Exodus- "The Way Out"

THE SMITTEN ROCK

The children of Israel were God's people, but they were in bondage to the world.  Do you understand that?  They were not lost people.  They were God's people in bondage to Egypt, in bondage to a type of the world.  This pictures the condition the vast majority of the family of God is in today. We belong to God, but we also find ourselves in servitude to the systems of the world.

The biggest problems in families have to do with being in some way, shape, or form in servitude to the world. They're in bondage to financial pressure, in bondage and pressure in so many ways.  And Exodus pictures the whole Church-world.  The beginning of the book shows them in bondage to Egypt and Pharaoh dictates what they do.

Have you ever felt like the world was running your life more than God?  That's the way most of the Church body is.  Don't tell me that is the way we are suppose to be. We are not simply to come for just a little Bible study and then be driven by the world system. No!  The Church was meant to be an expression of the Head of the Church, Christ Jesus the Lord.
Can you say amen to that?

If you want to know what that is, go to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and you will see there the pattern-Son working among a people.    The Church is to be like Him.  Jesus said so. He said, "There will come a time when the works that I do they shall do also, and greater works shall they do for I go to my God."   Are you doing greater works yet?  If not, then we're not finished yet, family.  That's the pattern for the Church but we haven't seen a lot of that yet.    You have to agree with me on that, no matter what your theology is.

There are several ways to approach that. What many people do is make doctrinal statements saying, "All that is passed away," because we have not seen a lot of that which perfectly expresses the Christ that walked the shores of Galilee.  Yes, it's not here, but that doesn't give us a excuse to not go after that and walk in it. The Bible doesn't say it's passed away.  You will not find it in the Word of God.

You can say, like many people do, "We can act like it's going on.  We can do things that soulishly portray what we believe the power of God looks like."  How many of you know the soulish realm can imitate the power of God?   We have got so used to copying what it was like, when there were demonstrations of the power of God, that we can't tell the difference between the power of God and our copying it.  In other words, we know how to act when the power of God is moving and so we just act that way all the time. Can you relate to that?

Sometimes it's important to stop and check up in the Spirit where you are and make sure you are doing what God is doing in the Spirit. We find out that what is going on might not be everything that God want's it to be.   I don't believe that everything is passed away. I believe what Jesus did is being restored to the Church.   And that's where this fellowship is functioning.

I promise you, that when Jesus begins to flow in this family and in the Church as a whole in His fullness, nobody will be able to deny or question the validity of it. That's what I'm looking for.

So the book of Exodus paints a picture of people who start out that way and progressively get to the end of the book which pictures a Holy Temple, the Tabernacle of the Lord, and it being filled with Glory.

So, the whole pattern of redemption, from restoration, from going from a people in bondage to a people in glory, is painted throughout the book of Exodus.  It takes us from a people in bondage to a people filled with His glory. That's the reason we are studying this. If we are being filled with His glory, we want to know what is happening and be able to say, "This is that!"  We don't want to be taken by surprise.

We have watched the children of Israel when the Passover was initiated, as they walked through the Red Sea, and when they learned to sing the Song of Moses and when they put the Tree into the bitter waters, when they fed from the twelve wells of Elim and when they fed on the Manna. Now we've come to Exodus chapter 17.  But before we go there turn with me to Psalm 46:

verse 4 There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God,
The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.

You need to understand there is a theme concerning rivers all the way through the Word of God. Therefore, it's an issue that must be important.  You go to the beginning of the book, and in Genesis chapter 2  in the garden there is a river that flows through that garden and then it goes in four directions out from that garden.  How many of you remember that story?

So the book begins with a river that's flowing and it ends with a river that's flowing.  Revelation chapter 22 said, "There was a river of life of pure water that flowed out from under the throne," and we will talk about that.

So, the Bible begins with a river and it ends with a river.  And all the way through the Scriptures there is this river that flows.  This river of life. The Psalmist just simply said, "There is river, the streams thereof shall make glad the city of God."   The river brings joy to God's city.  And the next question we need to ask, is "Where is Gods city?"

