The Rock and the Rod

Address—Steve Stewart
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Let's look through the Lord our God and our Father.
We thank Thee for Thy precious word we know are able to meet our needs, so varied, so many.
From Thy precious Word. And we just pray that Thou art, by the Spirit of God, open from its pages to our spiritual understanding that which is needful.
And so we do thank Thee for Thy ways with us through the wilderness path. We thank Thee that it leads us on to glory. We thank Thee to know that everyone of thine own.
That is, walking the wilderness way will certainly end their path and the glory above. And so we just pray that thou help us as we open thy word to.
Clean that which I would have for us, and ask for thy help, and we would ask it, our God and Father, for the glory of thy beloved Son, the blessing of thy people, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
I was wondering what to take up and a brother came by.
While I was sitting in my chair a little bit ago and he just shared a verse I'm gonna share with you and.
Felt that was.
The Lord's direction. Deuteronomy 3210.
He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He led him about, instructed him. He kept him as the apple of his eye. My brother said to me, there's the history of the believer.
And yes, we are in a wilderness path.
And there are lessons in that path that are so deep, so real.
In God's ways with us individually and collectively, and I'd like to look at.
Some of those things this afternoon.
I like to start with some verses in the New Testament before we turn to.
The book of Numbers in chapter 20, where I'd like to primarily stay, and the first one of those verses is in the Gospel of Matthew in the 19th chapter.
Matthew 19.
Verse 23 And Jesus said unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.
And when his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
First, Peter.
And the 4th.
Chapter.
First Peter, chapter 4.
Verse 18.
And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the Sinner appear?
Romans.
Chapter 5.
Romans, chapter 5.
And verse 10.
For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.
Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
And then one more portion in the New Testament from the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews, Chapter 7.
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And verse 24.
But this man, because he continueth, ever hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.
Made higher than the heavens, Peter says, if the righteous scarcely be saved.
Salvation is looked at in two ways, perhaps more, but two ways that I'm thinking of in Scripture. One is the salvation of our souls, Peter says. We have received that.
Having received the salvation of your souls that we have, but there is salvation.
That is not going to be realized until we get to the end of the pathway, when He brings us safely home. Salvation that brings us spirit, soul and body.
Into our proper dwelling place the Father's house on high, and there is salvation that's looked at at the end of the pathway. And Peter looking at the whole path and the trials that come with it, and the testings and the difficulties of that path, says the righteous are going to scarcely.
Be saved.
It's that difficult, there's that much opposition.
Who then can be saved? The disciples said.
But we're saved by his life.
He ever lived to make intercession for us. He's living at God's right hand, and it's through his mighty intercession that our souls are kept on their course, and as through his intercession and His life living for us on high, that we're going to be brought safe home. The glory. I'd like to turn back to Numbers 20. We have in that chapter a wilderness.
Scene.
And I'll just ask the pardon of those who perhaps heard me speak on this before. Trust you'll just.
Bear with me again.
It's a wilderness scene. It's not long before they are going to enter the land. They've come.
Perhaps 38 years.
Through the wilderness journey at this point.
It's a scene that starts with death.
And that ends with death, And this world that we pass through is stamped by it.
Let's read it together.
Numbers 20, verse one. Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation.
Into the desert of Zen in the first month. And the people abode in Kadish, 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 ***** with Moses, and spake, saying with God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord. And why have we brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness?
That we and our cattle should die there. And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? It is no place of seed, or figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink.
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 in the glory of the Lord, appeared unto them. And MO And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock.
So thou shalt give the congregation, and their beasts 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. And he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice. And the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
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And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, because he believed me not.
To sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel. Therefore ye 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, and now down.
To verse 22 And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadish, and came unto Mount Hor. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, and Mount Hor by the coast of the land of Edom, saying, Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah.
Take Aaron and Eliezer's son and bring them up onto Mount Horror, and strip Aaron of his garments and put them upon Eliezer's son, and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there.
And Moses did as the Lord commanded, and they went up unto Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation, And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments.
And put them upon Eleazar's son. And Aaron died there in the top of the mount.
And Moses and Eliezer came down from the mount, and when all the congregation.
Saw that Aaron was dead. They mourned for Aaron 30 days.
