Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Exodus chapter 14. Exodus 14. Our foundation of hope, that
is confidence, assurance, in life eternal is the word of God.
That's all we got, that's all we need. And the foundation of us being
led and directed in this life is the Word of God. That's all
we got. That's all we need. The Lord allowed His people,
Israel, to be brought into Egypt. They were there 430 years. 4 and 30 years in captivity. And God called a man named Moses
to go and tell Pharaoh, you let my people go. But the Lord allowed
Pharaoh to be left to himself and do
what he wanted to do, all according to God's purpose and will. God
sent Nine plagues. After nine plagues, Pharaoh still
wouldn't let them go. The Lord told Moses, Exodus 11
verse 1, He said, I'm going to send one more plague. And He'll
let them go this time. The Lord instituted the Passover.
He told Moses, you tell the people Take a lamb, kill it. Take the blood of that lamb,
put it on the side post, up on the top of their houses, the
door. Get inside and eat. Eat that lamb. Picture of eating
by faith on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's Lamb
slain, whose blood is applied to God's people. And the Lord
said, when I see the blood, I'm going to pass over. God told
Moses, He said, I'm going to come through tonight. It was
the Lord that came through. And He said, wherever I see that
blood applied on that door, mercy is going to be shown there. But
wherever that blood was not found, The firstborn of that household,
I'm talking about men, animals, everything. The firstborn is
gonna die where there's no blood. Christ, the substitute of his
people, was slain and his blood answered God's demand for justice
and judgment, as I said before. The wages of sin is death, and
God is fair. He's fair. He's just. That's
what I mean. He's fair. God did that very thing. And
I'm telling you, when Pharaoh saw that death had visited his
house, he came to Moses, Aaron, and told him, you get out. You get out. And God Almighty
in His sovereign power, purpose, will, mercy, compassion to His
people delivered them. That's a picture of us being
delivered from the bondage of sin. That's what that's all about. How did they come out? Through
the blood. Through the blood slain on the
behalf of God's people. Well, the scripture declares,
and what I want to talk about right now for a few minutes is
not only the deliverance from the bondage of sin by the Lord's
will and purpose, but I want to talk about for a few minutes
about this life that we're in after the Lord has called us
out of darkness. Out of the darkness of unbelief
and sin. There's some here that's been
under the sound of the gospel and believed it for years and
years and years. And I would say, just looking
around, I would venture to say that there's not a family in
this congregation that has not gone through some really tough
times, some trials. The Lord promised that that was
going to be the case. He promised us that. In this
world, you're going to have tribulation. That's what he's going to say.
And everyone, every family, every individual or every collective
family, you've had some trials. You've had some tribulations.
And Exodus 14 deals with those things that so often
cause us to wonder, why? Why are we going through this? Now I want us to just look here,
I'm going to be in Exodus 14, but look in Exodus 13 verses
20-22. They took their journey from
Sukkoth, and encamped in Etham in the edge of the wilderness
and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud
to lead them the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them
light to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of
the cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before
the people. Now let me tell you what's going
to happen. I'm going to give you, kind of tell you what they
did and just to show you something of what's being said right here.
The scripture declares, and I'm going to do this the way you
would see it. Here's the land of promise. Here's
Canaan over here. Here's Egypt over here. Right
here is the Red Sea. If you look at a picture of the
Red Sea, it's a long, narrow thing. And right up the top,
it's got two little parts of the sea. It comes up split just
like this. The people were in Egypt and
came out. They're going to the promised
land. They're going to Canaan. By way of the Philistines, if
you come back, just follow the coast, you'll be here. Some say
it might take to walk that distance, some like three weeks, three
weeks, four weeks, something like that, if you walk six hours
a day. It takes about that long. Almighty
God led his people. They came out of Egypt, going
to Canaan, and they came out and they started going south.
The scripture says that God led them. They took their journey
from Succoth and went to Etham. Now, Succoth and Etham is down
toward the bottom of the Red Sea. But God sent a pillar of
a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And so they came
out. It would be like if we were saying
we're going to go to Baltimore and we start walking toward Parkersburg. That's not the way you'd go.