It would be better to state it another way, "Who is God's city?"

Remember in Matthew chapter 5:14, Jesus said, looking at His disciples, "You guys are the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hid."  God called His people a city, did He not?  What is a city anyway?  It's not a place made of brick and mortar.  It's made up of a people.  When you think about Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, you don't think about buildings.  You think about people.  People make up the city.

Jesus said, "You people are a city set on a hill which cannot be hid."

It is our understanding that the city is you and me. How many of you know that Abraham said he was looking for a city whose builder and maker was God?  He wasn't looking for a physical city, but a Spiritual city -- the people that you and I are.

He journeyed through this land as a sojourner.  What was he looking for?  He wasn't looking for riches and honor. He wasn't looking for physical things. He had so much cattle that he and Lot couldn't live in the same country together. But if you would have walked up to that old man and said, "Man you're rich," He would have said, "I tell you I'm looking for.  A city."  And he wasn't talking about a physical city.

In Ezekiel chapter 40 the Prophet Ezekiel saw a city under construction.  I know this blows some people away, but it needs to.   People are shocked when we say things like, "Ezekiel did not see a physical temple, tabernacle, but he saw a spiritual one."   When Ezekiel saw a temple, he wasn't looking at a physical temple, but a spiritual temple.  I don't personally believe there will be a physical temple built over in the east.  There might be, but it wouldn't make any difference,  anyhow, because the temple we are looking for is a spiritual temple. Its a people who are a temple.

Now in chapter 2 verse 1 tells us that this vision happened the day of atonement. Atonement is one of the three parts of the Feast of Tabernacles. This vision occurred on the day of atonement and verse 2 says,

2  In the visions of God He took me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain;

Remember Jesus said, "You guys are a city set on a hill!"  That vision Ezekiel saw upon a very high mountain which was a frame of a city.  Not a completed city.  He saw a city in building.  That's what's happening right now to the Church of Jesus.  We are a city being built.

Now, what's this city going to be like when it's finished?  Go to the end of the book Ezekiel 48:

35  "All the way around shall be eighteen thousand cubits; and the name of the city from that day shall be: The Lord Is There."

The same picture goes all the way through the Scripture.  When we find the Tabernacle in the wilderness, Moses' Tabernacle, upon its completion, the Lord moved down there.

We find that David's Tabernacle was a tent on top of a mountain. What was that mountain?  Mt. Zion!  When David brought the Ark into that tent on Mt. Zion, the presence of the Lord came into the Tabernacle and that was called David's Tabernacle. It pictures the Church.  David's Tabernacle was on a hill, Moses Tabernacle was on a hill, filled with God. Solomon's temple ended up on Mt. Moriah and it was on a hill. When it was finished what then happened?  It was filled with God.   All those are pictures of the Church and we are a people, a temple, and a city -- all the same thing.  We are a people being built and when God gets finished, guess what is going to happen?  We're going to be filled with God.

God is here, yet in everyone of those other Temples there was the manifest presence of God, and that's what we're looking for.

Most people don't even understand what God is doing in the earth today.  You here so-called prophecy teachers getting up saying this and this is going to happen.  I tell you, whatever happens will come after the Church is filled with the Glory. What do you need to look for?  You need to look for the Glory.  You need to find out what part of the house that your are part of in the city and get filled with the Glory.

Now here's the point, there is a river in that city. There is a river of life that flows right through that city.

Psalm 659 You visit the earth and water it,
You greatly enrich it;
The river of God is full of water;

These are two pictures here.  One pictures the Church, the city of God, being made glad by the streams of that river.  The other pictures the earth being touched in their dry spots through the river. There is a difference between the city of God and the earth. There is a difference between the people of God and the people that aren't of God. But the river affects both of them. With that in mind, turn to the book of Exodus chapter 17.

