He led the way, I will not leave. Sister through Jordan, leadeth
me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me. I will go where He leadeth me. All right, let's go first to
Hebrews 11. I'll show you. why we're going to look at Exodus
tonight. Hebrews 11 has been our studies
for the past several months. And verse 29, we come
to this verse, Hebrews 11 verse 29, by faith they, that is the
children of Israel, passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which
the Egyptians, assaying to do, were drowned." So that's our
text tonight. By faith they passed through
the Red Sea. Now go back to Exodus 13. We're going to begin chapter
13. As you already know, the story
of the children of Israel is in this these chapters. But this is the story of all
of God's people, not just old history. But the story of all
of God's people is found in the story of the children of Israel.
That's why it happened. That's why it's recorded. It's
not just recorded for us to learn something about history. Most
of the world, that's all they see in it. But we see something
deeper. The reason this is written As
Paul said in Romans 15, he said, all things, whatsoever things
were written, whatsoever things were written aforetime were written
for our learning. That's what it said. That, now
here's the reason, that we through patience, that is waiting on
the Lord, seeing his purpose, and comfort of the scriptures,
this is meant to give us patience and comfort. that we might have
hope. So this was written not just
to tell us about the children of Israel, but this is our story. The story of all of God's people.
The whole story. Their bondage in Egypt, their
deliverance, their coming out. The word exodus. The word exodus
means going out. That's what it means. Going out. And for the child of God, now
this whole chapter is about their going out and approaching the
promised land. And for the child of God, you
and me, every one of us, everything in this life is a prelude to
our going out. Everything in this life is preparation,
is making us meet to go out. being fit, made meek to be partakers
with the saints in life. This whole—our life story here
is the exodus. Are you with me? Don't look like
it. Come on. Get with me, all right? You're going to get a blessing.
All right. Chapter 13, we have to begin
there. I've got to do it. I've got to
start wearing these things. I've put them off for too long
now. I don't care how I look, all right? All right. Verse 17, get used to it. And
it came to pass when Pharaoh, chapter 13, verse 17, it came
to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them
not through the way of the land of the Philistines. Although
that was near, that was the closest route to where they were headed. But he, for God said, let's perventure
the people repent when they see war. The Philistines were always
the enemy. And they returned to Egypt. But
God led the people about, a roundabout way, through the way of the wilderness
of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel went up harnessed out
of the land of Egypt. So that's the reason I brought
this map up here. You have one in the back of your
Bible. But what it's showing us here, this is where they began,
right here. Instead of just coming straight
across here, which would have been the easy way, it would have
taken a couple of years. Short, direct, just a couple
of years. No, no, no. Had to go down this
way, way down here, and all through the roughest terrain. This is
all, if you look at it, pretty passable. Pretty passable, pretty
easy traveling. No, God said, we'll bring them
in a roundabout way. Forty years. Why is that? As I said, this is written for
our learning. Their journey wasn't easy, neither
is ours. Their journey wasn't short. And
neither is ours. That's what it's all about. That's
what it's all about. It says God led them. God led
them. Verse 17 says He didn't lead
them through the way of the Philistines, because it was near, but also
He didn't start out these young, enthusiastic children of Israel,
you know, they were all. In a minute it says they're going
to go out with a high hand. Let's go, everybody, let's go,
go!" Big time, you know, haven't we? High hand, they all had their
hands, oh, we're going to the promised land. Whoopee, sang
it all the way. And if they'd have hit, run into
the Philistines immediately, if they'd have run into immediate
devastating troubles, they'd all would have said, let's quit.
And God in mercy, This is the way he does his young believer
young believers are generally not called to go through exceedingly
difficult and tough trials right off the bat. Everything pretty
good at first it's later on they begin as they begin to mature
grow in grace and faith the Lord begins to bring more difficult
trials until later on in their later years. the most difficult
one, and then they're able to bear it, you see, having—the
Lord having proved himself to them for many years. So that's—see,
that's why this is—as the Lord is doing it. He led them about
through the wilderness, it says, through the wilderness. And this
world is just that, a wilderness. It's a wilderness. I know it
looks like the enchanted ground to us sometimes. It looks like
the palm—or It looks like a pleasant place,
but no, it's a wilderness. God's going to certainly be done
with it someday. I like this. It says in verse
18, they were harnessed. The children of Israel went up,
harnessed. What's that mean? Yoked together. Yoked together. In other words,
they were by fives, had their arms around each other just helping
each other, singing together, just going on down the merry
road, out of captivity, harnessed together, yoked together. So it is. God yoked you with
this group of believers. You couldn't make it alone. Sheep
don't last. It's not the nature of a sheep
to dwell alone. There's no such thing as solitary
sheep. They can't make it. If they can
live alone, they're a goat. A goat can take it. A goat can
sit on the side of a hill and eat dirt all day. Can't they, Steve? A goat is
a smelly, rotten, no good, dwell alone. Nobody wants to be around
them anyway, do they, Steve? I told that story about you getting
budded when I was down in Georgia. But a sheep can't live alone.
