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00:03 One might find the title of my message this morning a bit weird considering the
00:09 story we just read. After 40 years of faithful service to
00:16 God, leading the people from slavery out of uh out of Egypt
00:22 into the wilderness towards the promised land, 40 years of faithful service, one
00:29 moment of frustration, Moses and Aaron are barred from entering
00:36 the promised land, the land that was promised to Abraham's offsprings.
00:44 Where is the grace? Where is the grace? In fact, a more
00:51 appropriate, a more natural response towards this story is uh why so harsh?
00:59 Why so serious? What's going on, God? I mean, I certainly felt that way as I read
01:06 through it the first few times. I mean, just look at what what Moses and Aaron
01:12 had to go through. There was no water for the congregation. They assembled themselves together against Moses,
01:18 against Aaron. And the people quarrel with Moses and said, "Would that we have perished when our brothers perished
01:24 before the Lord? Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into the wilderness that we should die here, both
01:30 we and our cattle?" Okay, firstly, when there's no water, right, don't raise
01:37 your voice. Don't don't quarrel. You know, you get more thirsty. You you you
01:44 know, you're you're not helping the situation by quarreling, right? Uh
01:49 secondly, is there a need for a rebellion? Is there a need to no water change
01:55 leader? Uh I I mean, I can understand how desperate the situation is. There's no
02:02 water in the wilderness. But still, they could they could just be nice about it.
02:07 They could say, "Bro, no water." But instead, they they
02:14 a rebellion arose. In fact, they even say, "Right, why why
02:20 have you brought us out of uh into the wilderness to die?
02:25 Why have you brought us out of uh Egypt into the wilderness to die?" If you live
02:31 in Sububang, uh you would have dealt with this situation before. no water
02:38 and your family uh would have suffered through this several times last year. Yeah. Imagine
02:47 your kid coming to you extremely thirsty and the first words that come out from
02:52 your kid is, "Mommy, you want me to die? Mommy, you want to kill me?"
02:60 I mean, you want to slap him also, right? You will snap also. You'll be frustrated. you'll be upset as well. So
03:06 you can understand the situation that Moses and Aaron are in. In fact, this
03:12 was not the first time that the Israelites complained and quarrel against Moses.
03:19 They have been doing it for 40 years. The beginning of the story says the
03:25 people of Israel, the whole congregation came into the wilderness of Zen in the first month and the people stayed in
03:32 Kadesh and Miriam died there and was buried there. This chapter begins with
03:38 Miriam's death representing one entire generation that perished in the
03:45 wilderness. Why? Because of their mistrust towards God. They sent spies to the land
03:54 into the land while they were in the same spot around 40 years ago. They sent
04:01 spies into the land. They did not trust the Lord. They say the spies say these
04:06 people are too big. It's too dangerous for us to invade them. I know God promised us that land and God promises
04:13 victory. But have you seen those people? And they distrust
04:19 God. They refuse to believe in God. And God says, "You'll spend 40 years here."
04:26 And even though one entire generation is gone, the new generation has inherited
04:34 the same traits. Complain, quarreling, rebellion. Israel remained
04:42 the same. So it's understandable that Moses and Aaron got extremely
04:50 frustrated and many times Moses has seen right
04:56 whenever there's a quarreling with arguing or complaining that God responds with anger with wrath but this time God
05:05 does not get angry in fact he just provides for the people
05:10 quietly he gives in to the demands of the people. And the Lord spoke to Moses,
05:17 saying, "Take the staff, assemble the congregation, you and Aaron, your brother. Tell the rock before their eyes
05:23 to yield his water. You shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their
05:30 cattle." Naturally, when you're upset
05:35 and someone else isn't, you tend to get more upset. you tend to
05:41 get angrier, right? And so Moses took the staff from before the Lord as he
05:47 commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assemblies together before the rock and he said to them, "Here now,
05:53 you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" And Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock with his staff
05:60 twice, and water came out abundantly. The congregation drank and their
06:05 livestock. So even though God told Moses to simply
06:13 speak to the rock, he struck the rock not once, not twice, and even before
06:19 that he yelled at the Israelites. He scolded the Israelites.
