Chapter 14. Let me begin by reading
that tenth verse. The tenth verse says, And 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 the children of Israel cried
out unto the Lord." This is a trying scene when Pharaoh
drew nigh. It was a situation and a scene
trying which human effort was reduced to nothing. Such a try
and scene. Pharaoh drew nigh, and here was
the children of Israel, hopeless and helpless to do anything about
it in themselves. What could they do? Any effort that they put forth
at this particular time would be like trying to stem the ocean's
tide with a bale of straw. This is the situation. Pharaoh's army was behind him. The mountains
surrounded him, and the Red Sea was in front of him. A trying scene, if there
ever was one. The sea was before him, Pharaoh's
army behind him, the mountains round about And all of this was permitted
and ordered by God. He says here in chapter 14, verse 1, The Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel.
that they turn and camp between Migal and the sea, over
against Baal-ziphon, before it shall encamp by the sea. Now, all this is ordered by God,
ordered and directed by God, for Pharaoh He is going to position
the children of Israel at a certain place in order that Pharaoh might
be enticed to that place for this reason. He says, For Pharaoh
will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land,
and the wilderness hath shut them in. what Pharaoh will say. And God
says, I'll harden Pharaoh's heart. That's what I'll do. I'll harden
Pharaoh's heart. And he shall follow after him. I'm fixing up this trap for him. I'm setting things in order. I'm going to do away with his
army. I'm going to kill Pharaoh and the whole shooting match.
I'm going to get honor. God says, I'm going to get honor
for myself. I'm planning all this. I'm planning
all this. I'm ordering all this in order
that I can get those people, Pharaoh and his army, down at
this certain place where they think that the case of Israel is hopeless. And He said, then I'll exert
my power and I'll get honor. by killing the whole shooting
match. I'll kill them all off and I'll
get honor for myself. And at the same time, I'll save
my people. I'll harden Pharaoh's heart.
Pharaoh had a hard heart because God hardened his heart, that
he shall follow after them And I will be honored, I will be
honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his host, all his army, for
this reason, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. And it was told
the king of Egypt that the people fled. and the heart of Pharaoh
and of his servants were turned against the people. And they
said, Why have we done this? You remember, he repented and
let the children of Israel go. But now he's changed his mind. He says, Why have we done this
that we have let Israel go from serving us. They were slaves. So he made ready his chariot,
and he took his people with him. And he took six hundred chosen
chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and the captains over
every one of them. And the Lord hardened the heart
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Hardened his heart. planned all
this ahead of time. And Pharaoh and his host pursued
after the children of Israel. And the children of Israel went
out with a high hand. And the Egyptians pursued after
them. All the horses and the chariots
of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his army overtook them in camp
by the sea. Now look back there at the second verse of this chapter.
