Good morning. It's good to see
more faces. It's good to be here. Let's open
up this morning's service in the hardback handles. Number
one, number one, oh worship the king, if you could please stand.
Number one. O worship the King, all glorious
above, and gratefully sing his power and his love. Our shield and defender, the
ancient of days, pavilion in splendor and girded with praise. Oh, sing of his grace, whose
robe is the light, whose canopy stays. His chariot of breath
the deep thunder clouds form, and dark is his path on the wings
of the storm. What tongue can recite? It breathes in the air. It shines in the light. It streams from the hills. It descends to the plain. And sweetly is still in the dew
and the rain. Nor find thee to fail thy mercy. Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and
Friend. Thank you, Bert. Our Maker, Defender,
Redeemer, and Friend. I love that hymn. I pray the Lord will enable us
to do what we just what we just sang this morning to worship
the king. It's good to see everybody here.
Uh, let's let's continue to refrain from handshaking and hugging
for a little bit while longer. I think that would be wise. particularly for those that are
here that might be more vulnerable than you are. So we'll continue
that. All right. Let's open our Bibles
to Psalm 114. Psalm 114. To wish Happy Mother's Day to
all of our moms. And I don't know if you've had
a chance to see the building yet, but please check that out
before you leave. We have plenty of lights and
plenty of air conditioning. I think I counted 56 can lights
just in the auditorium. So fortunately, they're on a
dimmer, so we want to wear sunglasses. And I forgot how many air conditioning
ducts are in there, 28, 26, something. We have found some pews that
fit the auditorium perfectly. They're in West Virginia. And
the church that's selling them wants $1,000 for all 26 of them
or 25 of them. So Jeff Bandle, who attends the
church in Cottageville and lives in Charleston, West Virginia,
some of you all know him, Jeff's going over tomorrow to take a
look at them. We have pictures, but hopefully
eyes on them will know better about the condition of them.
So he's going to do that for us tomorrow. Also, I've announced
over the last few weeks that Fjor and Richie's son, Mikey,
who has been here several times, hasn't been here lately, but
you all know Fjor, of course. Mikey's gonna have to have a
transplant. He's 30? 30, 20, 29? 28. And
he has to have a kidney transplant. Both his kidneys have failed
and they have him on dialysis. So he will continue to be on
dialysis until they're able to find a match and schedule a transplant
for Mikey. I know Fior and Richie are very
anxious about that. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 114. I've titled this message, Brought Out of Egypt. The children of Israel being
brought by the hand of God out of the bondage of the taskmasters
in Egypt is a clear and undeniable picture of what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done in bringing his people out from under the bondage
of the law. So when we look at Psalm 114
and the other passages we're going to be looking at this morning,
we're not going to be concerned about the historical events for
the sake of learning history. We're going to be asking ourselves,
how does this speak to what God has done for me? And I pray the
Lord will bless that to our hearts. Let's go to him in prayer and
ask his blessings. Our merciful Heavenly Father. Once again, you've brought us
into this place, and you've promised your presence, and you've given
us your word, and Lord, you've said that where two or three
are gathered together in your name, there you are in the midst
of them. You've promised to send your
Holy Spirit and to enable us to enter into a spirit of worship. Lord, we pray that that would
be our experience today. We ask that you would open the
eyes of our understanding that you would reveal to us more of
the glorious person and accomplished work of thy dear son and that
we would find all the hope of our salvation in him. Father, we do pray for Mikey. We ask Lord for your hand of
healing to be upon him and for for Fior and Richie and Lord,
comfort them with your grace, encourage them with your spirit
and and Lord, use this for your glory and for their salvation. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Brought out of Egypt. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 114. Egypt translated means a besieged
place. That's what the name Egypt means. And clearly Egypt and the taskmasters
of the law holding the children of Israel in bondage is a picture
of the besiegement that each of us experienced spiritually
until the Lord Jesus, like the prophet Moses, comes and delivers
us from that. And we read in the book of Galatians
that we are to stand fast as believers in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made us free and be ye not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. Don't go back to Egypt. Don't
go back to the law. Find all the hope of your salvation
in the one who has fulfilled the law and the one who has successfully
brought his people out from under it. Now, we remember that that the miracle and the work
of grace that the Lord performed in delivering his people from
Egypt was the killing of the Passover lamb. The nine signs
before that were for the purpose of revealing to the Israelites
the power of their God over the power of the gods of Egypt. And all of those plagues were
identified with a particular deity that the pagan Egyptians
worshipped. And so the Lord is saying to
his people, who is a god like unto me? All these false gods that men
hold to have no power before our God, before our God.
