Okay, Exodus chapter 14 today,
and I'm taking the title for the message from the words found
in verse 13, and these are probably some of the most well-known verses
in Scripture here, verse 13, 14. Exodus 14, look at verse
13 one more time. And Moses said unto the people,
Fear ye not, stand still, and see. or behold the salvation
of the Lord, which He will show you today. For the Egyptians
whom you've seen today, you're going to see them no more, no
more forever. The Egyptians, they represent
our enemies, our sin. They're all drowned in the depths
of the sea. The Lord shall fight for you,
and you shall hold your peace. Verse 15, And the Lord said to
Moses, Wherefore Christ said unto me, Speak to the children
of Israel that they go forward, don't look back, go forward,
move out, look to the Lord for all things. So the title from
verse 13, Stand still and see or behold the salvation that
is of the Lord. Now I would guarantee you this.
I guarantee you this. If you would have asked that
day any of the children of Israel as they were standing on the
other side safely out of the water, if you would ask them
how they made it through the Red Sea and how the armies of
Egypt were destroyed, I guarantee you that they would say, the
mighty hand of the Lord, wouldn't they? They wouldn't say, oh,
we were so smart. We deserve this. Every one of
them would say, the mighty hand of the Lord. As it says in verse
30, thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the
Egyptians. Who did that? The Lord did that. And we know that our salvation
is of the Lord, don't we? If you look, and I meant to read
this, but if you look at Exodus 15, chapter 15, Verse 1, I will
sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. This is
their testimony. The horse and the rider hath
he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength, my song.
He become my salvation. He is my God. I will prepare
him habitation. My Father's God, I will exalt
him. The Lord is the man of war. The
Lord is his name. So that's their testimony. They
said the Lord did this. It's also true today, if you
would ask any believer about his salvation, it would be the
same confession, would it not? I'm a great sinner, and the Lord
Jesus Christ is the greater Savior. He's the great Savior of sinners.
We say with the Apostle Paul, I am what I am, only by the grace
of God, and His grace that was bestowed upon me was not in vain. Grace is never in vain. Or we
can say with the Apostle Paul as he sits in death row, on death
row, waiting to be executed, he writes back to young Timothy,
he said, don't be ashamed of me, eat more of the gospel, for
it's God who saved us. and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our work, but according to God's own purpose
and his grace, given us in Christ, when? Before the foundation of
the world. So that was their testimony.
And those people are a type of the true Israel of God, the true
elect of God. Now, last week, we saw how the
Lord instructed Israel to slay a lamb and put the blood upon
the doorpost. and go inside the house and rest
in the promise of the Lord, that the firstborn inside the house
would not die. Remember the Lord said, turn
back at chapter 12, verse 13, chapter 12, and blood shall be
to you for a token upon your houses where you are. And when
I see the blood, Exodus 12, verse 13, I will pass over you and
the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite
the land of Egypt. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. It was true in that day. Those
first born that were in the house where the blood was upon the
door, the lentil, the door post and the lentil, Death, they were
spared the judgment and wrath of God. And it's still true today,
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from all our
sin, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sin, according to the riches of his grace. Now, today we're
going to see how the whole nation of Israel, typical of God's elect,
was delivered from the rage of Pharaoh and his army, As the
Lord divided the Red Sea, they passed through on dry ground
and the Lord destroyed the whole Egyptian army. Some estimated
between 200,000 or 500,000. All the chariots, all the chariots,
all the army, all the horsemen, all the cavalry, all the chariots,
all the footmen, a mighty army. God killed every one of them
and spared Israel. This again is the gospel, a picture
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in type, shadow, and picture.
Everything in the salvation of a sinner is ordained of God,
purposed by God to bring honor and glory to his name. It must
be so, for no one else deserves the honor and glory. God said,
I'm going to get me honor from Pharaoh, and he did, right? And
the Lord Jesus Christ rightly deserves all the honor and glory
for the salvation that we enjoy. Complete deliverance from all
our sin? Who gets the glory for that?
