Exodus 15:22-27

[0:00] I appreciate the opportunity to come and to stand and present the Word of God to you. We'll be in the Old Testament this morning in the Book of Exodus.

[0:12] Book of Exodus in chapter 15. Before I get started, does anybody else have anything on your heart? Does anybody else have a song maybe or a testimony of any kind?

[0:25] Even if you just want to say thank God for saving me. That's the Word of the lame man of the new year. Amen. Bless you, God.

[0:36] Good to have Jeff meets his clan with us this morning. But again, I do appreciate the opportunity to come.

[0:47] In Exodus chapter 15, this is not long at all after God has delivered the Israelites through the Red Sea.

[0:59] He's brought them out of Egypt. And if you're familiar with the Bible, and I'm sure all of us in here are to some extent or another year, you're somewhat familiar with this deliverance that God performed for the Israelites.

[1:13] You know that in Exodus chapter 1 there arose a Pharaoh that knew not who Joseph was. Joseph, of course, being there in the end of the book of Genesis, and he being the second in command of not only Egypt, but really, if you read it in the entirety of its context, Joseph was in command, a second in command of planet Earth.

[1:39] Because Egypt was in control of everything at that point, everything that was going on on the planet. And I'm not saying that God was out of control at that point. But as far as the human aspect of it goes, Joseph was, or the Israelites were there, and Joseph had brought them down.

[1:59] God had sent them down into Egypt. They had grown. They had multiplied. And in Exodus chapter 1 we read about a Pharaoh that knew not who Joseph was.

[2:10] He wasn't familiar with Joseph and how Joseph had interpreted dreams from the Pharaoh of his time and how he had saved not only Egypt, but God had used him to save the entire world when he predicted the seven years of plenium and the seven years of famine.

[2:27] And there arose a Pharaoh that knew not that Joseph. He didn't know what Joseph had done for the Egyptian people. And the Egyptians kept the Israelites in bondage.

[2:38] They kept them in slavery. And this is something that was prophesied to Abraham by Almighty God. God told him, your people will go down to Egypt for about the space of 400 years and they will be in bondage to these people.

[2:52] But I will deliver them. And this deliverance has already occurred where we're going to be reading from here this morning. We know about the plagues. We know about the plague of locusts and the plague of the last, the plague of frogs and ultimately the plague of the dead of the firstborn.

[3:09] We should all be familiar with these accounts. And we know about the story of the Passover that God told the Israelites. He said, you'll take this Passover land, you'll slaughter it, and you'll take the blood of it.

[3:23] You'll strike it upon the lentils and the doorposts of your house. And when I see the blood, I will pass over. The Egyptians had kept God's people in bondage for decade upon decade upon decade at this point.

[3:38] And it was a personal problem that Almighty God had with the Egyptians. We hear all the time how God sent a death angel through Egypt to strike the firstborn, to cause death to come upon the firstborn of any Egyptian that didn't have the blood of the Passover land or any Jew for that matter that didn't believe the word of God.

[4:03] Anyone that didn't have the blood placed as God said. God said, I will strike the first, their firstborn with death. I will take them away from you.

[4:14] We hear about this death angel all the time that I can't find in Scripture. The Bible says that God Almighty said Himself, I will pass through Egypt this night. I will strike the firstborn.

[4:26] I will cause this thing to come. I can read nothing about a death angel in the Scripture, but God had a personal problem with these Egyptians that had kept His people, His chosen, the very apple of His eye.

[4:40] They had kept them under bondage for all this time. Oh God, He sends the plague of the death of the firstborn and Pharaoh finally gives in. He says, get out of here.

[4:51] He tells Moses, you get these people. You get them all out of here. I don't want to see you. I don't want to hear you. I don't want to smell you. I want you out of my country. And they go on out and we know that the Egyptian army followed them, followed them all the way to the edge of the Red Sea.

[5:08] And this is the point where Moses, he was hearing all the murmuring and the complaining the Jews were saying, why have we come out here? These Egyptians are going to come and slaughter us.

