Salvation on the Solid Rock: God's Steadfast Love Towards a Rebellious People - Saved for the Glory of God | Studies in the book of Exodus

I just got told by the choir that I threw them onto the bus.

So.

But anyway, they've now left Anna on her own to bear it all.

So earlier this week, I found myself having a conversation I never

expected to have, because it was a conversation I know nothing

about, but it was about the Presbyterian assembly buildings in

Belfast.

And if you don't know what they look like, that's what they

look like.

And I was speaking to someone who was talking.

That's what they looked like.

There we go.

See everything with time.

But we were talking about these buildings in the center of

Belfast, and we were talking about how over a number of years

ago, all of the stonework had to be redone because the stone on

the front of this building is sandstone.

And the personal was really bemoaning to me about the amount

of money that had to be paid to have the stonework done.

Because over the hundred or so years that it's been there in Fisherwick

Place, with all of the traffic and just the weather, the stonework

hasn't survived well.

And, you know, I kind of surprised myself because as I was

standing there listening, I found myself falling into the mindset

of a true morn man.

Because as the person continued to speak of all of the

problems that the sandstone had caused, the only voice I could

hear in my head booming loudly, was, if only you'd used Morne

granite then this wouldn't have happened.

Now, whether the little voice in my head was right or not, I don't

know, because Pamela will tell me the little voices in my head are

often not right, and she is there to correct me.

I'm no expert in stone, and I couldn't tell you if Morne granite

would have been any better or not.

But we'd all want to think it would be.

Maybe over time it would have presented the same issues, maybe

many hundreds of years, you know, like the pyramids that you

saw there.

But it felt the right thing to think in that moment.

Because my only experience of mourn granite is when digging in

the garden, two enemies of mine, slugs and morn granite.

Because whenever you dig in the soil, you all of a sudden hear

a clank and you know you've hit something and it doesn't budge.

And so you have to dig around it, and before you know it, you discover

something that's bigger and heavier than you thought.

And it's now going to take you much longer to get your bed ready

for whatever you want to plant.

And so I guess that's why mourn granite has been used in so

many different ways around this part of the because it does

exactly what it's supposed to do, it stays strong, it lasts its

superior quality of other stones so that indeed we will know

what it is to use it and use it well.

And maybe the reason why it did spring into my mind was because

of the passage that we have before us today in Exodus 17, because

we come to the third of the grumblings of the children of Israel

after they left Egypt.

Remember, the first grumbling was in chapter 15 at Marah, where

the water was too bitter to drink.

And after coming before the Lord, Moses was told to throw a piece

of wood into the water and it became drinkable.

After this, the people were then led on to Elam, and where there

there was enough water to drink, and there was also shade from

these palm trees that demonstrated that there was an overflowing

supply of water beneath the ground.

But after this we move into chapter 16 and they moved into the

desert of sin, and there they grumbled about not having enough

to eat, and their response was that they should have stayed in Egypt,

where there was food enough to eat.

But the Lord once again provided for them with manna and

quail, and we were told that the manna would be with them for

the 40 years of their wanderings.

But there were going to be limits with this, and God himself

said that this was to be a test.

Would they trust God enough not just to provide them for the

food that they needed each day, but would they trust him in

that?

On a on a Saturday they would have to or on a Friday they would

have to collect double, so they would have no work to do on

the Sabbath.

And yes, sure enough, once they got into the rhythm of when

the manna would come, they obeyed the word of the Lord, even

though some initially did not.

But now, as they continue to travel through the desert of sin

and move on from place to place, as the text says, they come

to a place called Rephidim, and they camp there.

And once again they're unable to find water to drink.

But by this stage, the people are becoming more and more exasperated

and more and more angry.

And it's verse two that tells us how bad the situation is for them.

And so we discover that once again, these are a quarreling people.

We're moving on from grumbling now to quarrelling, although we're

told they do grumble as well.

So there is a difference between quarreling and.

And grumbling.

And this is what verse two says.

So they quarreled with Moses and Said, give us water to drink.

Moses replied, why do you quarrel with me?

Why do you put the Lord to the test?

Now, we've already seen the accusations that they hurl at Moses

and at the Lord.

But as I've just said, quarreling is different.

To quarrel is to argue heatedly about a situation.

So just as they had accused him of bringing them out of Egypt

to kill them with hunger, they now accuse him of doing so to kill

them with thirst.

But this is not the response that they should have given.

There's a key word for us in verse one that we can easily overlook,

because the first half of the verse tells us the whole Israelite

community set out from the desert of sin, traveling from place

to place as the Lord commanded.

That's the word that we could easily overlook.

