Let's look in Genesis chapter
1. I'd like to speak for a few minutes this evening about the
blessing of barriers. I hope the Lord will make that
clear to you as we go on what I mean by that. Genesis chapter
1, let's read verses 9 and 10. And God said, let the waters
under the heaven, remember at this time the earth was completely
covered with water, The waters under the heaven be gathered
together into one place, and let the dry land appear. And
it was so. And God called the dry land earth,
and the gathering together of the waters called he seas. And God saw that it was good.
Now, what purpose exactly does the do the oceans serve? I mean, obviously, I think most
of us are aware of the fact that they have a lot to do with climate
and weather and the various changes in seasons. The oceans have a
lot to do with that. It's also evident that they supply
a large part of the Earth's food. A lot of people eat out of the
ocean all around this world. But functionally, I want to focus
in on this particular aspect of the oceans. Functionally,
they serve to separate the continents. They divide the Earth's peoples.
They hinder free movement. Jump in your car, see how far
you go. You'll hit water sometime. They hinder our free movement.
They remind us of our limitations, and they keep us from really
knowing very much about our world. Not all we know is what we've
read and watched in a movie. Every now and then we've met
someone from over yonder and a few of us have had the privilege
to go across the ocean. And we know a few things, but
still there is that barrier. The ocean serves as a barrier. When God made the seas, he gave
us a universal illustration. Every man and woman knows something
about this illustration. A universal illustration of the
infinite separation that divides man and God. The obvious message
that we should take from the oceans is our inability, our
inability to do anything, to get ourselves back across that
divide, back into favor with God. The scriptures are full
of passages that speak of great bodies of water that serve as
barriers, but I can think of none that are as impressive and
spoke to me nearly so loudly as the one in Exodus 14. Please
help, please turn with me there. What happened on the banks of
the Red Sea in Exodus 14? In Exodus 14, let's read the
first two verses first. And the Lord spoke unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and
encamp, and he names three places, three localities, encamp before
Pihahirov, between Migdal and the sea, over against, or opposed
to, Beelzephon. Before it, you shall encamp by
the sea. Now drop on down to verse 10. And when Pharaoh drew near, 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 unto the Lord. And they said
unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you
taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt thus with
us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is this not the word that
we did tell you 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." A human heart, that's a sinful
human heart's statement when it comes against this barrier.
I've got nowhere to go. They had no clue what a place
of blessing they'd been brought to. These three localities mentioned
in this verse give us some very nice and I think very comforting
teaching about why God puts us in that position. And I hope
that if there's someone here this evening that's never been
brought into that place where you can do nothing, may God put
you there tonight. It's the best place you'll ever
be on the face of this planet, a place where you can do absolutely
nothing. May God take us all there. Let's
take first a look at this Piha Hiroth. This place shows us something
about the grace of spiritual helplessness. When the word is
used to speak of property or land, it means to be exhausted. That is, it means that there
is no more land. You're out of room. We would
have probably, if we'd been in Florida, we'd have probably named
this place Land's End. Isn't there about a thousand
places named around Land's End, I think? It'd probably be a good
one we'd have come up with. It's the place where the dirt
runs out. It's the place where there's no more room, no place
to go, nowhere to run. nowhere to hide. It is, in fact,
the end of the road. God had set Israel before an
impassable barrier, and he did it on purpose, where the limits
of the flesh, the limits of the world, and the limits of false
religion were clearly revealed, all to be insufficient to deliver
them. There is nothing. When God puts you in that place,
where you are absolutely made to be unable, incapable of doing
anything, there is no one and nothing in you that can deliver
you from God's hand. He's put you there for a purpose.
It's a gracious purpose. Pahiroth teaches us that our
sinful, fallen nature on its very best day is not able to
deliver us across the great divide that separates the natural realm
from the spiritual. You know, King David obviously
knew something about that. He was the one who said, man
at his best state, Best thought, best day, best feelings, best
emotions on his best day. Man in his best state is altogether
vanity. He cannot cross the barrier.