Even all the House of Israel.
They said this chapter opens with death of one who is called a prophetess.
It closes with death of one who was the priest.
And in between there's murmurings, there's complainings.
There's death.
And circumstances there's.
Death and family.
There's tumult and agitation.
And rebellion.
This is really a wilderness scene.
This is the reality.
Of the path.
You know, when you and I were first saved, perhaps, maybe when we were first gathered to the Lord's name and embracing the truth of God, and it was coming home in such a fresh way to our souls.
We were like Miriam on the other side of the Red Sea. She picked up that Timbrel and.
Being a prophetess, she led those singers of Israel.
And a song of triumph and praise to the Lord.
But now here her hands are folded in death.
Her lips are sealed. She's not going to sing again.
She's not going to pick up that Timbrel again.
And you know, for you and I as time goes on in the path.
Same thing can happen.
Exercises can grow stale and hold.
The weariness of the wilderness way presses in upon us and there isn't the song on our lips like there used to be. There isn't that.
Uh, joy.
That perhaps we once had.
In the Lord.
And what replaces that voice?
Of singing and joy and triumph.
The people ***** with Moses.
They murmured, they complained, they were discontent.
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In their circumstances.
And that can come into with us, can it and replace.
What had been once the high praises of God in our lips?
And they complained and accused Moses of bringing them into a place where they would die our cattle.
All our circumstances.
Ourselves. Our families.
Everything's just gonna die.
We wish we were dead.
Have you heard anybody say that? Wish I was dead.
What a thing to say, you know.
You probably heard it. Maybe you've said it.
Isn't that what they're saying?
Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord.
Wish we were dead.
This wilderness path to them.
Had become an evil place.
This is an evil place.
There isn't any resource that we can see here for us.
Nothing to sustain us here.
No, the eye of nature can't see anything to sustain us in the wilderness path. Only the eye of faith can see that.
This is no place of seed or figs. You know in the things that they name here.
Are all the things that they had heard from the time they were little. This isn't the generation that came out of Egypt, although they speak of it.
This is the next generation. The generation that came out of Egypt was almost all dead.
They died in the wilderness because of their unbelief. This is the next generation. They didn't really remember Egypt.
Or if they did, it was very faint, but they had heard from the time they were little of the place that they were going to. And it's wonderful blessings.
And they said we don't see any of that.
You've been talking about that for a long time.
Not here.
We've heard about the blessings.
That are ours and heavenly places in Christ Jesus since we were little.
After a while they can kind of go in one ear and out the other, can't they?
Kind of.
Aren't fresh and real in our soul because they have to be laid hold of by faith.
Nature. Nature can't discern it.
I want to turn to.
Hold our place there scripture in.
Deuteronomy 8.
Verse 2.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God LED thee in these 40 years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manner which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that perceiveth out of the mouth of the Lord.
Doth man live?
Met a young man just before this meeting. His name is Caleb.
See Ron? There's Caleb.
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Caleb, I got a question to ask you.
Before Brother Masro gave thanks for the food, did you believe you were going to get some lunch to eat?
Yeah.
Did you have it?
Are you full?
Faith believes that God is going to feed us and can feed us in the wilderness.
But when we've been fed, it changes from faith to reality. I know I'm full.
When I and I know I've been fed, it doesn't take faith anymore. It's reality. But you know, he brings us into a place where we're hungry. He brings us into circumstances where we're thirsty.
Because while we're surrounded.
By everything that might satisfy the flesh. And while we indulge in those kinds of things, we'll have no.
Taste.
For what he has for us.
When we feel full, we don't want anything else. The full sole loathes the honeycomb. And so He brought them into a place in His ways with His people, that they would be thirsty and hungry, that He might feed them with food that they knew not, food that was not discernible by nature. And the food we have in the precious Word of God, the food He has for us as His people in the wilderness, is not a food that is discernible.
By nature, but when we're surrounded with that which feeds what we are by nature.
We won't want or discern what He has for us in His Word, and so He brings the trials He brings.
Those things in the wilderness path.
To make us thirsty and hungry.
So that he can feed us.
With what is better?
Infinitely better that we would never have a taste for or a thirst for otherwise.
