It says here in Exodus 17 that
the people of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin, and
they pitched their tents in a place called Rephidim. And the outstanding thing about this
place was this, there was no water to drink. There was no
water to drink. And the people murmured against
Moses. They began to fret and complain.
They said, what are we going to drink? What are we going to
drink? There's no water here to drink.
Here, about a million people, and no water to drink. Now, if
we didn't know something of the evil of the human heart from
Scripture, and if we didn't know something from our own experience
of the evil of the human heart We'd be at a loss to account
for the ingratitude, unbelief, and insensibility of these people
to God's goodness and faithfulness and mighty acts. These are the
same people who had seen God miraculously deliver them from
Egypt. Same people. I hear they'd come
through the wilderness of sin and they'd pitch their tents
at this place called Rephidim. And they began to look around,
and they told Moses, there's nothing to drink. There's no
water in this place. We're going to die of thirst.
Why did you bring us and our cattle and our children out of
Egypt to this place to die of thirst? There's no water here.
Now, these are the same people that had seen the death of the firstborn.
These are the same people that God brought to the Red Sea. divided
the waters, permitted them to go through on dry land. These
are the same people that watched Pharaoh's army, which had pursued
them, perish in the water. These are the same people that
in the previous chapter, 16, Exodus, had seen God rain down
bread from heaven. They had eaten the manna just
a few days before. Now they're ready to stone Moses
because they've got no water to drink. Like I say, if we didn't
from the Scripture, we'd be shocked. We'd be amazed at the behavior
of these people if we didn't know from the Scripture the evil
of the human heart by nature. The evil of the human heart we've
learned from experience. There's nothing, there's nothing
in all the world that exceeds the ingratitude of the human
heart. or the wickedness of the human heart except one thing.
Do you know what it is? There's only one thing that exceeds
the ingratitude and wickedness of the human heart. There's only
one thing, and that is the grace of God. That's the only thing
that exceeds it. There's nothing that exceeds
the wickedness and ingratitude of the human heart except one
thing. The only thing greater than our
sin is His grace. Where sin did abound, grace did
much more abound. Where sin did overflow, grace
did much more overflow. Someone wrote a poem about this
one time. There are two things that man
has never fully understood. There are two things that man
cannot fathom. And that is the height of God's
love and the depths of man's depravity. Those are two things
we need to study. They're two things we need to
look into. The heights of His grace and love and mercy, no
man's ever been able to comprehend it. And I say likewise, no man's
ever been able to comprehend the depths of man's depravity. hear these people. We learn from
Israel in the wilderness. They were, the Scripture said,
examples or examples to us. And I suppose the most prominent
lesson we can learn from Israel in the land of, in this wilderness
and in these journeyings, the most prominent lesson that we
can learn from Israel is the unvarying tendency of the human
heart to doubt God Almighty. That's sad, but that's so. These people had been in slavery
400 years. God had raised up miraculously
from their midst a prophet, Moses. He brought him out of Egypt for
40 years, took him back, and he miraculously through plague
after plague after plague, but finally led these people out
of Egypt, all of them. They didn't leave a hair nor
a hoof behind. They didn't leave a thing behind.
And God delivered them through the Red Sea, God gave them manna
from heaven, and here they are pitching their tents in a place
called Rephidim, and the first thing they do is start murmuring
and griping and complaining against Moses, we've got nothing to drink. The unvarying tendency of the
human heart to doubt God. Let me tell you something. Every one of us, this is true
of the human heart, we had rather lean on a cobweb of human resources
and on the everlasting, omnipotent arm of God." That's just so. We'll do it every time. It's human nature. We had rather
lean on the advice of men than the counsel of God. We had rather
lean on a cobweb of human resources and human wisdom than on the
everlasting, omnipotent, gracious arm of God. It only takes the
smallest cloud of trouble to hide the whole face of God from
us. That's all. Just the smallest cloud of trouble
will hide the whole face of God. It's well been called an evil
heart of unbelief. That's what we have. Always ready
to depart from the living God. Notice these age-old questions
here in Exodus 16 and 17. What shall we eat? What shall
we drink? What are we going to eat and
what are we going to drink? The only question missing is
what we're going to wear. Our Lord said, these are the
things that the heathen seek after. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness and these things will be added
unto you. But what shall we eat? Well, God gave them manna from
heaven. Chapter 17, here they are questioning God again, doubting
God again. Well, what shall we drink? What
shall we eat? What shall we drink? My friends,
faith has a brief but comprehensive answer to all these questions.