You see, the Lord has commanded them.

He's commanded his people to travel to this place, and with the

Lord's command, they should have trusted him.

This is their God, as we discovered last week.

This is their God who has provided water, manna, and quail

for them.

And so their trust should have been in Him.

But they are a forgetful people, and so they simply blame

him for not providing for them immediately when they expect it.

That's why Moses responds as he does in verse two, because he

now is once again exasperated with them that they quarrel with

him, but more importantly, that they put the Lord to the test,

just as Moses had told them their real complaint was against

the lord in Exodus 16, 7, 8.

He now tells them the same is true here.

But remember, the Lord was the one testing Israel in the previous

two situations to see whether they would trust him obediently.

Well, now in chapter 17, it's the Israelites who are testing God

to see whether he is truly faithful or not.

And if we're honest, if we're really honest with ourselves, we

can find ourselves in the same situation.

The problem is, we try to fit God into our human molds by expecting

him to act as human beings do and consider him simply there to

respond to our wants.

And when we don't get what we want, then we too question Him.

And our questions generally form in this way.

We question his love towards us.

We question if he really, truly cares.

We question if he indeed is able, all the while forgetting what

he has done for us.

See, Even in the 12 hours of this day already, it is the Lord

who has kept us, and it is the Lord who has already sustained us

with food, shelter and clothing.

But it's also the Lord who has given us a way of salvation through

his Son Jesus.

It is the Lord who has promised us a home in heaven if we

trust in him rather than reject him and become a rebellious

people.

That's why Jesus challenges the Satan in the wilderness.

In Matthew 4.

7, you'll recall that Jesus is taken into the wilderness and there

he is tempted by the devil.

And Jesus replies to the Satan in Matthew 4.

7.

Is it also written or.

It is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test.

Taken from Exodus 17.

Here is Jesus, as we know in this account from the Gospels, replying

to the Satan with Scripture.

And what we have here in Matthew 4 is something of the wilderness

wanderings of the children of Israel repeated because Satan is

tempting Jesus to test God as he brings Jesus to the holy city

and tells him to throw himself off the highest point of the temple,

saying that the Lord will rescue him by sending angels and

they will lift him up so no harm will come to him.

But you see, what Satan is presenting to Jesus isn't a serious

test.

The Satan is actually mocking the Lord.

And so it is a test of mocking so that Jesus will obey the Satan

rather than trusting in the Lord to keep him.

That's why Jesus says what he does.

It is also written, do not put the Lord to the test.

You see, what this tells us is that God's ways are better for us

than rather than listening to the lies of the Satan.

And he'll want to tell us every single lie.

He'll want to tell you you're not adequate.

He'll want to tell you you're not good enough.

He'll want to tell you that you're the worst Christian ever.

But he'll also want to tell you that you're the best human being

so that you'll ignore the sin that's in your life that will kill

you.

You see, the writer of wisdom assures us in Proverbs 3, 5, 6, that

we are to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not

on your own understanding in all your ways, every way before you

acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

See, our invitation this morning is not to quarrel with the

Lord by listening to the lies of the Satan and the little whispering

in the ear that he has been doing since Genesis, chapter three,

trying to pull us away, not to make us against God, but to make

us think we're okay on our own merits, so that we will ignore the

promise of salvation.

So this invitation is not to quarrel with the Lord simply because

we don't get our way Rather, we are to trust in the Lord, that

He knows what he is doing and that his actions are for our good

and his glory.

So as we move on in this passage, we see that this quarreling

people, and I've made reference to this already, they're

also a forgetful people.

And we see this clearly in verse three.

But before we get to that verse, that's what quarreling against

the Lord does.

In our quarrelling, we forget the past because we're so consumed

with the present.

And there are many people today who will say that we are to

forget the past and only think of the present and the future, live

for today and plan for what's ahead.

But you see, it is in our past that we know how we have been shaped,

whether that be for better or not.

It is in our past experiences that tell us who we really are in

the present and who we believe God to be to us.

And the people had forgotten this.

They had forgotten all that God had done.

And verse three demonstrates it by saying, but the people were

thirsty for water there, and they grumbled.

Another grumbling against Moses.

They said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and

our children and livestock die of thirst.

Here they are again looking back to Egypt and considering it

to be a great place to have lived.

They again hint at having enough food to eat and water to drink

back in the land, but this is only seen through their current circumstances.

And they forget about the agony and the hardship of slavery.

The last time they grumbled and wanted to be back in Egypt, it's

because they had enough food to eat, because they were hungry

thinking of their stomachs, whereas now they were thinking of

death.