We cannot get across the barrier in this state. God will not allow
it. Worthless, incapable, powerless,
though clothed with our finest morality, adorned with our most
selfless motivations, striving with every ounce of our most
sincere emotions, yet still helpless to cross over the infinite barrier
that separates between our flesh and the spiritual realm. It's
not for us to go there. Look with me in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. Paul speaks of this in very clear words in 1 Corinthians
2 verse 14. These are the dimensions This
is what's in us or what's not in us that keeps us from being
able to cross over from our realm into God's world. First Corinthians 2.14, a natural
man, and he's going to contrast that in a minute with a spiritual
man, but a natural man, as he's born into this world, son of
Adam, receives, now let me stop there just a minute, that word
receives in the original language has the word hand in it. It's
built into the word. He can't get his hand on it.
That's what it says. The natural man receives not,
doesn't grasp, can't get a hold on the things of the Spirit of
God. I've experienced that. I've got
my four years of Bible college in and I never even got close.
I couldn't even touch with my finger the very edges of spiritual
reality. Just not in there. Got a lot
of teaching, a lot of theology. I've got a degree in false religion. Oh, and was still as dead as
a hammer in terms of spiritual life. I've got nothing from that.
Oh, he can't get a hold of them. Here's why it says he can't get
a hold of, can't receive, can't lay hold of the things of the
Spirit of God, for they're unknown to him. They don't quite make
sense to Him. No, they're foolishness to Him.
Are you trying to tell me that God doesn't love everyone? That's
stupid. Are you trying to tell me that
Christ didn't die for everyone? That's foolishness. Are you trying
to tell me the Holy Spirit's not here tonight trying to get
everybody to go His way? That's absurd. Because those
things are foolishness to the natural man. They don't exalt
us. They don't build us up. They
don't show us to have something going. No, they're foolishness
to us. And He cannot Notice the strength
of all the words in that verse. He cannot know them. He can't
know their essence. He can't comprehend their reality
because they are spiritually discerned. Spiritually discerned. That's our problem. By nature,
we're just not spiritual. I didn't say we weren't spiritual
enough. We're just not spiritual at all. We're flesh. We're natural. We cannot enter into that realm.
Here's the barrier between us and the gospel. It is spiritual. We are natural. It is divine,
and we are fleshly. There's nothing in common between
these two realms. Now, it's true. Many people have. You can switch theologies. You
can change religions. You can get a different translation
of the Bible. You can do a lot of things that
are religious. You can change theology. You can master the
rational arguments of Calvinism. But you and I, as natural men
and women, will never even begin to grasp the spiritual reality
of the divine doctrine of grace, which is nothing less than this,
because it's not a doctrine. It's a person. Grace is a person. Understanding is union with that
person. new nature, a new being. What being is that? The being
of Christ. So much one with Christ. This
is how close I want to be to Christ. So much one with Christ
that God can't tell the difference between me and him. He looks
at me and he sees his son. Oh, my. And one day he looked
to his son and he saw me and he killed him. That's how close
that's that's how far separated we are from spiritual things.
Look over a few words while you're in first Corinthians there. Look
at chapter two, verse nine. back up a little bit. What a
statement about the separation of these two realms. Eye has
not seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of
man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.
You know, this was the same ocean that Nicodemus couldn't get across.
Jump with me real quickly over to John chapter 3. He wrestled
to get across this divide. John chapter three, let's just
start there with verse one and read just a few verses. Look
at him trying to get across this ocean. There was a man of the
Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He was a religious
man. He had some understanding of the scriptures. The same came
to Jesus by night, said unto him, Rabbi, we know that you're
a teacher come from God. We can see that because no man
can do these miracles that you do except God be with him. Jesus
answered and said unto him, he ain't got it yet. Barely, barely
I say unto you, here's your problem, here's my problem, here's all
of our problem, unless a man be born again. We do not have within us by nature. that which will allow us to see
the truth in Christ and the scriptures and anything about the truth
of God. We cannot see that. Unless a
man is born again, born from above, unless God does something
new in us, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus says
unto him, I don't quite grab that, because how can a man be
born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into
his mother's womb and be born? I think he knew that was a stupid
question. I sense some frustration in that question. Verse 5, Jesus
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born
of water, he has to be born into this world. I believe the water
speaking there of what it talks about in the verse six, that
which is born of the flesh is flesh. He's talking about being,
there's a lot of water that has accompanied all of our births.
