This morning, I would like for
you, if you will, to open your Bibles first to the book of Numbers,
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, chapter 20. If you will, turn
to Numbers chapter 20 and hold your place there. And then I
want us to read one verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Numbers chapter 20. And when
you found your place there, turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter
10. And the verse we're reading here
is verse 11. Now, all these things happened
unto them for ensamples. If you notice, if you have a
Bible that has a marginal reading before the word ensample in the
margin, We have the word types. Now all these things happened
under them for types. Now we know that there are many
types in the Old Testament which were objects. For instance, the
brazen serpent was an object. and it was a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. So we know there are many different
objects which were types, but this verse also tells us that
not only were objects types, But what happened unto them? What happened unto them? Notice
again, now all these things happened unto them for types. That which they experienced,
and of course he's speaking of the nation of Israel. When they
came out of Egypt, when God delivered them out of Egypt and on their
way to the land of Canaan. Many things that happened unto
them. also serve as types and they
are written, now notice, they're written for our admonition upon
whom the ends of the world are come. So they were written for
our admonition. You and I, we may be admonished
as we look at these types in the Old Testament of things that
happened to the nation of Israel. So if you will, turn back with
me now to Numbers chapter 20. I have six divisions in the message
this morning. And I trust the Lord will bless
His word to all of us. First, the children of Israel
came to where there was no water. Notice in verses 1 and the first
part of verse 2. Then came the children of Israel
and even the whole congregation into the desert of Zin in the
first month, and the people of Boad and Kadesh and Miriam died
there and was buried there and there was no water for the congregation. The children of Israel came to
where there was no water. Did they just happen to come
to this place? Was it just a purr adventure
that they came to this place? In answering this question, I
trust that we may be admonished concerning God's faithfulness,
the faithfulness of our covenant God to lead His people as we
go through this world. Did they just happen to come
to this place? No, absolutely not. They didn't just happen to come
to this place where there was no water. The God of peace, the
God of all grace, He led them to this place. Forty years, forty
years, more or less, before this, when God delivered the nation
of Israel out of Egypt, you remember they came to the Red Sea, and
it was before them, and they saw no way, no help, the armies
of Pharaoh was coming against them, and God opened up a way
for them through the Red Sea. And this is what we read there
in Exodus chapter 13. And the Lord went before them. Now this is 40 years before this
took place that we are reading about here in Numbers chapter
20. 40 years before this. The Lord went before them by
day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them in the way. and by
night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day
and night. Now listen, he took not away
the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar of the cloud by
fire by night from before the people. This is 40 year time
spans from when the Lord first came over them to lead them. by a pillar of cloud by day and
by fire by night. And after 40 years, 40 years,
you know how many times we read about their murmuring, about
their complaining, about their unbelief, but God never took
that pillar of cloud by day or by night away from them. I want
you to hold your places here, but now look with me in the book
of Nehemiah. Go over a few pages into the
book of Nehemiah. And Nehemiah is rehearsing this
to the nation of Israel when they came back out of captivity,
after they'd been in captivity in Babylon when they came back.
But what he says here, just points out to us, this is what I want
us to see. I want us to see the faithfulness
of God. I want us to see the grace of
God. Did they deserve His leading?
Did they merit His leading? Did they appreciate His leading?
How many times in those 40 years do we read about their rebellion? About their murmuring and complaining? And yes, about their unbelief,
but he never took that cloud, that pillar of cloud by day or
pillar of cloud of fire by night away from them. He never did. Our God, your God, if you know
Christ this morning, he's so faithful. He's so good. And we see this brought out here.