06:26 So sure, Moses said something that God did not ask him to say. Moses did
06:33 something that God did not ask him to do. Is it that bad?
06:40 Is it so serious that Moses and Aaron will miss out on the promised land? The
06:47 same punishment that was given to the rebellious generation. The same punishment that was given to the people
06:54 whom Moses and Aaron are angry with is given to Moses and Aaron. I mean how
07:02 frustrating it is to receive the same punishment as the people you are upset with that
07:08 you are angry with. You feel unfair. You feel like it's not just
07:16 after 40 years of faithfulness. Don't you think God could have just let
07:22 it slide like uh it was wrong for you to do that but
07:28 okay you've been a great servant. I I let it slide. I forgive you. Grace,
07:36 where is the grace? What did Moses do that was so
07:43 wrong? How would you end this story?
07:51 If you were Moses and you went through the same situation, how would you write the ending of this
07:59 story? What would be the conclusion you write about God
08:06 on this day? God proved himself to be unfair
08:11 or petty,
08:17 injust, unjust, unrighteous, rigid.
08:23 How would you end the story? What kind of stories do you have?
08:31 You may have a story of your own where you wrestle with God. Situation in in
08:36 your life that at the end did not end well for you. And right now you're still
08:43 suffering the consequences of those actions and you ask God why?
08:52 Why? And in your story, you already may
08:58 have written, "God is not good. God is not fair.
09:06 I gave my best, but it did not go well with me."
09:13 What conclusions did you make about God when you go through these seemingly
09:19 unfair situations? What did you say about God?
09:26 What would you say if you were writing this story? Here's how Moses ended it.
09:35 These are the waters of Mibba where the people of Israel quarrelled with the Lord and through them he showed himself
09:43 holy. Holy.
09:48 What revelation did Moses receive that led him to speak about God that way?
09:55 After all the rage, after all the punishment he received, what made him
10:00 end the story this way? Do you think you will change the ending
10:08 of your story, your conclusions about God? Maybe we can learn something from
10:16 Moses today. And so for the remainder of our time, we'll look at three points.
10:23 This is the outline. The severity of sin, the root of sin, and the grace of
10:29 God. Severity of sin. What exactly did Moses and Aaron do that warranted such a
10:37 serious punishment? This is how God describes it.
10:45 You fail to uphold me as holy. Now
10:53 ways to describe holy or ways to describe the holiness of God, it seems
11:00 very impossible. is a very difficult task because any comparisons, any
11:06 similarities that we try to draw from our earthly examples to in
11:13 comparison to the holiness of God, our examples will seem trivial,
11:18 petty. Someone someone once told me that heaven is an eternity spent being in awe
11:26 of the holiness of God. And so any attempt to describe God's holiness
11:33 uh it won't do him justice. But I'm preaching so I have to uh so
11:40 please bear with me. A simple way to describe uh holy is set
11:48 apart for a special purpose. Set apart for a special purpose. When I was young,
11:56 there was a particular time that no one can touch. Okay? We come back from
12:01 school, we sleep, we go and play sports outside with our friends, but 6:00, we
12:09 go back home and we turn on TV 2 and watch our favorite Hong Kong drama. We
12:16 cannot miss. Okay? I don't care how fun the games are. I don't care how good my
12:22 friends are, but six o'clock I will be back home because it's a special time
12:28 set apart for a special purpose. Holy.
12:33 Holy. I give you another example. Now,
12:40 two cars, similar color, both shiny,
12:47 both gets you from point A to point B. But one is not like the other, Annie.
12:57 One is not like the other. You won't treat it the same way. By the way, it
13:03 would be very strange if I go to a house and I see these two cars parked in the
13:09 same house. It's very big contrast. But anyway, maybe
13:14 right. But what if one day a bird chose to deliver a special delivery?