You know Christ alone does, Christ alone worthy is the Lamb that
was slain to receive all honor, glory, blessing both now and
forever. It's interesting as we read in
chapter 13 of Exodus verse 17 and 18, Israel marched out of
Egypt but not in a direct north route. to the promised land,
but rather he led them south into the wilderness up against
the Red Sea. Now, why'd the Lord do that?
To put them in such a place that they would know beyond all doubt
that God delivered Israel from the armies of Egypt. The Lord in his wise purpose
and providence, as it says there in verses one through four in
chapter 14, He said, you go and speak to the children of Israel
that they'll camp in the, in the, before Piahiboth, between
Migdal and Baal-Sibon, before the sea shall you encamp. And
Pharaoh will say, the children of Israel, they're entangled
in the land, in the wilderness, to shut them in. And I will harden
Pharaoh's heart that he shall follow after them. And I'll be
honored upon Pharaoh, upon all that the Egyptians may know.
That I am the Lord. He put them in that place by
his providence and grace that he might get honor and glory
unto his name. No way for them to escape. They
were totally shut up to the mercy of the Lord to deliver them.
They could not fight their way out. They certainly could not
build a boat and float across the Red Sea. The only one thing
they could do, and they did that, they cried unto the Lord, as
it says there in verse 10. 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 they cried unto the
Lord. What do you reckon they said? Lord, save us! Lord, have mercy
on us! You know that's what they cried. They cried unto the Lord for
help. And the Lord tells us all through His book, He says, look
unto Me and be ye saved. Look unto Me and be ye saved.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But
notice what they do after they cried unto the Lord. Notice what
they did here. Here's a sad story, and we're
going to see this repeated if you read through the book of
Exodus. They said unto Moses, because there were no graves
in Egypt, thou hast 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 to die in the wilderness. Just leave me alone." My friend,
that's one thing you don't want God to do, is to leave you to
yourself. If God leaves you alone, you
will perish in your sin. God must intervene. God must
do a work of grace in us. Such is the case of every sinner
today by nature. They would say, just leave me
alone. They would rather serve the interests
of self and of this ungodly world than to serve a true and living
God because the carnal mind is enmity against God. By nature,
we love darkness rather than the light because our deeds were
evil. The carnal mind will not receive the things of the Spirit
of God. Our prayer ought to be unto the Lord, leave us not to
ourselves. If you do, we're going to perish.
Lord, intervene. Salvation by the grace of God
is not something that the natural man desires. It is only His quickening
and powerful grace, His mighty grace that we see our need of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see your need of Him to
intervene for you, to put away your sin, to bring in righteousness
for you? If you see your need of Him,
it's only because you've been taught of God. By nature, we
don't see these things. We must be brought like that
publican of old who smote upon his breast and said, God, be
merciful to me, thee sinner. That's a good prayer. You know
what to pray unto God? God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Seven words. Our Lord said, let
us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in our time of need. So what was the
Lord's message to them after they even said, just leave us
alone? We want to go back to Egypt. Look at verse 13, Moses said
to the people, fear you not, stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord, which he will show you today. For the Egyptians
whom you've seen today, you shall see them again no more, for the
Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace. Salvation again we see is of
the Lord, is it not? The first thing he says, fear
not, the battle's not yours, it's the Lord's. This is said
many times in Scripture to the children of God, fear not, I
am with thee, be not dismayed, I am thy God beside thee, there
is no other. Fear not, the battle is the Lord's. It's His doing. This is the Lord's
doing and it's marvelous in our eyes. God has all power to defend
you, doesn't He? He has all power to defend you.
He has power over all flesh and He should give eternal life to
as many as the Father had given to Him. The gospel of Christ
is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth. He
has all power to defend you and to save you. He has all wisdom
to direct you. He is the true wise, the only
true wise God. He has all wisdom to direct you. God has all righteousness to
clothe you. He's clothed us with the garments
of salvation, with the robe of righteousness. He has all grace
to supply your every need. The God of all grace, he's called
in 1 Peter 5, verse 10, the God of all grace, who has called
us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After you have
suffered a while, he'll make you perfect, established, strengthened,
sell you to whom be glory, both now and forever. He has all power
to defend you. Cry unto Him, look unto Him.