What shall I eat? What shall I drink? What shall
I wear? And that brief but comprehensive answer to all these questions
is spelled G-O-D, God. There's the answer. Well, verse 4 of Exodus chapter
17, Moses cried to the Lord. Moses cried to God. Here behind
him are these questioning, fretting, murmuring
people. And Moses spread his arms before
the Lord, and he said, Lord, what am I going to do? What am
I going to do with these people? They're ready to stone me. What
am I going to do? And God said to him, Moses, verse
5, you go on before the people, and you take with you of the
elders of Israel and your rod, wherewith you smote the river.
Take it in your hand and go. Take this rod and go. And behold,
verse 6, I will stand before you there upon the rock in Horeb,
and thou shalt smite the rock, and there'll come water out of
it. that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight
of the elders of Israel. He smote the rock, and the water
came forth. You say, what makes this event
so special? What makes this event so unique?
Well, Paul tells us over in 1 Corinthians 10.4. I read it to you a moment
ago. You don't need to turn again. Paul says, that rock was Christ. That rock was Christ. Well, as
Charlie Payne told us the other night about some religious people
that came by his house, were talking to him about the things
of religion, about the Bible, and somehow the conversation
got around to the person of Christ, and they said to Charlie, they
said, well, really Jesus Christ began in Bethlehem. That's when he began in the New
Testament, Matthew 1. And Charlie, a very wise person,
he said, well, you know, he said, my pastor told me that Christ
is in the Old Testament. Oh, they said, no, no, that's
not right. Christ started at Bethlehem. But he said, my pastor
told me that that rock back there in Exodus that Moses smoked,
that that rock was Christ. Oh, they said, no, the Bible
doesn't say that. Well, he said, over here in 1
Corinthians 10, my pastor said that that's what this meant over
here when it says, that rock was Christ. And they got their
Bible and looked at it and said, your pastor sure knows his Bible,
doesn't he? When we read anywhere in the
Scriptures, and do not find Christ, we miss
the message of that part of God's Word, because Christ is the Scriptures. It's all Christ. To Him give
all the prophets witness. And this, what makes this so
important when these Israelites left Egypt, wandered around,
and finally came to this place, and there was no water to drink.
God's speaking to us. God's going to reveal His Son.
God's going to reveal the mercies He has in Christ, the grace He
has in Christ, our total dependence on Christ. He's going to exalt
and magnify Christ. And when these people were rebellious
people, murmuring and complaining, and God said to Moses, now come
ahead of the people, bring your rod, and there's a rock, and
I'll stand upon that rock, and you smite that rock, and out
of it shall come water. And Moses smote the rock, and
it came forth water, and that rock followed them, and that
rock was Christ. Now let's see, let's take four
or five things just briefly and look at this. First of all, the
people were ready to perish. This is my first point. All hope
was gone. The reason, the simple fact,
there was no water. And having no water, there was
no life. No water, no life. Is this not our state? Is this
not a dry and thirsty and barren land in which we live? The human
well is dry. The philosopher's well is dry.
And I have found that the religious well is dry. There is nothing
but drought and famine and dust and death in everything about
us. Our birth. By birth, by nature,
by experience. Ezekiel stood out there one day.
God took him to that valley and let him look. He looked over
that valley. Evidently there had been some
kind of battle fought there and a lot of men had been killed
years before. But as Ezekiel looked over that
valley, the scripture says there were many bones. There were very
many. They were very dry. There was
no water, no moisture. The bones were out there just
laying around everywhere, and the sand had blown up over them,
and the sun had bleached them. That was dry, dry. That was arid,
dry. That was waterless, dry. There
was no moisture. It was just dead and dry. And
God said, Ezekiel, can these bones live? And Ezekiel said,
Lord God, you know. And that's the state we're in.