Verse 1  Then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped in Rephidim;

Rephidim means the resting place. It's a place of rest.  So whatever goes on here will be instrumental for moving into rest.  How many of you need to enter into the finished work of Christ?  The principle for that will be outlined in this place, because this was a resting place.

but there was no water for the people to drink.
2  Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, "Give us water, that we may drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the Lord?"
3  And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said, "Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?"
4  So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!"
5  And the Lord said to Moses, "Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel.

Who went with Moses?  Number one, the elders.  Everybody didn't go, just the elders.

Then He said, Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go.
6  "Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
7  So he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?"

Here's what happened. The children of Israel were walking through the wilderness and they got thirsty again. And they began to murmur again. So God said, "Here's what to do. You take the elders and you go with the rod and you go to a rock and you smite that rock and the water will come out of the rock."
 
Can you believe that?  Listen to this.  1 Corinthians 10:11 says that everything that happened to the children of Israel were types of those things that ought to happen to us who live at the end of this age.  So this is not a lightweight thing.

First of all we have to find out what the rock is. Turn to 1 Corinthians 10 again, and I will show you. We have no problem with finding out what the rock pictures. What is the rock a type of?  Types point to something.

Verse 1, 1  Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea,
2  all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
3  all ate the same spiritual food, 4  and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

So there is no problem understanding that rock was Christ.  It pictured Christ.  Remember we read Scriptures from the beginning of this message on the River of God in Psalm 105:41.  We have to locate the river of God. How many of you have ever been thirsty in your Christian life?    Some are starving to death today for some real life.

Verse 41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
It ran in the dry places like a river.

When Moses went to that rock and hit it with the rod, there wasn't just a little bit of water trickling out. It came out as a river.  Out from the middle of the rock came a river that went into the dry places.   Three million people drank of that rock.  That's an awesome display in the natural isn't it?  But if the natural was so powerful, the spiritual type was even more powerful.

We know that Christ is the rock. Isaiah 53 will show you when the rock was smitten. This is the great suffering servant chapter, our substitute Christ.   A vision of the spiritual happenings of Jesus on the Cross.

In verse 3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our grief's
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.

Jesus was smitten of God.  Moses took a rod and he smote the rock and out of that smitten rock came a river.  We find that Jesus is the rock and we find in Isaiah 53 that He was smitten. Why was He smitten?  If you don't know what the smiting was then you're not going to be able to drink of the river.

Look at verse

5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.

It was all done for our iniquities.  We have to get a picture of this rock. It was Christ. I want to drink of that Rock. I am on a pilgrimage just like the children of Israel on my way to the Promise Land which is the fullness of Christ. It's not a type of heaven as we have heard it said in the past. But Canaan is a type of the fullness of Christ.   I'm on my way to Canaan land.   How many of you know it's possible to get thirsty from Egypt to Canaan?  Where do I get the drink?  The Bible says it gets quenched at the Rock that has been smitten.

Hosea chapter 6: 1 Come, and let us return to the Lord;

That's where we need to go.  What we've done is, "Ok, Jesus.  I got saved, and I'm going to run here and there and find me something to drink.  I'm going to read this book and that book, go to this revival and that."
 
No!  Your answer is to return to the Lord, where your drink is to be found.  You get into His Word and into fellowship with Him.  You drink of Him!

1 Come, and let us return to the Lord;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight.

I want to address those of you who understand what God is doing in this our world today. People use this Scripture speaking of the unfolding of the endtime, saying we are at the end of the second day.  We are two thousand years from Jesus. People think this means a prophetic projection of endtime events.  If you believe that then you believe also that you are still being stricken by God until the beginning of the third day.   Here's the problem with that. Jesus was smitten for our iniquities. Jesus was afflicted because of our inequities. Why did Jesus go through that 2,000 years ago? Because I sinned!   Something was wrong with me.  He was smitten because of what I did.  Was he not? That's what it said in Isaiah 53.

Can you then see that the people who are preaching that God is smiting us today, are in effect saying two people are being smitten for the same sin?  He was smitten two thousand years ago for me. He was smitten as me 2,000 years ago.  His smiting was our smiting.  What this is talking about is the three days and three nights of the death, burial and resurrection.  Yes, this was a prophecy from Hosea, but it was a prophetic projection of what would happen at the Cross. He said, "He hath torn and he will heal us."
 
