That takes away the gospel. If
the rock can be smitten twice, I'll end up in hell. There's
no gospel in that message to me. No, Christ Jesus accomplished
the salvation of everybody He died for. The rock has been smitten
once, and it would impugn the justice and holiness of God.
It's a failure to sanctify God. It's a failure to regard God
as holy, to believe that He can smite for the same sin twice.
denies the very character of God Almighty. That's how serious
this thing is. That's smiting the rock twice. And listen to this. Moses was
guilty of this. And you and I have been guilty
of this too. When we lose our assurance of salvation, and that's
happened to every one of us, And we fail to look to Christ.
We think I must not be saved because I did this or because
I thought that. How could I be saved? I thought
that how many thousands of times? How could I be saved to think
this or do that? And you know what we say when
we make that statement? I would be saved if I wouldn't
have done that. What is that but smiting the
rock twice? I'm not to smite the rock twice. What am I to do? Speak to the
rock. I come into the presence of the
Lord Jesus Christ aware of my sin, but I'm aware that the rock
has been smitten once and did what He intended to do. to the
rock. I confess my sin to the rock. I believe the gospel." Speak
to the rock. Right now, speak to the rock. You have full access into the
very presence of Him who is our rock. I love that name of ours. How many times in the Scriptures
has He compared to a rock? God only is my rock in my salvation. He is my rock. I speak to the
rock. And I am heard. Now, the thought I want to close
with is this. Verse 10 of Exodus 20, and Moses
and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock. And
he said unto them, here now, you 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 and water didn't come
out because he didn't do it right. Doesn't say that, does it? Here is the power of the blood
of Christ. Because that rock was smitten
once, the blessings of it are irreversible and immutable. The blessing still came because
the rock was smitten once. And the water still flowed in
mercy and in grace. You see, the atonement of the
once smitten rock cannot be marred. Isn't that wonderful? Be kind. Tenderhearted. Forgiving one
another. even as God for Christ's sake,
because of the once smitten rock, even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven you, the blessings still come because of the rock
once smitten. Now, speak to the rock. May God enable every one of us
to do just that. Let's pray.