Book of Exodus chapter 17 and the book of Numbers chapter 20. Read a couple of passages here. Numbers 20 and Exodus 17. Exodus 17, all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sinai after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched and riffed in. And there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore, the people did chide with Moses and said, give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide you with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured against Moses and said, Wherefore is this, that thou hast brought us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, taking thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock. upon the rock in horror, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. There's one occasion. Look in the book of Numbers now, chapter 20. Start reading at verse 6. Numbers chapter 20 verse 6, And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. They fell upon their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, same thing he said before, gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water, thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock. So thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink, And Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock and said unto them, Here now, you rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice. Water came out abundantly. The congregation drank, and their beasts also. Our Heavenly Father, I pray, as we go to preach today, God, that you would help us, that we might be able to help others. I pray, our Father, for your sweet spirit to anoint me this morning. God, that I may be able to speak the words of God. Give us grace. Give our people grace. I pray for those, Lord, that are in the hospital today. I ask you, God, to bless Miss Sophie and, Lord, the needs she has. I pray, Father, for all of my people, those that are here, those that are unable to be here. God, would your merciful hand be upon them in Jesus' name. Amen. I wanted to preach today about the subject of failure in Moses' life. Do you ever have failure in your life? Some of them we can replace. Some of them can never be corrected. Some things that happen will never be right here until that day whenever we get into the glory land. That's when Moses got right. because of his actions here in Numbers chapter 20, he was barred from getting into the Promised Land, or at least that time. It's not until the New Testament comes by that he's allowed to go into the Promised Land. We could say then Moses, one of the greatest that Israel ever produced, was a failure. he's not by himself his brother erin was a failure his sister miriam was a failure in hebrews chapter eleven you have the heroes of the faith of all those that that god honored for their faith and the pre-flood world they got by fairly well uh... both of the people that are are numbered there, we do not have record of their failure. I'm sure they had some. But starting with Noah, we find that he was a failure. Starting with the slaughter of the innocents there in Egypt was a failure. Sarah was a failure. Isaac was a failure. Abraham was a failure. Gideon was a failure. Barak was a failure. Cowards. Samson was a womanizer. Jephthah practiced human sacrifice. Come to the New Testament. Peter was a failure. Thomas was a failure. Demas was a failure. Mark was a failure. You realize that? You realize that one of the best ways to be successful is to fail enough? Whenever we fail enough, we will be humble. And when we're humble, then God can use us. Until then, God has no use for us because we are self-sufficient. We do not need Him. But then I think whenever the devil comes to hit somebody, he wants to hit them at a weak place. Well, he could hit me at my righteousness, because that's a weak place. Amen. Can I get an amen from somebody? My righteousness is a weak place. I read in here that all my righteousness is filthy rags in the sight of God. But if there was a weak place on Moses, it would be his meekness. You know, the Bible said that he was, of all the men, he was the meekest man at that time on the earth. That was a strong point. And at that strong point is where Moses failed. Because instead of being meek, if you'll read there in Numbers chapter 20, He gets kind of arrogant, and he says, must we fetch you water out of the rock? Hey, we can't do nothing, brother. We've got to have God. I think, you know, we always want success. Everybody wants success. You read the Christian periodicals, and as I'd read them, they'd say, well, we had a great day at such and such church. We had blah, blah, blah, and everything. I've never read in one of their periodicals, we had a sorry day at church, a total failure. It wasn't worth the trip. I'm thinking the crowd was down, the singers were discouraging, the sermon was a flop, and here everybody