[5:19] And Moses said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord in the Red Sea parted. And the Israelites went through on dry ground by foot.

[5:30] And when they got to the other side and the Egyptian army tried to follow them through, God closed the mouths of the Red Sea upon the Egyptian army. And the most powerful and most intriguing army on the entire face of the planet became nothing more than fish food at that point.

[5:51] And the Israelites were on the other side of the Red Sea. Why did God want to take them over there to begin with? He wanted to take them over there. He had promised something to Abraham.

[6:02] He had promised Abraham long before this. He had promised Abraham, I'm going to multiply your seed and I will give them a land. I will give them a land that flows with milk and honey.

[6:13] He's talking about the land of Canaan, the promised land as we know it in the Scriptures. He said, I will give your people, your seed, the seed that I promised to multiply as the sands of the seashore and as the stars of the heaven.

[6:28] I will give your seed this land, but he had to give his people out of Egypt in order to give them to that land. And that's where we're at in the Scriptures.

[6:39] Once they cross over the Red Sea, they begin to sing praises unto God. Miriam led them. Miriam was what we would now call a worship leader for the Israelites.

[6:51] She led them in song. She led them in dance. She led them in the worship of God because of this deliverance that had taken place, that God had taken his people from bondage and from slavery and from the darkness of Egypt.

[7:06] And he had brought them through an impossible time, through an impossible task, through the Red Sea. He had delivered them to the other side and they began to sing praise unto God.

[7:18] And that's where we'll pick up reading. There's chapter 15 beginning of verse 22. It says, So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of sure.

[7:29] And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Mara, they could not drink of the waters of Mara, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Mara.

[7:41] And the people murmured against Moses saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord and the Lord shoot him atreve, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.

[7:53] There he made for them a statute and an ordinance and there he proved them and said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord, thy God, and will do that which is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes.

[8:11] I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, the healer of thee. And they came to Elam where were twelve wells of water and three score and ten palm trees, and they had camped there by the waters.

[8:27] Go back to verse 22 with me again. So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of sure. And they went three days in the wilderness and when they came to Mara, they could not drink of the waters of Mara, for they were bitter.

[8:42] Therefore, the name of it was called Mara. And the people murmured against Moses saying, What shall we drink? So again, we've already gone through a little introduction here, bringing you up to this point in the Scriptures where we are.

[8:56] What's going on? What has happened with the Israelites? What has happened with the Egyptians and the deliverance that Almighty God has brought in the lives of these Israelites here?

[9:07] But here we see where the Scripture says that Moses brought them into the wilderness of sure, folks. This is the first part of the wilderness that the Israelites have encamped in.

[9:19] This is the first part of the wilderness that they've gone to. Now, I understand that they have gone to the edge of the wilderness. The Bible plainly makes that plausible.

[9:30] And it tells us that they had camped out at the edge of the wilderness at this point. But they had not been into the wilderness. But here we see Moses taking the Israelites into the wilderness of this land called sure.

[9:46] And they hadn't much more than got into it. The Bible says they had gone three days into the wilderness and they had no water to drink now. I don't read anything in the Scripture about the first day and then murmuring or complaining.

[10:01] I don't read anything about the second day about any murmuring or complaining from the Israelites. At this point, they would have still had water in their little skin bottles that they would have brought with them out of Egypt.

[10:14] But the third day, things were starting to run dry. The third day, things were starting to get hard for these Israelites. The third day, they were starting to get upset, they were starting to get angry, and they started murmuring against God and against Moses.

[10:29] For to murmur against Moses was the exact same thing as to murmur against God. And dear Christians, I want to tell you now that while God has performed a great deliverance in our lives, I don't know what he delivered you from.

[10:45] You don't know what he delivered me from. But I know the sin that was in my life and you had sin in your life. And if you were here this morning and you were born again, blood, bulk, child of God, I can assure you that Almighty God has performed a great deliverance in your life.

[11:03] He's performed a great deliverance for your soul. He has delivered you out of the bonds of sin. He has delivered you not only from the punishment of the sin, which will be hell, but he has delivered you from the sin itself.