That's the way that the Lord sent them. And the scripture
says in Exodus 14 verses 1 to 4, And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and
encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdal and the sea, over against
Baal-ziphon, before it shall ye encamp by the sea, for Pharaoh
was say of the children of Israel, they were entangled in the land,
the wilderness has shut them in, and I will harden Pharaoh's
heart that he shall follow after them, and I will be honored upon
Pharaoh, upon all his host, that the Egyptians may know that I
am the Lord, and they did so." Now, here's what happens. Down
toward the bottom, they're in Egypt, Red Sea. They're going
south. Down toward the bottom here of
the Red Sea is a place that scripture says is Pi-Hi-Hi-Roth. If you
look on a map, down toward the bottom there's a part of that
Red Sea and it looked like a mouth. And that's what Pi-Hi-Hi-Roth
means, the mouth. And so here, now here's Canaan,
over here. And now here, they're down here,
and they said, go and encamp before Pi-Hi-Hi-Roth, between
Migdal and just a couple of places, over against Baal-Ziphon. Well,
over here, here's the land, and the inlet, and the sea, and here's
a piece of property over across the sea, Baal-Ziphon. It's a
land. piece of property. And you could
see a mountain as they looked across from Pi-Ha-Hi-Roth, where
they were standing, and they could see this mountain right
here. And over on the other side, which
was just out of view, was this land right here, Beelzefon. Well, they were going down here,
and as they were going, they kept going south and going south,
and then the Lord told them, He said in verse 2, you speak
to the children and tell them to return and camp. They had
kind of passed this area at first. When it says you tell them to
turn, tell them to turn around. Turn around and go back the way
they just came. And it just looked like What
are you doing? You're just out here, you're
backtracking over, you were going the wrong way, then you backtrack
just a little bit, and it says, Pharaoh will say, verse 3, of
the children of Israel, they're entangled in the land. They're
confused. They don't know what they're
doing. And then he said, I'm going to
harden Pharaoh's heart. He's going to follow after them.
He said, they're easy prey. They're perplexed. We got them,
we got them hemmed in. Oh, how often are our ways directed
by God? The steps of a good man are what?
Ordered. Ordered by the Lord. How many
times have we found ourselves being so directed by God that
just appears to us to be so confusing? Why? Why would we go this way? If this is what we wanted to
do, why would we not go ahead and do that? But providentially
that wasn't the way the Lord ordered it. Verse 5 says, it
was told the king of Egypt that the people fled. The heart of
Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people. And
they said, why have we done this? That we've let Israel go from
serving us. The enemies of God and even the
people of God, we have what's inside called an old man. That
old nature, that nature that hates God, hates His mercy, Hates
his grace, hates his elect. The scripture says in Matthew
10, 22, the Lord speaking, he said, you shall be hated of all
men for my name's sake, but he that endureth to the end shall
be saved. Now let me tell you what God's people are not hated
for. They're not hated for being good citizens. Everybody, we
ought to be a good citizen. Not hated for being good neighbors.
Not hated for that. for doing good to mankind. Now
I hate it because of that. I'll tell you why people of God
are hated. Because they have cast their
all upon the Lord Jesus Christ for life and have trusted Him
and trusted His Word when He said that salvation is of the
Lord and that salvation is not by my free will and my choice. Whenever you make that distinction
Whenever you trust the God of this Bible, I'm telling you,
the world hates you. Because what you're saying is
this, the God, the little g God that you're serving is not God.
That's what it is. Pharaoh hated them. God's people
are hated. And so here they are, they're
being led of God and they're going in a direction that appears
to be so confusing. It's just, it does not make sense. They went one way, they went
one way, here they're going over here, they go over here and then
they go back over here, and then they turn around, instead of
going this way, you go back this way, and it's like, verses 6
to 8. And He made ready His chariot,
took His people with Him, took 600 chosen chariots, and all
the chariots of Egypt captains over every one of them and the
Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt. He pursued after
the children of Israel and the children of Israel went out with
a high hand. God Almighty in absolute power
and judgment left Pharaoh to the hardness of his own heart
and it was said that the Lord hardened him. If God leaves a
man or a woman alone, I'm telling you to do what we by nature want
to do. I'm telling you what we're going
to do. We're going to resist God. We'll always resist the
Lord. We'll always not believe Him. Being left to ourselves to run
to our own destruction. That's what will happen. So he
left Pharaoh to himself, hardened his heart, and the scripture
says in verse 9, but the Egyptians pursued after the All the horses,
chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen, his army overtook them in camping
by the sea beside Pi-Hi-Roth before Baal-Ziphon." Caught them
right down there. They're just hemmed in. Here
comes the Egyptians. Here they are. They're down at
the bottom of the Red Sea. They've got the Egyptians coming
down, and they're hemmed in. That little thing I told you,
where the Red Sea, you look at it, it's got two little water,
water. And here they are, they're down here, in the bottom. And the only way they can go
is up, and here comes Pharaoh. And they're just kind of wandering
around down in here. And here he comes. He said, we've
got them hemmed in. The pillar hadn't moved, the
pillar of God's guidance, and because the pillar hasn't moved,
the children of Israel can't move. And now Pharaoh, thinking
that his cunning and his ability has captured them, I've got them.
