You know, the reason the apostle
keeps giving so many examples of faith in this chapter, Hebrews
chapter 11, is to show believers, to show us that true faith in
God overcomes every kind of difficulty which we face in this life. Every
example that's been given has been accompanied with a great
trial. a trial so great that the strongest
strength and the wisest wisdom of men has been too weak and
too foolish to overcome the obstacle. And yet over and over we see
frail, sinful men and women prevailing. The truth True faith overcomes
not because of any power in the believer, but faith rests in
God who is our power, and it's by His faithfulness to us that
we overcome. The Spirit of God gives the one
and only reason that they prevailed by repeating one phrase over
and over and over in this chapter. You know what phrase it is? By
faith, Abel. By faith, Enoch. By faith, Noah. By faith, Abraham. And once again,
in our text this morning, we meet with that same phrase. Hebrews
11, verse 29. By faith, they passed through
the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians a saying to do
were drown. Now, here we have a contrast
between faith and unbelief. Faith passed through the Red
Sea. Unbelief was drowned in the Red
Sea. The title of the lesson is, The
Salvation of Faith, The Destruction of Unbelief. And what I want
you to see this morning is, by faith, the believing Israelites
did something they had no power within themselves to do. They
obeyed the command of God and they passed through the Red Sea
as on dry land. And the Egyptians, in their hatred
for God and for God's people, in total unbelief, Pharaoh and
the Egyptian army presumed that they could cross the Red Sea
by the power of their own strength, and God drowned every one of
them. This is a real thing that happened. It really happened. And do you
think it's a fierce thing that God drowned
Pharaoh and all his army? One day God's going to punish
a host of people by sentencing them to an eternal condemnation
in hell. This is just a glimpse of what
God's judgment is and His justice is. And it's true and right.
I want you to see that this morning the trial of Israel's faith,
the salvation of faith, the destruction of unbelief, and faith's rejoicing. That's the four points we'll
look at. So let's first see the trial of faith. It's true faith,
true faith only, that they pass through the Red
Sea as by dry land. But it was not without a great
trial of their faith. If God saves you, if God saves
you, through the Red Sea of Salvation, or the Red Sea of Trial, He will
first put a hedge about you so that you have no ability whatsoever
to turn anywhere else but to Him. The children of Israel went
out of Egypt, the Scripture says, with a high hand. Meaning, they
went out rejoicing and claiming, professing to trust God, and
that they would always trust God. They were happy. They were
rejoicing. They were free. And their hands
were high, a symbol of being happy, as opposed to hands that
hang down when you're sad and full of sorrow. And they had
eaten the Passover, and they had seen that God had spared
their firstborn. When He saw the blood, justice
was poured out on every house in Egypt, including the Israelites'
house. But the difference was God provided
a lamb in the Israelites' home, and their children died in a
lamb rather than themselves. And so God passed over when He
saw the blood. And they saw that, and they rejoiced
in that. And miraculously, the Egyptians,
when they got ready to go, they went to the Egyptians and said,
we need your gold and your silver. And just like God had told them,
amazingly, the Egyptians gave them gold and silver and prepared
them for the trip to go, to leave. They walked out of Egypt in the
night, just like the Lord commanded them to. They rejoiced over Moses
and followed his leadership with much delight. Moses had been
the one that had gone and talked to Pharaoh for them time and
time again. And the one through whom the
Lord had wrought all these plagues upon Egypt. And so they followed
Moses excited and happy. And so 600,000 men plus women
and children are now... They've come to a place where
they're camped out They followed Moses to the plains of Pi Hithoroth. It's a pass between the wilderness
and two great rocks. And there they camped between
a great fortified wall called Migdal. It was an Egyptian fortified
wall that was built to protect them from the eastern, from people
from the east. And between that But they were
between that and the Red Sea, which was wide and mighty and
too deep and too wide for them to cross. And then over against
one of the Egyptian idols was there too called Bel-Ziphon. And he was just an idol, but
he was built up like a big tower. And his job was, as an idol god
of Egypt, was to keep the enemies from fleeing from Egypt and to
keep their enemies from coming into Egypt. And so there, this
idol god is staring down upon them as well. But in all their
zeal, They may or may not have realized that in the place where
they camped, they had shut themselves in on every side, so that there
was but one way in and one way out. And then, if you'll turn to Exodus
chapter 14, hold your place in Hebrews 11, but we'll be in Exodus
14 for the majority of the lesson. And then there in that one way
out, that one path that led out, this is what they beheld, verse
9. But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and
chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them
in camping by the sea beside Pahoroth and before Belzevan. And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the
children of Israel lifted up their eyes. And behold, the Egyptians
marched after them, and they were sore afraid. And the children
of Israel cried out unto the Lord, and they said unto Moses,
Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us
away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus
with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word
that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we
may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us
to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. They cried out to the Lord. But
their cry to the Lord was shown here to be the same cry that
they cried to Moses. It was merely a murmuring against
God and a murmuring against His servant. But here's something
that they didn't know. Here's something they had no
idea about. Back when they reached this place
called Etham, They could have continued east across on their
path they were going and they would have went through the desert
where Pharaoh's chariot wheels couldn't have even traveled.