And yet the last of the 10 plagues wasn't for the purpose of showing
the Israelites the power of their God over the Egyptian gods. The last plague was for the purpose
of showing the Israelites their need for a blood sacrifice to
atone for their sins. And it wasn't until that blood
sacrifice was made, it wasn't until the atonement was satisfied
that the children of Israel were brought out. And so it is with
us. We are besieged and we are in
need of God to send a prophet like unto Moses to shed the blood
of the lamb that is without spot and without wrinkle and to deliver
us from the curse of the law. And that is exactly what the
Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross. So that's what this whole
psalm is very brief. There's only eight verses in
it. You see that in Psalm 114. Let's read the whole psalm together
and then we'll go back and consider it verse by verse. When Israel
went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob, from a people of strange
language. Judah was his, now that's a reference
to God. Judah was God's sanctuary and
Israel was God's dominion. The sea saw it and fled. Jordan
was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams
and the little hills like lambs. What aileth thee, O thou sea,
that thou fleddest, thou Jordan that thou wast driven back? Ye
mountains that ye skip like rams, and ye little hills like lambs,
tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord, at the presence
of the God of Jacob, which turned the rock into a standing water,
and the flint into a fountain of waters. Turn with me to Matthew
chapter two. Matthew chapter two. And look with me, if you will,
at verse. Verse 14, well, we'll begin word
in verse 13, and when they were departed, behold, the angel of
the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, arise, and take
the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt and be thou
there until I bring thee word for Herod will seek the young
child to destroy him." Now you remember Herod killed all the
babies in hopes of being able to kill the Lord Jesus Christ
and now the Lord is is speaking to Joseph and telling Joseph,
take the baby and take Mary and flee to Egypt. And when he arose,
he took the young child and his mother by night and departed
into Egypt and was there until that death of Herod that it might
be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying,
and this is a prophecy out of Hosea chapter 11, out of Egypt
have I called my son. So the Lord Jesus Christ physically
and literally went down to Egypt and spent time in Egypt until
the Lord killed Herod in fulfillment of the prophecy that Hosea had
made. But there again, it represents
the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ came into our Egypt and
put himself under the requirements of the law to deliver us from
the curse of the law. What is the curse of the law?
It's death. It's death. And so that's what this psalm
is about. And that's what all the workings
of God in the Old Testament in bringing his people out of Egypt,
that's what it speaks to us about. Our Lord fulfilling the law and
delivering us from Egypt. Now notice in verse one of the
text, Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob. Now the Lord has given us in
this one verse, the two names that represent the two natures
of his people, Jacob, the supplanter that represents our our nature
from birth, our fleshly nature. And then you remember what happened
to Jacob when he was fleeing from Esau, and he met up with
the Lord Jesus Christ at the river called Jabbok, and he wrestled
with the Lord all night long, and he asked the Lord what his
name was, and the Lord didn't give him his name. But he changed
Jacob's name. He changed Jacob's name to what?