It's just like Israel. When they came to this place
and pitched their tents, the first thing they looked for was
water. They knew that life could not be sustained without water.
It was a matter of time and they'd all perish. They must have water,
must have water, and they had no water. Now, I know this. There
is no life, there's no righteousness in this flesh. There's no life,
no righteousness in anything about us. In the flesh dwelleth
no good thing. In the flesh no man can please
God. We're in a dry, thirsty, barren, dead, dusty, dry land. That's all there is to it. Turn
to Psalm 63. That's the condition we're in. Listen to Psalm 63. This is what
David is complaining about right here. He said, O God, Thou art
my God, early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee. My
soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and
thirsty land where no water is." Now, my friends, this is a place
God has to bring everybody whom he saves, everybody whom he deals
with in mercy, in grace, everybody to whom he reveals. We've got
to see that there is no help within ourselves. There is no
hope within ourselves. There's no help and no home.
That's where these people were in Israel. There's no water. You can't create water, you can't
generate water, you can't produce water. There's no way that through
human ingenuity, skill, or initiative they could produce water. There
was, Bob, no water. There was no water, and that's
the state we're in. There just is no spiritual life. It's not there. It's not in your
churches. It's not in your religion. It's not in your old dry books
of theology. It's not in the human heart or
human nature or the human will or the human power. It's just
not there. It's dead, dry, parched, bleak,
barren bones. That's all we are. Now, that's
it. No water. At that, the Lord God said, Moses,
there's a rock. There is a rock. There is a rock. There is a rock. Somebody wrote
a hymn about it. There is a rock in a weary land. Its shadows fall on the burning
sand, inviting pilgrims as they pass to seek a shade in the wilderness. In appearance, it's only a rock. I don't know, I can't describe
it. It seems that Moses went ahead of the people. They went
to a certain location, but the rock was there. The rock was
nearby. It was nearby. But it was just a rock. They
probably wouldn't have picked it out from other rocks. There
were rocks everywhere. I know in a wilderness there's
rocks. Like rocks here and rocks there and rocks yonder. And they
wouldn't have picked this rock out as being different from any
other rock. There was a difference, though. There was a difference. Anointed eyes could see it. That
rock was Christ. That rock was Christ. Now, you
say, how is that a picture of Christ? Well, turn to Isaiah
53. When our Lord was here on this
earth, in Isaiah chapter 53, listen to it. Now, here's Moses
and the people. Dry, barren, parched land. No
water. But this rock, ordinary looking
rock on the outside, but God's in this rock. God's standing
upon this rock. There's water in this rock. The
very presence of God makes the water available in the rock. But they look at it as an ordinary
rock, just like any other rock. Their eyes, it only takes anointed
eyes to see the difference. And Jesus Christ, is not this
the carpenter they said? Can any good thing come out of
Nazareth? The scripture says here in Isaiah
50, who hath believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? He shall grow up as a tender plant, as a root out
of a dry ground. He had no form, no comeliness.
When we see Him, there's no beauty about Him. We're to pick that
rock. He's despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief. We hear as it were our faces
from Him. He was despised and we esteem Him not. Look at that rock, only a rock.
Oh, if you only knew. If you only knew. Look at that tabernacle in the
wilderness. You see it? Not a big building, it's not
an impressive building. It wasn't but 45 feet long, 15
feet wide, 15 feet high. It had a white fence around it.