And he said, Speak unto the children that they turn and encamp before
these two places. See that? He ordered all this,
hardened their heart, pursued them, and overtook them, encamped
by the sea. Now, verse 10, And when Pharaoh
drew nigh, there they was, I said, a hard situation between a rock
and a hard place, a try and seen. All of it, though, know this
now, all of it ordered, permitted by the God of heaven. He permitted
Pharaoh to come upon them. Why? just to display himself
in the salvation of his people and the total overthrow of his
people's enemies. He done all that for his people
to display himself in his salvation and to do away with the enemies
of the children of Israel. Now, he could have taken Israel
through the Red Sea and far beyond the reach of the Egyptians even
before Pharaoh had started from Egypt. But that would not have
fully glorified and honored his name. God's name must be honored
and glorified. And if he's got to kill off a
whole nation to glorify himself, and to save His people. That's
no problem with God. That's no problem with me. I know it's a problem with a
lot of people, especially in our day, that they will not permit
God to do as He pleases. They want to bind the hands of
God. God can't do this. I remember
telling some folks one time about God's sovereignty, and the preacher
himself told his people what I said. And he said, the preacher
said, I can't serve a God like that. He said, I can't serve
a God that is sovereign and will do what he pleases. His purpose then was to get honor
for his name and confound and do away with the enemy of the
children of Israel. We here this morning, we often
lose sight of this great truth. Now, if we could only look upon
the difficulties that arises in our own lives. Crisis, they
call it. Things that come upon us
that we can't understand. Things that wound us. Things that cut deep. If we could
only look upon these difficult times as an occasion as an occasion,
as a time of bringing out on our behalf the sufficiency of
divine grace. Things that happen, difficulties
that arise in our lives, if we could look upon them as a means
or an occasion whereby God might display, show His divine grace,
it would enable us to glorify God even when we're in the deepest
waters. If we'd look at it in that light,
and that's the only way you can look at it, it was God that ordered the children
of Israel to go in such a place and encamp there. And then he
hardens Pharaoh's heart. And Pharaoh said, why, he said,
I know where they're going to be. And we'll go there. They're trapped. They can't get
loose. God did that in order that he
might be glorified and show forth the divine sufficiency of his
grace and deliver the children of Israel. Well, how did these people react? I said they were between a rock
and a hard place. When Pharaoh drew nigh, it wasn't
so bad when they knew he was coming, I suspect, but when they
could They could hear the rattle of the wagons, the roll of the
wheels, the thunder that came from that great army and all
these captains. They just looked up and there
on the horizon, there was a sea, an army of faces, their enemies. What could they do? The children
of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched
after them, and they were so afraid. That means they were
scared to death, shaking in their boots. And the children of Israel
cried out unto the Lord, and they said unto Moses. Now, this
is blind unbelief on the part of the children of Israel. It
was only back in about the twelfth or thirteenth chapter that God
killed the firstborn of Egypt on behalf of these people to
deliver them. He smoked the firstborn and told
the children of Israel. He said, now you take a lamb
and take the blood of that lamb that you offer as a sacrifice,
take that blood and put it on the sides of the door and the
overhead of the door. And he said, when the death angel
comes over, you get back in your house there, in your hut, you
get in there. And he said, when the death angel
passes over, when he sees the blood, he'll pass over you. But he'll kill the firstborn
of all it. They forgot about that. Blind unbelief. And that's the
way it is with us. We forget about what God's done
for us, and we set out trying to solve our own problems. They said unto Moses, they said,
There's no graves in Egypt. Hast thou taken Hast thou taken
us away in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt with
us to carry us forth? Why did you do this? Why did
you come down here and entice us to listen to you and follow
you? Why did you do that? We're going
to die out here. No graves back in Egypt. And
they was moaning and groaning, you remember, under the heavy
burden of labor, being slaves, making bricks? Is not this the word that we
did tell thee in Egypt?" He said, This is what we told you in Egypt
when you said, Come on, let's get out of here. We said, 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." Blind unbelief, isn't it? Unbelief! Oh, listen, this blind unbelief. Let me give you some biblical
examples of blind unbelief. You remember David, King David,
whose heart beat with God? He said one time, he said, I shall one day perish by the
hand of Saul. Saul was the king, and David
was on the run, scared to death. Scared to death after all God
had done on his behalf, and the many times that God had displayed
his power and grace to David. David said, I know that one day
Saul's going to get me and kill me. I'll perish by the sword
of Saul. He said, there's nothing better
for me to do than to flee Israel, to flee this land and go in hiding
in the land of the Philistines. Well, how did it turn out? Well, Saul was killed on Mount
Gilboa. And what happened to David? God
established with David an everlasting throne and an everlasting kingdom. That's how it turned out. Well, let me tell you about old
Elijah. You remember Elijah, the Tishbite? Jezebel threatened him, told
him and said, Before the sun goes down, I'll spill your blood. You're nibbling into things that's
none of your business. And I'll have your life. I'll
spill your blood. Elijah, all that God had done
for Elijah, displayed himself in power and mercy and love,
done supernatural things. The threatening of this woman,
Jezebel, so scared him, he ran off into the mountains and hid
himself. And told God, he said, well,
I'm the only one left. And he said, they're going to
kill me. Remember that? Well, how did it turn out? I'll
tell you how it turned out. Jezebel was broken to pieces
on the pavement and the dogs licked her blood. Elijah boarded a chariot of fire and
went to heaven with God. See, that's how it turned out. We see it's impossible, it's
an impossibility for flesh and blood, that is, it's impossible for flesh and
blood to be still. They've got to do something.