It's not the nature of the animal. You have to have other sheep
and they are yoked together. All right, verse 20 through 22
in chapter 13. Verse 19 is Moses took the bones
of Joseph, you remember that. Verse 20, they took their journey
from Succoth and camped in Ephraim in the edge of the wilderness
and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud
to lead them the way and by night in a pillar of fire. to give
them life to go by day and night he took not away the pillar of
the cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before
the people it never did for all the way this pillar of cloud
by day went before the pillar of fire at night the Lord he
never did remove that all the time they were in the wilderness
till they approached Canaan what is that that's Christ That's
Christ the incarnate Word, the Word made flesh. That's Christ,
that's the Word written, the written Word. And they're synonymous. You can, you can, when you read
the Scriptures, any time you read Word, you can, you know,
you can exchange Christ's name for it. It's synonymous. They're
one and the same. This book, this whole book, the
Word speaks of the Word, Christ. The word may play the word of
God is our comfort. Yes, he is is the word of God
is our light. Yes, he is isn't the word of
God is is our peace. Yes, he is isn't it so you can
you can it's synonymous one speaks of the other. This is how Christ
speaks to us. This is Christ speaking that
this is the word of the son of God. of God the Father and God
the Son and Holy Spirit to us, though it is written, yet he
is speaking to his people. This is him leading us. This
is him leading us. This is a light, a lamp under
our feet and a light to our path. That pillar, and it even says
that Christ is clothed with the cloud. In the revelation it says
he's clothed with the cloud. You remember when he took his
disciples up on the Mount of Transfiguration. God spoke to
them how. How the cloud. How the cloud. So he's this pillar. A pillar
is an upright thing, support. This all speaks of Christ. A
pillar, a cloud, not only to lead, guide, and direct, but
a cloud also shelters you from the hot sun, shade in a tough
wilderness, so it is with Christ, so it is with God's Word. God's
Word, we can run to it, shelter. A fiery pillar, a fiery pillar
to give light by night. They had to travel by night a
great deal. They had to travel by night for
various reasons, and that this pillar of fire, though they walked
in darkness, yet they were not without light. This was their
life. It prevented them from becoming
sleepy. Kept them awake. Rather than
sleep the sleep of death, there were times when they had to get
up and move on. The enemy was pursuing. Don't sleep the sleep
of death. And that pillar kept them from
it. All right. And look over chapter 14. This
is good. Verses 19 and 20. Chapter 14,
verse 19 and 20 says, "...angel of God, which went before the
camp of Israel." Now, who's that? Well, that's Christ. Christ is
all and in all. Christ is Moses here. Christ
is the pillar. Christ is the angel. He's the
promised land. He's all these things. It says,
"...he removed from going before them, because their enemies were
pursuing." He went behind them. "...thou outcompest my past."
That set me behind the four. Psalm 139. And it says the pillar
of cloud went before their face and stood behind them. Look at
verse 20. It came between the camp of the Egyptians and the
camp of Israel. In other words, this pillar of
cloud is what divided them and the Egyptians. It came between
them. It was what separated them. And God's word, more specifically,
as it speaks of Christ, who he is, what he has done, the salvation
that's his and his alone is what divides God's people from the
rest of this world. They can't get together. It says
one can't get near the other and won't. They won't join together.