But when you saw that tent, it looked like any other tent. It
was covered with badger skin, dirty. weather-beaten, brown,
badger-skinned. You looked out, you're standing
there overlooking the encampment of Israel, and you see all the
tents of Dan and Gad and Reuben and all the tents, and there's
that tent. You say, what's so special about
that? Oh, if you could see inside, you could see inside the glory
of God in that tent. The glory of God, the Shekinah
glory of God. Look at that rock. Moses, see
that rock? Yeah, I see that rock. I've seen
rocks like that a lot of times. You see that tabernacle? I've
seen tents like that a lot of times. See that man Jesus Christ,
only a man? Is he only a man? Oh, with anointed eyes you see
he's the man, Christ Jesus, the God-man. All right, Moses, let's
look further. Here's the third thing. No water,
dry, barren, parched, no possibility of water, no hope of water, no
help forthcoming. There's a rock. In the fullness
of time, God sent forth his Son made of a woman. He who made
woman was made of a woman. The Ancient of Days became an
Infinite of Days. He who made the law was born
under the law. Our Lord Jesus Christ became
a man in flesh and blood, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh.
He knew what it was to feel like I feel this morning, tired and
weary and sick and distressed. He knew what it felt like to
be hungry. He knew what it felt like to
be thirsty. He knew what it felt like to
be sorrowful. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. He knew what it was to bleed,
to hurt. to be weary. He knew all of these
things. He was a man, the God-man, perfect
God, very God of very God, and yet all man, human nature, human
nature. He was identified with the transgressors,
numbered with the transgressors. He was a human being. See that
rock, Moses? God's in that rock. That's a
special rock. That's a God-given rock. It looks
like all the other rocks. But Moses, what am I going to
do? He said, smite that rock! Smite it! And Moses walked over
there with his rod. Some say that represents the
law of God. Well, Moses smote that rock,
and when he did, the Scripture says, water came out of the rock,
and there shall come water out of it, and the people shall drink.
Moses' rod represents the law, the justice, the wrath of God
with which our Savior was smitten. The rock is there, but the rock
gives forth no water and no life till it's smitten, till it's
smitten. And our Lord Jesus Christ must
be smitten. It says in the Scriptures, He
was smitten of God and afflicted. see him scourged, see the crown
of thorns pressed upon his brow, see the nails pierce his hands
and feet, see the spirit drive into his side and out of his
side come forth blood and water, blood to cleanse, water to sanctify. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that
flood, lose all their guilty stains. This is what God's teaching
us here, this is what God's showing us. Israel in this barren land. There's the rock. Moses smite
the rock. And the rock was smitten. And
out of that rock came forth water. Pure, pure water. An abundance of water. And watch
this. That water was provided for a
rebellious people. There's no need to try to dress
up Israel. They were sinners and so are
we. And the message goes forth, there is a well in a desert plain,
its water calls with increasing strain. Oh, every thirsty, sin-sick
soul, come freely drink, and thou shalt be whole. The rock
yielded pure water in great abundance. Now listen to this. That water
does not need the law to purify it. It does not require man's
efforts to soften it. It does not require circumcision
or baptism to pipe it to you. It just requires you to come
to Christ and drink. It's that. It's that. And in Him we have all that we
need, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Now turn with me to Numbers chapter 20. Numbers chapter 20. I have made every effort in presenting
the gospel to stress the fact that these Old Testament types
lift up and exalt, magnify our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the picture is here and it's evident, it's plain to us. Israel
is a type of sinners. We're in a dry, thirsty land.
We have no water. That rock is Christ. And that
rock is smitten, and that's what our Lord was smitten for us.
He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. By His stripes
we're healed. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. There may I, though vile as he,
wash all my sins away. Now here in Numbers 20, in Numbers
chapter 20, we have another encounter with that rock I'm not absolutely
certain it's the same rock that he smote there at Horeb. It may
be. We're not going to get technical. But nevertheless, the Scripture
tells us in 1 Corinthians 10 that that rock followed them.
I can't explain how. I just know this is what it's
teaching, that Christ said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.
I'm with you. Lord, I'm with you always. Wherever
we go, wherever we are, Christ is with us, and He's the fountain
of life and the source of mercy and the source of blessing. We
always derive whatever we have from Him and Him alone. But here
in Numbers chapter 20, the people were without water again. In
verse 7, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod,
and gather thou the assembly together, thou and even thy brother,
and speak to the rock before their eyes." Now you see the
difference here in the command, don't you? When the people were
out here perishing with thirst, no water anywhere, and God showed
the rock to Moses the first time, and He said, Take your rod and
smite it. And Moses smote the rock, and
he gave forth water, and the people drank. It was plentiful,
abundant. It was pure water, and that rock
followed them and supplied their every need. Now here God says
to Moses, he says, 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 their beast drink.