And they could have avoided the Red Sea altogether. And they
could have been out of Egypt's border completely and in the
wilderness in no time. But the Lord works entirely opposite. of the way man thinks. He works
entirely opposite of the way that we think things should be
done. And he did it for a reason. Look
back now at Exodus 14 verse 1. This is what they had no idea
had taken place. There was a revelation given
to Moses by God. And this is what it was. At Etham,
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel,
that they turn, and encamp before Pihaioth between Migdal and the
sea, over against Baal-ziphon. Before it shall ye encamp by
the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children
of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath
shut them in. And the Lord said, I will harden
Pharaoh's heart that he shall follow after them. And I will
be honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts that the Egyptians
may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. When things
were good, the children of Israel heard Moses say, we're not going
to continue straight to this path that will just lead us right
out of here. We're going to turn now and stay in Egypt and go
on this other direction. And they followed him. They were
still happy, had this high hand, rejoicing and enjoying their
freedom. Well, it was told the king of Egypt that the people
fled. And the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned
against the people. And they said, why have we done
this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? And he made
ready his chariot, and took his people with him. And he took
six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt,
and captains over every one of them. And the Lord hardened the
heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children
of Israel. And the children of Israel went
out with a high hand, but the Egyptians pursued after them.
All the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and
his army overtook them in camping by the sea." And it says there,
"...as they drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes,
and they beheld the Egyptians marching after them, and they
became sore afraid. And they cried out unto the Lord,
and they began to chide Moses and murmur against him, Why did
you bring us out here, Moses, to this place?" The Lord gave
this great trial to test whether or not their high hands would
remain high by faith in Him even when faced with the impossible. It was the Lord that brought
them here. It was the Lord that hardened Pharaoh's heart. Everything
that took place here to bring this trial upon them, the Lord
did it. The Lord did every bit of it.
And almost every one of them proved that while they professed
to believe God all along, they didn't believe His promise, they
didn't trust His faithfulness, and they were looking to their
own strength rather than the power of God. And so when the
Lord hemmed them in, trapped them so that they had nowhere
to turn but to Him, all they did was murmur and complain towards
God and His servant Moses. These are those that the Scripture
says later in Deuteronomy, later the Lord says of them, I'll hide
my face from them, I will see what their end shall be, for
they are a very frail generation, children in whom is no faith.
But I thought our text said, by faith they pass through the
Red Sea. That's exactly what it says.
Arthur Pink is exactly right when he points out the pronoun,
by faith they passed through the Red Sea. But it doesn't say
by faith the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea. You
see, it doesn't speak of all the children of Israel. that
passed through the Red Sea. All of them did pass through
the Red Sea, but not all of them passed through by faith. And
the only reason those that didn't believe God passed through was
because they were with God's elect, and He would have them
delivered, and they had a temporal benefit from what God did for
His people in grace. But the they who passed through
the sea in faith is Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Caleb, Miriam, and a
small remnant who truly believed God. You mean out of all that
600,000 people, those were the only ones that truly believed
God? That's exactly right. Those are the only ones that
truly believe God. And they were just as frail as
those that didn't believe God. And this trial was just as much
for them as it was for those that didn't believe God in their
midst. And they too needed to be saved
from their unbelief. But the Lord brought them to
the place where they could not flee for themselves. He brought
them to a place where they could not fight for themselves. He
brought them to the place where they could only trust the Lord. That's all they could do, is
just trust the Lord. And that's exactly why He brings
the trial. That's exactly why He brings
us to the trial. God hems us in so that we have
to trust Him. And by faith, when we trust Him
and we see that He makes us more than conquerors by His power
and by His grace working in us, we learn to trust Him. We learn to believe Him. We learn
to trust Him. Now having seen the trial of
Israel's faith, let's pass to the second point. Let's see the
salvation of faith. Moses, in him we see what true
faith does. They're crying out in a big show,
and it would appear they're all praying to God, but they're demanding
something of God. They're murmuring against God,
just like they murmured against Moses. And here's what Moses
said, Exodus 14, verse 13. And Moses said unto the people,
Fear ye not, stand still. and see the salvation of the
Lord, which He will show you today. For the Egyptians whom
you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you,
and you shall hold your peace." Now why on earth should they
believe this man? Why on earth should they believe
Moses? God had revealed His Word to
this man, and God had given this man to them to teach them what
He just taught them. That's one reason. That's one
reason. But you see here a contrast between
unbelief and faith. Unbelief blamed God's servants. By faith, Moses ignored it. He just ignored their chatting.