13:22 What would you do for one and what would you do for the other is vastly
13:29 different, right? For the one on top, you'll be like, "Oh, go home. Better better wash." H dear, remember, you need
13:37 to wash the car. Otherwise, the paint it might, you know, it might go bad. Hey,
13:43 uh the it might rust, you know, our our our car. So, no good. Better need to go
13:48 back and wash. Huh? Remember the other one? If there was a special
13:54 delivery from a bird, what would you do when you see the bird
13:59 coming? You're like, you take off your coat and you're like, "No,
14:06 miss." Dear, call the cleaners now.
14:12 Now, faster woman stat emergency.
14:20 You get the point. One is not like the other. In fact, some of y'all are offended. How come the MV is above the
14:27 Porsche, right? One has been set apart. One has a
14:35 special place in your heart. Upholding God as holy is similar to
14:42 that. You don't treat him the same way you treat other things.
14:49 You don't treat him the same way you treat other things.
14:56 A more sober way of describing God's holiness is by using extravagant words. We use
15:02 words like he is awesome. He is magnificent. He is glorious.
15:09 He dwells in unapproachable light. He is otherworldness. He's out of this world.
15:16 He's out of our league. He's one of a kind.
15:22 holiness of God. But still the most straightforward way
15:29 to describe the holiness of God is through this story
15:35 because that's the point of this story. Moses say through this incident God
15:42 showed himself holy. This is how God's God describes his
15:49 holiness. Say something that God didn't ask you to say.
15:55 You can't do that. Do something that God did not ask you to
16:00 do. Even though it yields the same result. And by the way, you asked me to did do it 40 years ago.
16:10 You can't do that. You can't do that.
16:17 40 years of faithfulness, one mistake, you are barred
16:24 from the promised land because you can't do that.
16:30 You don't mess with God's words. You don't question his actions. You do not
16:36 overturn his judgments. His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are
16:42 higher than our thoughts. He is not like us. We don't treat him the same way we
16:48 treat other things. He is holy. And the consequences for not
16:56 not upholding God as holy, for not treating him as he deserves, for not
17:01 giving him the honor that he is due, for not displaying him as holy and
17:08 glorious and magnificent. The consequences are devastating.
17:16 Friends, church, what about us? Do we uphold the holiness of God?
17:25 Do we treat him as holy, a special place in our hearts that no one can mess with?
17:33 No job, no relationship, no hobby, no desire, no dream can mess
17:42 with the special place that God has in my life.
17:48 Do we display him as holy in our lives to the people around us or do we
17:55 constantly mess with his words? Do we question his actions? Do we
18:02 overturn his judgments? And if we are honest with ourselves, we know we know
18:08 we do not treat God nearly as much as he deserves. We don't
18:14 give him the honor he deserves. We don't give him the thanks he deserves. Not nearly as much as he
18:22 truly deserves. Why do we not do that? Why do we not
18:29 treat God as holy? Why are we like that? What caused Moses
18:36 and Aaron to behave like that? That they failed to uphold God as holy. That's
18:42 what we'll look at. The root of sin.
18:47 And God not only informs Moses of their wrong, their sin, he gives a diagnosis,
18:53 too. He doesn't just tell them what they did wrong. He tells them why they did
18:59 it. Because you did not believe in me.
19:05 The reason for your failure to uphold me as holy, God says, is because you did
19:10 not believe in me. Now, to be clear, normally when we say, oh, this person
19:17 does not believe in God, normally we mean that he doesn't believe in the existence of God, right? Um, that's
19:26 clearly not the case for Moses and Aaron. Hey, because they are talking to
19:31 him. They are listening to him. They're communicating with him. They seen him. They seen what he has done. Moses and
19:38 Aaron, they believe in the existence of God. They know he exists.
19:47 But what God meant was, "You didn't trust me.
19:53 You didn't trust me, church. The the root of sin is always unbelief.
20:01 The root of sin is always unbelief. Romans 14:23, for whatever does not
20:07 proceed from faith is sin. Hebrews 11:6,
20:12 without faith, it is impossible to please God.
20:18 We think about another example, Adam and Eve. What led Adam and Eve to disobey
20:23 God? They believed the serpent rather than
20:28 God. The serpent twisted the words of God.
20:34 The the serpent led them to distrust God's character, God's goodness.