Unless a man is born into this world and unless he's born of
water and here's your other one that you're missing, born of
the spirit. What did you have to do with
your birth? I don't remember mine. I don't
remember a thing about it. I really don't. It just happened
to me. It just happened to me. You know, and I really don't
remember much about being born again. I know that the Lord got
ahold of me and I understood something that had nothing to
do with me. But I think I understood that after I was born. I believe
the Lord born to me into his, into his kingdom. And then I
understood what it meant to be a child of God saved by grace,
born by his union with him alone, having nothing to do with me.
except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. There's a barrier there that
you can't cross. That which is born of the flesh is just that,
flesh. And that which is born of the
spirit is that, spirit. Don't be surprised, marvel not
that I say unto you, you've got to be born again, born from above.
The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear the sound of
it, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. Now what does that teach us about
this barrier? That means that we have nothing to do with crossing
the barrier. It means that God must bring us to it and take
us over it or we will not arrive. It's totally out of our hands. What a grace. It is a grace. It's an uncomfortable grace.
It's a very difficult grace for a sinner. Very difficult grace
for proud sinners like us. But oh, what a grace to be out
of room No place to go. Can't even take another step
and having no power to do anything. What a grace. Left to the mercy
of God alone. What a wonderful place. How that
the Spirit of God might be blessed to lead someone there today.
Now let's talk just a minute about the grace of being in Christ.
Now the second location that Moses mentions in our text is
also very revealing, that place called Migdal. By definition,
Migdal is the word for tower. And from this we might understand
that Migdal appears to have been a fortified city, a place that
was a living emblem of human strength. Rocks, stones upon
stones, people won't get in here. Those guys do whatever they want
to with those Israelites, but we're safe. We got it under control. It's the power of the flesh. If Pi-Hahiroth speaks of spiritual
helplessness, Migdal teaches us not to look to anything in
this world for our help. You know, I'm wondering about
those Israelites that stood on the perimeter of that great multitude
of people nearest to Migdal and saw that big tower and maybe
just had just a thought, if I took off running right now, you know,
I might could make it in there. They were better off where they
were, wide open, no protection, no rocks, no stones, no walls,
no towers. They were better off where they
were under the grace of God. False religionists have mistakenly
limited worldliness, which Migdal is a picture of that. False religionists
always paint worldliness to be just rampant sin and adultery
and lust and all that. But, you know, that's not what
makes whirliness whirliness. I'm convinced that whirliness
is that absolutely immodest, absolutely proud face that causes
a person to do all those things. I think the essence of whirliness
is me and my flesh will get over this barrier. That's whirliness. That's whirliness. The scriptures
reveal worldliness to be that inborn pride in all of Adam's
race. It's that inborn strut that persuades
us that we're able to do whatever we set our mind to. And in this
sense, men have always sought refuge in high towers that they
built of their own making, always sought to find refuge in the
high notions of their intellect and their vain philosophies and
proud hearts. We always did that. This is clearly the worldness
that the Apostle Paul warns us about in 1 Corinthians 1. Let's
see if this is not worldliness to you. 1 Corinthians 1. Look with me at verse 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect, for the preaching
of the cross is to those who perish foolishness. We're not
going to get over on that. We've got to have something more
substantial. But unto us who are saved, those who have been
delivered, we know it's the power of God. He can and he does save
people, just does it by his own power. Verse 19, for it's written,
I'll destroy the wisdom of the wise. I'll bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent. There's the heart, the world
of us. It's a person who is so wise that they can figure it
out on their own. They don't need the Holy Spirit
to teach them. They can figure out a way to get God to love
them. They don't need the blood of Christ. They need, matter
of fact, the blood of Christ is absolutely helpless to them
unless they say, okay, they're the ones who gives the blood
of Christ its power. No, there's worldliness. Worldliness is haughtiness
of spirit. It's strength of mind and will
and flesh that says, I can. When God says from cover to cover
in his word, you cannot, you cannot. Verse 20, where is the
wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the
disputer of this world? Where's the people who have all
this figured out? Has not God made foolish their wisdom, the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God, God revealed himself as he is in his word, the word
by wisdom, its own wisdom knew not God. It pleased God to show
what fools we were that by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. And I believe that can be taken
both ways. The foolishness that a mere son of Adam, saved by
grace, taught by the Holy Spirit, could stand before a crowd of
people and just speak and God would save folks? Foolishness.