Look here in Nehemiah chapter nine, beginning in verse nine. He said, And didst see the affliction,
that is, God, you didst see the affliction of our fathers in
Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red Sea, and showed signs
and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all
the people of his land. For thou knewest that they dealt
proudly against them. So didst thou get it thee a name,
as it is this day. And thou didst divide the sea
before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea
on the dry land. And their persecutors thou threwest
into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters. Moreover,
thou leadest them in the day by a cloudy pillar, and in the
night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein
they should go. Thou causest them also Or came
us down also upon Mount Sinai, and spake us with them from heaven,
and gave us them right judgments and true laws, good statutes
and commandments, and made us known unto them thy holy Sabbath,
commanded us them precepts, statutes, and laws by the hand of Moses
thy servant, and gave us them bread from heaven for their hunger,
and brought us forth water for them out of the rock for their
thirst. and promised them that they should
go in to possess the land which thou had sworn to give them. But they and our fathers dealt
proudly and hardened their necks, hearkened not to thy commandments,
refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou
didst among them, but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion
appointed a captain to return to their bondage But thou art
a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger,
and of great kindness, and forsookest them not. Yea, when they had
made them a molten calf, and said, this is thy God that brought
thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations, yet,
now notice this, yet thou, in thy manifold mercies, forsookest
them not in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud departed
not from them by day to lead them in the way, neither the
pillar of the fire by night to show them light and the way wherein
they should go. Thou gavest also thy good spirit
to instruct them and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth
and gavest them water for their thirst Yea, forty years didst
thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing,
their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not. They came to where there was
no water. And the question is, did they
just happen to come to this place? Absolutely not. God had led them. Lord Jesus Christ will never
forsake one of his own. He said in the gospel of John,
no man can come to me except the father which has sent me
draw him and him that cometh to me. I will and no wise cast
out. I love that verse in John 13,
which says and having loved his own, which were in the world,
He loved them unto the end. God, even though Israel was a
rebellious nation, a sinful nation, God never took that pillar of
cloud away from them. These 40 years, he led them to
this place. The second thing I want us to
see is a new generation. A new generation tempts the Lord. You see this in the last part
of verse 2, where we read, and they gathered themselves together
against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with Moses
and spake saying, would God that we had 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? 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 figs
or vines or pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink.
God had brought them here, and once again we see the sinfulness
and the weakness of the flesh. Forty years before this, they
had come to another place, not this same place, but to another
place where there was no water. God had led them there. And then
it was their fathers. And I'm going to read to us what
their fathers said and see that if this new generation now is
not saying exactly what their parents said 40 years before,
when God led them to a place where there was no water. You
see what they said here in Numbers chapter 20, verses 3 through
5. Now let me read from Exodus 17. There was no water for the
people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide
with Moses. I believe we see that here, don't
we? They began to chide with Moses. And the people murmured
again. The people murmur against Moses. A new generation. new generation
doing the very same thing that their fathers had done. And they
said, wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of
Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? God led them here. Did not God
know that there was no water here? Did God lead them to a
place where He didn't know that there was no water there for
the Israelites? Well, you know better than that.
God knew there was no water here, just like He had known that 40
years before when He led them to this place, or to a place
where there was no water. God is going to manifest His
grace and His mercy in giving them water, providing them water,
in a wilderness. How prone all of us are when
we come to some particularly hard place in our life. We want
to blame someone. We want to blame someone. I'm
talking to believers, to God's children this morning. When we
come to some hard place in our lives, some difficult providence,
and remember God has not promised that we will not come to these
places. But what He has promised is that
when you go through the waters, they shall not overcome thee.
When you go through the fire, it shall not harm thee. Why? Because He will be with you. But by nature, that old flesh,
we all want to blame someone. And if it's not someone else,
sometimes we even blame ourselves. If I had just If I had, if, if,
if, forgetting that God is the one who is leading His people
through this world, just as much so as He was leading the nation
of Israel through that wilderness. They didn't just come to this
place by accident where there was no water. God knew there
was no water there. God knows God created man. God knows that man cannot live
without water. But we see the murmuring and
the complaining and the lesson. We are to be admonished by these
things. That's what Paul said there.
We are to be admonished by these things, these types which we
see, that we not be guilty of the same things. They blame Moses,
just like their fathers. The third part of my message,
Moses' one faithful resource. Moses' one faithful resource,
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 upon their faces, and the
glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly
together, thou and thy brother Aaron, 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 drink. Forty
years before, What is Moses going to do? They're speaking of stoning
me. They're murmuring. They're complaining. God, I didn't seek this job.
I was on the backside of a desert, tending the sheep of my father-in-law,
and you called me. You know, this is not scripture. I'm just trying to supponer,
trying to suppose what he might have thought. Lord, I didn't
seek this job. You're the one who called me.