The one came not near the other all night long. This is what
divides, separates God's true people from the world. Egypt
is a picture of the world. All right. All right, so I told you it was
going to be a relatively long journey for the Israelites. They
had many things to go through, but God had his angel leading them, and
his pillar of cloud, pillar of fire. God, they were going to
go through many things, but God, now, God made a way escape. Whenever I say these things,
think of us. Don't think of them. Think about it. God made a way
of escape. They want to go through long
and difficult trials, but God provided this angel of mercy
and this pillar of cloud. All right. And where would they
be without this? If God hadn't called them out,
if God hadn't led them, where would they be? Back in Egypt. Where would you be? You wouldn't
be here. You wouldn't know God, wouldn't
care about God, and you'd die. in Egypt. All right, so God brings
them out and on the way he brings them to an impasse. Chapter 14,
verses 1 through 3, the Lord spake unto Moses, his leader,
and said, Speak unto the children of Israel that they turn. God
told Moses to lead them in a certain direction. All right, lead them
in a certain direction. Children of Israel had no idea
where they were going. They've never been there before.
Every step they took was a new one. They've been in Egypt all
their lives. They had no idea where they were
going. They didn't know what lay ahead of them. They didn't
know what was around the corner. Neither did we. If they had just listened to
their leader, most, It would have been all right. Just trust
God, trust their leader, it would have been all right. All their
troubles came when they started worrying about what they couldn't
do anything about. Worrying about things that hadn't
happened yet. And distrusting their leader,
Moses. And I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about Christ.
Moses. That's who Christ, who he represented. Christ. The Word. They distrusted
the Word. Well Moses, God told Moses to
lead them, to lead them down to a place where they were going
to be hemmed up. This was in the purpose of God.
All of his people, every single one of his people were led by
God's man to a, between a rock and a hard place. That's where
he led them. Every one of God's people will
be brought to this point. And this really is the story
of their salvation, of their coming out. They're going to
see the salvation of the Lord as every one of God's people.
Christ's sheep are going to be brought, going to be led by him
to this display, to see God's salvation. And they're going
to have to come to a point where they're absolutely, there's no
way out. unless God does something for
them. This is where he's bringing them. All right? So God said
this to Moses, verse 3, and Pharaoh will say to the children of Israel,
they're entangled in the land. The wilderness has shut them
in. Verse 4, And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall
follow after them. Pharaoh will follow after them. I was going to have you turn,
but I won't. I'll just quote it for you. See,
what salvation is all about, what this story is about, is
them being delivered from bondage, being delivered
from fear of the Egyptians and from bondage to Pharaoh and Egypt. Pharaoh represents our archenemy. Satan, like who is a roaring
lion, seeketh whom he may devour. Desires sift you like wheat.
The scripture says this about every one of us by nature. Listen
to it. It says the servant of the Lord
in meekness instructs those that oppose themselves if God peradventure
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth
that they may recover themselves, that is, be recovered, awakened
up, the word is awakened, out of the snare of the devil, who
are taken captive by him and his will. Every one of us, every
one of us were in bondage and in captivity to him, uh-huh,
and in bondage to this world, serving this world. and say,
every one of us, no thoughts toward deliverance, didn't know
what it was. Didn't know what it was. Every
one of us were in bondage. That's why the scripture says
when Christ in the end is going to parade through the halls of
glory, it says he led captivity captive. He's going to parade,
he's going to lead a line on a chain for everybody to see. So we, like these children of
Israel, were in bondage to Pharaoh and Egypt, but God is bringing
them out. So it is with us. Bringing us
out. There's a change of masters,
though, you see. This is what's happening here. Change of masters.
A change of masters. A change of residents from Egypt.
We're going to the promised land. No, we're not. We'll stay here.
We're going to the promised land. We're leaving Egypt. We're going
to the promised land. Satan knows when Christ has taken
one of his from him. Yes, he does. He quit serving
him. Satan knows. Look at verse 5,
and it says, It was told the king of Egypt that the people
fled, and the heart of Pharaoh in his service was turned against
the people. And they said, Why have we done
this? Oh, no, we're not going to give
them up that easy. Let's go get them. And so it
is. As I said, this is not a myth,
it's not some, it's not mythologies, it's a show, it's the Bible.
And I'm not trying, I'm not speaking lightly of dignities as Jude, the book of
Jude says that some of these preachers do. Just step on the
head of the devil, you know, stuff like that. No sir, I'm
not doing that at all. This is real. This is a real
deliverance, and if we could see if God would open our eyes
like he did that servant of Elijah, remember? They're everywhere. And we're not the right man on
our side. We're not as stronger than he
leading us. We'd be prey for the devil and all his
demons. That's sad. That's sad. We can't
do anything. But Satan knows when Christ has
taken one of his from him, and he will not let go of them easily
or readily. That's what it said here. Why
have we done this? Let's go get them. But look at this, and he follows
after them, says he follows after them, made ready his chariots,
took his people with him, took 600 chosen chariots, all the
chariots of Egypt, captains over every one of them, everything
within his, at his disposal, he went after. And as it's said, Satan, or as
we say, Satan will not let go easily, but he follows after.