All wisdom to direct you, all righteousness to clothe you,
all grace to supply your every need according to His riches
in glory through Christ Jesus. He has all glory to crown you.
He's going to crown His people with a crown of glory, a crown
of righteousness in Christ Jesus. Unto Him we're going to sing
one day, unto Him who loved us, and washed us from our sin in
His own blood. To Him be all the honor and glory,
both now and forever. He's made us kings and priests
unto our God, and we give Him all the honor and glory. And
God has all mercy to save you. All mercy to save you. Not by
works of righteousness, which we've done, but according to
His mercy, He saves you. Remember we read in Romans 9,
He says, I will have mercy. on whom I will have mercy. So
then it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that shows mercy. So first of all, he says, fear
not, I'm God. No need to fear, trusting Him.
And then he says, stand still. Stand still. In Psalm 46, the
Lord writes, be still and know that I am God. Wait upon the
Lord. Again, I say, David said in Psalm
27, wait upon the Lord. Not get ready and fight. Not
get busy and build some boats. Certainly not let's hold a council
and vote and see who has the best idea how to get out of this
mess. We're not going to take a vote.
We're going to believe God. The religion of men centers on
get busy and work. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ says come and rest. Come and rest in me. Everyone
that's laboring and heavy laden, come unto me and I'll give you
rest for your soul. So thirdly, he says, see or behold,
look, behold the salvation of the Lord. Salvation's always
of the Lord, is it not? It's always of His doing. Salvation's
of the Lord, the Lord alone. He says, look unto me and be
ye saved. All the ends of the earth, I
am God, and beside me there is no other. looking unto the Lord
Jesus Christ, who's the author and finisher of our faith. If
the Lord be pleased to give us grace to stand still and fear
not and wait upon the Lord and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we shall behold and experience the salvation that is of the
Lord. What did John the forerunner
say? Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away our sin. Remember what the Lord says in
Isaiah 42, verse 1, Behold My servant, My elect, in whom My
soul delighteth. Behold Him, My friend. Look unto
Him. Look unto Christ alone. And then
verse 14, He said, The Lord shall fight for you. He's the captain of our salvation.
The Lord will fight all your battles for you. Rest in Him. And then he says in verse 15,
he says, go forward. Don't go back. Salvation's not
back there. forgetting those things which
are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
looking unto Him." Go forward, looking to Him. Now all this
is typical of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. He has
won the victory over all our enemies. And we've got a lot
of them. There were a couple hundred thousand
or more in Pharaoh's armies. But we have many more enemies
that would be against us, that would destroy us. But the Lord
Jesus Christ has won the victory over all our enemies. Let me
mention a few of them. The law of God. How have you
done there? to offend in one point of the
law is to be guilty of all the law. The law of God, the holy
law of God said, cursed is everyone that continues not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. We've
not kept one commandment one time. Have we? No. Let every mouth be stopped
and all the world become guilty, guilty, guilty before God. We
have broken the law of God, but the Lord Jesus Christ honored
the law of God for us. Remember, Matthew 5, 17, he said,
I didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets, I came
to honor the law and the prophets. And then we read in Galatians
chapter three, where the Lord said, he's redeemed us from the
curse of the law being made a curse for us. Stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath set us free. So the law of God that
was against us, contrary to us, He took it out of the way, nailed
it to His cross. That's good news, is it not?
The Lord will fight for you. He has, He will. Our sin, what
about our sin? I can't do one thing to put away
my sin. You can't either. Say, well,
I'm just going to stop sinning, okay? Go ahead. Just stop. You've just lied because
you can't stop sinning. You can't put away your sin.
You can't do anything to put away your sin. You cannot make
atonement for your sin. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. You can't put away your sin.
But the good news of the gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ came
to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. when he had by himself
purged our sin with his own blood. Sin indeed is put away. All of
our sin's been put away in Christ and him crucified. The blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all our sin. How about this enemy? How about Satan? The accuser
of the brethren. He's been cast down. The seed
of the woman crushed his dominion, crushed his head. We've overcome
the adversary through the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan's been defeated, crushed
under the mighty power of Almighty God. How about death? It's appointed
on a man who wants to die, and after that? After that? Judgment! Judgment! There is therefore
now no judgment to those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, He defeated death for us. Death to the believer is
not punishment, it's promotion. Promotion to be with the Lord,
to be effluent from His bodies, to be present with the Lord.