His desires to do us good.
And here they are in that wilderness way, and he's brought them into just such a place.
Now this is, as I mentioned, towards the end of the wilderness journey.
God had suffered with them.
We know how he met.
These complaints earlier in their history.
And visited them in his chastising ways with them.
We know how many fell in the wilderness and the judgments of God.
Because of their stiff necked ways.
And they've come all the way through this wilderness and justice about to enter the land, and here it comes again.
How is God going to meet it?
How is he going to meet?
This rebellion and this complaint.
Well, the glory of the Lord.
Appears.
You know, in other instances the glory of the Lord appeared.
Judgment fell.
The glory of the Lord appears again here. Moses and Aaron fell on their faces.
Word for us if we're seeking to serve the Lord.
Connection with his people when difficulties come in and.
Circumstances arise and there is complaint and maybe even rebellion.
And unhappiness among God's people. The place for us to be is where Moses and Aaron were on their faces before the Lord. But I would say the glory that appears here is not the glory of judgment.
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But the glory of His grace.
He's not going to meet this with judgment, He's going to meet it with grace. He's going to fall back on the resources of his grace.
As we read in Ephesians, it's the glory to the praise of the glory.
Of his grace. God is a resource in himself. Yes, He can come in and discipline, and he does chasing his people, but he's never bound to that and he can always.
Always fall back on the resources of His grace.
And so he tells.
Moses to take the rod. He doesn't speak a word of reproach.
He doesn't call them stiff necked or rebellious or.
Any of those things.
And he tells Moses, go take the rod.
And I want you to go speak to the rock.
Well, we need to look a little at what that rod and that rock speak of. They really speak of Christ.
And this is the way God is going to meet.
The difficulty.
Maybe we can.
Just turn to Exodus.
In the 17th chapter.
We get there at the very beginning of their pathway where they complained again.
They accused Moses of bringing them into the wilderness to kill their children and cattle with thirst.
They were ready to stone Moses, and the Lord tells him.
In the fifth verse, to go before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thy rod, where with Osmotis the river, take in thine hand, and go, Behold, I will stand before thee upon the rock, and Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so on the side of the elders of Israel.
I'd like to just look over at a portion in.
I think it's the 78.
Psalm.
Home 78.
In verse 15.
He clave the rocks in the wilderness. He gave them drink as out of the great depths.
Verse 20 Behold, he smote the rock at the waters gushed out.
One more scripture in First Corinthians 10.
One Corinthians 10.
Verse four And it all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock.
Was Christ.
There in Exodus 17.
A beautiful picture is given to us. The Lord Jesus Christ, that rock God, tells Moses to take his rod that he smote the river of Egypt with and turned its waters to blood.
Turned it to that which spoke of judgment.
It was a rod of judgment.
And God used it to bring judgment down on the land of Egypt. It brought in death.
And God tells Moses to take his rod of judgment.
And go to that rock and smite it. And when he did, the waters gushed out of that rock.
And the psalmist says out of great depths, out of the depths the waters flowed out.
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Out of the depths of the heart of God.
Flow those streams of refreshment.
For the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. And Jehovah's rod lifted up, smote him there upon that cross.
He bore the judgment.
A blessing might flow to you and to me.
And he was raised from the dead, and he seated at God's right hand, and there in the glory.
Given the Holy Spirit, he shed him forth.
And he could speak of the believer, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this fake he of the spirit.
Which was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified, but the moment that man.
Stepped into the glory and sent the Spirit of God down. He filled the hearts of his own.
And to this very day, the indwelling Spirit of God is the one and the power by whom you and I enjoy those streams of refreshment.
Had come from the one who gave himself for us in Calvary's cross.
Here He is in us, a well of living water springing up into everlasting life, and worship and praise we find in.
John's Gospel chapter 4 and the testimony of Christ goes out from the inmost affections of the heart of the believer occupied with Christ, out to others to refresh them.
That rock followed them through the wilderness. What had happened?
That they were thirsty then.
It seems, for the first time, that rock had failed.
And their estimation. And there was no water.
You know, dear ones, it was mentioned.
I believe in the scriptures that our brother read earlier that it is possible to grieve.
The Holy Spirit. It's possible to quench the Holy Spirit.