He hounds God's people who have a change of mastery. Let me tell
you this story. I've told it before, but I'm
sure that someone hadn't heard it. This will be a comfort to
you if your sins plague you, if you feel like you're plagued
all the time. William Granol in a book that
he wrote he said. After the Lord saved him. He said there would be times
when absolutely the most horrible thoughts and things would come
into his mind. And he didn't know if it was
him doing it or the devil doing it or who it was doing it and
why these things would come upon him. And he was writing on Ephesians
6 which speaks of the wiles of the devil. The wiles of the devil. And he said what Satan does.
Satan who is a master of human nature. He has many wiles he
knows human nature obviously he deceived a perfect woman. He said Satan will take. Satan will take someone who is
already his. They belong to him. They're serving
his cause. They're living in the world,
serving his cause. They're not interested in God,
not interested in Christ. They may have a religion they're
very happy with, self-righteous in themselves, not trusting Christ,
but they're proud of themselves. And Satan leaves them alone. Doesn't bother them. Doesn't
give them evil thoughts. Doesn't plague them with troubles
of their hearts. He doesn't want them disturbed.
He wants them to think that they're just fine. He wants them to think
that they're too good not to be saved. They have to be saved. Got a victory over this, victory
over that. How many religious people have you run into like
that? They don't seem to have, they're not in trouble as other
men are they? That's what David said in Psalm 73. David said,
they don't seem to have the problems I have. My sin is ever before
me. It plagues me all day long. They
don't even seem to have any. Like Paul said, the things I
would, that's not what I do. The things I don't want to do,
that's what I seem to do. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who
shall deliver me? Well, the people of this world
don't have that problem. They got the victory. They're living
a victorious life. They did it. Satan leaves them
alone. Got them right where he wants
them. It's a self-righteous. They want to stand before God
someday and say, here I am. And in for the shock of their
life. But, he said, Mr. Grinnell said
this, he said, he'll take that believer, the one who's trusting
Christ and Christ alone, all their hope, all their salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ, his righteousness, his shed blood.
And Satan knows that they're not his, but they're looking
to Christ. They're following him. And Satan will bombard them
with evil thought, after evil thought, after evil thought,
sin, the plagues of their heart, so that they think, I'm too bad
to be saved. I'm too much of a sinner. I can't
be saved. Oh, no. That's who Christ, this
is the faithful Satan. and worthy of all acceptation.
Christ Jesus came in the world to save sinners, not the righteous,
but sinners. Tell me, is that you? Is that
anybody? When I first read that as a young
believer, I jumped out, literally, out of my chair. Thank you, Lord, for that word.
I needed that. I was wondering, anybody else
have this problem? He's a wily one, and that's what
he uses. Verse 4 says, verse 4, look at
this now, God said this, I will be honored upon Pharaoh, upon
all his hosts. Verse 17, he keeps saying that,
verse 17. He said, I'll get me honor upon
Pharaoh, upon his hosts, upon his chariots, upon his horsemen. He said, until I've gotten me
honor from Pharaoh, from his church, from his horsemen, every
single thing, even your sins, are going to give honor to God
Almighty. It's all this whole thing. The bringing out of these
worthless, no-good Israelites was for God's honor and God's
glory, to the praise of the glory of His grace, right? their keeping
all through the wilderness. They were a bunch of ungrateful,
murmuring, complaining, faithless people. God should have said,
no, I'm through with you. No, but it was to the honor and
the glory and the praise of His covenant-keeping grace, the unchanging
God. Right until they ended up to
the promised land, they were murmuring and complaining and
bickering and unbelieving. After all God had brought them
through, He's still not going to change His mind. It's for
the praise of the glory of His great honor. At least some of
them are going to go with him. That's another story. So, this is all for his honor.