I've got them. Where are they going to go? When I was talking to Brother
Don the other night, he told me, he said, He said, we never
know what God is doing. We think we do. We know where he's promised us
we're going to be. But he said, I'm telling you,
he said, I'm convinced after seeing what he'd just seen, God
taught him some things. And he said, we don't know. What
are we going to do? We wait. We trust. And the providence
of God that would order and direct. Oh, how precious are the ways
of the Lord toward His elect. And the sweetness of our difficulties. Oh, listen. Let me just read
this to you. 2 Corinthians. Here they are. Here's the children of Israel.
They're hymning like us. Now you just think of your life. You think of what you've gone
through. Think of where you are. Think of how God has put you
where you are. And you know, according to the
Word of the Lord, that all these things have been ordered. You
know they have. You know He worketh all things
after the counsel of His own will. None of this happened by
luck. Here we are, we just appear as though that we're just wandering
around, you know. How long are you going to wander? Until the Lord tells us to go
somewhere else. 2 Corinthians 12. Verse 7 to 10. The scripture
says, and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance
of the revelations that was given to me of thorn in the flesh,
the messenger of Satan sent to buffet me. Lest I should be exalted
above measure for this thing, I besought the Lord thrice that
it might depart from me. And he said unto me, now listen,
my grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect
in weakness, the revelation of my weakness. Most gladly, Paul
says, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that
the power of Christ may rest upon me. I'm telling you, when
we see this thing in light of God's Word, you think, we're
just wandering around here. What are we doing? I mean, we're
just wasting time. My dad used to say, boy, we're
burning daylight. I usually heard that, Jeff, about
6 o'clock in the morning. We're burning daylight. That's
what they say. We're wasting the day. So their
situation, humanly speaking, appeared to be hopeless. Verse 10, when Pharaoh drew nigh,
the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the
Egyptians marched after them. They were sore afraid, and the
children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. What do we do? What do we do in a case like
this? Verse 11 and 12. They said unto Moses, because
there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die
in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt 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 that we should die in the wilderness.
There's always those that in arguing against God, because
of His promise, because of His providence, and they start directing
it against the messenger. I've told people, this word that
I'm preaching, I didn't come up with this. I'm just preaching
it. That's all a preacher does, he
tells people what God has said. But they're mad at the preacher
because the preacher said it. That's what they ask. Why did
you bring us out of here? I don't think it was Moses' idea.
Moses was sent. You go tell Pharaoh to let my
people go. So we understand this. His ways are not our ways and
vice versa. Verse 13, 14. And Moses said
to the people, Fear ye not. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord, which He will show to you this day for the Egyptians
whom you've seen today, you shall see them again no more forever.
And the Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace. What a command. Fear not, stand
still, and look and see the salvation of the Lord. Don't let your heart
sink, stagger through unbelief. We're not going to contribute
one thing to the victory. We're not going to accomplish
it one second faster than God's ordained it. Write that down. We're not going to bring to pass
that which God has not willed. Stand still. Don't be afraid
and see the battle and the victory is the Lord's and He'll not share
His glory with us. It won't happen. Isaiah, let
me read this to you. Isaiah 26. Isaiah 26 verses 3
and 4. Thou will keep him in perfect
peace. I need to read this pretty often.
Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
thee because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever. For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength. You know what I need to do? Settle
down. Just settle down. Everything
is right on time. 15 to 18. And the Lord said unto
Moses, wherefore criest thou unto me? Obviously Moses was
praying. He was praying and asked the Lord, wherefore criest thou
unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.