Just foolishness. But He does. But He does. Not only the foolishness of the
method, but the foolishness of the message. The foolishest thing,
you're telling me that no one believes what you guys believe.
No one believes that Christ only died for his elect. No one believes
the Holy Spirit only calls those people. No one believes that
God only chose those. You guys are weird. This doesn't
make sense. The Bible doesn't teach that,
but it does. It does, from cover to cover. No, it's a foolish
message, and it's a foolish method, and yet God saves people that
way. Who wasn't here, who knows anything at all about salvation?
Who wasn't saved that way? Not a one. That's all the way
God says. Verse 22, for the Jews require a sign. Show me something. The Greeks seek after wisdom.
That's just not really smart enough for me. But we preach
Christ crucified. Now I don't know about you, but
that's enough for me. That's all I want. That's all
I want. We preach Christ crucified. Under the Jews, a stumbling block.
I'm not that bad. Under the Greeks, foolishness.
It's not good philosophy. but unto those who are called.
Both Jews and Greeks, it's Christ. Christ, the one who takes me
across that barrier, he's the power of God who gets my, sorry,
soul across that barrier. And he's the wisdom of God, the
one in whom I find all my answers that make sense. Because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God
is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren,
How that not many wise men. Oh, may this sink down into our
souls. You know, I know that there's something about studying
theology and studying the scriptures and memorizing verses. And those
are all good things. Search the scriptures. Search
the scriptures. That's what we're called to do.
Let's do that. But don't become a master of the scriptures. That is such a contradiction
for a believer saved by grace. We don't want to be masters of
the scriptures. I want the scriptures to master me. I want to be taught
by the scriptures. I don't want to be the one who's,
who's teaching the scriptures and making them say what I want
them to say. No, just may I be taught by the
scriptures. You see your calling, brother,
not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble
are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise. God's chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty. Base
things of the world, worthless, things which are despised have
God chosen, yea, and things which are not, there's my category,
things which are not to bring to naught things that are, that
no flesh, not a little flesh, not sometimes some flesh, that
no flesh should glory in his presence. May the Lord be pleased to give
all of us his people that satisfaction in Christ, that satisfaction
with his way, that satisfaction with all that he does that just
causes us to turn to our flesh and say, shut up, just shut up. You don't know anything anyway.
Born blind, born deaf, born dumb. You have no spiritual sense.
Hush and be quiet. And let us rejoice in the Lord
Jesus Christ, all of our salvation. Now let's finish up. Let's talk
about the grace of suffering with Christ. This final location,
which we saw there in Exodus 14, 2, Baal Zephon. Baal's a
familiar word for all of us. That's an Old Testament word
for Lord. Zephon means son of Gad, and
Gad was the pagan god of good fortune. I also believe that
if any of the Israelites had been aware that there was such
an idol of good fortune, I think they would have probably been
looking for him about this time. Could I meet that idol? And that
is the allure of false religion. Their God can make you rich.
People preach it every Sunday. He can give you good health and
long life and make all your problems go away. False religion offers
a Christ who promises to deliver us from trouble. The Lord Jesus
assures us that we'll have a life that's filled with trouble. For
the religionist, that would be a burden to be avoided at all
costs. But for a true believer, suffering with Christ is a grace
we don't deserve. You know, if you just take even
just a quick overview of the book of Acts, it's plenty enough
information there to show that Christ is the God of grace, not
the God of good fortune. After only three chapters in
the book of Acts, where it's true, during those first three
chapters, everything was looking up. Shortly thereafter, the apostles
were jailed in chapter four, jailed again in chapter five.
Stephen was arrested in chapter six, stoned to death in chapter
seven. God used the persecution in chapter
8 to scatter the believers into neighboring countries. They were
kicked out of town, had to leave their homes, and yet they went
everywhere preaching the word. The Jews killed James in chapter
12 and imprisoned Peter at the same time. And from chapter 13
through chapter 27, Paul was run out of town, stoned, imprisoned,
mobbed, arrested, beaten, threatened of murder, slapped in the face,
left for years in prison, shipwrecked, snakebitten, flogged. Now, that's
the life of a believer. That's the life of someone who's
been brought across the barrier. It's a good place to be. It's
an honor. It's an honor to be in that place.