Here it says, it'd been better for us to serve
the Egyptians than that we should die out here in the wilderness.
They're going to kill us. Moses said unto the people, he
said, Don't be afraid. Now this is what he said to this
three quarters of a million people, men, women, and children. Here they are in this difficult
situation. Pharaoh's army's behind them.
The mountains surround them. The Red Sea's in front of them.
What are they going to do? They can't chop the mountains
down. They can't swim the Red Sea. They can't kill that army. What
are they going to do? Moses tells them, he said, now,
don't be afraid, fear ye not, but just stand still. Stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. I'm telling you that it is impossible
for flesh and blood to stand still. Human nature must be doing
something. It's got to do something. Unbelief,
which these Israelites were full of at this particular time, which
you and I are full of, unbelief creates and magnifies difficulties
and causes us to be very busy to be very busy trying to remove
the difficulties. And these fruitless efforts and
activities that arises from situations, they're fruitless, and all they
do is obstruct the view from us seeing God's salvation. For instance, when a man's conscience
is made uneasy by the sense of sin, what is the first thing
he does? It's not to stand still and wait
for relief from God. But what does he do? He sets
about trying to remove the uneasiness of his conscience. He tries to
do something. Well, I know that people are
baptized. I'll be baptized. Well, I know that There are ordinances
in the church. There's the Lord's Supper. I'll
take the Lord's Supper. I'll start reading the Bible.
I'll start going to church, trying to do something. What can you
do? What can you do? We're surrounded
by mountains. The Red Sea's in front of us.
The arm is behind us. What can we do? What we do only
dims our view from seeing God's salvation. What are we to do? Stand still and see God's salvation. God wants us, as His children,
to see His salvation and to enjoy His salvation and to worship
and to praise Him throughout time and eternity to come. But most people never see God's
salvation. They're too busy trying to relieve
their situation that the relief that they afford through their
restlessness and human effort only tends to obstruct the view
of God's salvation. So plain and so simple is God's
salvation. Christ died in order to make atonement for
our sins. Our sins were laid on Him. and
he paid the penalty, do our sins, enabling God to be just and justifier
of him that believeth in Jesus. Salvation, stand still and seek
God's salvation in Jesus Christ, who shed his blood, he who knew
no sin, but was made sin on our behalf. The just dine, the unjust,
they might bring us to God. That's God's salvation. God's
salvation started back in eternity when He chose us in Him before
the foundation of the world. And the Bible says that the Lamb
in the eternal purpose and mind of God was slain from the foundation
of the world, and we were given grace in Him from the foundation
of the world. And here in time, He effected
the eternal purpose of God on our behalf by standing in our
place and in our room and bearing that which was due us. Salvation
is of God. And he said to these people here,
he said, Fear not, fear not, and see. and see the salvation
of the Lord. There are multiplied millions
of people at any given time who have never seen. They are religious,
but they have never seen God's salvation. They have seen baptism. They don't know what baptism
means. Baptism is a picture of how God saves us. This is a picture
of God's baptism when they went through the Red Sea. Walls of
water on both sides. They're on dry land. And a cloud
over top of them. And it says they were baptized
with the baptism of Moses. That's God's salvation. But people,
I know, I know hundreds of them. And there's thousands and thousands
of people. that have been baptized in order
to be saved. They've seen baptism. They must
be doing something. My God, ain't there something
that I can do? What can you do? What can you
do? Here's the enemy. There's the
mountains and there's the sea. What are you going to do? Going
to destroy the mountains? Going to kill them all off, the
army? Going to swim the Red Sea? What are you going to do? Stand
still. If a sense of sin penetrates
your conscience and you become uneasy, listen, quit doing. Doing won't save you. Christ
alone can save you. Quit your doing. Fear not. If there's an uneasiness, wait,
