My subject tonight is Lead into
the Wilderness. Lead into the Wilderness. This chapter opens, chapter 15
opens with Israel's magnificent song of triumph. They're on the
distant shore of the Red Sea, having gone through the sea on
dry land. For God caused the waters on
both sides of them to stand up as congealed, as jello. This was not a narrow opening
through the Red Sea. It was wide enough that at least
two million people or maybe more could all go through and go through
in just a few hours. They had seen the great work
that God did in destroying the Egyptians. They had seen God's
salvation. They knew firsthand what it meant
to be saved by the mercy of God. When they were in a position
where the flesh would draw this conclusion, we're surely going
to perish or we'll be taken back into captivity by the Egyptians. When they were at their wits
end, God delivered them. And our Lord often puts us in
situations where we feel like we can't go any further. We're
at our wits end. In fact, that's what he does
in salvation. He brings us to see the bitterness
of sin, the awfulness of our transgressions. He brings us
to see our guilt before a holy God. And as it were, we throw
our hands up in the air and we beat upon our breast and say,
oh God, can there be mercy for me? I'm the vilest of the vile. I'm the sinfulest of the sinful. Oh, I'm a great guilty transgressor. Is there Lord mercy for me? And our God shows us the gospel
of his saving grace. And he says in essence to us,
yes, there's mercy for you. There's grace for you that covers
all your sins. because of the bloody death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. These people had seen God's salvation,
therefore they sing his praises and they remember his mighty
acts on their behalf. And so chapter 15 begins this
way, then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song
unto the Lord. They were saved by power, and
they would save my price. Before this, and I've already
mentioned it, there was no singing in Egypt, only moaning and groaning
due to their imprisonment and their bondage. But God stepped
into this miserable situation He did what nobody else could
do. He relieved them of the burden
of the Egyptians. And now as they stand on the
shore of the Red Sea, they look back behind them and they see
no more enemy. They see no more Egyptians except
the dead bodies that are washing up on the seashore. And then, and not until then,
could they sing the song of redemption, the song of praise unto the Lord. And in this, as in so many things,
Israel is a type of the redeemed church of our Lord Jesus Christ. We too have been redeemed by
price, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by power. We have been delivered from all
of our enemies. You see, the Lamb of God has
been smitten and afflicted for us. And as the Israelites passed
through the Red Sea, We have passed through the Red Sea of
the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Can't get any redder than that.
And all of our sins were washed away when our Savior laid down
his life for us. And then thank God, he who laid
down his life had the power to take it up again. And he who
redeemed us unto God by his power and by his price ever lives to
make intercession for us. Christ entered into the very
depths of the judgment of God, but he wasn't drowned. He himself
willingly gave his life. and our sins were drowned, and
Satan was drowned, and all of the enemies of our souls were
drowned in Jesus' blood. Be mindful of this. We really
cannot worship in spirit and in truth. There can be no worship
in spirit and in truth of our great and everlasting God until
we are assured that we're the children of God by the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are people all over the
world on Sundays, they say, it's the Lord's day and we'll go worship
God. But there can't be true worship
until you have some assurance in your soul, I'm one of the
redeemed ones. I'm here to praise God for what
He's done for me. The Lord has cast all my sins
behind His back. I made the very righteousness
of God in Christ, and then only, When you come to the realization
of who God is, who Christ is, who the Holy Spirit is, and what
God and the persons of His Trinity has done for you, then you can
worship. And you see, now the children
of Israel can sing the song of redemption. They can sing the
song of salvation by God. There are three distinct positions
that we might consider about Israel and see again those people
as being types or pictures or portraits of the church of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Here are the three positions.