You are the one who sent me into Egypt to bring these people out
of Egypt. And now they're mad at me as
though it was all my fault. What am I going to do? Sure,
they need water. We recognize that. What did Moses
do 40 years before? He went to the only source of
help. that there really is, and that
is he went to God. And once again we see he cried
unto the Lord. Now, will God hear him again? Really? Will God hear him again? Will God supply their need of
water once again? You remember what we read over
there in Nehemiah a few minutes ago? one of the most amazing
verses of scripture that you'll ever read, a God ready to pardon. A God ready to pardon. I watched this past week a man
who had been recently pardoned by the president, and I couldn't
help but think as he expressed his thanksgiving and his joy
and his gratitude, Are we guilty of not expressing
our joy and our gratitude that God Almighty has pardoned us? If you've been saved today, God's
pardoned you. He's done more than pardon you.
He's justified you. A God ready to pardon. Will God
hear once again these people in their rebellion? Yes, he hears
once again. God heard when Moses cried the
first time and he hears again when Moses cries. The nation's
need of water. God gave specific instructions
as to how he would give water. He said, speak unto the rock
before their eyes and it shall give forth his water. You know,
we read in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 4, that rock was
Christ. Now, nobody understands that
literally, do we? This is not the same rock that
he is to speak to as before the rock that he was to strike. Not
the same rock, they're not in the same place. Paul says that
rock was Christ. In other words, that rock represented
or pictured Christ. Just like when the Lord said
concerning the bread, this is my body. Does anyone believe
that that bread that he was holding in his hand was his body? Oh,
no. That bread pictures his body.
Or that what was in the cup was His blood? No, but the bread
and the wine picture the body and blood of Jesus Christ. And
He said, except a man eat My flesh and drink My blood, he
hath no life in him. We don't do that by literally
eating bread and drinking wine, but we do by trusting in Christ,
by looking to Christ, by believing in Him and receiving Him. My
friend, Brother Mahan, said one time, Henry Mahan, he said, if
all the Israelites that were there, and there were over a
million of them, including Moses, and God said, I'm going to give
you water, there would not have been a one who would have thought
that water was going to come out of a rock. People looked at Christ. They
looked at the Lord Jesus. Well, we know him. We know who
he is. We know his mother. We know his
brothers. How could a man who died the
felon's death on a cross, and you tell me he's God? You tell me that He carried and
bore the sins of his people in his own body on the tree so that
they're gone? He did that? Yes. Yes. Just like this rock brought
water. God brought water out of the
rock. Supplied all their thirst, all their need. When we think of a rock, now
we're not thinking of a pebble. little great-granddaughters the
other day. I think they asked her what she had in her pocket.
She said she had some rocks. I believe that's the way it went.
Well, her pockets are pretty small. Talking about pebbles. Simon, thy name thou shalt be
called Peter. A pebble. A pebble. Just a little pebble. But upon
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. That rock is Christ. And when
we think of a rock, and when the rock here is a type of Christ,
we're not thinking of a pebble, not something you can pick up
and put in your pocket. We're talking about a rock, a
giant rock that speaks to us of strength. You're not going to break that
rock. Durability, the same yesterday, today, and forever. And yes,
elevation, it was lifted up. The Lord Jesus Christ was lifted
up, wasn't he? I tell you, he's lifted up today.
He's lifted up to the throne of God with a scepter in his
hand, all power and all authority both in heaven and earth, and
little feeble man says, well, wonder what I'll do with Jesus. That's not the question. The
question is, what will he do with you? What will he do with
me? We're in his hands. He's not
in our hands. Remember that course years ago?
He's got the whole world in his hand. Amen. Well, Moses, we know, was told
to speak to the rock and it may give some water. No, that's not
what he was told. God doesn't use the word may. Speak to the rock, Moses, and
it shall. It shall. give water. In the new covenant, God said,
I am their God and they shall be my people. Well, he, along with Aaron, the
high priest, they were told and they went
to the rock and you know what they did. They didn't speak. But Moses did speak, but he struck
the rock. And that was my fourth point.