He said, everything is going to give me honor. Everything,
everyone is going to give me honor. That's why God created
this planet. Even the sins. Psalm, Proverbs
16, verse 4, I think it is, says, God hath made all things for
himself, even the wicked. for the day of evil. Everything. He said in Isaiah 45, 7, I create
peace, I make peace, I make, create evil. I the Lord do all
these things. Why? We saw Sunday morning for
his purpose. The purpose of his glory. The
glory. God's going to be honored in
his justice and his damnation of unbelievers. When God burns
this planet up, The whole heavenly host are going to sing unto the
praise and honor and glory of his holiness and his eternal
justice. And the redeemed whom God spared
are going to sing unto the praise and honor and the glory of his
redeeming grace. That's what it's all about. That's
what this story's about. That's why you're sitting here.
That's why I'm standing here. That's what it's all about. That's
what it's all about. Our Lord gave him the honor.
Now when this was all over, they saw it. Verse 6 and 7, Satan
went after him, took everything at his disposal, all his chariots
and captains to pursue him, pursue the children of Israel. Now the
children of Israel were on foot. Who were the children of Israel?
What had they been doing all these years? Digging ditches. washing dishes, serving tables,
fixing chariot wheels. They weren't driving them, they
were fixing them. The high and mighty Egyptians,
you know, had everything. The children of Israel were common
people. Common, ordinary, everyday, run-of-the-mill
servants. They never had a sword in their
hand. It was against the law. They had plowshares. They had hoes and shovels and
rakes in their hand. All right, here came chariots,
captains, mighty warriors, pursued by professional warriors on chariots,
and they were walking. A bunch of common, ordinary laborers. Scripture says, against flesh and blood, but
against principalities and powers, against spiritual wickedness
in high places, rulers of the darkness of this world, and Satan
and his ministers. They're all a bunch of professionals, and we're no match for them.
I remember old brother Tim James saying this one time, oh, he
is getting old. He's close to sixty, I guess,
isn't he? That's old to me. I remember him saying, he said,
I never would get into a debate with these religious people on
debate. All these smart fellows want to debate. He said, I never
would do that because, number one, they might be a better debater
than I am. Doesn't mean they won't know the truth, but they
just might be real slick talking, and there's a bunch of them.
The fellow on TV calls himself the walking Bible, and he can
quote them. Oh, he can quote verse after verse. He didn't
know the Scriptures yet. He didn't quote it verse by verse,
but he didn't have a clue what he was talking about. That's
so. Old coal miner up in West Virginia
knows a whole lot more than he does. Forgotten more than he'll
ever know. But we're up against professionals. Satan's ministers transformed
themselves into angels of light. We're no match for them. They're
on wheels. They've got everything at their
disposal. The vast number, it says, the hosts, compared to
the children of Israel, they were many and more. Vast numbers. They were on chariot wheels.
They could get somewhere and get there fast. That's religion,
isn't it? And they were coming down on
these bunch of outcast rebels, coming down hard on them. And
so it is with religion. I mean, y'all running. They're not interested in how
many you got. They're really not interested in anything you have to tell
them. They're not interested at all. They're waiting to tell
you how many they've got. How many are you running? Old
Brother Scott one time said, this ain't no cattle business.
Running. Ain't no cattle business. How many are you running? When
the Lord Jesus Christ himself Son of God left this planet,
there were only a hundred and twenty people following him. That's it. Read Ephesians, Acts
chapter one. That's it. A hundred and twenty. By and large, generally speaking,
the Lord's people have always been a small little band of common
people in a whole world full of Folks on chariots, chasing
after them, trying to run them out of town, or at least run
over them. They'll be done with these bunch
of rebels. These are God's people, the called out, the chosen, the
few, to know the living God. The Lord, verse 8, says, The
Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued
after the children of Israel. The Lord hardened his heart.
Satan does exactly what Jesus Christ tells him to do. Folks, that's so. Is so? You know it is? You know it is,
John, don't you? Because you've read Job 1 and
2. You have. You know it's so. The world does
not believe that. If they heard me say that, they'd
call me a blasphemer, but I didn't say it. God said it. God's Word says it. It's very
clear. Very clear throughout the Scriptures. It said Satan
had to report to God to see what he could do. He's an angel. He's a created being. All right? The Lord hardened the heart of
Pharaoh. And it says the children of Israel, though, they went
out with a high hand. Like I said a while ago, they went out in good spirits, high hand. Onward,
Christian soul, damn right we've been singing that song. I generally
don't like those songs. Anyway, they went out with a
high hand. They were thinking, we're coming
out of Egypt, all our troubles are over. That's what they thought
at first. Yes, buddy, all our troubles
are over. Go on to the promised land. Promised
land. Verse nine, the Egyptians pursued
after them. No, here they came. And it doesn't
take long for the believer, it doesn't take long for the young
believer, who, you know, when Christ does save him, oh, he's
so happy, he says, he's wondering, why aren't y'all happy as I am?