[11:20] Jesus Christ took your sin and took my sin upon the cross of Calvary, not because we deserved it, not because we merited it, not because we had done anything, forgot to weaken us and give his approval, but because God sent his Son into the world that his Son could seek and to say that which was love, hallelujah, that's my Savior.

[11:46] Can everybody hear me alright? Praise God. We're talking about deliverance, folks. We're talking about deliverance. God delivered me. Maybe that don't excite you like it does me.

[11:58] As I've already said, I know what was in my life. I know where I've been. I know what I've done and I know who I've done it with. And God still in his compassion and his mercy, he looked down upon me and said, I can redeem that.

[12:13] I want to redeem that. For the Bible says it's not his will that he should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Everyone on the planet had a chance to hear the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, the same gospel that Paul says in Romans chapter one.

[12:30] He says we're out of the shame of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For it is the power of God under salvation. The gospel of Jesus Christ has all power to deliver you from whatever sin is in your life.

[12:46] Amen. Praise God for Jesus Christ. Praise God for his ultimate plan. Praise God for his mercy and praise God for his long suffering. If I were God, I would have let me die and go to hell.

[12:59] If I were God, I would have let someone like me walk right on into hell and I would have bedded an eye and it would have bothered me one single bit. But praise God that he is God and I am not.

[13:11] But now that I'm born again now that I'm his servant, what right do I have to complain knowing what deliverance he has wrought in my life? What right do I have to complain regardless of how bad my finances might get, regardless of my health, regardless of who in my family dies, regardless of any of these things?

[13:32] God Almighty has delivered my soul out of the hell that it deserves. This is reason enough to give him praise. You keep in mind, you keep in mind, three days in, three days after these Israelites had walked through the middle of the Red Sea, three days after that, three days after they had sung praises unto God, they were complaining.

[13:58] They were complaining against God, how long does it take us? How long does it take us after a good worship service? How long does it take us after a good revival meeting? How long does it take us driving down the road singing praises unto Almighty God and we can feel the Holy Spirit of God all over us and we walk in the house and we might get a bad phone call or a bad text message.

[14:21] And the first thought in our mind a lot of times is God, where are you now? He's in the same place he's always been. He is still on the throne and he is still the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob and he is still the same God that delivered my soul and saved me from the hell that it deserves.

[14:41] He is still the same God, he is still merciful, he is still compassionate and he still loves me. I am my beloved and he is mine. Praise God. And one of these days I promise for the scriptures, he's going to come down, he's going to say, come away my love, come away my fair Macomb, come away with me, April, so I promise to land a home over in glorious some point after my days here on this life, we're over and done with.

[15:09] I promise a new body, I promise the resurrected body, lock and confession unto the Son of Man. What have I to complain about? Three days in.

[15:21] Three days in they were complaining. And before we look down our pharisecical noses, myself included, at these Jews, you think about how many times you've done that in your life, I've got to think about how many times I've done that in my life.

[15:35] Three days in they were complaining. And once again, to complain against Moses was to complain about, was to complain about God because Moses was doing exactly what God told him to do.

[15:48] So to complain against God's man was to complain against God himself. It's been, you know, different than someone complaining about Jesus Christ. Even though I know we've got God to follow, we've got God to send, we've got God to Holy Spirit.

[16:02] And I get that. But to complain against one is to complain against all three. They all three combined to make one Godhead heard of the scriptures. And Jesus Christ while he was here, Paul wrote to, in the book of Colossians, and him thought the fullness of the Godhead.

[16:19] And Jesus Christ was the fullness of the Godhead. So to complain about one or to complain about two, you might as well throw the third one in there as well. We got no right to complain, folks.

[16:31] Everyone in here, everyone in this sanctuary right now, myself included, deserves hell. Everyone in here does. But God, in His mercy and His grace, it was by grace that He delivered Israel.