wait, wait till God visits you. Wait till it's clear. Wait till
you can see. Pray to God, open my eyes that
I might see. Ah, listen now, let me say this
again. Unbelief, what does it do? It creates or magnifies difficulties, causes us, our human nature, causes us to
be busy doing something, trying to remove the difficulties. And by our trying and doing,
It only hides from our view the salvation of God Almighty. We gain nothing by our restlessness
and our anxious efforts. We don't gain an inch. Faith,
true faith, on the contrary, raises the soul above the difficulty
and straight to God himself, enables him to stand still. True faith enables a man to stand
still. What can we do? We cannot make
one hair black and one hair white. We cannot add an inch to our
stature. What can we do? What can Israel
do here at the Red Sea? Couldn't dry it up, couldn't
level the mountains, couldn't kill off the armies? Impossible. Trapped by the army and the mountains
and the Red Sea. And it is true, as I've already
said, it's true as sinners. when we come under this conviction
or uneasiness of sin and our conscience is penetrated and
becomes active, then we're tempted by human nature to resort in
doing something in order to obtain relief. Is that right? I'll do
better the next time. I'll quit cussing. I'll quit
this. going out with this crowd. I'll
quit this, I'll quit that. Trying to do something to obtain
relief when the Spirit of God's in your conscience doing something. I know what I'm talking about.
I remember when I first made a profession. First made a profession. I walked down to the corner building,
there on the corner, And Upper Block is where I live. I walked
down there and I used to like to gamble. Played Tongue, 25 cents a hand. I looked down that road and I
said, well, I'll go down there and play one more night. One hand of Tongue or two hours
of Tongue or whatever it was in my mind, but that was it. And I started. But the God of
mercy and glory wouldn't let me go. I turned and went home
and never went back. Went home, wherever I went. But my conscience was pricked. And my nature said, sure, there's
something you can do about it. Nothing I can do about it. I
can't obtain relief by my efforts and by my doings. The very best fruit that human
nature can produce, listen to me now, the very best thing that
you can do as far as human nature is concerned, is represented
in the Bible as dead works and filthy rags. The best you can
do, your best efforts to relieve your situation, your best, you
quit cussing, you quit this, you quit that, you quit all that,
that is represented by God in this holy book as dead works. and filthy rags, quit your dead works, do away
with your filthy rags as a means of your acceptance, and stand still and see God's
salvation in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. All our efforts I wish I could
say this to the multitudes because it's true. It's true. I don't know that God would bless
it, but I'd like to say it anyhow to the multitudes. Our efforts
after life do but prove us to be dead. All our efforts to get
life does nothing but prove us to be dead in trespasses and
in sins. And our very efforts after holiness
and righteousness do but prove us to be wrapped up in our filthy
rags. As for our personal merit, and
personal worthiness, we are put on a level with an unclean, worthless
animal here in the Bible. There was a lamb for the clean. And then there was the animal,
which was an ass. And if that ass did not have
a lamb, and that ass was not redeemed. He templifies the unredeemed,
and that ass was to have his neck broke and die. That's what we are represented
as in the Bible. Can anything be more worthless
and unsightly than a dead ass with a broken neck? We must stand still and see God's
salvation. What can we do in regard to making
atonement? Can we make atonement? No. We're sinners by nature, by choice,
and by practice. The wrath of God is on us. We're
condemned already. We're already been tried and
found guilty. The only thing that keeps us
from hell this morning is the long-suffering of God. That's
the only thing. It's His preventive grace that
keeps us out of hell. We're already condemned. There's none of this business
of when we die we're all going to stand up there God's going
to say, well, have you done enough and all that business? Are you
worthy of the kingdom of God? No, the trial's already been
had. The verdict is in and we're found
guilty in every mouth. Might be stopped before God.