To Israel. which translated means peace,
prince, prince. And so God made Jacob a prince. He gave him a new nature. And
Jacob limped the rest of his life as a reminder of that struggle
that he has between the new man and the old man. And you and
I do the same thing, don't we? So here's the church and each
member of the church having Two natures, the old man, Jacob,
the flesh, the new man, Israel, a prince before God, one that
can do nothing but sin and the other one that has absolutely
no sin. This is, here's the thing about
having two natures. You can't understand two natures
until you have two natures. You know, people who have just
one nature have no concept of what it means to have two natures.
Only those who have two natures can understand what the Lord,
well, what Rebecca said. When she asked the Lord, she
said, why am I thus? Why am I struggling like this? She had Jacob and Esau in her
womb. And the Lord answered her question,
he said, because there's two nations in you. And they struggle
one with the other, as the flesh struggles against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot be what we
would be. And so this, I just love it when
the Lord reminds us in his word that we are both Jacob's and
Israel. And that's who this is for. That's
who this message is for. It's for those who have two natures. When Israel went out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from the people of a strange language. Now, that's
where the Lord delivers us from. This word strange language is
the only place it's used in the Bible and literally translated
it means unintelligible speech. Unintelligible speech. You've
tried to communicate with somebody that speaks a foreign language
and they don't know a word of English and you don't know a
word of the language that they speak. It's impossible, isn't
it? It's unintelligible speech. When the Lord gives you ears
to hear the language of grace, then all the speech of man-made
religion becomes unintelligible to you. They say that God is sovereign,
but the sovereign, omnipotent God has his hands tied when he
comes up against man's free will. Now that's just unintelligible.
That's nonsense. You can't make sense out of nonsense,
can you? Just say that God is God, but
In the end, when it comes to the salvation of sinners, man's
holding the trump card. You know, man's holding the power.
That's unintelligible speech. To say that Christ died for everybody,
but the majority of people that he died for are going to end
up in hell. That doesn't make sense to those
who have... You see, God has delivered us
from a strange language, hasn't he? to say that God loves everybody
but the majority of people that God loves. He's going to punish
with the wrath of his fiery judgment for all eternity in a devil's
hell? That's unintelligible speech.
It doesn't make sense. And so when the Lord gives you
a new nature and calls you out of Egypt You've been delivered
not only from the law, but you've been delivered from those who
speak a foreign language. They don't speak the same language
we speak. When they speak of Jesus, they're
not talking about the Jesus we know. And aren't you thankful
that the Lord has given you ears to hear the truth? Turn to me to Exodus chapter
15. Exodus chapter 15. This is the song of Moses that the children of Israel sang
right after coming out of Egypt. Notice how Exodus chapter 15
begins, then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song
unto the Lord and spake saying, I will sing unto the Lord for
he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and the rider hath
he thrown into the sea. And this is the same song that
we sing. This is the, this is the praise that we give to our
God for having thrown the horse and the rider. That's the, that's,
that's, that's Pharaoh. And that's the Egyptians and
that's the taskmasters. And that's, he's throwing them
into the sea. He's buried them. And it's our sin, isn't it? He
separated our sin from us and cast them into the depths of
the sea. The Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. He is my God. I will prepare
Him a habitation, my Father's God, and I will exalt Him. He's going to get all the glory.