[16:44] It was by grace that He brought them out of Egypt. Yes, He had made a promise under Abraham, laid back in the book of Genesis. And yes, God is not a man that He should lie according to the scriptures.

[16:56] God cannot lie. God cannot sin. It's not that He will not sin. God cannot sin. It's an impossibility for Him to sin. The Bible says every good gift and every perfect gift.

[17:08] Coming down from the Father of God in James chapter one. It is impossible for Him to sin. And Isaiah 53, we read that in the suffering servant, it says no doubt was found in his mouth.

[17:20] There was no nothing that anyone could hold against Jesus Christ, for he was a perfectly sinless person. And yet we complain about our lives.

[17:31] Yet I complain about my life. Three days in, and the people murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink? What shall we drink? Now listen.

[17:42] This sounds like a legitimate concern. And it would be. Scientifically speaking, you go several days without water. You will die. It's that simple. I mean, you can look it up on Google when you get home if you want to.

[17:55] You go several days without water, and you will die. So I understand their concern here. But what they should have been looking at, and what we as redeemed Christians should be looking at, is not the problem that is before us.

[18:11] We should be looking toward the God that saved us, the God that brought us here. How did the Israelites get to this place in the wilderness of Shear? How did they get to this place that they called Marah?

[18:22] Marah meaning the place of bitterness. Those of you familiar with the book of Ruth when Naomi and Ruth came back, came back to the homeland, came back to Bethlehem, Judah. And Naomi's name meaning good and pleasant.

[18:35] And she said, don't call me Naomi. Marah, because the Lord hath built bitterly with me. This word, Marah, it means bitter. And they named this place Marah because of the bitter waters that they found there.

[18:49] How many times in our lives, how many times, whether we were lost or whether we were saved, have we looked at something that the world had to offer? Have we looked at something that we knew we shouldn't be looking at?

[19:00] I'm not talking about even necessarily sinful, but look at something outside of the provision that Almighty God gives. How many times in our life have we done that and we've actually gotten to it and we've brushed the whole method and it was not fulfilling to us.

[19:15] It turned out to be bitter. And what do we do? We point the finger at God. We say, why did you let me put myself in this situation? I'll tell you why. Because God allows us to make decisions on our own.

[19:29] But God is a wonderful rescuer. God is a wonderful deliverer. He'll let us get out on our own. He'll let us mess up. He'll let us make mistakes. He'll let us stumble.

[19:40] He'll let us fall. But God is there to pick us up when we do so. And when we do so, and when God picks us back up, when these things happen, it should cause us to praise Him and to worship Him and to thank Him that much more.

[19:56] How many times have we come across these same situations in our life? And we say, boy, this looks good over here. This water over here. I've been out in this wilderness for three days now.

[20:07] And this water over here looks good. And we get there and the water is bitter. And we complain against God. But God's got something better in store anyway. God didn't deliver the Israelites to let them rot out in the wilderness.

[20:20] He didn't deliver the Israelites that they could just wander around for days or weeks or years. I know that they wandered around for 40 years. But that is not why He delivered them.

[20:31] He delivered them because of His good grace and because of His good mercy and because that is who God is. People think that there's a difference in the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament.

[20:43] The same God that delivered these Israelites across the Red Sea and pointed them toward the Promised Land. It's the same God that delivered my soul out of hell. And He has promised me a Promised Land one day after a while.

[20:57] I am promised that I will rule and I will reign with Him. I am promised that I am an heir to God and a joiner with Jesus Christ. This is not suggestions that God has made.

[21:08] This is not anything along those lines. It is a promise as per the Scriptures written down in the Word of God. And I thank God for these things. I thank God that I have these promises.

[21:21] So what right would I have to complain? What right do we have to complain? And He cried unto the Lord. The Lord showed Him a tree. Praise God.

[21:32] He did exactly what the Israelites should have done. Moses cried to the Lord. That's what they should have all been doing. That's what got them delivered to begin with.

[21:43] You turn over to the first couple of chapters and exes and you read in the Scriptures that the Israelites cried because of their bondage. They cried because of the slavery that they were in. And it says that the Lord heard their cry.

