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It's about nine o'clock or something like that this morning, to tell her two things. Number one, I got to Richmond okay, and number two, Happy Mother's Day. I did see her this morning, but she didn't see me when I left. I called my own mother in Scotland yesterday, not to wish her Happy Mother's Day, but uh, just to say hello. Uh, Mother's Day over there is different dates, I never know which it is. I remember in the early years I'd always call her Mother's Day. She says, well, that's that's very nice, thank you, but it's, uh, not Mother's Day here, so. Anyway, good to be, uh, good to be with you today, and, uh, so glad we're having our, uh, our lunch on the grounds.
And salad lunch sounds good, doesn't it? Who was it was going for the chicken? Eh. Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday, too bad. The book of Exodus, chapter fifteen, please. Exodus fifteen verse twenty two. So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, 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. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. 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 wilt do that which is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandments, and keep all these 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.
And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water and threescore and ten palm trees, and they encamped there by the waters. Heard a story about a, a young preacher who wasn't very original and, uh, liked to get all the help they possibly could from others that were more proficient in the business of preaching than he was. So he went to a, a, a pastor's conference, a preacher's conference, and the keynote speaker got up, and I guess he was talking about marriage and family, and he got up and he, he made this statement.
He said, you know, some of the best years of my life I spent in the arms of another man's wife, my mother, you see. So this young preacher thought, boy, that's, that's a great opener. So he gets back to his own pulpit on Sunday morning. He's not a great preacher at all. So he got up and he said, uh, I just wanted to let you people know that some of the best years of my life were spent in the arms of another man's wife. And for the life of me, I can't rem- remember who it was. Well now, those were great days, weren't they?
Those days when we were growing up. You know, when you're young, you wish you were older. When you're older, you wish you were not dead. When you're older, you wish you were younger, all right? And I try to tell you young people, folks, enjoy it while you can. The best days of your lives. No responsibilities. Just live your life, and other people look after all the details and all the needs for you. Great news. But there comes a time when you've got to stand on your own two feet.
There comes a time when you got to pay for your own gasoline and your own clothes and mow your own lawn, and I could go on and on and on. But that's what life is all about. Growing up, moving on, not really getting older, getting better. And the great key is the principle of faith. When I turn to the book of Hebrews and chapter eleven, the great hall of faith, when I get to the account concerning Moses, I find that the language is a little different.
By faith Abraham did this, by faith Joseph did this, by faith Enoch did this. But I get halfway down the chapter and it tells me by faith Moses was hid by his parents for three months. Was it Moses' faith? As a tiny little baby? He found himself in the rushes on the side of the river Nile. No, it was his parents' faith. But very soon after that, the next verse it says, by faith Moses, when he was come of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Um, I, I, I read the other day that Pharaoh's daughter was, uh, one of the most su- successful financiers of, of, of her time. She went to the bank, and that's the bank of the Nile, and took out a little profit. You like that? She went to the bank of the Nile and took out a little profit. But remember this! The son. That is Moses was the son of a Hebrew couple, not the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He was adopted by her, and we're glad for that.
It opened some doors. It gave Moses some real privileges. But Moses never forgot who he really was. When he was independent, could make up his own mind, could stand his own two feet, he refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. That was only incidental to what God had planned for him. The great influence on his life was who? Jochebed. That's Moses' mom. She's not named very often in scripture, but she was the one that came with, come up with this great idea of, of hiding him.
Why? All the other babies were being slaughtered. But she wasn't about to give them her baby, and so she hid him. And I want to suggest to you she did a fantastic job. You can't hide a baby. Can you? For three months, they kept him hidden from the authorities. And then Jochebed and Amram, her husband, looked at each other and said, look, we just can't continue this. Somebody's going to hear the cries of this baby, and we're going to be in big. Yeah, that's right, said Amram to his wife.
I, I, I guess we'll just have to put him in the River Nile. Okay. And not actually into the River Nile, but on the River Nile. What, what about a little, a little cruise in a little boat, hmm? And that's where Pharaoh's daughter found the baby that she took and adopted. She runs home to her daddy, just as she found a little puppy, you know. Ge- guess what I found?
Guess what I found? Her dad looks at her and says, you- you know what, you know where that baby came from, don't you? She says, yes, River Nile. No. That's a Hebrew child. Yeah, but yeah, da- daddy, can can I keep him? Can I keep him? Please, please, please. But, you know, got every everything already set in place. Who should chance along when the princess is picking up the baby, but one of the local teenagers, and simply comments, I guess you can need need need need a nanny for this baby, huh?