He's the one that brought me out from under the law. He's
the one who covered my sin. with his own shed blood. The
Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Pharaoh's
chariots and his host has he cast into the sea. His chosen
captains also were drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have
covered them. They sank into the bottom as
a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become
glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, has dashed
in pieces the enemy. The enemy of death, the enemy
of sin, the enemy of Satan has all been dashed by the right
hand of our God. Who is that right hand? You know
who it is. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
in the greatness of thine excellency, thou hast overthrown them that
rose up against thee. Thou sentest forth thy wrath,
which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils,
the waters were gathered together. The flood stood upright as a
heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea." Now,
here's the strange language. Here's the strange speech. When
God brings you out of Egypt and teaches you, you know, I was
thinking about this. The children of Israel were in
Egypt for 430 years. And yet there's no indication
that they spoke the language of the Egyptians. They maintained
their Hebrew language that whole time they were there. The enemy said, this is the unintelligible
speech of the enemy. This is the kind of speech that
you and I had before the Lord brought us out of Egypt and before
he gave us a new nature. I will pursue. Isn't that what
Pharaoh said? I'm determined that I'm going
to go after, you know, the children of Israel. And man in his pride
thinks that he can decide when he's going to pursue God. I will
pursue. I've decided. And I will overtake. When I decide to pursue God,
I'll overtake him. and I'll allow him to have his
way in my life. I will divide the spoil. I will
make effectual the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross by a decision. Notice how many times I will
is in this one verse. Six times. What's the number
for man? Six. Six is the number for man. But six times the man, man says,
I'm going to do this. I'm going to pursue him. I'm
going to overtake him. I'm going to divide the spoil.
I'm going to make effectual the work of Christ by a decision
that I make. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I'll, I'll be proud. And that's
what, that's what unintelligible speech does. It makes men proud
of their decision. and of their work. I will draw
my sword. Now what is the sword a picture
of? We find the Lord Jesus Christ with a flaming sword as his tongue.
The sword's a picture of the word of God. The scripture says
in Ephesians chapter 5, the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God. And a man says, I'm going to pull out my sword. And I'll
pray this prayer. And God will be obligated by
the speech that I speak. to save me when I decide to pursue
him, and when I decide to overtake him. Is this a strange language
to you? It is, isn't it? You hear people
talk like this, and you say, well, this doesn't even make
sense. You call him God. This is unintelligible. My hand, you know what the hand
is a picture of? It's a picture of our works,
isn't it? My hand shall destroy them. My works will accomplish
the destruction of my enemy, which is death and the grave
and hell and sin. And I can take care of that myself. Look at verse 10. Now here's
speech that we can understand. Here's speech that we can rejoice
in. Thou hast blown with thy wind. What did the Lord say to
Nicodemus? Nicodemus, except a man be born
again, he cannot perceive of the kingdom of God. He can't
even begin to see it. He can't enter into it. And then
the Lord went on to say, the wind is like the, the spirit's
like the wind. Thou hast blown with thy wind.
That's our hope. Every time we, every time we
preach, every time we, we breathe a prayer, Lord, send your spirit
in power. The sea covered them. They sank
as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord,
among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretcheth
out thy right hand, and the earth swallowed them. Now whose hand
does the saving? His hand or our hand? Look at
verse 13. By the way, in these two verses,
I will was mentioned six times in the previous verse we just
read and these two verses thou hast is mentioned seven times
seven times you're going to send your wind your spirit you're
going to deliver us with your hand thou in thy mercy hath led
forth the people which thou hast redeemed Now this is speech that
we can understand, isn't it? This is a language, this is the
language of grace that gives to our God all the praise and
all the glory. That's what Psalm 114's about.
God brought them out of Egypt, out of an unintelligible speech. And he brought them out as Jacob
and Israel. And thou hast guided them in
thy strength. It's the Lord that guides us
just as we were completely dependent upon him to send forth his right
hand and to redeem us and send forth his spirit and to call
us. So we are dependent on him to
direct our steps. Where does he guide us to? Thy
holy habitation. Where is his holy habitation?
We're here right now, aren't we? This is where the Lord's
pleased to make. His presence and his power and
his grace and his mercy known to the hearts of his children.