[21:58] But here they were crying to God's man. But they weren't just crying. They were complaining. So Moses goes to God. And it says that the Lord showed Him a tree. Praise God.

[22:11] When the bitterness of this life grabs ahold of Him. It will happen. If it ain't happen, I promise you it will happen. If you are born again child of God, God does not promise it's going to be a smooth path.

[22:23] God doesn't promise it's going to be downhill all the way. In fact, Jesus Christ said Himself in the Gospel of Luke, He said, if any man will follow after me, let him take up his cross daily and do so.

[22:35] Let him deny himself and follow me. Folks, it's supposed to be a hard road. It's supposed to be this way. It's supposed to take us to these places called Mara, like Mara.

[22:46] But folks sooner or later, as we read in the last verse of chapter 15 of Exodus, God brought them to the place of Elam. He brought them to the place that had the seventy-wells. He brought them to the place that had the palm trees.

[22:59] He brought them to a place of rest. We have that same promise. But this world is a wilderness, is it not? Don't we sing about it?

[23:10] Ain't we heard it preached? Ain't we read about it in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament? Abraham, as he was going through this world, he was going through the wilderness. But it was just the wilderness. It says he was a pilgrim and a stranger.

[23:22] There's been Gospel songs written over and over using those lines. Folks, this place is not our home. Why are we so worried about it? Yes, I've got lost people that I would love to see saved.

[23:34] Yes, I want to see them repent of their ways and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But that truly should be my own worry. The Bible says that one of these days this world is going to melt with the fervent heat.

[23:47] The very elements of the world are going to melt. This includes the gas. This includes the water. This includes the air. I don't know exactly what's going to do it, but I can promise you if it is strong enough to melt and to cause the heat to destroy the elements, it is something that only God could do.

[24:10] This is another promise in Scripture that's going to happen. Why are we worried about the world? Why are we worried other than our lost folks? Why are we worried about what we have here? It's temporal.

[24:21] It means nothing. I appreciate my house. I appreciate my car, my vehicles. I appreciate my wife. I appreciate my sons. I appreciate my grandson. I appreciate all these things.

[24:32] I appreciate this Bible sitting here before me. I appreciate this church letting me come to present the word of God. I appreciate all kinds of these things. Everything that I just listed to you is temporal. This Bible, I'm talking about this letter and this paper right here.

[24:47] One of these days, it's going to burn up. Now the Bible says the word of the Lord which liveth in the battle forever. The Bible says that man is this grass and he will fade away, but the word of the Lord shall stand forever.

[25:03] That's the word of the Lord. In Psalms 119 you read that the word of God is forever settled in heaven. I'm talking about this book here. One of these days, it will melt away, but the word of God will last forever.

[25:18] I don't necessarily have to have this while I'm over yonder. I will be in the presence of the very author of this book. I'll be in the very presence of Jesus Christ, the author and the finisher of our faith.

[25:31] Praise God. I will have no need for this letter and paper and ink that's laying here on this full paper. I will be in the presence of the very one that inspired it to be written.

[25:43] Hallelujah. Praise God. What wonderful book. Hallelujah James. Praise the Lord. Yes sir. And he cried unto the Lord.

[25:54] The Lord showed him a treat. The Lord showed us the same thing. And just on a side note, just on a side note, a lot of people will say that if we go to a doctor it shows our lack of faith.

[26:12] If we take medicine it shows our lack of faith. Here in this scripture it says that he cried unto the Lord. He being Moses cried unto the Lord and the Lord showed him a treat.

[26:23] Which when he cast it in the waters the waters were made sweet. People will say you don't have the faith you should have. Don't go to the doctors. Don't go to the hospitals. Don't go to the pharmacists.

[26:35] Don't go here. Don't go there. Don't take medicine. Show that you have faith in the Lord. But here in this very scripture we see that God used something that was in nature, something that he had created himself to make the bitter waters sweet.

[26:50] Hey folks, that confirms to me that sometimes Almighty God will use what he has put here to help in my health, to help in my healing, and to help me along that I can go on and go on.