I've had people, I've not had treatment that bad. I've had
people deny my gospel to my face. I've had people do bad things
to me. It's an honor I don't deserve.
An honor I don't deserve. The gracious thing about the
Lord, here's how James, let me just read this, this is how James
was inspired to sum up the Christian experience, this life across
the barrier, as James wrote it in chapter one, verses two through
four, let me just read that to you. My brethren, this is an
older James too, by the way. My brethren, count it all joy,
count it your very best day, whenever you fall into various
trials. Knowing this, that the trying
of your faith works patience, that's endurance. Endurance. The more we get kicked down,
the more we say, thank the Lord for picking me up, and we go
on again. It's a grace. And let patience, let endurance
have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, lacking
nothing. No. We don't need the God of
good fortune. Actually, we don't even really
need good fortune. We just need Christ. We just need Christ.
May God bless us to have that spirit. All of us worry. Y'all
and I are getting ready to make another move. I don't have to
tell you what anxiety that gives me. I'm not going to say much
about that other than that. It's an anxious time. Don't know
what's in the future. But I've, by the grace of God,
been put on the other side of the barrier. There's nothing
between this sinner and Savior. I'm okay. Now, let's see if we can wrap
this up. So here they were. The sea in
front of them, they could not get across. Pharaoh's armies
behind them. No help from the world on the
one hand, no refuge in religion. Yet it was a glorious opportunity
for the grace of God. First, we find, go back to, if
you would, let's read just a few more verses in Exodus 14. Let's look at verses 19 and 20. First,
we find divine protection. And the angel of God, which went
before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them. That was
that column that on the one hand was dark and smoky, on the other
hand was light to the people. And it was in front of them,
leading them on the way until up came the enemy. And that's
nothing less than a picture of Christ. And he removed and went
behind the camp. 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 them, but it gave light by night to
these, so that the one came not near the other, all night long. There was divine protection that's
always in our behalf. Look at the second part. Here's
divine deliverance. Look at 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 the dry ground."
I like that, upon the dry ground. They didn't slog through that
mess, they went through on dry ground. And the waters were a
wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. I find in that picture a very
good illustration of the way I feel going through this life.
They had, you can imagine, it was a nice path. Everything was
clear. The Lord blew it all away. No
water, no mud, no nothing. They walked through on dry ground,
and yet they had water piled up beside them. Ever the possibility,
in terms of the human nature, of being drowned. I mean, it
was deep, over their heads. All it had to do was clash together.
They've been goners. Here they were, just Barely saved? Oh no, they were saved, plumb
saved. If you allow me to be country, they were all the way
saved. But at the same time, it was always there to remind
them they were saved by the grace of God. Is that not the way with
us? Our sins are ever before me. They're heaped up in piles
on either side of me. And if God ever allowed those
to become mine again, I would be so submerged that I would
have no hope. No, God delivers us. He delivers
us in a way that causes us to look to him. And finally, not
only was there divine protection, divine deliverance, but there
was eternal redemption, eternal redemption. Look in Exodus 14,
23. And the Egyptians pursued. 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 into the host of Egyptians through the pillar
of fire and the cloud and troubled the host of the Egyptians and
took off their chariot wheels, that they drove them heavily,
I would say, so that the Egyptians said, let us flee from the face
of Israel for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.
And the Lord said unto Moses, stretch out your hand over the
sea. that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians and
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, came back to where they were, covered the
chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that
came into the sea after them. There remained not so much as
one of them. Sounds like this verse, and he
put away sin, put away by the sacrifice of himself, gone. All of my Egyptians are gone.
Egyptians of my own making, and they cannot bother me anymore.
They're gone. They're buried in the sea of
God's forgetfulness and under the blood of Christ. They will
not bother me anymore. I'd like to share with you one
last verse in closing, precious verse in Revelation 21. Revelation 21 1 we find a great
promise when it comes to this barrier and particularly this
illustration of the water being our barrier look at Revelation
21 verse 1 and I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first
heaven the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea
no more barrier no more divide let's pray