And they would rather have enslavement than trusting in the

Lord to rescue them.

See, they've even forgotten their own cry to the Lord for rescue

and salvation.

They've chosen to forget the waters of the Red Sea parting and

their walking on dry ground, something that they could not have

done by themselves.

And here they are looking back and thinking that Egypt was great.

They might have even considered the Egyptians at that

moment, after having all of the plagues of punishment upon them,

still had enough to eat and to drink.

And of course, we know they didn't because the plagues wiped

out their harvest.

So the Egyptians were starving just as much as the children of Israel.

But looking back, it just all looked so much better.

You see, to think back to Egypt was to consider slavery again

rather than the salvation of the Lord.

And for Christians, there can be moments of thinking, is the Christian

Faith really worth it.

At times we think it's too hard because of what is expected

of us by way of church attendance and involvement, Bible

reading, prayer service and fellowship.

Or we look around just as the people look back to Egypt and we

think that non Christians have it so much better and have the freedom

to do whatever they want and consider Christianity as being no

fun at all.

Live your life now.

Enjoy it.

And so we look back as if we're looking back to Egypt and thinking

that that life of sin was much better than the life of true hope.

Christians believe sometimes that they would have more of what

they want while being in their sin, because Christianity seems to

be the only place of suffering hassle.

Please don't allow the poisoned words or thoughts of the

devil to make you believe that lie.

Being apart from Christ is not salvation, it is condemnation.

Just like the example I've used before.

A fish can jump out of a fishbowl and think it has all the

freedom in the world, but it will soon die out of the water.

The Christian life may at times seem too constraining because

you know, you don't want to cut corners.

You know you want to do what's right, but it just seems to be hindering

you.

But the truth is, the only freedom that we can know is in Christ

and in him alone.

That's why Jesus says what he does in John 14:27.

John 14:27

He's just told the disciples that after he leaves the earth, Jesus

to go and prepare a place for them in heaven.

The comforter will come, the Holy Spirit will come.

And then he tells them in the next verse, peace, I leave with you.

My peace I give you.

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

You see, the Lord Jesus is the only one who can see us through our

times of difficulty by looking back and not forgetting his faithfulness

to us and trusting him to keep us in the present.

God's testing of his people is ultimately for their good and so

is to be seen positively.

But as we've discovered in this passage, the people are wanting

to test God well.

Their testing of God expresses unbelief in his presence and care,

and is seen negatively.

You see, God deserves our true worship of him for all that he does

give us so that we can be his for all eternity as we trust in Him.

Is the Christian faith worth it even when things seem weary and

burdensome?

Absolutely.

Because to be apart from Christ is condemnation and punishment

for all eternity.

Yes.

These three score and ten Years may be weary and hard, but

that's because of the sinful condition of the fold.

But yet there is glory waiting when Christ will come and take us

home.

And we will know true eternal rest and eternal power in the realms

above.

Don't make shipwreck of your faith.

Keep going even in the hardest of days, because Christ will indeed

keep you.

So they are a quarrelling people.

They're a forgetful people, but because of the Lord God, they

are a rescued people.

In verse four, we once again see Moses now cry out to God.

He wants to know what to do with the people.

And rather than keep Moses in a pity party, God again graciously

provides for them to demonstrate his love towards them.

Moses is told by God to walk ahead of the people and to take some

of the elders of his people with them.

He is also to take with him the staff that he had in Egypt.

And that's significant because then God says in verse six, I will

stand there before you by the rock at Horeb.

Strike the rock and water will come out of it for the people to

drink.

So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Remember the staff, the staff that Moses had in Egypt, when it

struck the waters of the Nile, it made it putrid.

But this time, instead of turning the water putrid, Moses strikes

the rock and fresh water comes flowing out of it in abundance, enough

for the people to drink.

And this took place at the rock in the region of Horeb, presumably

ahead of where the people were, so that they would stand and

see the Lord's work, his manifesting presence in a spectacular

way at the rock, so that it is clear that he is the one causing

the water to flow and not Moses.

By some sleight of hand, the people will see this act of the Lord,

and so they will trust him for the water they have to drink.

And so Moses obeys the Lord's command in front of Israel's elders,

who then presumably will be able to report back this miraculous

deed to the people.

And once again God demonstrates his covenant keeping

love for his people.

And they will not die in the desert as they believe.

And I read this this week by the commentator Ian Do Good.

The miracle could have led to the places being called glory or

the Lord provides, but instead it is called massa, that is testing

and Meribah quarreling, etching the Israelites sinful behavior

into the nation's collective memory.

I thought that was that summed it all up.