[27:03] God will give me what I need to sustain me to get to the next place he has for me on my road. So don't think that it's a show of faith if you don't do this or don't do that.

[27:17] Folks, I got faith in God but I promise you when I drive back to Bloop City when we leave here I'm going to wear my glasses while I'm driving home. As much faith as I have in God, you wouldn't trust me on the road without my glasses on.

[27:30] I wouldn't trust me on the road without my glasses on. God give me these. God can allow me to have these so I can see more clearly. So that's just on a side note.

[27:41] He cried to the Lord and the Lord shooed him a tree. Why did he cry to the Lord because the people were complaining? Why were the people complaining because the waters were bitter? Why were the waters bitter?

[27:55] The Scripture don't tell us. But the Lord showed him a tree. Folks, when you come to the bitter parts of your life, when you're going along and everything seems to be wonderful, everybody's happy and in good shape, you've got food in the cupboard, you've got food in the fridge, the electric bill's paid, the water bill's paid, everything is going right in your life and suddenly something bitter takes place in your life.

[28:15] Suddenly something happens. Hey, when you cry to God, God will show you the same thing that he showed to Moses, except for the tree that was here in the Book of Exodus.

[28:27] Hey folks, the tree that Almighty God will show, a born again child of God, is the tree that Jesus Christ was hung on. He suffered on. He bled on and he died on and he did it for your sake and for your benefit.

[28:41] God Almighty saved your soul and God may bring you to that place of remembrance, of regardless of how bad it gets in your life, regardless of what happens.

[28:52] I still send one to save your soul. This all boils down to a tree. The person of Jesus Christ, yes. I know the Bible says without the setting of blood, there is no remission.

[29:04] I understand that. It takes the blood of Jesus Christ. Praise God for the scripture in Romans chapter 5 says God can benefit His love toward us and that while we were in the centers, Christ died for us.

[29:15] Praise God for those verses, but it's not just the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus has been there all along. Jesus has been there all along. He is eternal. He was eternal.

[29:26] The Bible calls him the angel of days and he will be eternal forevermore. He has always been and every one of His attributes are just as eternal as Jesus Christ is.

[29:38] So with His eternal eternality in mind, think of your salvation. Think of Him saving your soul. The same God that delivered these Israelites out of Egypt is the same God that delivered you and the same God that will deliver someone maybe tomorrow, maybe someone in your own family, maybe someone you've been praying for for a while, it's the same God.

[30:01] Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever according to the writer to the Hebrews in the New Testament. He does not change. He has never changed and He will not change.

[30:12] And this cross that we're talking about now, this tree that Jesus Christ laid Himself upon and allowed the Roman soldiers to nail Him to and allowed Himself to be crucified and to shed His blood.

[30:26] And the April secret mark for the work of Jesus Christ, we would all be sitting here hopeless right now. But He done a work. He wrought a work and it was the very work that God, God the Father sent Him to do and it was to make a way of redemption for all of mankind.

[30:46] Praise God. And said it out, I'm sorry, which when He had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. He made for them a statue in the Norden and there He proved them and said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God and will do that which is right on His side, and will give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee.

[31:15] What do you see odd about this verse? It says God made a commandment, made a statute to these people. Folks, we don't read nothing about the commandments of God, I'm talking about the Ten Commandments, for five more chapters.

[31:29] And actually this chapter 20, this is where you find the Ten Commandments in the Scripture. The God was foretelling them. It says that He made a commandment for them.

[31:41] So He made an ordinance and there He proved them and said, basically what He was saying, if you do what I tell you to do, if you do exactly as I say, I will bring none of these diseases upon you that have struck Egypt.

[31:55] I won't do any of these things. You just do as I say, when I say, and go where I tell you to. But what did they do? What did they do?

[32:06] They did the same thing that we Christians do. They follow God for a little while. Then they go a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right, all for the straight and narrow path that God has set down before us.