That's what they think, young believers. Why, what's wrong
with you all? That's the greatest message I've ever heard. Why
aren't you shouting like I am? I remember every succeeding message
was just, this is the greatest thing ever. High hand. Is everybody dead but me? No,
we're just slogging through the wilderness. Just wait a little
while, son, and you'll be wondering if you're a believer at all. So it was. It was Pharaoh. It doesn't take long for Pharaoh
and his army to come after that young believer. Oh, no, I'm in
trouble now. He overtook them. He says he
overtook them. All right, now here's the point, and it took
too long to get to it, but the rest of that was pretty good.
They are brought to this point, they're hemmed up, hemmed in. There's a vast gulf before them.
It says they marched, and there's a vast gulf, they were overtook,
overtook them and camped by the sea, verse 9, beside Pihira and
Beelzebub. These are high places. In other
words, there's unscalable mountains on either side, an impassable
sea before them, a vast gulf fixed between them and the promised
land. a vast gulf fixed between them, high unscalable mountains
on both sides that can't go no other way around, and a horde
of enemies pursuing them. God told Moses, bring them right
here. Bring them down here and hem
them up. You know what we're going to
see, don't you? Salvation of the Lord. Salvation
of the Lord. But now, the children of Israel,
these poor people, the first sign of trouble. Let's go back. First sign of trouble, verses
10 through 12. Well, you read it. They said, why did you bring
us out here? To die in the wilderness? It would have been better for
us to stay in Egypt. We were better off before. Didn't have all these
troubles before. Everything is pretty good we
had something to eat and all this and so forth. Friends in
high places and now we got nothing but enemies. Everybody was a friend to us
and now they're all against us. Why did you bring us here? I
was better off before I came here. Let me ask you what would
have happened to them if they had stayed in Egypt. everything
just fine, a nice little job and food to eat and carried forward
by the Egyptians and all that. They would have died in Egypt
just like they said they would have died. They would have died
without God and in the end would have been far worse than the
beginning. It's better to walk in the wilderness without much
following God and die and go to be with him than to stay in
Egypt and have it all and die without God. Better is little
with a fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith."
So many scriptures talk about that. That's the first sign of
trouble, though. I quit. I quit. Oh, thank God, Kelly. They're
not going to quit. God's not going to let them.
They would if God let them, but God won't let them. But what
are they going to do? What are they going to do? What are they going to do? Nothing. Nothing. Look at this, verse
13 and 14. This is what I'd like to tell
all religion. I'd like to stand at the highest
pulpit in the land before the most people and tell everybody,
verse 13. Moses said, fear not, stand still. I'd like to tell all the religion
that's in a hubbub and jumping and shouting. Stand, everybody
just stand still. Everybody just, the scripture
says, be still and know that I'm God. Scripture says, shut
up basically. You can't hear from God when
you're talking. You can't see the salvation of
the Lord with all this commotion, all this hubbub, all this stuff
going on in religion. One old preacher said you can't
hear the message from the mass. You can't get the message out
of the mass. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
You're sitting, clothed in your right mind right now with an
open book before you. You've got your staff in your
hand. We're going to see the salvation of the Lord. We're
not all jumping and shouting. It just needs to be one person
speaking. We're going to see the salvation
of the Lord. It's the only way. Stand still. Don't do anything.
Stand still. See the salvation of the Lord,
which he will show you today. For the Egyptians, look at this,
John. Ready? You ready for this? The Egyptians
whom you've seen today, you shall see them again no more forever."
They're going to be gone. I'm going to put them all away. You're going to see them put
away. By the seed and the salvation of the Lord, you're going to
see all your enemies gone. The things that plague you, the
things that chase you, the things that hound you, the things that
give you all the trouble you have, you're going to see them
today. Gone! I'm the only one that can do
it. Now what is this salvation of the Lord? What did they see?