In Egypt, in the wilderness, and in the land of Canaan. In
Egypt, See their helplessness. See how futile it was for them
to try to raise up, raise themselves up from their imprisonment, their
captivity. The enemy was too great. And see ourselves in that dilemma. The salvation of self was a total
impossibility. We were in Egypt. We're in bondage,
in captivity. And remember how they got into
Egypt. Really, God led them there. Because our Lord led Joseph and
guided his steps And they were steps that some of them took
him into deep waters. But our Lord led Joseph into
Egypt, and there he exalted Joseph. And then Joseph sent for his
family to come and join him in Egypt. All of that happened in
the providence of God. They wound up in Egypt because
God purposed for them to be in Egypt. Because through their
eventual captivity and bondage in Egypt, regardless of the massive
number of people of the children of Israel, They were helpless
to extract themselves from their terrible situation. I see us
in that, don't you? That's a picture of our bondage,
of our being enslaved by sin and Satan. Israel and Egypt was a portrait
of our natural condition of bondage and cruel treatment by the prince
of the power of the air. But God has saved us. Just like
he delivered the Israelites, so our Lord has delivered us.
The enemy of our souls, his head was crushed at the cross of Calvary. and our sins which would have
sunk us like a millstone around our necks into the lowest part
of hell. Our sins have been washed away
in the bloody death of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has saved us. God has delivered
us. And then see Israel in the wilderness. Look at chapter 15, verse 13. This is in the Song of Moses. Thou in thy mercy hast led forth
the people which thou hast redeemed. Thou hast guided them in thy
strength unto thy holy habitation. He who led this people out of
Egypt would lead them into the wilderness and then in 40 years
he would lead them out of the wilderness. But all along he
was leading them. Hold your place here and turn
to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy chapter 8. We were pictured in the situation
of Israel in Egypt and also in the wilderness. Are we not in
the wilderness right now? We're journeying through the
wilderness. And where are we going to just
jump ahead to that third point? We're going to the promised land.
And I realize that not everything about the land of Canaan portrayed
heaven, but in some ways it certainly does. And our Lord is leading
us through the wilderness until that time when we go through
the river of Jordan, which pictures death, And we enter into a land
more glorious than the land that the Israelites entered into.
We're gonna enter into that heavenly Canaan. But as far as being led
into the wilderness, look at Deuteronomy chapter eight, look
at verse two. And thou shalt remember all the
way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness. You say, well, they just wandered
around. They wandered due to their sinfulness,
but really they were being led. There was the pillar of fire
at night and the pillar of cloud by day. The angel of the Lord
went before them, leading the way. It says, The LORD thy God led
thee these forty years in the wilderness to humble thee, and
to prove thee, there it is again, to know what was in thine heart,
whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no. Look at verse
15. Who led thee through that great
and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions,
and drought, where there was no water, who brought thee forth
water out of the rock of Flint. It was the Lord who led them
through the wilderness." Just going this way and that way,
not in a straight line. If it had gone in a straight
line, they got there real fast. but he was leading them in the
way that he purposed for them to go in order to prove them,
to test them. And many of them failed the test
and they were buried in unmarked graves in the wilderness due
to their unbelief. Read Hebrews chapter three. So in the wilderness, They pictured
the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is often testing
us. He's proving us. And I'll tell
you what, when he puts us to the test, two things will be
obvious. One of them happens most of the
time. The other one happens all the
time. When he puts us to the test, his church, number one,
most of the time we fail. That's just reality. But the second thing is, he always
remains faithful. I love that passage in 2 Timothy
2. Though we believe not yet, yet
he remaineth faithful. He'll never leave us and he'll
never forsake us. And then, of course, the third
position of Israel in the land of Canaan was a joyful time for
Israel. It'll be a joyful time for us
when we enter into the haven of rest. I'll tell you this, there's a big difference between
their joy in their exodus from Egypt and the joy of arriving
in the land of Canaan and the tribulation of going
through the wilderness. It's a big difference. We do
joy in our God. Paul says rejoice in the Lord
always. Again, I say rejoice. And there
are times of rejoicing. I read to you back over here
in Exodus chapter 15, they got to Elam to the oasis. Nice to have an oasis in life
every once in a while, isn't it? When everybody's well, everybody's
feeling good, say, whew, okay, I'll just enjoy this elam for
a while. These 12 wells of water and 70
palm trees and the shade and the fruit, we'll just enjoy it
while it lasts. Yeah, you better because you
got to continue your wilderness journey. Because you see with
Israel, yes, they face the bitter waters of Marah, And then eight
miles away, they wound up in the oasis, at the oasis of Elam. But Elam, hear me, Elam was not
the land of promise. And I bet you if you'd ask any
of them, hey, y'all want to stay here? I make a motion we stay. This is a whole lot better. Man,
we're not in Egypt anymore. We're out here. It's an oasis. But it's not the land of promise.