Well, well, yes. Do, do, do you know anyone who might? Let me think for a minute. Yeah, I do. I do. Sure, my mom would be glad to take care of this baby. And she came and brought her mother, and the princess gave Jochebed these instructions. Take this child and raise it for me, and I'll give you your wages. She got paid to take care of her own kid. But I would suggest she would still have done it, even if there had been no financial or material remuneration.
Because it wasn't a job that she was interested in. It wasn't the pay she was interested in. It was the fact that she could still train and teach and mold her son. I mean, in Egypt, as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, I mean, no expense would be spared. He would go to the best schools of the day. He would go and learn about Egyptian culture and Egyptian history and Egyptian science and Egyptian philosophy and Egyptian religion and... My, what a great secular education.
Folks, if that secular education is not balanced out with the spiritual and religious education, you know what? We're just going to produce another secular leader with secular views, with a decision-making process that excluded God and his word and his will. And that's what we'll have largely in this country of ours. Wasn't like that fifty years ago, but it sure is now. And now what do we want to do?
Get rid of God altogether. Anything that smacks of God, throw it out. Ten Commandments in the courtroom, get rid of them. A cross in a park, get rid of it. A manger scene, get rid of it. The word of God, no, we don't want that in our schools. Forty years ago, they got rid of it. Prayer, get rid of it. What about the currency? In God we trust. That's not true for most people that hold those coins and those bills in their hands.
Someone suggests we need to put in a little extra. In this God we trust. Money, see? It's become our God. We are materialistic people. And I want to encourage you, whether it be mothers or fathers or grandparents or anyone who can have an influence upon the next generation, to build into their lives spiritual values, spiritual truth, the word of God, so that when they come of age, they will know what is right and what is true, that they'll know the way to go, and that they will go that way.
See, I don't doubt that every day when Jochebed was taking care of Moses, she was singing some of the Hebrew songs. She was quoting some of the Hebrew scriptures, and she was reminding Moses of who he really was. And Moses never forgot that. And I believe that Moses became such a successful and effective leader because he was taught right. And I believe that Jochebed was one of the major influences in molding and grooming this future leader, because she herself was taught in the Hebrew truth, the Old Testament scriptures, to the extent that it was available to them at that point in time.
So let me ask you this. Don't you think that one of the most influential positions in this world today is that role of mother? See, the mother starts with a fresh slate, a clean slate, and begins to build into that life. Not dumping spiritual truth upon them, but just layer by layer, here a little, there a little, and you'd be amazed at what these kids can actually assimilate.
And our seven-year-old re- really did it this week. She has a wonderful, wonderful first grade teacher. We've known this lady for, um, since our older kids were little. She's Jewish. Somewhat Jewish. And Maggie prays for her, Mrs. Kanoi. But every week they have a mother come in, and, uh, it's a mother of the week thing, and with their kid they answer questions and they make a fuss of the mother and so on.
So, um, George's mother was in this week, and coming home, little Maggie says to her mom, you know, George's mother's a Christian. Oh, did did she say that? Yes. When did she say that? She says, when? Well, when she was up at the front. And and Amy said, um, well, Maggie, did did you just come out and say it? She said, no, I asked her, are you a Christian? And she said, yes. I'm proud of my girl. Might not have been real tactful, but how would she have known? That's something that hopefully will always be central to her life, and should be the most natural thing in the world to talk about your faith and about your savior.
Now let's move on. Let's go beyond the River Nile. Let's go beyond the education in Egypt. Let's go beyond Pharaoh's palace. And let's see Moses, forty years of age, embarking upon a hike, a journey, an epic journey, which is gonna last for forty long years. Wow. And who's the leader? Let me give you. Moses.
Formerly known as Prince of Egypt. But this is Moses doing what God had prepared him to do. So he's got all the education that he needs. He's got the spiritual truth that he needs. The only thing he doesn't have is what? Experience. He's never led two million people before. He doesn't have a clue what's going to happen. When God told him what was going to happen, he said, nuh-uh, no, no, no, Lord, not, not, not me.
You know, I, I, I can't, I'm not good at talking, not good at ex- expressing myself. Although when Stephen in the New Testament, in one of his sermons, speaks about Moses, he says he's, he's mighty in word. So he couldn't have been all that much of a dud, could he? But, but he claimed he couldn't speak. Well, I'll give Mo- uh, I'll give you Aaron. He can be your, he can be your helper, your right hand man, but Moses, you're the man. And sure enough, on that great Passover night, Moses leads all the children of Israel out of Egypt. Sure enough, when they come to the Red Sea, Moses leads them all across the Red Sea, and they turn back and they see the Egyptians drowning in the waters there.