He ignored what they were saying about him. Just ignored it. Unbelief
lifted up their eyes and beheld the Egyptians and were sore afraid. But by faith Moses turned his
eyes from the Egyptians to the Lord and said, fear not. And what he said was to turn
their eyes from the Egyptians to the Lord. When they were crying
out, even in their prayers, they were turning men to the Egyptians. But when Moses stood up, he said,
turn from the Egyptians and turn your eyes to the Lord and fear
not. And unbelief clamored about because they saw only death before
them. By their natural eye, all they
could see was death looming over them by these Egyptians coming
towards them. But faith saw salvation, faith
before it ever came to pass, before it ever happened. Moses
said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which He
shall show you today. How are they going to see it
at this point? It hasn't come to pass. How are
they going to stand still and see it? By faith. Moses is saying, trust the Lord,
believe it. He's going to save us today.
We're about to see Him. Stand still and watch what He'll
do. Watch Him. Unbelief looked for
a way out of this trap by their own hands. But faith, Moses said,
the Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace.
You just be quiet. The Lord will do the fighting.
The Lord will do the conquering. Faith believes the Lord. Faith
sees the Lord's salvation, that He is salvation. And faith sees
that with God all things are possible. There's no way out
around them. There's rocks on one side, a
big fortified fortress, there's a wilderness on another side,
this narrow pass through which the Egyptians are marching just
as fast as they can come, and in front of them is the Red Sea.
Where are they going to go? They got to go to God. That's the only place they can
go. The only place they can go. And by faith, while all this
murmuring and clamoring was going on, and they were chatting against
Moses, and they were crying out against God, while all that was
taking place, you know what Moses was doing? Moses was silently
making supplication to God. He was praying to God all along. He was frail too. He was frail
too. He had heard the promise, just
like you've heard the promise. But when the trial comes upon
you, do you still tremble? You still tremble, don't you?
And he trembled. He knew that he didn't see this
thing, but by faith, he prayed that by faith the Lord would
deliver him. And he believed the Lord would. But he prayed
the whole time. And verse 15 says, And the Lord
said unto Moses, And you just listen to that right there. They
cried out to the Lord too. Moses silently cried out to the
Lord, humbly, seeking His face. These men in the back, we have
prayer back here. And it's not a show, it's not
an ostentatious thing, it's not a puffed up prideful thing. It's in humility. It's humble. We come before our
holy God humbled and asking His mercy and His grace. Casting
our care upon His mercy and His grace. Counting Him holy and
power and sovereign and able to do whatsoever He's pleased. And we petition Him based upon
who He is and the promise that He's given to us. And that's
what Moses did. You don't read, the Lord spoke
to the children of Israel. You read, the Lord spoke to Moses. He heard Moses. If we're going
to come to Him, we've got to come to Him in the manner in
which He demands we approach Him. We have to approach Him
in His Lordship, bowing to Him, casting our care upon Him alone.
Somebody might say, well, if the Lord would speak to me like
He did Moses, I'd believe Him. the Lord has spoken to you. Right
here, in this Word, the Lord is speaking to you. Right here,
just as real as the Lord spoke to Moses, the Lord is speaking
to us right here. Salvation is by revelation of
the Lord in the heart, in spirit, and not in the flesh. Now look
here at verse 15. And the Lord said unto Moses...
He answers Moses. This is not a rebuke to Moses.