Listen to Scripture in Revelation 118. He said, I'm He that liveth
and was dead. Behold, I'm alive forevermore. I have the keys of hell and death. Righteousness has been established.
Blessed is that man to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without
works. To sum it all up, we have complete
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as they saw all
their enemies dead, no more to bother them or to confront them,
all the enemies have been defeated. All of our enemies are gone. No condemnation to those who
are in the Lord Jesus Christ. We read this, having spoiled
principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them Himself, by Himself, with Himself. defeated all of
our enemies. Thanks be to God who's given
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our election, from
our election in eternity past to our glorification in eternity
future, salvation of the Lord. It's all of the Lord and all
of his doing. God planned this salvation from
eternity, right? He's a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Before Adam ever sinned, the
Lord Jesus Christ stood as a surety. God planned this salvation from
all eternity. God purchased this salvation
with his blood on Calvary's tree. He bare our sin and his own body
on the tree. We are redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. And God by his power applies
this salvation. He makes application to us. God,
who has begun a good work in you, will perform it, will perfect
it. All Israel passed through the
Red Sea on dry ground. Not one Israelite was lost. And God's gonna save all His
covenant children. All that the Father had given
to me, our Lord said, they'll come to me, and those that come
to me, I'll never cast them out. He gives them eternal life and
they'll never perish. All Israel pass through the Red
Sea on dry ground, safely to the other side. All the elect
of God will pass through the Red Sea by the blood of Christ
on dry ground of total justification. No more sea of sin, no more wrath
to bear, no more enemies to face. In the Lord Jesus Christ we have
full remission of sin, don't we? Complete remission of sin. when I had my cancer treatment
back in February. And I had my follow-up about, I don't know, a week or so later,
maybe two weeks later. And I asked my doctor who treated
me, I said, can I tell folks that my cancer is in remission?
And he looked at me like I'd cussed at him. He said, no, you
can't use that word remission. I said, why not? He said, because your sin, I'll get to that in a minute.
He said, your cancer is not completely gone. And I didn't say this to
him, but the thoughts went through my mind. I know that my cancer,
I still have some cancer cells. And I'm not in full remission.
But I can say this, my sin has been fully remitted. I have no
more sin. Does that make sense? I can't
use the word according to my doctor that I have remission
of my cancer, but I can use the word remission of sin through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood cleanses us from all
our sin. In Revelation 21, when John describes
that new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, and he said, and
there was no more sea. No more sin. We read in scripture,
our sins have been separated us as far as the east is from
the west. They're blotted out as a thick
cloud. Micah chapter 7, it says, Our sins have been cast into
the depths of the sea. They sank to the bottom. God
said their sin and their iniquity will I remember no more. No more. I want to close by looking
at verse 30 and verse 31 of Exodus 14. 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. Remember He said to them, Fear
not, don't fear the enemy, fear the Lord. And the people feared
the Lord. That is, they believed the Lord.
It says that next, they believed the Lord, they feared Him, they
worshipped Him, they believed the Lord, and Moses, His servant. They saw the great work the Lord
did, and we see in Jesus Christ in Him crucified, the work of
salvation accomplished, don't we? And then it says they feared
the Lord, they worshipped Him, the beginning of wisdom is the
fear of the Lord. And it says they believed the
Lord. And we do believe by His grace. As many as were ordained
to eternal life believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sinners
only believe the gospel because the Lord effectively calls them
from darkness and death into His marvelous light. Peter writes
this, you are our chosen generation. You're a royal priesthood. You're
a holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth the
praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous
light, who delivered us from the power of darkness that translated
us into the kingdom of God, dear Son, in whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches
of His grace. What a marvelous story. A true
story. Fear you not, stand still, and
see the salvation that's of the Lord.