But now we're three days out, and in three days Moses going- goes from being a hero to a zero. You know what happened? They ran out of drinking water. They ran out of fresh water. Now, that was poor planning on somebody's part, don't you think? Well, not really. You can only carry a certain amount of water with you. I saw a thing in USA Today, not two or three weeks ago. Um, as you may know, some of the folks from Mexico are trying to get into our country before they really, uh, clamp down on immigration policies and so on, and, uh, I mean, every day there are thousands, thousands of people that try to get across the Mexican-U.S.
border at different points. And this particular photograph showed a whole line of them and some of the backpacks and stuff that they were carrying, but almost all of them were carrying something in either hand. It was two-gallon gallon jugs joined together by a rope, the handle, I, I don't know, but they were carrying two-gallon gallon jugs full of water on each, each side, put four gallons. Folks, you can survive a while without food, you can't survive very long without water. And here are these people, three days out, no water. And guess what they do?
They turn on Moses. They murmured against him. Now, Moses could have just blasted them, but he didn't. Moses knew that the right course of action was to take it to the Lord in prayer. And yes, when they got to the pool of water that looked so good and so tempting and found it bitter. Moses knew that this was something that only God could do. People were getting desperate. People were complaining against Moses. And Moses prayed, and God showed him a tree, which, when put in the water, had the effect of making the water sweet, palatable.
It was a pool of polluted water, that's what it was. The very word Mara means bitterness. Remember when Naomi and her husband El- Elimelech left Bethlehem, the house of bled- bread, and in a famine, they left the house of bread and went to Moab. May have not been the greatest choice. See, Naomi lost her husband in Moab and her two sons. She was left with two daughters-in-law. One of them was kind of fickle, and she decided that she wasn't going to continue on with her, but one did, Ruth.
And so Ruth and her old mother-in-law come into the city of Bethlehem, new territory for Ruth. It was Naomi's stomping grounds, wasn't it? It was her hometown. And that, and, and people would begin to say, look, look, look, look, look, it's our, it's our, it's our old friend come back. It's Naomi. And she would spit out of them, d- d- don't call me Naomi, call me, call me Mara. Bitter. Because the Lord has dealt bitterly with me. Hmm. We'll think about that bitter spirit a little later today.
But, um, that water, that polluted water was transformed, wasn't it? But by, by a tree. Buy a tree. You know, in our world today, pollution cannot easily be taken care of. Years ago, they would say the solution to pollution is dilution. But that don't- doesn't wash anymore. We- we- we measure toxic substances in the air, in the water, uh, as parts per million. And if the least little bit of pollution shows up, then the EPA is on to it right away and try and get it cleaned up, you know?
You know what? We get a wonderful parallel, a parable of of of life here. Uh, I mean, it was bad enough that the waters at Mara were were bitter and unpalatable, water that they couldn't drink. But, you know, that's a, a picture of, of life today, the pollution that is in human life. And, and, and Jesus said, you know, it's not the water that you drink or the air that you breathe. It's not what's external to you, which, when taken into your body, pollutes you.
Jesus said it's out of the heart that comes the terrible wrongs and the terrible sins. Remember this, the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. And until you get the heart taken care of, then the symptoms are going to be evident wherever a person will go. And of course, when we go back in time to discover how that problem existed in the first place, we find ourselves in a garden, and well, wouldn't you believe it?
A tree. God showed Moses a tree which, when thrown into the waters, made the waters sweet. You know, the, the, the whole problem of pollution personally and individually in, in our lives, morally and spiritually so, b- began at a tree that God said, don't touch, but they, of course, did touch and took and, and, and ate. I I like the wag that said, you know, the problem in the Garden of Eden was not the apple in the tree, it was the pear on the ground. Mm. I'm not sure if there's an apple in the tree, but that was not the problem.
It was that pair, Adam and Eve. And they brought into humanity, into life upon this earth, something that had never been there before, that that was sin. Disobedience, rebellion against God, self-centeredness. And you know what? Sin has reigned from Adam onwards. And don't blame Adam. If you'd been there, you would have done the same. Adam was simply representative of what humanity would be like. But God's solution?
I'll tell you what God's solution is, a tree. A tree that makes all the difference. A tree that God has already provided, but a tree that God needs to reveal to individuals. You know, in Moses' day, I don't think that God suddenly grew a tree by the waters of Mara for the purpose of sweetening the waters. I think that tree was there all along, and Moses would never have known of the effects of throwing that tree in the water had God not revealed it to him. I don't know whether it was some chemical reaction, something in the root or something in the bark of that tree that counteracted the brackish water, the polluted water.