There's only one sinless man. There's only been one sinless
man after Adam fell, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Do
you know what we read about Moses a few chapters before this in
the book of Numbers? When Aaron and his sister Miriam,
they began to complain against Moses and the scripture there
says, now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which
were upon the face of the earth. But how meek does he sound here? Here, now you rebels! Must we
fetch water out of the rock? See, Moses, he didn't start off
being the meekest man either. You tell that to that Egyptian
he killed that day. When God works a work of grace
in a person's heart, yes, we have a new nature, but my friends,
we've still got that old man, and while we see God said he
was the meekest man upon the face of the earth. He doesn't
sound like a meek man here, does he? There was only one sinless
man who ever lived upon this earth, and that is the Lord Jesus
Christ. When he was reviled, the scripture
says, he reviled not again. Moses was fed up with this group.
The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified when he was nailed to the cross.
He prayed, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. What we see here is that sin
remains in all of God's people while we are in this world, even
the prophet. And remember this, Moses was
a prophet like no other. God said to all the other prophets,
I'll speak to them in dreams and in visions, but to Moses,
my servant, I'll speak face to face. But he still was a man. And he sinned when he struck
the rock. And God charged him with unbelief.
Notice that in verse 13. Verse 10 through 13, Moses and
Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock and
he said unto them, here now, you rebels, must we, you think
Moses had any power to bring water out of that rock? Must
we fetch you water out of this rock?
Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smote the rock
twice. That rock was Christ. Isn't that
what Paul said? That rock was a picture of Christ. And that brings me to my fifth
point. That rock was never to be smitten another time. Because
it was a type, and it is a type, a picture of the Rock, the Lord
Jesus Christ. How many times did he have to
be smitten? How many times did he have to
die? Once. Once. Once in the end of the world
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Once. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God. He was smitten once to save his
people. He's not to be smitten again.
And when that rock was smitten, out flowed the water, which is
a type, a picture of God, the Holy Spirit. And Paul said, and
they did all drink that same spiritual drink. You know, sometimes people will
say, well, you know, you need to be baptized of the spirit. You've been saved, but now you
need to be baptized by the spirit. What foolishness? What foolishness? No one is saved who's not baptized
with the spirit, by the spirit. That's simultaneously. Again,
Paul said, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one
body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and
have all been made to drink into one spirit. That water pictured
God, the Holy Spirit, into which all believers drink and by which
all believers are baptized into the body of Jesus Christ. Every child of God is in him,
in Christ, by faith, and he is in us by his blessed Holy Spirit. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now here's the last thing. I
want you to think for just a moment of a contrast between Moses and
Christ. In John chapter 1 and verse 17,
the apostle wrote, for the law was given by Moses, was given
through Moses. God gave the law to the nation
of Israel, gave that old covenant to the nation of Israel through
Moses. Grace, now listen, grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ. The words of Moses here, They
just sound like the law, don't they? Here, you rebels. That's what we all are. Could any of us bring water out
of a rock? Of course not. Can anyone perfectly,
absolutely obey the law of God so as to be just before God? Of course not. The law requires,
but it doesn't give any strength. It commands, but it doesn't give
any ability. For by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. But grace, grace, unmerited
favor and truth came by Jesus Christ. He's the rock, and out
of him flows the living water. Whosoever drinketh of this water,
he told that woman of Samaria, And there was water in that well. She was there to get some. And
he told her, he said, whosoever drinketh of this water will thirst
again. But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give unto him shall never thirst. For it shall be in him a well
of water springing up unto everlasting life. And then don't you just
love his words? He said, if you had known the
gift of God and who it is that speaketh unto thee, you would
have asked. And he would have given you the
water of life. Have you asked the Lord to save
you? Have you? Well, his word is,
if you ask, he will give. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. I pray that the Lord would
bless this message to all of us here. Surely there's something,
surely there's something in these words today that may serve to
admonish us, If you're here without Christ today, certainly there's
words of life. He has the words of everlasting
life. And for those of us who are believers,
there's words here to encourage us and comfort us, as Brother
Kelly prayed, comfort us, comfort us. I trust it so. Let's sing this hymn. All the
way my Savior leads me, what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt
his loving favor, who through life has been my guide? Number
296, just like God was faithful to guide the nation of Israel
that whole 40 years, he never took that pillar of cloud away
from them. May the Lord guide and direct
us day by day. Number 296, and let's stand as
we sing.