[32:18] Then they go back to it. They walk that path a little bit longer. They go a little bit to the left and a little bit to the right of the path that God has set before. You read through the book of Judges sometimes.

[32:29] It was a continuous cycle in the book of Judges. You've got the Israelites, they have God's favor. They're doing the things of God. They're worshiping God. Then they get caught up in some other God or some other religion or some other culture.

[32:44] God hands them over into slavery. God hands them over into bondage. They're in bondage for a while. Then they cry out because of their bondage. God delivers them and they walk with God just a little while longer.

[32:56] Then they get caught up in the religiosity of the outside tribes and in the cultures of the outside tribes. Then they get given over to bondage and they get re-delivered and they walk with God into continuous cycle.

[33:09] But it wasn't just for the Jews, it's for us Christians as well. But praise God. We've got a God that we can cry out to. Regardless, regardless now, if you've got the attitude of, well, I'll just sin, I'll do what I want to.

[33:24] And I'll ask for forgiveness later. I'd question whether he's even saved or not to be honest. But to know that if we do sin, then first John, who was John writing to when he said, if any man sinned, we have an advocate with the Father.

[33:38] Who was he writing to? He was writing to save people in that letter. He was writing to the lost people. Hey, these laws that we were talking about just a little while ago that we find in Exodus chapter 20, when Moses was up on the mountain and God gave him the commandments and he brought down the stone tablets.

[33:54] Who did he bring them to? He didn't walk to Moab. He didn't walk to the Parasites. He didn't walk to the Hittites. He brought them down and gave them to God's people. The commandments were for us and they are for us.

[34:07] And ever they have been for us, the world pays no attention to the commandments of God. They could care less about the commandments of God. I didn't get saved till I was 33 and I promise you that until I was 33, I could have cared less what God had to say.

[34:23] But when he saved me, that's when I paid attention to the commandments. We want to throw this stuff at the lost people all the time. We want to say, well, the Bible says you shouldn't do this and the Bible says you shouldn't do that.

[34:36] And yes, the Bible does say those things. But folks, what good does that do? 33 years I walked around this world lost. 33 years and I can't think of one person that came to me and presented the gospel as it is presented in the Scripture.

[34:54] They all said, if you don't change your ways, you're going to go to hell. If you don't quit doing this, you're going to go to hell. If you don't quit lying, hey, the Bible says that all honors shall have their part in the lake of fire. And they tell me all they say, but they don't tell me what I need to do to get out of that condemnation.

[35:11] Shame on the Christians for that. It's our job to present the gospel. It's our job. What is the gospel in another shell? I know you can turn the first Corinthians 15 and read the first four verses.

[35:22] And yes, that's a pretty definitive description of the gospel. But the gospel is really man is a sinner. Every woman, every boy, every girl, and every man is a sinner.

[35:35] But God is a wonderful Savior. That's the gospel. Everyone is sinned. The Bible says for all of sinning comes short of the glory of God. And the Bible also says three chapters after that you go from Romans 3 to Romans 6.

[35:46] For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We want to tell people all the time the wages of your sinner is death. Folks, that is the payment that God has said.

[35:58] This is for your sin. This is why we have death. This is why we have sickness. This is why we have problems. This is why there is negativity in the Scriptures. It is because of sin.

[36:09] This is why there is negativity in the world. It is because of sin. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[36:20] God said plainly, if that will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do all that is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord the Healer of thee.

[36:36] And they came to Elum, where were 12 wells of water and three score and ten palm trees. And they had camped there by the waters. So they went from Mara, the place of the bitter waters.

[36:50] They left there. And you can read all about their wonderings, sometime in your own time, if you want to turn to Numbers chapter 33, it tells they left this place and they had camped at this place. They left this place and they had camped in this place.

[37:03] They left one place, they pitched here. They took up their tents and they pitched there. And these very places are brought up in Numbers 33. Where was Elum though? It says that they left Elum, after they left Elum, we don't read it here, after they left Elum it says they camped again at the edge of the wilderness.