God led us here, didn't he? Go back with me to Psalm 114. What a glorious this is. You see, this is our salvation,
isn't it? This is what the Lord has done
for his people. When Israel went out of Egypt,
they couldn't go out until the blood of the Passover lamb was
shed and put on the door and on the door post and the lentils
of the door. And what did God say? When I
see the blood, not when I see your commitment, not when I see
your dedication, when I see the blood, you see faith, is not
God being satisfied with me, it's me being satisfied with
what God's satisfied with. That's what faith is. Are you
satisfied with the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for
the only hope of being delivered from the law and having your
sin put away? They would stay behind the blood,
weren't they? Judah was his sanctuary and Israel
his dominion. It's where he resides and where
he rules and reigns. Our God rules and reigns all
men, the living and the dead. God has made him Lord over both
the living and the dead. The difference is they don't
know he's reigning. We do. We do. The sea saw it. and fled, Jordan was driven back. Now, 40 years existed between
the dividing of the Red Sea and the dividing of the Jordan River.
The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years
between those two events, didn't they? What do those two events
represent? Well, the dividing of the Red
Sea, Peter likens that to our baptism. as the children of Israel
were baptized in the Red Sea, so we baptized into Christ. It's
the new birth. It's the coming out of Egypt.
And the crossing of the Jordan River could not be done by Moses,
it had to be done by Joshua. What's that a picture of? Coming
into the promised land. That's our entering into glory. So these two bodies of water,
represent the two great events of salvation. Number one, our
new birth and number one. Number two, our glorification. And right now, just like those
Children of Israel, we live in a dry and thirsty land, don't
we? We're in this. We're in this wilderness experience
waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ to divide that river and take
us in to His presence and to see the fullness of His glory. The sea saw it. That sea that
separated us, the sea, God spoke to the water and it divided,
didn't it? And they walked, the scripture
says they walked across that water by faith. Donnie, you and
I were talking about this the other day. That, and first time
I heard this, I think David Pleasure shared this with us years and
years ago from this pulpit. I never thought about it before.
You know, you read the event, it almost looks like the whole
sea divided and was walled up before the children of Israel
began to walk. And if we walk by faith, that's
probably not the way it happened. Each step that they took, the
water moved out of the way until they were all the way across
that dry land. And then the water was walled
up on both sides. And that's how we walk. We walk
by faith. And we take one step at a time,
step by step, that which separates us, moves out of the way. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. Look with me at verse 19. Well look at verse 18, now where
remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
We don't make an offering, the offering, the offering of the
Lord Jesus Christ made at once for all has put away the sins
of God's people. Having therefore brethren boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and
living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that
is to say, his flesh. You know what happened when the
Lord bowed his head on Calvary's cross and cried, it is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. The veil in the temple was rent
from top to bottom. No longer did the priest have
to stand out front and warn the people to stay away. No longer
did the descendant of Aaron have to wear bells on his skirt before
he went in with a rope tied around his ankle in fear that God would
kill him. The Lord Jesus Christ went into the holies of holies
and put his precious blood on the mercy seat once and for all,
having consecrated for us. So now we have boldness. That
boldness means that we have confidence. that God is pleased with the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what boldness is. That's
what confidence is. We're confident that what the
Lord Jesus Christ did was successful in accomplishing the salvation
of God's people. And we come before God looking
to Christ alone for all the hope of our acceptance. So there's the There's the waters
moving out of the way and there's the new and living way which
the Lord has made by the renting of the veil of his flesh. Go back with me to Psalm 114. The mountains skipped like rams
and the little hills like lambs. What aileth thee, O thou sea,
that thou fleddest, and thou Jordan, that thou wast driven
back? Ye mountains ye skip like rams, and ye little hills like
lambs. The mountains were moved out
of the way. What did the Lord say? It's not the strength of
our faith that saves us. It's not the amount of our faith
that saves us. It's the object of our faith
that saves us. And the Lord gives different
measures of faith in terms of strength. But the object of faith