20:41 And because of that, Adam and Eve developed a mistrust towards God. I
20:47 don't trust God. this person is holding back something good from me. I don't
20:52 trust him anymore. And that caused them to discount God's
20:59 words. What did Moses not believe in this
21:04 moment in this story? What did Moses not believe about God in this story?
21:12 Moses did not trust God's judgment.
21:17 I don't trust you're making the right call here, God. God, here's the thing.
21:23 They are they is a simple problem. There's no water. It is the wilderness.
21:29 Surely there sometimes we will face water shortage. But look how they reacted. They are over drama and they
21:38 they cause a scene. In fact, they they're rising up a rebellion. God,
21:44 I think the least you can do is go them.
21:49 The least you can do is kill some of them.
21:55 But no, God showed mercy. But for Moses, it
22:02 wasn't a time to show mercy. It wasn't a time to show grace. It was a time to
22:07 show strength. It was a time to show wrath. Moses didn't trust God's
22:14 judgment. So Moses said to the Israelites, right?
22:20 He said, "Hear now, you rebels." He's passing his own judgment. He's
22:26 giving his own judgment upon God's people. He is not passing on God's judgment.
22:33 In that moment, Moses was replacing God. He took the place of God. Say, "God, you
22:41 are a lousy judge. Step aside. I will be the judge. I am the better judge."
22:48 When Moses struck the rock, right, and says, "Shall we bring water for you out
22:53 of this rock?" He's assuming the position of provider
22:60 of savior. Should I save you from your thirst? So Moses saying,
23:07 he took the place of God. He said, "God, step aside. You don't know what you're doing. I've done this before." You don't
23:14 just speak to the rock, you strike it.
23:20 Every one of our temptations stems from our distrust towards God.
23:27 Every one of our temptations stress stems from our distrust towards God.
23:34 our finances when we are tempted to cheat. We are when we are tempted to to not
23:43 uh hold up the ethics to bribe to to steal
23:51 to not report the right amount what we are saying we say God I don't trust you as a provider
23:57 I'm not going to do it your way I will be my own provider I will do things my
24:03 way and our plans for the future Say, "God, I don't trust you for your plans." No,
24:11 no, no, no, no. I'm not going to I'm not even going to consult you. Don't bother.
24:16 I know what's best for me. I have what I want. I know my dreams. Thank you very
24:22 much. I don't trust you as my future planner. I will make my own future.
24:29 Or when we are tempted sexually, we say, "God, I don't trust you to know what my
24:35 body needs." God, you are God. You're not human. You don't understand what my body needs. You cannot tell me how I
24:42 should or what should I do with my body. I will make those decisions. I will do
24:49 what I feel right for me. When we think about future spouse,
24:56 uh you know, Christians, we are called to marry in the Lord,
25:02 to marry fellow Christians. And maybe you're a single girl here and say, "Oh, God, I don't I don't think you
25:08 have you seen the single man in our church." It's like, "No, man. I don't I
25:14 don't think you know what you're talking about. I will decide on my future spouse. I will do what's best for me
25:22 because I know best."
25:27 As a result of our lack of trust, we make up our own rules. We chart our own
25:34 course and we become our own masters.
25:39 We replace the place of God in our lives where we are supposed to regard him as
25:45 special and holy and we say no thank you. I will be my
25:52 own god. I will take your place.
25:58 That is the root of sin. We all do it.
26:05 Is there grace for us? Is there grace for people like us? Of
26:10 course, because it's in the title of the sermon, right? The grace of God.
26:18 God's holiness is not only displayed through his punishment towards Moses and Aaron, but also through his grace
26:27 towards a rebellious people. In quarreling with Moses and Aaron, the
26:33 people were also publicly displaying their displeasure and their anger
26:40 towards God. When they were quarreling with Moses, actually they were quarreling with God.
26:47 When they were rebelling against Moses, actually they were rebelling against God because it was God's plan all along.
26:54 And in every sense, they were despising God's holiness.