This is telling Moses it's time now to quit praying to me and
to take action. The Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore
criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel
that they go forward. But lift thou up thy rod, and
stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it. And the children
of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians,
and they shall follow them. And I will get me honor upon
Pharaoh, and upon all his hosts, upon his chariots, and upon his
horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know
that I am the Lord. when I have gotten me honor upon
Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen." Moses stayed
himself upon the Lord. He was praying, waiting the word
of command, and until it was given, he stood still. But when
the Lord revealed in his heart the way by faith, Moses obeyed
him. Moses obeyed him. And verse 19
says, And the angel of God which went before the camp of Israel
that led them, that was leading them by day, was a cloud by day
that they followed, and by night it was a fire that lit the way. This angel of God which went
before the camp of Israel removed and went behind them. And the
pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind
them. And it came between the camp
of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And it was a cloud
and darkness to the Egyptians, but it gave light by night to
the Israelites, so that the one came not near the other all night. Do you remember a few months
ago, I was preaching a message to you, and if I'm not mistaken,
it's in, I know it's in Isaiah, I can't remember the chapter,
but when the Lord said, I will be your re-reward, I will be
your re-reward." What that means is, I will be your rear ward,
your rear guard. And just as this cloud went behind
them and stood between them and the Egyptians, there was the
Lord, the rear ward, guarding them from behind so that the
Egyptians couldn't attack them from behind. Now, it says in
verse 21, And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and
the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all
that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were
divided. And the children of Israel went
into the midst of the sea upon dry ground, and the waters were
a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left." They
were saved. because God Almighty, the Lord
of heaven and earth, Jehovah, Christ Jesus the Lord, saved
them. He led them forth. He divided
the waters so that they could cross on dry land. He went behind
them and protected them from the Egyptians. He gave them light
to see in the darkness. And they obeyed His voice. Moses
followed and went. And all the children of Israel
followed and went. And they went across. And they
were saved. They were saved because by faith
they passed through the Red Sea. Now you'll hear a lot of people,
a lot of scientists and things that are trying to prove how
the Red Sea was divided. Here's how it was divided. The
Word says this is how it was divided. The Lord did it. This
is how it was divided. Millions of dollars are spent
trying to figure out how that sea was divided. And all you've
got to do is spend about $50 for a Bible and you can read
just how it happened. The Lord divided it and they
went across. The way that you're going to
be saved, the way that you're going to be brought into Heaven's
glory is one way and one's way only. It's going to be by God's
grace, by Him dividing the sea, the sea of wrath, the sea of
sin, the sea of death, the sea of Satan which stormed against
you like a mighty raging sea. It's going to be because He divided
it, separated it, and made the way. And He being the way, is
the path in which we cross and we go across on dry ground, saved
by Him, by His grace, by faith. There's some more contained in
this concerning it being a picture of baptism. But for time sake,
we'll have to look at that another time. But today I want to stick
with what I'm teaching in. Let's go now thirdly to the destruction
of unbelief. Pharaoh refused to believe God.
He didn't believe God. He did not trust God. Here we
have one people who trusted God and they went across safely to
the other side. Now here we come to a people
who do not trust God. Why should he bow to God though?
He was a king. That's why you won't bow to God.
Those of you who have not bowed to God, the reason you don't
bow to God is you consider yourself a king. Better than God? Greater
than God? More powerful than God? Why do
you need God? That's exactly what Pharaoh thought.
He had an army. Why should he turn to God for
strength? That's exactly what you think.
You do not trust the Lord. You think, I've got an army of
good works. I'm not near as bad as the next
fellow. I've got an army of intelligence. I know that God is. I believe God. The devils believe
God and tremble. That doesn't mean anything. You have an army of how you'll
save yourself. Well, I'm just going to have
a little fun while I'm young, you know. Down the road, I'll
make a profession down the road, but right now while I'm young,
I want to enjoy myself. So why should you go to the Lord?
You have your army, just like Pharaoh did. And in his mind,
he thought he could do anything and everything that the children
of Israel did without ever bowing to God. Those of you who don't
trust God, you think that bunch of fools that go there every
Sunday, go there every Thursday night to hear the Word of God
preached. I guarantee you I can go out into the world and be
more successful than they can. I can get more riches than they
can. I can have a finer house than they can, a nicer car than
they have, have better clothes than they have, and not ever
even bow to God. I can do all those things and
never even bow. I can do all that by my own strength.