[37:23] Elum, or at the edge of the Red Sea, I'm sorry. Elum was at the edge of the Red Sea. If you look at the ancient maps, if you got any Bible lattices at home, and you can find where Elum was on that atlas, if you look, it's right on the edge of the Red Sea.

[37:41] God brought them to this place. And the Bible says that they had 12 wells of water and 3 score and 10 palm trees. 12 wells of water. What does 12 speak of in the Scripture? More often than not, it speaks of government.

[37:53] It talks of God's government, it talks about His structure, that He wants. You had 12 tribes of Israel, you got the 12 apostles. But here we got 12 and we got 70.

[38:05] 3 score and 10. What does 70 speak of in the Scripture? Folks, this speaks to me just on top of one, on top of the other. God sent 12 apostles out to preach the gospel, did He not?

[38:20] But Jesus Christ also sent out 70 at one time. Where are you going to find this sweet water? When you run into bidder, what's going to make it sweet?

[38:31] Yes, the tree, yes, the cross the cross was crucified upon. The ministry of the Word of God, the 12 apostles went out and they preached the Word of God. The 70 that cross sent out, they went out and they preached the Word of God.

[38:46] And the ministry of the Word of God is what will bring your bitter waters into something sweet that you can take inside, that you can digest, that you can utilize in your spiritual walk.

[39:00] Just don't hang around the bitter waters forever. But I promise you, God ain't going to let you hang out at even for all the days of your life. He didn't let the Israelites, He'll bring us to a resting place.

[39:12] He'll bring us to an oasis where there is sweet water. But folks, that's not our ultimate resting place. Our ultimate resting place is with Him. But we look out and we're in the wilderness, we're in the wilderness of Sheryl.

[39:26] We're at this place called Mara and we look out and we see some water and we get to it and it's bitter. It's not going to do us any good and God makes it sweet and we not praised God for that.

[39:37] And the very next place that we pitch our tent at is this place called Elim. And God will bring us there and He'll let us rest for just a little while. And He'll feed us and He'll shade us and He'll give us water to drink.

[39:50] But folks, that's not our permanent home. Our permanent home is above. Our permanent home is with Him. As I've already said, we're just pilgrims and we're strangers in this world.

[40:02] Only an insane person would want to stay here. I don't want to stay here and I'm promised Prophets scriptures. I don't have to stay here and that God's going to take me out of here one of these days.

[40:15] I don't want to be here. You know who wants to be here? Lost people. Because they're constantly looking for pleasure. They're constantly looking for self gratification and for satisfaction with the things of this world.

[40:30] These Israelites here, they ran into this water and Moses went to God on their behalf. The mediator, I know that the Bible says that there is one mediator between God and man and that is the man cross Jesus.

[40:43] And that is our mediator between us and God. But here, post Jesus Christ had not yet been born in Bethlehem. He had not yet lived His perfect life. He had not yet taught and healed.

[40:54] He had not done any of these things. But He was still the same God. And He is still the same God. And He can deliver us from this bitter water into sweet water and give us sweet water.

[41:06] Bring us to Elam. But what about Elam? I was getting at it just a little while ago on the Red Sea. Elam's right on the edge of the Red Sea. Elam was the last place that these Israelites had that they could look back out across the Red Sea and see Egypt.

[41:24] It was the last glimpse of Egypt that they ever got. They could look across those waters and they could, I ain't saying they could see it plainly, but they could see the hills maybe. They could make up, but they knew what was across that water.

[41:38] And they knew that's where God brought me from. When we're in that place of rest, maybe it would do us some good to reflect back and think of our past life. I don't care if you were saved when you was five or when you was 50.

[41:51] When God brings you to Elam, you sit there under those shade trees. You enjoy the water from those 12 wells and you reflect back on what God has brought you from. And I promise you that it will increase your faith in the God which you serve.

[42:07] I know it does me. If it doesn't you, we won't go that route. They came to Elam with 12 waters and three score and 10 palm trees.

[42:19] God delivered them plain and simple. God bless you all. I appreciate your attention. I hope that was a help.