It summed it up that here was a place of the Lord's provision Here

was a place of the Lord's glory demonstrated.

Yet for this forgetful people, as they knew rescue once again well,

they had to be reminded.

And so rather the names of glory the Lord provides.

It's called the place of testing and the place of quarreling.

So that as they were told their wilderness journey, they would

remember what they did towards the Lord.

See, they're going to be reminded of their response to Him.

And as much as it was a place of provision, it was also that place

of the people testing God and quarreling against Him.

But it was also a place of rescue, because from the rock came

flowing waters.

Flowing waters to refresh, to comfort and to assure the people

that their faith in God was indeed well placed.

And throughout Scripture, the word and the image of a rock is used

to demonstrate the Lord's salvation.

In Psalm 40, verse 2 we read, he lifted me out of the slimy pit,

Psalms 40:2

out of the mud and mire.

He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand again.

Psalm 62 and verses 1 to 2 we read, My soul finds rest in God alone.

My salvation comes from Him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation, he is my Father.

I will never be shaken.

In the Gospels, Jesus tells the parable of the wise and foolish

builders, with the wise person building their lives on the solid

rock of Christ.

And if you are inclined to think about salvation matters, then

it is only to Jesus to look.

You cannot save yourself.

Just like the people couldn't get water for themselves for their

physical salvation, it was from the solid rock that water came.

And it is only on the solid rock of Christ that we can know salvation.

Like sandstone that in time will wear down.

You cannot trust other things for salvation because they won't

save.

No amount of money or education, of good reputation, or

indeed of self righteousness or of good works will save you.

It is only Christ.

Just as mourn granite stands for generations and generations,

so too will our salvation in Jesus Christ.

Because we all need him this day to keep us and to provide for

us.

The children of Israel were a quarreling people.

They were a forgetful people, but they were a rescued people.

We too quarrel against God.

We too forget what he has done for us.

But we can know great rescue.

So don't test him, don't even try, because he is the one to whom

we are to look and to trust.

Don't forget what he's done.

Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will

surprise you what the Lord has done.

What he's done for you already this day.

And trust me, in my heart, I need to be reminded of this whenever

things aren't going the way I want.

I need to remember his truth.

I need to hide his word in my heart so that I will know what he

has done for me.

And I urge you to do the same.

In many ways, I'm the worst minister ever.

Well, you might have already assessed that yourselves, but I can't

remember scripture and verse.

If you tell me to quote a particular passage, I can't do it.

I just don't have that recall.

But what I do know is I can take my best guess at what Scripture

has told me of what I know deep down.

Maybe not getting all the words in the right order, maybe not

getting to the right passage of where it is, but yet God's word

still sustains me.

And it is God's word that will sustain you.

So hide his word in your heart.

Know that tomorrow, no matter how good or bad the day is, he provided

for you today, and he will provide for you the next day.

So trust in him to see you through the difficulties and know

his rescue.

Simply come to him and believe in his only way of salvation, and

you will truly be saved from all of the lies, all of the hurt,

and all of the suffering of this present age.

Because it's Jesus Himself who brings us this idea of water and

food together.

In John 7, where on the last and greatest day of the feast, coming

out of that great feast of Passover, Jesus stood and said in

a loud voice, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living

water will flow from within him.

The wilderness wanderings shows us the grumbling spirit and

heart of the people, their forgetfulness, but also how great

a rescue God gives.

And if you're feeling as if your soul is dry, that you're in

a desert well, come to Jesus.

Receive the living water he gives.

Because whoever believes in Me, he says, as the Scripture has

said that word hidden in our hearts, so streams of living water

will flow from within him, flow from within us as we trust in

the Savior.

That's why we opened with the words that we did in that second

verse of oh, how good it is.

There are those here who are joy filled this day, but there are

those who are weary and sad and hurting.

And each of us stand before God because of Jesus.

To know healing, to know refreshment, and to know by the very

words of Jesus, this invitation to come to him and no

living water.

Don't settle for anything else please don't settle only for Christ.

Know him and true assurance of salvation in heaven because apart

from him there is only condemnation.

Let's pray.

Our Father God we thank you that you rescued your people yet

again so that we would see your glory and your glory was shown

before the people there in the Exodus and we see your glory displayed

to us in the person of Jesus.

So we ask this day we will know refreshment of our souls.

We will know that living water we will know what it means to truly

trust in you that even though the hurts are real and the burdens

are heavy even though we find it hard to take one step in front

of the other, you remain faithful and good.

So Lord indeed may we know you as our true Savior and may we know

in our hearts that deep refreshment of our souls as we look

ever to Christ and it's in his name we pray.

Amen.