And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him.
And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before
the rock. You with me? Numbers 20, verse 10. And he
said to them, now Moses is angry. Moses is letting his emotions
get away from him. He says, here now, you rebels,
must we fetch you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his
hand, and with his rod, he smote the rock twice. Now remember,
that rock is Christ. That rock is Christ. Moses is an important man. Moses
is a key figure in God's purpose and plan. Moses is God's own
prophet. But Moses violated God's word
here and destroyed God's type and sinned against God's Christ.
And he smoked that rock twice. And the water came out, and the
congregation drank, and there were beasts. And the Lord said
to Moses and Abraham, because you did not believe me, to sanctify
me in the eyes of the children of Israel, to hold me up as holy,
to be true to my word, to show forth my glory, my pure glory,
you took a lot of credit to yourself. Here, Moses, must I get you water
out of the well? Must I do this? Therefore you
will not bring this congregation into the land which I have given
them." Moses, you're not going to enter the promised land. You're
not going to take Israel in. Well, I know why Moses couldn't
enter the promised land. He couldn't because Moses represents
the law. There's no way that the law can
take us into Canaan, into the land of rest. Joshua took them
in. Moses didn't take them in. Joshua
did. Joshua is Jesus. Joshua is Jehovah, my Savior.
Joshua is a picture of Christ. The law cannot take me into rest.
Only Christ can take me into rest. But here's where this came
from. And when Moses came to that rock, and God said, speak
to it. Now turn to Romans chapter 10. You say, what shall I do
to be saved? Well, it says, call on the name
of the Lord. The Redeemer has been smitten.
He's been crucified. The well of living water has
been provided through Christ. He doesn't need to be sacrificed
again. Christ doesn't need to be offered
again. Say not in thy heart who shall ascend into heaven, that
is, to bring Christ down from above. He's already come. Say
not in thine heart who shall descend into the deep to bring
up Christ from the dead. He's already risen. The Word
is neither ye, even in thy heart. That's what it says. Look at
Romans 10, back here a little further. The word is nigh thee,
even in thine heart, verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, shalt confess, not smite him, not crucify
him again. That's what's wrong, young people,
with the Mass. Isn't the Mass a sacrifice all
over again every Sunday? And Christ is not smitten again.
God showed us that in this picture. this time Moses in the barren
dry land no water smite the rock that went through that the rock
was smitten and gave for what now anybody else that wants water
speak to the rock speak to the rock look down here at verse
13 by whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved now how should they call on him
and who do not believe you got to come to the right rock You've
got to come to the right person. You've got to look to the right
Savior. How shall they call on Him whom they've not believed?
And how shall they believe in Him of whom they've not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach except they be saved? But here is the gospel. The gospel
is, verse 16, for they've not all obeyed the gospel. Isaiah
said, Lord, who hath believed our report? So in faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Are you in need? Are you in a
barren land? It's not necessary to smite the
rock. It's been smitten. But it is necessary to call.
It's necessary to speak to the rock. O rock of ages, how have
thou met? Our Father blessed the Word this
morning. We thank Thee for this beautiful
picture of our Redeemer. We've been made to feel the barrenness
of our own souls, the dryness of our own hearts, the inability
of our own natures. Without thee we can do nothing.
We are nothing, we have nothing. We have been brought to see the
beauty and glory and sufficiency of Christ. He is our rock. And
from him there's an abundance of pure living water. We've been
brought to rest in him, to trust in him. We pray that you'd use
this message to direct the hearts and thoughts and interests and
Lord eyes of everybody here to the one who died for us on Calvary's
cross, our rock, Christ Jesus. Lead them to trust him, to believe
upon him, to receive him. We ask it in his name and for
his glory. Amen.