It's possible for us to act and conduct ourselves in such a way that we stop up those springs of refreshment that He has for us.
And such was that condition of things that we read of in numbers 20.
It was a grieved spirit.
And maybe we feel sometimes in the assembly that there aren't those streams of refreshment and blessing like we would have expected or we knew in the past.
And dear ones, maybe we just really need to look inward and say, am I grieving the Spirit of God?
Is there something in my life and my conduct that's quenching those streams of refreshment?
Oh, it's out of the depths of his heart.
That he would refresh his people.
Yeah, he loved the people.
And so he tells.
Moses.
To take the rod.
And go speak to the rock.
Now let's look a little at the rod. That rock was Christ, those streams of refreshment.
A picture of the Spirit of God flowing out as a result of His finished work and His glorification.
To refresh us in our inmost being.
Spiritual streams. But what of the wrong?
Let's look back a little earlier in numbers.
Where we get a time of rebellion that took place.
There was a man named Cora.
A man named Jason, a man named Debyram they aspired to take.
The priesthood.
They rebelled against Moses and Aaron. Really, they rebelled against God.
And God brings judgment on them. I just want to maybe touch on a couple of verses.
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Verse 31 of uh, excuse me, of #16.
And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words at the ground clave asunder, and was that was under them. And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Cora, and all their goods.
They and all that appertain to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation and all Israel.
That were round about them fled at the cry of them, For they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also.
And there came out of fire from the Lord, and consumed the 250 men that offered incense.
God brought judgment upon that rebellion. They really were despising the priesthood of UH.
Of Aaron, God had appointed him as priest and they said we can do that too.
We want to take that place. It's really a picture of rebellion against Christ, our great high priest.
And God brings judgment upon them.
But what happens on the marrow? Verse 41 of chapter 16? The children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, You have killed the people of the Lord.
The less than 24 hours.
After they saw the earth open up her mouth and swallow up Cora and his rebellion, and that fire came out from God and consumed the rest less than 24 hours later.
They are coming to Moses and Aaron saying you've killed the people of the Lord.
And the glory of the Lord appears again in verse 42.
And verse 43 Moses and Aaron came before the Tabernacle of the congregation, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Get you up from among this congregation.
That I may consume them as in a moment, and they fell upon their faces.
And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censor, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly into the congregation, and make an atonement for them, for there's wrath gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun. And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation. Behold, the plague was begun among the people, and he put on incense and made an atonement for the people.
And he stood between the dead and the living.
And the plague was stayed.
Without a commandment from God just by.
How do I want to put it? Spiritual instinct of a man who is close to the heart of God.
He commands Aaron to put incense in that sensor.
On coals of fire from off the altar, and to go in among the people of God and God's high priest, who they had just been rebelling against, who they had just spoken against, that very one goes and stands in between the living and the dead.
And by that means alone, that entire congregation was preserved from death.
Otherwise, they had all perished in the wilderness at that point.
And God is bringing out.
That the only.
Way he's bringing into.
Prominence.
Into clear relief that the only thing that is going to get our rebellious people through the wilderness.
Is the priesthood that he ordained.
The very thing they rebelled against.
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And in chapter 17.
God tells Moses to take one of the each of the heads of the tribes of Israel.
And each one of them is given a rod, just a dead dry stick.
And Aaron is given one too, and they're laid up in the Tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord.
And the next day those rods were brought out.
And verse 9 Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord.
Unto all the children of Israel. And they looked, and took every man as rock. Each head of each tribe they got their rod.
Same old dead lifeless stick.
That was there the night before.
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 what happened when Moses Rod was brought out.
In verse eight, it wasn't a dead dry stick.
It had butted, it says, and bloom blossoms and yielded almonds.
It was life out of death.
Picture of a better priesthood.
Looking on to Christ and his priesthood. Fruitful.
Priesthood.
And that rod, though it spoke of authority, and Christ has it, it was clothed.
With what I'll call priestly grace. It budded. It bloomed.
It brought forth almonds. Life was brought out of death.
And what does the Lord say about that rod?
He says keep it.
And thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me, that they.
Die not.
And now in our chapter 20, God says to Moses, take the rod.