26:60 God, you're not good enough. God, you don't know what you're doing. God,
27:06 you don't deserve to be God. That's what the people of Israel were
27:12 doing. And yet, grace flowed,
27:17 overflowed, literally. It says here that the water came out
27:24 abundantly and the congregation drank and their livestock to provide water for
27:30 that many people and their cows.
27:37 It must have been a river that gushed out from the rock.
27:43 Water came out abundantly. In spite of their rebellion, grace overflowed
27:49 abundantly. In spite of them repeating the same mistakes of the previous generation, God
27:57 gave you grace abundantly. God is gracious.
28:04 But what about Moses? What about Aaron? Where is the grace of God towards them? God.
28:15 I see the grace of God towards Moses in this verse.
28:23 Two things. One, he said, "The people of Israel quarrelled with the Lord." The
28:29 people of Israel quarrelled with the Lord. Actually is uh is a quarrel between the two sides, right? Israelites
28:36 quarreling against Moses and Aaron and Aaron quarreling against the people of
28:42 Israel. But Moses when he was writing this story, he not only saw that the pe when
28:49 the people were quarreling against him, he knew that the people were quarreling against God,
28:55 but he also knew that when he was complaining, when he was quarreling with the people of Israel, he was rebelling
29:03 against God, too. Whatever the Israelites did, rebelling
29:09 towards God, rebelling against God, Moses did the same.
29:15 That's why he could say the people of Israel quarrel with the Lord. He
29:22 included himself in the people of Israel.
29:28 He say, "Yeah, they are really rebellious. So am I."
29:33 Yes, they were rebelling against God. So was I. He committed the same sin as the
29:41 people he was judging. I think that's God's grace right there.
29:46 The grace to see your own sin. I think it's a beautiful gift when we
29:53 can see our own faults and our own failures before God. It's a beautiful
29:59 thing. He no longer remained uh judgmental towards the people he served
30:06 but rather he said me too. I was part of the rebellion too. That's God's grace
30:13 towards Moses. I see God's grace in how Moses chose to
30:18 end the story. Instead of cursing God or being mad with him, Moses said God showed himself holy.
30:30 Think about all the healing that must have happened in Moses' heart.
30:35 Think about all the mending that had to happen between Moses and his relationship with God.
30:42 There must have been tremendous healing for him to look back at this incident
30:48 without bitterness and without harboring anger towards God. But instead he looked
30:54 back with worship. He said, "God is holy.
31:01 God punished me. God is holy."
31:06 How could he have done it if it were not for God's grace?
31:13 How could he have looked back with grace and worship
31:19 if God didn't graciously heal him of
31:24 bitterness? We also see God's grace towards Moses
31:31 many, many years after he dies. I'm reading to you Matthew 17:1-3.
31:41 After 6 days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, the brother of James,
31:46 and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured
31:53 before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as
31:59 the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah
32:04 talking with Jesus. Moses missed out on entering conquering
32:11 the promised land with the Israelites. But Jesus snuck in him somehow.
32:17 Jesus snuck him in. Through Jesus, Moses entered the
32:23 promised land years after he had died to meet the promised Messiah.
32:32 The one through whom all God's promises towards Abraham and his descendants were
32:38 fulfilled in Jesus. He met the promised Messiah. He was in the promised land. He
32:46 met the promised Messiah. That was God's grace towards Moses.
32:56 He missed out on conquering the land, but he did not miss out on Jesus.
33:03 What about grace towards us? Through the story of Numbers 20, we see
33:10 God's grace towards us because we see a glimpse of the cross of Jesus Christ.
33:19 In this story, right, we see an undeserving people receiving grace while
33:25 their hero suffers judgment. Judgment fell on the righteous instead
33:33 of the guilty. The rock was struck.
33:39 Water gushed out abundantly. In the story of the gospel of Jesus
33:45 Christ, an undeserving people
33:51 receive grace abundantly while the hero suffers judgment.
33:58 Judgment fell on the righteous rather than the wicked.
34:03 The difference though between the two stories is that Moses wasn't truly
34:09 innocent. He wasn't guiltfree. He was guilty. He was sinful. He deserved the
34:16 punishment. But Jesus, he did not. He was truly
34:22 innocent. He was truly righteous. He was truly holy.