So don't get in joy, but don't get too comfortable. There's
a wilderness that you got to go through. And as we read there
in the book of Deuteronomy chapter eight, there are scorpions to
encounter. and serpents that must be fought
and battled, the enemy that is always out there ready to attack,
especially to attack the weaker of the group. We've got to go
through the wilderness, folks. Got to go through the wilderness.
But our Lord knows the way through the wilderness, because he has
charted the course for you. and for me. As we journey from Egypt to Canaan,
we must dwell and sojourn in the wilderness. That's why I
had to sing that song, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah Pilgrim,
Through This Barren Land. We live in a wilderness. And
life in the wilderness is not at all like the life we're going
to enjoy in glory. But nevertheless, it is a wonderful
life. Because it is a life that is
lived by our Lord who keeps us living
and breathing and believing And we know that he has set the course. We're not aimlessly going through
life. Many a person has said, I don't
think my life has meaning. No child of God can say that. Your life does have meaning.
And you're right on the path that God would have you to be
on. I know in that spiritual Canaan,
the scripture says, at thy right hand are pleasures forevermore. But we're not there yet. So don't
expect pleasures forevermore down here. Be thankful for the
oasis that we come upon from time to time. And really, this
is an elam for us when we come together to worship. We come
together to hear the word of God, to hear the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We eat of the fruit of the tree
of life. We enjoy the shade of that great
rock, Christ Jesus. We enjoy his presence. We feed
on his word. This is an oasis. But our genre
is a wilderness. And you gotta live in the wilderness.
You gotta go through, there are battles to be fought in the wilderness. Our lives, let's see. Let me say it this way. Our lives
are kinda like March weather. It's up and down, it's cold and
warm. I know when we moved to Louisiana,
They said, if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes,
it'll change. And you know what? Everywhere
we've moved, that's what people say. My brother and I, my brother
used to pastor in Dayton, Ohio. One March, Nancy and I flew from
Winston-Salem on Piedmont Airlines in a YS-11, is that the name
of the prop plane? But anyway, we flew into Dayton. And it was a pretty nice day. It was sunny and about 50, maybe
low 50s. And my brother said, let's go
out and play some golf. Well, I'm always ready for a
golf game, though I rarely get to play it anymore. I said, let's
go. So we went out and the sun was
out, felt really good. We hit some shots, mostly bad
shots, but we hit some shots. And then it started getting windy
and sun got, hidden by the clouds, and the temperature was dropping.
We hid our shots under the green, then all of a sudden it comes
to snowing. And we sought shelter, and the
green got covered by snow, we couldn't even see where the white
golf balls were. And so we sat under the shelter
for a little while and talked, and they was selling coffee,
and we got a cup of coffee. And then, here in a little bit,
sun came out, Snow melted off the greens. Well, there are our
golf balls. We're on the green after all.
That's pretty much the life of a believer, isn't it? Cold and
hot, cloudy and then sometimes sun shines. But that's the wilderness
for you, the wilderness. Well, the children of Israel,
they went three days journey in the wilderness. Rejoice. Boy, we've got it made. It's
wonderful. Look, y'all remember what the
Lord did to the Egyptians? Wasn't that something? And now
we've got the world by the tail on a downhill pull. We've got
it made now. And somebody said, well, pass
the water. Well, and the wife says, we're out. Want to have
any more water? No. I get searching around. Moses, perhaps, he sent out a
couple of spies and they said, yeah, it's a big body of water
right over here. Let's go. And they go over there
and they find out it's bitter water. Can't drink it. Bible talks a lot about bitterness. I tell you, the most bitter thing
in the world is when the Spirit of God convinces us of our sinfulness. And that's bitter. It tastes
bad. Thank God for the gospel of God's
grace. It's sweet. So they run into
this body of water and It was bitter, they couldn't
drink it. And what do people do? They murmured against Moses.