He's not Speaking of Moses Rock, that rod of judgment that smote the rock in the wilderness and the waters gushed out. He's speaking about Aaron's rod, that rod that budded because what had happened? They had fallen into murmuring and complaining again. And if he took the rod of judgment, it would quite take away the murmurs.
Into a lost eternity.
Yes, his judgment can quite take away the murmurs it did before.
But he says keep this rod to take away the murmurings.
Not the murmurs.
Because if he quite took away the murmurs, who then can be saved?
Who then can be saved?
And so Aaron and Moses. Moses was to bring that rod of Aaron's blossomed butted.
And he was to go speak to the rock.
And he did take it.
And he goes to the rock, and he gathers the children of Israel together.
If he breaks down.
We are speaking meekness and loneliness.
Moses was the meekest man in all the earth.
And he broke down on that very thing.
38 years. He had suffered their manners in the wilderness. 38 years.
Long years he had put up.
With accusations and rebellion.
And complaining.
Over and over, he had been humbled.
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And it was like, this is just too much.
I just can't take it anymore.
Nothing really manifests our state of soul.
Hi, Gwen.
Failure, evil coming among the people of God in two ways. Either we don't discern it at all because we're careless, and we can fall into error that way.
Not even seeing that it's there.
Or we can see it, and we come so vexed that we get in the flesh.
And we don't discern how to take it up and handle it in His ways of grace, even though though it may require discipline in the assembly or His Father's in our homes.
Perhaps those two things.
We might say there's nothing that canmore.
Press in upon us and draw out the flesh and failure and evil amongst the people of God and in our own children.
May have been a Bayou died before the Lord, you know.
Way back in the beginning of the wilderness journey. How it must have broken Aaron's heart.
And Moses came to him. They had just had been anointed with that holy anointing oil, and with blood and head on the garments of the priesthood, its bonnet and mitre and all.
And Moses says to him.
Uncover not your head.
Rent, not your garment.
The holy anointing oil of the Lord is on you.
You know, brethren, I think in Aaron's life that must have been a a difficulty in in trial that I can hardly enter into.
Two sons in the same day trying to do things in a religious way. Perhaps alcohol was involved because later the Lord brings that up.
And they died before the Lord.
It's difficult.
When discipline has to come in, in the assembly and it's our relatives and maybe even those who are that close to us.
And when the pressure is there and those kinds of things, the temptation is to uncover our heads.
The covered head speaks of subjection to Christ and to His Word.
And we uncover our heads and we try and handle it out of our own head instead of the word and subjection to the word. And what's the next thing that happens? It doesn't work.
And we get frustrated.
And we rent our garment.
The government speaks of Christian character.
And what happens when you run the garment? You expose what's underneath the flesh and all its ugliness.
And our brethren never forget.
The site.
They may forgive.
I don't forget.
And though you're ever so careful to mend that garment and sew it up.
The seam is always there.
The scars there.
It's not going to go away till the judgment seat of Christ.
Uncover not your heads. Run not.
Your garments.
Overcome with evil rather than overcoming evil with good. God was going to meet this circumstance in his ways of grace. But Moses?
So.
Overcome.
With the the misbehavior of the people of God.
And trying to, you know, we can try and shelter ourselves from it.
By doing what?
By getting in the flesh.
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And saying, ye rebels.
The Rebels.
And.
In the flesh, we can't rise above the evil.
Were overcome by it, we'll exalt ourselves and will dishonor God.
And so we use the very gift of God.
That he was going to give water out of that rock to exalt himself. And he says, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? He wasn't getting water out of that rock for them. God was going to do it.
But he says, must we fetch you water out of this rock?
And it says he took his wrath.
Not Aaron's rod. God had said take the rod and speak to the rock.
But when they got to that rock, he took his rod, that rod of judgment, and he smote that rock.
And he smote it twice.
Oh, don't you get the sense?
He just would have liked to smoke them with that rod.
And he takes it out on that rock.
And he spoiled one of the most beautiful types.
Of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ in his atoning sufferings that was given in the Old Testament.
Never will Christ be smitten again. Ever.
It was once on Calvary.
God didn't say smite the rock, He said. Speak to it, speak to it.