went home disappointed. Amen, but you know what? Sometimes we need to be disappointed. We need to realize that without God, we can do nothing. God records failures. Man don't like to record failures. Failure does not mean that God is finished with us. Amen. Just because we dropped the ball one time don't mean we can't get it again. Failure is a serious thing, and it kept Moses out of the promised land. It gave David's enemies great cause to blaspheme the Lord. But David was used again, and Moses was used again by God. Same song, a different verse. Amen. Same church, just a different pew. Israel forgets God's greatness, forgets God's goodness, and they say, I want water. I got to have some water. If I don't have water, I'm going to die. So Moses takes his rod, gets them together, and he speaks to the rock there in Exodus. And the rod of Moses was a powerful weapon when used the way God wanted it to be used. I remember a time whenever he throwed it down on the ground and it became a serpent. and pharaoh trying to copy it. The book said that Moses' rod swallowed up pharaoh's rod. I remember a time when he pointed that rod towards Canaan land and the Red Sea just began to divide and the people could walk on through the dry land. But this time he's got that same rod And he said, must we fetch water out of this rock? How hard is it to completely trust God? Do we have to help him? Amen. Does he need our help today? Listen explicitly to his words. Disobedience is not a little thing. Amen. Disobedience is not a little thing. It wasn't much disobedience in the Garden of Eden. It wasn't a flagrant sin. It was just simply that they decided that God didn't know what He was talking about. THAT THEY COULD EAT OF THAT TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL, AND THEY WOULD BE JUST AS SMART AS GOD. THEY WOULD BE WISE. I SEE PEOPLE THAT THINK THAT THEY ARE JUST AS SMART AS GOD. SOME OF THEM ARE PREACHERS, SOME OF THEM ARE PEACE HITTERS, BUT LET ME TELL YOU RIGHT NOW, NONE OF US ARE EVER GOING TO BE AS SMART AS GOD. IF I COULD EAT OF THAT TREE OF KNOWLEDGE, THEN I COULD HAVE THE GLORY THAT GOD HAS. In the book of Isaiah, the Bible said that I am the Lord, my glory will I not share with another. Are we servants or masters? Is God God or are we God? Is he like a vending machine that we go to and we just pull the lever and God's got to do what we say, right or wrong? Moses gave a partial obedience. I see that out of a lot of people today. He took a rod just like he was commanded, but then he used that rod for his own glory. He used that rod to we gonna fetch water. Isn't God gracious to even allow him to have water that day? But God allowed him to even in disobedience, God allowed him to bring water for the people. It wasn't misunderstood. Amen? Moses didn't do that by mistake. You don't misunderstand God's directions. When God tells us what we need to do as New Testament Christians, He gave it to us plainly. WE HAVE A MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY THAN IF WE HAD SOME PROPHET STANDING HERE TELLING US. WE'VE GOT IT HERE WRITTEN DOWN IN A BOOK. WHENEVER IT'S WRITTEN, IT'S PERMANENT. A sure word of prosperity. And the people can never get by without the grace of God. The grace of God is how I'm standing here today. If it wasn't for Him, I wouldn't be able to even stand here. Moses' grace, he was a meek person. But Moses failed then. It wasn't really Moses' rod, it was God's rod. Rod from before the Lord is what it said in the book of Exodus. It was the resurrection rod, amen, that budded and blossomed. Grace doesn't smite the law kills, but grace makes alive. The Spirit gives us life. And back in Exodus chapter 17, Moses was alone. In Numbers chapter 20, Aaron's along with him there. And they both together, I'm assuming, must we fish water out of this rock. And then I think about the rebellion of a man named Korah. 250 that were consumed because they thought, presumably, that they knew as much as God knew. That the man that God put in charge, they thought that they could do a better job, amen, than Moses could. A congregation grumbled, and you have killed God's people, is what it said. God said, I'll get them. I'll get him while I'm at it." And he got them. Aaron took his incense and ran into the crowd and stood between the living and the dead, held up that rod. Now he's acting by grace. Now his grace is turned to lasciviousness with Moses, abusing that rod of God. Jude chapter 1 says that, doesn't it? Water came out. The mistake of the preacher did not hinder the grace of God. I don't claim to be infallible, and I don't claim that everything that I... I do claim that everything to my knowledge that I preach is true, but I don't claim to be infallible. But just because I'm infallible doesn't mean that God... or fallible doesn't mean that God can't feed you if you'll listen, if you'll drink