They saw Christ crucified. That's what this whole Red Sea
is all about. Why is it called the Red Sea? Look at it. Verse 14. He said,
The Lord shall fight for you. You shall hold your peace. battle
is not yours, it's the Lord's. Salvation is of the Lord. You're
going to see it. Every one of God's people are
hemmed up, are brought to a hopeless, helpless point. They have this
vast gulf that's between them and God, which is their sins. And this mountain, unscathable
mountain of God's glory, they can't climb it, and their sins
are before them and behind them. What are they going to do? They're
going to see the salvation of God. They're going to see what
He and He alone must do and has done. They're going to see the
salvation of the Lord. Verse 15 and 16, the Lord said
to Moses, Wherefore Christ unto me speak to the children, go
forward. Go forward. But there's a seed that walks
by faith. Go on, because here's what's
happening. Verse 16. He said to Moses, Lift thy rod,
stretch out thy hand over the sea, and divide it, and the children
of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
The Lord keeps saying this all the way through. Dry ground,
dry ground. He said it three times. Dry ground. Hebrews 11 says, dry land. They went through it. Anyway, the Lord told Moses to
stretch out his hand, lift up his rod over the sea, divide
it, make a way, that is, for the children to go over. And
the salvation of the Lord is Jesus Christ and him crucified,
which all of God's redeemed see. They see this vast gulf of their
sin before them, betwixt them and God in a promised land, and
sins, they see sin before them. What separates us, and sins,
past and present, chasing them. But Jesus Christ, they're all
brought to see Christ crucified. They see Jesus Christ lifted
up, like that serpent on a pole, like Moses here raising his rod.
Jesus Christ lifted up with an outstretched hand, smitten by
the rod of God's justice. And our sin, what separates us
from God, our sin, By virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ being
stretched out, being crucified for us, being made sin for us,
our sin are removed. We can go to God. Just like that
veil in the temple was ripped from top to bottom, indicating
God ripped it. The way is clear now. We'll walk
on by faith. That's where you're headed. It's
promised land. We're able to pass over on dry ground. See, what's
that? Stay tuned. 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. That's the Holy Spirit.
That's the Holy Spirit. You have God here, you have God
as his forerunner, Moses, a picture of Christ, and this wind is what
What did, that's the Holy Spirit. He's always called the wind through
the Scripture. The Holy Spirit is the one who takes the things
of Christ and shows them to him, reveals them unto him. And the
east wind all night made the sea dry land. There it is, dry
land. The waters were divided. Verse
22, look at that. The children of Israel, and forgive
me, I'm talking fast because I want to get it all in. The
children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the
dry ground. And the waters will wall unto
them. On the right hand, on the left. Now, get the picture here. Put
yourself in these people's place. Here they go. They're walking
down through the sea. No, we can't. We can't go over
there. Sure. Yeah, look, your sins, they're parted. They're
gone. There's a way over. You can go. Here they go. And this wall,
I don't know how deep it was in this part of the city. It
may have been 50, 100 feet deep or more. Huh? See? And this vast
wall of water. They're scared to death, man. Why are they scared of? The water. It's going to come crashing down
on me. Don't you know they all thought that this water was going
to come crashing? We're all going to drown. No, you're not. You're sins. You see them. Christ said they were moved,
all right? Walk on. It's going to get me. It's going
to kill me. No, it's not. Walk. Walk on. And what they saw was,
what they saw, there's no mistaking this. If God doesn't hold that
water up, we're gone. If God doesn't keep that water
from crashing in on us, we're a goner. What that is is a picture
of restraining grace. We see what we're capable of.
We see what we ought to get. All this lifetime, it makes us
fearful of what we should be—fearful of sin, fearful of the consequences.
Yes, fearful of God. But it's a restraining grace
of God, restraining the water. Somebody smile, for gracious
sake. The waters were a wall. Hire
Moses. Pardon him. Walk on. Well, it
says in verse 23, the Egyptians, they pursued, as chapter 11 of
Hebrews said, to pass over also. They pursued, went in after them,
all the horses and chariots and horsemen. And the world, they
try to get to God, don't they? The whole world, everybody's
religious. Everybody's religious. Brother
Todd and I were talking on the phone today. He was listening
to some false preacher, and all the fellow had to do to talk
about was love. We ought to love one another,
love one another, love one another. Yeah, love one another. Hate
God, no. They think they're just all right.
They think everybody's just fine because we love one another.
We can hate the God of the Bible, but we love one another. And the whole world is thinking
they're going to God. Passing over. Moses is not leading
them. They don't have a Redeemer. They
weren't told to come. They weren't called. They're
not going to make it. They're going to be drowned. The things that are walling us
are going to drown them. Read on. Verse 26 through 29,
And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out your hand over the
sea. The waters come on the chariots, the Egyptians and their chariots
and their horsemen. Moses stretched out his hand.