34:29 Moses died because of his own sin. Jesus died for our sin.
34:38 This is the gospel, right? Just like the Israelites suffer from lack of water in
34:43 the wilderness, we we lack the knowledge of the glory of God. We don't know how
34:50 awesome he is. We don't know how glorious he is. We don't know how trustworthy he is. And as a result, we
34:56 don't treat him as holy. We don't honor him nearly as much as we should. We're
35:02 not thankful enough as much as he deserves. In fact, very often we ignore
35:08 him. Very often we disregard him and we live our lives as though he
35:16 doesn't exist. We don't really know the glories of God
35:22 and as a result we fail to uphold him as holy
35:29 and we rebel against him. On the cross of Jesus, he paid the price
35:36 for our rebellion against God. He took our punishment so that we may receive
35:43 God's grace. John 7 Jesus said, "If anyone thirsts,
35:51 let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers
35:60 of living water." Whoever believes in me as scriptures say out of his heart will flow rivers of
36:07 living water. Now this he said about the Holy Spirit.
36:15 Whoever place his trust her trust upon Jesus and says Jesus I trust you as my
36:22 savior. I trust you as the Lord of my life.
36:28 The Holy Spirit comes and showers him with abundance of grace.
36:34 How how does the Holy Spirit shower us with abundance of grace? Jesus say in
36:40 John 16:14 that the Holy Spirit will glorify me.
36:47 The Holy Spirit will show my people my glory.
36:53 That's how the Holy Spirit gives us abundant grace. The Holy Spirit fills
36:58 the believer with the knowledge of the glory of Jesus Christ.
37:03 And with that, he empowers us to keep trusting in Jesus and keep upholding him
37:11 as holy. Not not perfectly. We constantly fail.
37:19 But by his grace, we can uphold him wholly sufficiently enough to show
37:25 others his glory.
37:30 And one day it will come a day because Jesus have
37:36 done it on the cross. There will come a day where the glory of God will fill the
37:41 earth like the water covers the sea. And on that day we will see him clearly. We
37:48 will worship him more fully and we will uphold him as holy
37:56 and we will give him the worship that he deserves.
38:07 Application. We're going to we're going to sing
38:12 Amazing Grace soon. We're going to sing about his grace.
38:19 But for some of us, we don't sense his grace. We don't feel that his grace is that
38:27 amazing because we have our stories.
38:34 We have our situations. We have the consequences of things that
38:40 have happened and we don't feel that God has been
38:45 gracious to us. Some of you, you're in a bad spot with
38:52 God. Things happen. You lost your trust towards God.
38:59 You written him off. You say, "God is not gracious." You say, "God is not good. God is not fair.
39:09 I urge you call out to God again and say God I want to believe again the healing
39:18 that you have given Moses so that he can look back at the situation and say God is holy.
39:24 I want that. I want that healing. God I haven't been talking to you in a
39:30 while. I've been upset with you in a long while. I want to mend this
39:36 relationship, but I don't trust you.
39:42 You pray that way. You call out to God. You say, "God, I want to trust you
39:48 again. I want to sing Amazing Grace and I want
39:53 to experience Amazing Grace."
39:59 Some of you, you're you are giving into sin that when temptation strikes, you just
40:07 go with it. You're disobeying God.
40:13 You're dishonoring him. You're not upholding him as holy. Repent.
40:19 Return. Remember the glories of God. Remember
40:26 the awesomeness of Jesus Christ. remember his love for you and return.
40:36 Some of you, you want to do better.
40:41 You hear me repeating over and over again, I say that we don't honor God nearly as much as he deserves. And you
40:49 say, "Yes, I feel the same way. And I hate it. I hate it when I don't love God
40:54 with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I want to do it, but I love so
40:60 many other things. I want to love him more.
41:07 If that's what you want, as we sing, you ask the Holy Spirit, "Holy Spirit, fill
41:14 me with the knowledge of the glory of God. Fill me with the knowledge of his
41:22 amazing grace. Let's stand. Let's respond to God
41:31 in prayer, in solemn reflection, and in song.