from the water of the fountain of life. Paul said something that Moses could have used. He said, I am what I am by the grace of God. Moses really gets in the flesh. Have you ever did that? Have you ever got in the flesh and took things into your own hands? Smoked the rock twice? It's like two vines. There's two kinds of vines. There's two kinds of anger. You know, the new Bibles make a liar out of Jesus. Because the new Bibles say if you anger, you sin. Well, Jesus was angry. Amen. I'm glad I've got an old Bible that teaches there's two kinds of anger. There's one that's a righteous anger that Jesus had when He, in anger, took a whip and drove those money changers out of the temple. Then there's another anger that's my anger, and most of the time it's not in the will of God. Most of the time it's Randall in a fleshly anger. And so I'm thinking, in fleshly anger, Moses said, must we smite this rock and bring water for you? When Moses came down Sinai with the two tables of stone. He had a righteous anger when he found the people of Israel worshiping the golden calf. But at the rock here today, Moses' error of anger is dishonoring God. not doing what God told him to do. I pray that I'll not misrepresent God. Would you do that? Would you pray that neither me nor my church people would misrepresent God? Now, if you'll bear with me just a few moments, I want to give you a list of things that Moses did that's attributed there when smarting that problem. Number one, he disobeyed God. That's not what God told him to do. And you know rebellion against God is the same as if you practiced witchcraft. Saying a thing that kept Saul out of the kingdom. Amen. Moses from the promised land. Yesterday's obedience can't produce today's, can't protect today's disobedience. Amen. God doesn't do it the same time every time. God doesn't give us the same instructions every time. And we need to have our ears open to what God has to say. He speak out of turn. He's talking when he should have been listening. James says that our tongue is an unruly evil. I remember old Billy Kelly, a lady came to him and said, Preacher, I've been a-gossiping in the church, and said, I'd like to lay my tongue on the altar. And old Preacher Kelly said, well, it's only 10 foot long. Lay what you can. An unruly evil. In Psalm 106, Moses spake unadvisedly with his lips. Moses did not speak in righteous indignation. Jesus did, but Moses didn't at that time. And so he is speaking out of turn. Sometimes you'd be better off just keep your mouth shut. Amen. I'd be better off if I just kept my mouth shut. Amen. Not only that, he dishonored God. We can't do anything without God's help, without the grace. We are to esteem our brother. better than ourselves. We are to let alone God. We can't do well to admonish our brother, let alone tell God what he needs to do. Job tried that. That didn't work. Do nothing, he said, through strife and vainglory. Dishonor God. And Moses was guilty of unbelief. Have you ever been guilty of unbelief? Had he believed God, all he'd had to done was spoke to the rock. That's what God told him. His lack of faith is a big problem for Moses. It kept him out of the promised land. Our lack of faith today is a big problem in our life. Amen a father brought his son to Jesus and said I tried to get you disciples to cast this devil out of him But they couldn't do it and Jesus cast the devil out and they said Why couldn't we do it and he said because of you unbelieve in Mark chapter 9 he said he that believes all things are possible to him that believe that in in 924 the The man came to Jesus and said, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Have you ever been there? Have you ever said, Lord, I see your promises and I believe your promises, but Lord, help my unbelief of your promises. Moses had a long record of faithfulness, yet he failed. We don't get to be spiritual, so spiritual that we aren't in danger of falling. I mean, I've seen bigger preachers than me hit the dirt. I've seen Christians that were better Christians than you that are no longer here. The indictment of Romans 1 applies to America. We've become people of a reprobate mind. We have just gone after the way of Balaam so much. Romans 2 and Galatians 6. Failures. Moses was a failure. David was a failure. Saul was a failure. Samson was a failure. Jimmy Swaggart was a failure. Jim Baker was a failure. Are we better? Amen. Listen, we need to learn from this. It was serious enough to keep Moses out of the promised land. And I think it would be serious enough to keep us from ever enjoying our Christian life. Sometimes God works with us and works with us and works with us. Finally says, okay, that's what you want to do. You go ahead. And what happens, we'll live to regret it. Thank God it don't keep us out of heaven. But it will keep us out of the promised land. Let's bow for prayer.