Who is the "us."  It's us in Christ.  People constantly say, "God will tear you up if you don't get right."  He did tear me up already! He tore me up at the Cross of Calvary. When Jesus was torn up, that was God tearing me up in Him.    Jesus, himself, didn't need to be torn up.  He didn't do anything wrong.    Are you hearing this?  If you don't get this, you will more than likely be in the Moses' company who did not get to go into the Promise Land because Moses smote the rock twice. You don't smite the rock twice.  When was He smitten. Are you not in the rock, and one with the Rock?  The question is not, "Does God have to smite you?"  The question is, "Do you see that He has smitten you?"

It will either mean life or death to you. He says, "Come and let us return to the Lord."  Why do we return?  Because we have to see this.  You return to the story of the cross because you missed it the first time and have to see he hath torn us.

1 Come, and let us return to the Lord;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight.

Did you know that happened on the third day, and He was seated?  Ever since then, we have been living in His sight.  The same Bible that says "I was crucified" also says, "I was seated together with Him."   That's important to understand.

Look at verse 3 Let us know,
Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.
His going forth is established as the morning;
He will come to us like the rain,
Like the latter and former rain to the earth.

What makes a river? Rain!  Jesus is coming to us in rain to form that river inside of us.  This is important that you see this.  What I've been preaching this last three months is not just neat sermons. These are life-making lessons. I cannot share His life until I see Him share my death.

Let me show you why that is so important. Numbers 20, reads of what happened 40 years after Exodus 17, at the end of their journey.  The other experience of being thirsty occurred at the beginning, but they got thirsty at the end once again.  Do you know the thirst that you're feeling right now is the thirst at the end?  Can you hear this?  We are on the borders of the Canaan land experience.  At the end, the children got thirsty once more.

Numbers 20: 6  So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them.
7  Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8  "Take the rod (Aaron's rod); you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation (not just the elders, but all the people) together.

At the beginning everybody didn't see the water smitten. Who saw it the first time?  The elders.

Here is how God did it.  He took the elders to the Cross and then the elders make it possible for the people to drink. They drank because the elders saw, and that typifies the five-fold ministry.  And then the elders see, and in turn they feed it to everybody. At the end, everybody is brought before the Rock, for this is something everybody must see.

Verse 8  "Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes,

You don't smite the rock the second time -- you speak to the rock.  What causes the river to flow?  Speaking to the rock.  Now, if you were one with the rock in the beginning, don't you know you're one with the rock at the end?

The Hebrew word for "rock" here is not the same Hebrew word as used in Exodus 17. This word here in Numbers 20 means "the elevated rock." The "ascended rock."  It speaks of a river that flows from being seated together with Him.

Look what it says, Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals." 9  So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as He commanded him.

This rod came from the Most Holy place, and speaks of the anointed Priesthood, Aaron's rod.

Moses and Aaron, gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?"
11  Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.
12  Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them."

Here's the situation.  The water came out of that rock even though Moses hit it twice. What is the principle?  It's this:  We are living in a time when the water is going to flow from the ascended rock.  The principle spoken here is that you're not going to stop the rock from flowing.  But if you're involved in hitting it twice, you won't go in. He has smitten you already.  Don't be looking for another smiting.  Don't be fearing God or His coming to you and smiting you.   There will be a people who hold up that rod.

The rod of Aaron was an almond plant rod that burst forth over night with life.  It speaks of a Priesthood -- you and I.  What's the point of this message?  There is going to be water come out of the Church, a river.  The river has to feed the Church.  It doesn't stay in us.  It goes out in the world.

The King told the Shulamite women, "Sweetheart, you are a fountain sealed.  You are a stream shut up, and a garden enclosed."  It's good to be all those things, but not enclosed or shut up.  It's not good to have it in you not coming out.  There is something in us that needs to come out of us.