And he didn't sanctify God in the eyes of the people. He failed to represent God as he ought to have represented him.
Before the people, God is never weary in well doing.
He is never tired.
In his ways with us.
To seek to work with us. He's never weary.
And he failed to represent him as he ought to.
And God says you're not going into the land, you're not going to bring this people in.
He was to take the rod that would take away the murmurings of the people, not the rod of judgment. He was to speak to the rock. He was to lay hold. And you and I need to too, in times like this in the wilderness way, to lay hold of the high priestly grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to go to that throne of grace and find grace to help in time of need.
To speak to the Rock.
At those streams of refreshment and blessing might flow.
But he takes the rod of judgment. Oh, we can take things up in a judicial way. Not saying that discipline does not have to be an exercise in the assembly. It does, because holiness becomes the House of the Lord. But we can take it up in the flesh.
And myths represent.
The heart of God to His people.
And so Moses could not go into the land, and Aaron was with him in it.
And at the end of the chapter, Aaron dies before the Lord.
Oh, Moses had said. I cannot speak.
And repeated himself over and over until finally God gave him Aaron.
To be his mouthpiece and now Moses on hands as to take those garments off Aaron.
And give them to his son.
And he dies before the Lord.
There is a government of God in our lives, but there is grace to.
There is grace too. The only thing that was going to bring them into the land was grace. And the only thing that's going to get you and I all the way home, dear ones, is a high priestly grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, once Aaron's rod butted, there wasn't any other rod in the sight of God. He said take the rod. He didn't even distinguish take Aaron's rod. He just said take the rod. There wasn't any other one in his sight from that moment on.
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Then Aaron's wrought.
Let's turn to Deuteronomy. We just have just a few minutes.
Moses besought the Lord.
And the Lord to just go ahead and go into the land, Would the Lord not allow him to go into the land? And the Lord said to him, Speak no more to me of this matter. Paul besought the Lord for that thorn in the flesh. And the Lord said, My grace is sufficient for thee. No temptation had taken you but what is common to men. But in the temptation he'll make a way of escape. What does that mean? The trials that come in, like we read of in Numbers 20, have within them.
A temptation to escape it through getting in the flesh and acting in the flesh. And there's a way of escape to lash out in the flesh.
But that's not the way of escape for a believer. The way of escape is my grace.
Is sufficient for thee.
Number Deuteronomy 34.
Moses went up from the plains of Moab into the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is, over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali, in the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and the land of Judah, and unto the utmost sea and the South, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, and the city of palm trees under Zoar. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I swear unto Abraham.
And unto Isaac and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed, I have cause thee to see it with thine eyes.
Thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died.
There in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.
Verse 10 And there arose not a prophet since, and Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew.
Face to face.
His government carried through and Moses life. He didn't go into that land but it was mixed with grace.
And so it is in each one of our lives. He showed them that land.
Moses got a view of that land that none other ever had. He got it in company with the Lord.
As it were going hand in hand with the Lord, as the Lord pointed out every detail to him.
Who knows because what the Lord time is nothing.
He showed them every detail, perhaps in our time, just in a moment of time, but he saw it all. He saw it from Heaven's view.
He saw it as the Lord saw it.
He was in the presence of the Lord.
On that mount.
He died according to the word of the Lord, just like he lived his life.
And he went into the presence of the Lord from the presence of the Lord.
Didn't miss a beat. There wasn't ever a man like Moses.
Who knew the Lord face to face?
Until he came.
Of whom, it is said, the law came by Moses.
But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Can we take time to sing those last?
Four versus.
Oh, 76.
If I was one shall bring.
Your dreams of all it is standing run on the shelf when it's hard. Mercy Spring.
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In my life, sunshine.
Flavor. Shut up, I'm smiling.
Thy heart something.
Grass is in.
No stranger.
Thoughts of me please stranger.
While in court above.
Good to his right shall bring me crazy.
With a world known for.
Our God and our Father, we do.
Pray for Thy blessing on Thy word.
And though thou art able to take these things and make them good to conscience and heart.
We think of that high priestly grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how at rod bore fruit, and may His priestly grace bear fruit in our hearts for His glory. We thank Thee that we have in all the way home Savior and the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We give thee thanks, Amen.