Here's the first time they murmured. Only took them three days. Only
three days to murmur. Spurgeon said that's the oddest
word in the English language, murmur. He said to say it, it's
just crazy, murmur. They murmured against Moses,
said, well, we're gonna drink. Moses cried to the Lord, and
the Lord showed him a tree. The word showed means manifested,
made him to see. And even though the Lord didn't
say, cast the tree into the waters, Yet there is, in that word showed,
one of the means is to cast, to cast it into something. So
Moses goes to this tree that God showed him and he cast it
into the waters and miraculously the water turned sweet. Now the
Bible says a lot about trees. Christ is the tree of life. We're called trees of God's planting. Trees of righteousness we're
called in Isaiah. But this tree that the Lord showed
him, I believe, and you know this, it pictures the tree upon
which our Lord Jesus Christ died, the cross of Calvary. You see, here's what will sweeten any bitter experience you have,
if you're a believer. It's the gospel of God's free
grace to sinners through the doing and the dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The gospel will sweeten even
times of bitterness. Bitterness. I've had people, I've visited
people or called them and and said to them, you know, we've
missed you, we haven't seen you. And they'd say, well, I've got
problems, preacher. I said, well, why don't you come
hear the gospel? That's what'll soothe you. That's
the healing balm. It's the gospel of God's free
grace. Don't stay home miserable. Why would you stay home miserable
when you can come and hear the blessed good news of Christ and
Him crucified of salvation by the free and sovereign grace
of God? That's what will sweeten your bitterness. And whenever
you as a child of God go through a bitter experience, The way
to get through the bitter experience is to look to the sweet substitutionary
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And amazingly, the bitter becomes
sweet. That's what God uses. Moses casts it in and the bitter
became sweet. And down at the end of verse
26, the Lord said, I am the Lord that healeth thee. I am Jehovah
Rapha. That's what that is. I am Jehovah Rapha, the Lord
that healeth thee. And Peter says, by our Lord's
stripes, with his stripes, we are healed. He heals us of our
spiritual diseases. He's Jehovah Rapha. When bitterness comes, and we
all know, we're all old enough to know, there's plenty of bitter
experiences in life. You've come upon, you've come
upon Myra many times, I suspect. And the healing is to be found
in the tree. In the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ, see him anew, see him in your mind's eye, see him
in your heart as that sacrifice that satisfied God puts your
sins away. And even bitter experiences can
become sweet. We've experienced deaths in our
family. I remember when my dad died in
1975 as a bitter, bitter water. And I preached on his favorite
passage, Isaiah chapter 53. The sweetness of the grace of
God descenders through Christ. That'll get you through. I'm
not saying you won't hurt. I'm not saying you're gonna have
a flower-strewn pathway all the way to the land of Canaan because
you know that's not so. But I am saying this. The tree
of life is always there for you to remember
and look to. It will sweeten the bitter experiences
of life. And then they went on to Elam. Enjoyed 12 wells of water. Enjoyed
the palm trees, 70 of them. All of them out there huddled
Yeah, but I gotta get up and go. Because I got a wilderness
to cross, and you got a wilderness to cross, and so do I. But I'll
tell you what, he who led Israel and followed them as well, leads
us and he follows us as well. And he always will. The Lord
is my shepherd, he leads. And we have two darling twins
following us, goodness and mercy. So go on your way through the
wilderness rejoicing in your Lord, Jehovah who guides you
through the wilderness. Let's get our song books. Let's
sing 294, Savior like a shepherd lead us. That's a good song,
I think, to close with. Number 294.