You can't. They made it into the sea. They
made it out there. They went right out there, right
in the middle, just like Israel did. But now let's read Exodus
14, 23. And the Egyptians pursued and
went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's
horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass
that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of
the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud and
troubled the host of the Egyptians. The Lord did it. He took off
their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily, so that the
Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord
fighteth for them against the Egyptians. It is too late then. It is too late then. When you
come to His presence before God in the last day, and you find
out that He's fighting against you for His people, it'll be
too late to flee then. It'll be absolutely too late
to flee then. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come
again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their
horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea,
and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared. And
the Egyptians fled against it. And the Lord overthrew the Egyptians
in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned and covered
the chariots and the horsemen and all the hosts of Pharaoh
that came into the sea after them. And there remained not
so much as one of them." You know, I told you before, I've
made this comment to you before, is that whatever it is, That
fruit that you've read in Scripture where it says, you reap what
you sow, you reap what you sow, that fruit that you delight in,
that thing that kept you from God, will be the thing that will
keep you from God forever, for all eternity, if God doesn't
do something for your heart. And just in the same case, what
Pharaoh enjoyed and his army enjoyed so much was taking those
Hebrew babies and casting them into the Hebrew male babies and
casting them into the river and watching them drown so that the
Hebrews wouldn't prosper and they wouldn't grow and come up
against them. And so the Lord said, you enjoy
that? That's what I'll give you. And He drowned every one of them
in the Red Sea. Drowned every one of them. Now,
quickly, let's see the rejoicing of faith. The rejoicing of faith. Those who believe on God will
always be brought to rejoice before God for the great things
He's done for us. The Lord made the people recognize
Him and His servant. Verse 29. But the children of
Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and the
waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their
left. And thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand
of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians
dead upon the seashore. And Israel saw that great work
which the Lord did upon the Egyptians. And the people feared the Lord
and believed the Lord and His servant Moses." Moses could have
reasoned with them on the other side to try to get the folks
to believe him. He could have used a lot of reasoning.
He ignored them though. He ignored them. And instead,
He declared the truth to them. Instead, He prayed on their behalf.
Instead, He led them as God commanded. And the result was the people
feared the Lord and believed the Lord and His servant Moses. Moses is a type of Christ. That's
what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He ignored all our chiding. And he ignores all our murmuring.
And he makes intercession for us. And he declares the truth
in our hearts. And he leads us. And we fear
him. And we bow to him and trust him
after we come out the other side of the trial every time. And
thus the Lord made the people sing with the light. Exodus 15,
verse 1 says, Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this
song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the
Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my
song. He has become my salvation. He
is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation. Where am I
going to prepare him a habitation? Right here, in my heart. He'll dwell in my heart. My father's
God and I'll exalt him and the Lord is a man of war the Lord
is his name Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into
the sea his chosen Captains also were drowned in the Red Sea the
depths had covered them. They sank into the bottom as
a stone Thy right hand O Lord has become glorious in power
thy right hand O Lord hath dashed in pieces the enemy Three things,
there's three chief enemies we face as believers. Trials, trials,
when we face some red sea that we have no power to overcome.
Second thing is our former sins. Like the Egyptians bearing down
hard upon Israelites, our former sins bear down hard upon us.
And like the unbelieving children of Israel that surrounded Moses
and Aaron and those true believers, there's an old nature which often
causes our believing heart to tremble. But you remember, remember
who brought Israel to the Red Sea, who hemmed them in, and
remember why He did it. One of the greatest blessings
is that the Lord appoints trials for those He loves so that we
might not forget that He is our salvation. That's why He gives
that trial. And when He allows us to remember
our former sins, and then He reminds us, I remember them no
more. And when our hearts begin to
tremble in fear, He speaks comfort, saying, But now thus saith the
Lord that created thee, O Jacob, O Archdormiento, And He that
formed thee, O Israel, He calls us by our earthly, fleshly, sinful
name first, and then He calls us by our heavenly name, which
He named us. He says, Fear not, for I have
redeemed thee. I have called thee by name. Thou
art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I'll be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. By faith, They passed through
the Red Sea as by dry land. And the Egyptians, unbelieving,
presumptuous Egyptians, tried to do the same thing. And God
drowned every one of them. Common sense tells a man, flee
to Christ. Flee to Him. But only God's power
will make you do it. Will make you do it. Something
so obvious, you would think there would be a mad dash to get to
Christ. Something so obvious, why then
won't people flee to Him? Because we love our flesh, we
love our kingly throne, we love our dominion, and we will not
bow to Him unless He makes us bow. He's got to helm us up.
So the only way is Him. And then we'll trust Him. Then
we'll trust Him.