is always the same for every child of God. Thou has to Christ
Jesus, the Lord, he's the object of our faith. We're looking unto
Jesus who is the author and the finisher of faith. What happened in the mountains
church? Turn with me to the book of Zechariah. We studied this
some time ago. Zechariah, next to the last book
in the Old Testament. Zechariah chapter 4. Now, Zerubbabel as a man was
the grandson of Jeroboam and was the king of the children
of Israel, but he represents the Lord Jesus Christ. And Zerubbabel's name means sown
in Babylon, and just as Babylon represents bondage, just like
Egypt did. So now the children of Israel
are being brought out of that Babylonian captivity. And verse
6 in Zechariah chapter 4, Then he answered and spake unto me,
saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying,
Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord
of hosts. You're not going to accomplish this by your strength,
or by your wisdom, or by your decision, or by your might. It's
going to be done by the Spirit of God. You remember in Exodus
chapter 15, the six I wills and the seven thou hast? There we
go. It's not by my power, by my strength,
it's by the Spirit of God. Who art thou, O great mountain,
before Zerubbabel? Thou hast become a plain. Thou
shalt bring forth the headstone thereof with shouting, saying,
crying, grace, grace unto thee. What the Lord say, if you have
the faith of a mustard seed, you say unto this mountain, be
cast into the sea and what happens? Looking to the Lord Jesus Christ
for all the hope of our salvation, the barrier, your sin, the scripture
says in Isaiah, has separated you from your God. That's the
mountain. That's the barrier between us
and God. And it's through the shed blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the faith he gives us to say,
who art thou O mountain before Zerubbabel? A mountain of sin
is nothing before the Lord Jesus Christ. He's put it away so that
now the church cries grace, grace unto it. It's all of God's grace
and grace just simply means you don't have anything to do with
it. God did it all and he did all by himself, didn't he? In the book of Revelation, when
the Lord Jesus Christ comes in his last coming, the scripture
says, the enemies of God will flee to the mountains and cry
unto the mountains, fall on us. Now what's that a picture of?
That's not the unbelievers going into some cave and wishing. These
are spiritual pictures, aren't they? What is man going to do
at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? What are they going to
do? But Lord, have we not done many wonderful works in your
name? Have we not cast out... That's what they're crying for
the mountains to fall on them and to hide them from the wrath
of the Lamb. And that's what men are going
to do. They're going to look to their sin, to their iniquities
and to their unrighteousness for the hope of their salvation.
And what's the scripture say? Oh mountains, you skipped like
a lamb. You just got out of the way.
Why? Because Zerubbabel came. Who art thou, oh mountain, before
Zerubbabel? Who art thou, oh sin, in light
of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? He's put it away. God's people aren't going to
cry, but Lord. We've done many wonderful works
in your name. We've cast out demons in your
name. We've, we've, we've done this and done that. No, no, that's
a foreign language. That's unintelligible speech.
No one, no child of God, no, no Israelite would speak so before
God. They would look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Rest all their hope in him for
their salvation. The hill of corruption will melt. The rocky heart, look at the
last, we'll close, look at the last two verses. Tremble thou
earth at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the
God of Jacob. And just as the mountain of Sinai
trembled at the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, so he shakes
the things of this world, so that the things that cannot be
shaken might remain. You see, everything that you
and I do can be shaken by God. What the Lord Jesus, he's called
the rock, the one on whom we stand. Notice he turned the rock
into a standing water and flint into the fountains of water.
And he takes out this heart of stone, this cold, lifeless, unbelieving,
unbelieving heart of stone and puts in a beating heart of flesh
enabling us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He turns the
rock. What happened when Moses, now
here's another picture, you know this one, when Moses struck the
rock with the rod. in the wilderness. What came
out of that rock? Water. It was Moses' picture of the
law. That's the rod of God's wrath striking the Lord Jesus
Christ on Calvary's cross. And out of that rock, of all
the places for water to come, who looks for water in a rock? That's where the water comes,
isn't it? Delivered from Egypt, the sea
of pride and ignorance and fear, the raging seas of guilt and
shame are done away when the Lord Jesus Christ delivers us
from Egypt and enables us to rest our hope in his finished
work and in his glorious person. Thou hast God bless the truth to our hearts. Let's take a break.