I have no idea the nature of the miracle, but I do know this, that it was the tree that made all the difference. And dear friends, in your life, it's a tree that makes all the difference. Peter talks of the Lord Jesus, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. And you know, we need to be shown that tree. It exists. Jesus has died, salvation has been procured, but most of us walk past it. Most of us don't see it until someone points us to the cross of the Lord Jesus. I read about a lady that went into a department store in New York City.
She wanted a, a cross to go on a chain, hang around her neck. She went to the jewelry department, and she said, uh, I'd like to see your little gold crosses, please. And, uh, this is what the assistant said. Well, ma'am, we've got all kinds. Do you want just a plain one, or do you want one w- with a little man on it? That that is what she said. And and and we can't imagine anybody in our culture could fail to know who that was, dying upon the cross. But apparently, someone missed it. That's not a bad thing, that a blockbuster movie points people to the cross and the passion of the Christ who died there.
It's not a bad thing that Christians can now have a talking point. Because people need to be shown the cross. And I'm not even sure that the movie itself will be convincing to people who will not be convinced. A good tool in our hands may be, but we need probably to follow it through and point people to the cross. God showed Moses a tree which, when it was applied to the waters, made all the difference, and God must, through his Holy Spirit, show you and me what the cross of Jesus Christ is really all about.
So much misunderstanding. But when that tree is applied to our lives, it takes away the bitterness and the crookedness and the bitter aftertaste that sin leaves behind. Cross was there, you see, only Moses didn't make the connection between the problem and what proved to be the solution. It's always been that way. Our Lord Jesus Christ is described as what, sometimes?
The lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That was always God's plan to provide salvation through the Lord Jesus. Noah preached righteousness, God's way and God's will for one hundred and twenty years while he was building the ark. So the ark didn't suddenly appear, the ark was there when the storm hit. Only some people could not see it or could not make the connection. And of course, our Lord Jesus Christ is pictured in the substitute lamb of Abraham.
When he was going to slay Isaac, God says, no, I provided a lamb. God will provide a lamb, says Moses to his son when the son asks about the sacrifice. And sure enough, when Moses is about to put the knife down and slaughter his son, God says stop. And Moses looked around, and there was God's provision. Salvation for Isaac and much, much more. The songwriter, I think, has so nicely put it this way. He molded and built a small lonely hill that he knew would be called Calvary.
And he planted a seed that he would grow to be thorns that would make his son bleed. Then he formed a green stem, gave it leaves, and then gave it sunshine and rain, sheltered it with moss, and he grew the tree that he knew would be used to make an old rugged cross. Nothing took his life with love. He gave it. He was crucified on a tree that he created. Great love to man made God stay with his plan, for he paid the price so that we might go free.
The tree that made all the difference. Polluted water becomes sweet. Toxic water becomes palatable. Makes a great headline, doesn't it? And for years, the people of Israel would remember how God came through and met them at the point of their deepest physical need. You know what? Once you come to Christ and trust the work that he did on the cross, for years you'll re- remember what God did as he intervened to bring, to provide a solution to your deepest spiritual need.
A sinner, more than anything else, and before anything else, needs a savior. God has provided that savior. God provided the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. His name, Jesus Christ. The one who died for you. We trust him this morning? Will you receive him as your very own? Have you come to that point where God has both shown you your sin and shown you the Savior? If that's the case, then you come. Open your heart and your life to him. Invite him to be part of your life.
That's what he wants to do. That's what he wants to be, your savior and Lord. And the choice, of course, is left with you. By faith, Moses got a good start in life from his parents, his mother especially. But when Moses grew up, Moses made choices also. More often than not, he made the right choice. Thank God for that. And he became a leader of God's people because he was led himself by the Lord. And you can be too, trusting Jesus and living for him each and every day. Let's pray. Father, we come again this morning, and we're grateful for these opportunities to open your word, to sing these songs of praise, to fellowship one with another, and most of all, to hear once more of what God has done and what God is doing on our behalf.
Thank you, Father, for Calvary. Thank you for the cross upon which Jesus died, the tree which, when applied to the pollution of our sin, will make our lives sweet and acceptable to you. And so we ask, Father, that you might deal with our hearts and lives today for some who do not know the Savior. May this morning be the day when they'll receive your Son into their lives. We ask these things and giving thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. Like to sing just a verse of number three hundred one. uh probably make it two verses, actually. Uh, there's a little phrase here that, uh, I think would be appropriate.
Three hundred one. I heard the voice of Jesus say, come unto me and rest. But it's the second stanza. I heard the voice of Jesus say, behold, I freely give the living water, thirsty one, stoop down and drink and live. So the one who provides salvation is the one who himself is the living water for our needs to satisfy our souls eternally. So let's sing the first and second stanzas, and our service will be over.