"Pastor, I've beaten myself, I've kicked myself, I've tried to kill myself, I've been to all the beating-up conventions in the world and the water hasn't flown yet.  Why?"
 
Because that's not what does it!

Somebody has to speak to the rock before their eyes, and say something to them so they can see.   That event comes at the end of the age.  Joy like a River will come out of you when you understand and say, "Thank God, all that's over with!"

You won't be walking around in fear all the time.

Turn to Ezekiel 47. Ezekiel saw a river that flowed out of the sanctuary.  Don't you know it had to flow in  order for it to flow out of it?  Who is the sanctuary? We are.  That river in the garden went into 4 directions. It went into Havilah, which means pain, sorrow and sickness. It went into Cush, which means blackness and darkness. It went between Babylon and Assyria. Assyria means success, Babylon is confusion.  That river is Euphrates.  That means the river in you wants to flow in four directions.

Number one, it wants to flow to people who are in pain who are in sickness, who are hurting.

Number two, it wants to flow to those people who are in blackness in Cush -- to people who have no ligh.  There is a river in you that want's to flow in them. There is a river that flows from you to get people out of confusion over into true success.

Euphrates means to gush forth.

I'm going to share this with you and then we're going to close.  Ezekiel 46 says, in verse

1  'Thus says the Lord God: "The gateway of the inner court that faces toward the east shall be shut the six working days

How long will the gate be shut?  Six working days.  Why?  Because man's going to quit working at the end of six days.  This is the message we're hearing all over the country and on TV, the work is finished, praise God!  We're going to stop working and rest. Look towards the east. What does that mean?  When you sat in the Tabernacle of Moses, it always pointed at one direction.  When you walked out of the Tabernacle you went east.  When you walked in you walked west. To enter into the Most Holy Place, you walked through the outer court towards the Holy place.  You walked to the brazen altar westward.  When you get to God, the door that is looking eastward is shut for six working days.  That means that what's in that Tabernacle is shut for six working days.
At the end of six working days, Chapter 47  Verse 1, he brought me to the door of the house, that's Jesus,

Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east,

Which direction?  East.  There is a river that flowed eastward out of that Tabernacle, out of the Church, out of the Tabernacle of God. We've been walking west in the spirit. But when a people come to the finished work of Christ and that His work was the work to perfect the Saints and we just rest in Him, then the river begins to flow out of the Church into the world.

I don't like to see people hurting, caught up in confusion.  Jesus doesn't like to see people hurting. There is a river right now, to deal with the Church and their pains and their doctrines and their hurting and sufferings.  There is a river that is flowing in us, it's the river of life inside of all of us. Moses didn't get to go in. Doesn't that sound unfair?  He did all that work and herded sheep and put up with all those three million people he deserved to go in, but he doesn't go in?  Why?  Because he smote the rock the second time. It doesn't sound like a big deal. However, the type of that is a big deal.
It's everything.  If you're going to smite the rock twice, then that means you don't have the slightest idea of what happened the first time.
 
We're going to raise up a people who can take people on in.  What's the message?  Take heart, family.  Our message is a message of mercy.

People say, "I'm not a good Christian.  I mess up all the time and sin and sin and sin."   Do we say, "God come down and smite me?"  Really, some people want that. They want to be punished. The good news is that he has already smitten us in Christ!  You've already been punished. Faith is believing that Jesus was beaten to a pulp in your stead.  That's real faith!

Did you know that kids want discipline? I think adults do, too.  Know that our discipline as believers is a spiritual discipline to stop and say, "You know, the Finished work of Christ is my discipline."
 
The message to you today is to rejoice and let the river flow.  It won't flow until the Church knows it doesn't need to be smitten the second time.  Does that make any sense to you spiritually?  The troubles you've been going through are not caused by God doing that to you.

Oh, God, help your people to understand that through that one sacrifice you have perfected forever them that are sanctified, set apart.   Hebrews 10 says that through one sacrifice that He has perfected forever them that are sanctified.  You have been perfected in Him.