This is Christ in that last day, the Lord Jesus Christ, after
we've passed over, after we're on the other side, after we've
made it over to the promised land. Christ himself, the same
one who made the way for us, the same way, the one who led
us all the way. it's going to himself be the
judge and executioner of this world and kill every human being
on this planet. That's right. Not gentle Jesus,
but Jesus the judge. That's right. They say to go
over by any other way. Now, I told you that he said
they went over Children of Israel, look at verse twenty-eight, "...and
the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen,
and all the hosts of Pharaoh that came in unto the sea after
them. And there remained not so much as one of them," not
one, but the children of Israel, "...walked upon this dry land
in the midst of the sea." The waters were Dry land. Dry land. Dry ground. What's dry ground as opposed
to muddy ground? I walked in the mud today. I
was somewhere. I had to go out and walk in the
mud. And, oh man, awful footing. Slipping and sliding. It's a
wonder I didn't fall. Solid ground. You're not going
to fall, are you? Not slipping and sliding away.
You're walking on solid ground. So it was with the children of
Israel. And when they got to the other side they didn't even
have mud on their feet. They didn't even have mud on their
feet. Be sure, now listen, I know this
verse has plagued some of you. Scripture says be sure your sin
will find you out. Anybody ever read that? Has it
bothered you? Because it says sins. In context, it's talking about
a bunch of unbelievers. And he's telling them, be sure
your unbelief will find you out. God's people, their sins are
not going to find them out. No, sir. There's not going to
be any mud on your foot. Your sins will not find you out.
No, sir. No, sir. They won't be found. He says they'll look for them.
They won't be found in the jungle. The iniquity of Israel shall
be sought, the scripture says. But it'll be found not. That
goat, that goat whom God led with the children of Israel's
sins on his head, laid it out in the wilderness by a foot man,
dropped it off, never to be found. And Brother Shank said, God's
not goat hunting either. They're gone. They're gone. There's no smoke on your clothes
either, Shadrach. You know where that's going.
Meshach, Abednego. Not even going to be smoke on
your clothes. No mud on your feet or smoke on your clothes. Verse 30 and 31, The Lord, thus,
the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians.
Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. Someday in
glory, we're going to... Our Lord said in Isaiah 65, Behold,
I create new heavens and a new earth, and behold, the former
shall not be remembered, nor come to mind. Won't even come
to mind. There's not going to be any sadness, sorrow, tears,
crying, no guilt, no nothing. You're not going to have any
remembrance of your guilt, your sinfulness. You're going to know
that the Lord delivered you from it, but it's not going to plague
you like it does now. It says they saw the Egyptians
dead on the seashore. They saw all these dead bodies
on the other side. They didn't wash up on this side.
They just think that, you know. On the other side, they saw all
these dead bodies lying on the other side. They weren't a bit
worried. All the children that were standing
on the seashore, well there they are, our enemies, dead. Can't bother us. Can't bother
us anymore. So it will be with us. We're
going to somehow know that we're going to love and appreciate
God's mercy and grace and know that he delivered us from our
sins, but we'll not have guilt anymore. Not be plagued by them
anymore. We're going to see them put away
in Christ. Verse 31, And Israel saw that
great work, so great salvation, which the Lord did upon the Egyptians. This is what all God's people
see, every one of them. They know who saved them. They
know who called them. They know who saved them, who
led them, who provided for them. It's the Lord. And the people,
what did it bring? They feared the Lord, believed
the Lord, and we're going to follow his servant from here
on. Yeah, we're going to follow him. We're not going to doubt
a thing. We're going to believe everything Moses tells us from
here on out. Yes, sir, we believe now. They started lifting their hands
again, Tammy. Here we go. Here we go. Our troubles are
over. No, no, no, they're not. You've
got about thirty-nine more years. Salvation is up the Lord. All
right, let's stand. And our Father, thank you for
recording this story in your book for us to read. Truly, these
things are written for our learning that we, through patience and
comfort of the scriptures, might have hope to those that have
fled to the Lord for their salvation. These things that plague us,
the world that's against us, Lord, thank you for bringing
us to see Christ crucified, our deliverer, our sin payment. We're
revealing these things to deliver us from unbelief that so easily
besets us at the first sign of trouble. Let us honor you by
not being faithless, but believing. It's in Christ's name we're met
here tonight. Amen.