Lift thou up thy rod and stretch out thine hand over the sea,
divide it, and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground
through the midst of the sea. And I behold, I will harden the
hearts of the Egyptians, they shall follow them. I will get
me honor upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts, upon his chariots,
upon his horsemen." Now, according to the word of the Lord, they're
down at the bottom. They're down at the bottom. On
some land, they're hemmed in. They're hemmed in. They're at
the mouth, at Piraeus, the little inlet of water. And they're sitting
right here. Here's the Beelzephon, this is
where they've got to go. And he says, you go forward. Through the water? Go forward. Moses, you take your rod and
stretch it out. Now remember, salvation is of
the Lord. If I can accomplish it, if I
can do it, it's not of God. If I can accomplish it by my
power, I'm going to get the glory. The people of God is going to
be delivered from the enemies of the Lord according to the
Lord's will and the Lord's power and the Lord's doing. Verse 19
and 20. And the angel of God went before
the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them. 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. It was a cloud and darkness to them. It gave light
by night to these, so that the one came not near the other all
night." The same light that enlightens God's people is said to be darkness
to the unbeliever. They look, they hear the same
thing that a believer is hearing. And God's Spirit blesses the
Word to them and it's spiritual light. And an unbeliever hears
it and it's just words. They make absolutely no sense. They see no beauty in it. In verse 20 and 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 dry ground and
the waters were a wall under them on their right hand and
on their left. I've heard a lot of people say
when the children of Israel walked across the Red Sea it was low
tide. It was low tide. Y'all ever heard
that? I mean, you know, it was low tide. It really wasn't that
big. No. I did a little reading just
to find out where were they. How deep is the water from Pyhahiroth
to Beelzefon. How deep is the water? Average
depth, 300 feet. Length from Pyhahiroth to Beelzefon,
between 9 and 10 miles. 9 and 10 miles. And the scripture says that God
sent a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land. He divided that water and upheld
that water 300 feet. And they walked across, the scripture
says, on dry ground. You know what I believe? I believe
He walked across on dry ground. that 300 feet of water was up
there, and it was 9 to 10 miles to where they were going. And
God Almighty delivered His people, and they walked across. The scripture says, 23, the Egyptians
pursued and went in after them to the midst of the sea. Even
all of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, horsemen came to pass. And in
the morning, watch, the Lord looked into the host of the Egyptians. through the pillar of fire and
of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, took off
their chariot wheels that they drove heavily, so that the Egyptians
said, let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth
for them against the Egyptians." Do you know what they did? It
was sheer presumption. That's sheer presumption. Is it not amazing to behold the
exhibition of this truth? There is no fear of God. There's no reverence before their
eyes. The believer hears this word
and his heart bows in humility and respect. You go forward. You go forward. And they started
walking. And God opened a way. And when
that Red Sea opened up, it was a beautiful picture of the opening
up of the Lord Jesus Christ, the broken body, that spear that
opened His side and opened it, blood came forth. That Red Sea
was a picture of Christ. And they walked across safely
delivered in that which was opened up for them. This is my body
which is broken for you. That Red Sea was rent and so
was Christ for the delivery of His people. And the scripture
says Verses 26 through the end of the chapter here, And the
Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea,
that the waters may come again unto the Egyptians upon the chariots,
upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his
hand over the sea, and the Red 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 water returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen,
all the host of Pharaoh that came unto the sea, after them
there remained not so much as one of them. But the children
of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and
the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their
left. 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
and believed the Lord and His servant Moses. Almighty God is
going to deliver His people out of the bondage of sin and death.
He's going to call them out of darkness. He's going to reveal
Himself to them. And He's going to lead them and
direct them in this world for an allotted time. It's appointed
unto man once to die. But while we're here, I'm telling
you according to this word, right here, that Almighty God is going
to lead us and guide us according to His good pleasure. And all
the while, we will. I was going to say we probably
will. No, we will. Because of an old man, we're
going to doubt and we're going to wonder, why is it thus? Why? Wouldn't it have been easier
if we would have? God's ways are not our ways. The Lord orders the steps of
His people for His glory and our good. What do we do? Stand still. wait on the Lord,
and see the salvation of our God. I pray God bless these words
to our heart for Christ's sake. Amen.