All of sin comes short of the glory of God. All of us, every
man, woman, boy or girl among us is guilty before God. Guilty
right now where he's sat. Wrath of God hangs on you like
a heavy cloud. And if God is not long-suffering
and merciful to you, you'll go to hell. That's all
there are to it. That's all there are to it. We've
got to stand still and see God's salvation in Christ Jesus. What
could we do in the matter of making atonement? Could we have
stood with the Son of God on the cross, on the tree, Could
we go down into the horrible pit in the mire of clay where
He won't? No, you say. I'll tell you this,
God is alone in redemption by Himself. For as for us, we have
but to stand still and see the salvation of God. The very fact,
now listen to me, the very fact of its being God's salvation
proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that man has no part or parcel
in it. It's God's salvation. God's salvation. Some feel disposed to ask the
question, are we not to do something? What kind of religion is this?
Are we not to do something? Well, I answer it like this.
What can we do? Tell me what we can do. All of you out there this morning
that know yourselves, that you actually know who you are in
the light of God Almighty, you'll say nothing. Can't do nothing. I'm helpless and I'm hopeless.
I can't do nothing. Well, if we can do nothing, is
it not better then for us to stand still and seek God's salvation? I think it is. If He's acting
for us, had we not better take our hands off of it and stand
back and let God do it, the very fact of our being called to see
God's salvation proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that God's
salvation is a complete salvation. It's complete. Nothing can be
added to it. You can't add your little worthless
dead works and filthy rags to His glorious salvation. It's
God's salvation. He wants all the honor and he'll
have all the honor for it. What does that teach us about
God's salvation? Well, it teaches us this, number
one. It teaches us that salvation is a thing wrought out and revealed
by God to be seen and to be enjoyed. It's to be seen. Can you see
the unseen? Only with the eyes of faith.
Quit your doing. Trust Him. That's what I say. Quit your doing and trust Him.
Now, this business of salvation is not a thing made up of God's
doing and partly of your doing. Stand still and see God's salvation. It doesn't say stand still and
see your part in salvation and God's part in salvation. No. Stand still and see God's salvation. If it was partly God and partly
you, if that was so, why is it called God's salvation? Why wouldn't
it be called God's salvation partly? and man's salvation partly. The only possible effect of human
effort is to raise a cloud of dust which obscures our view
of seeing God's salvation. God said to Moses, he said, Wherefore
Christ thou to me? Why do you cry unto me?" Somewhere
he said that. Why do you cry unto me? He said, Speak unto the children
of Israel that they go forward. He told them to stand still and
seek God's salvation. Moses began to cry unto God,
and God said, Quit your crying, no need of crying. What you're
to do now is to go forward." Well, how are they going to go
forward? He said, take the rod, Moses, and spike the water, speak
to the water, and open it up. That's God's
salvation. God does it all. And He spoke. And he took the
rod. And you know what happened? That sea began to open up. They had to trust God for every
step. Now, that sea didn't divide all
at once. It just didn't make a path, a
dry land from the starting point to across that Red Sea. No, sir, it just opened up as
they took one step. They had to trust God for every
step. Every step. When they took a step, water
went back. They took another. You see what
it says in the Bible? It says they walked by faith. If they had walked by sight, if
this thing was clean and open from start to the other side,
They wouldn't have been walking by faith, they'd be walking by
sight. The Egyptians walked by sight and perished every one
of them. Oh, my soul. Rest assured now,
how are they going to go through that Red Sea? Well, human nature,
human wisdom, our ingenuity, Can't answer the
question, can't solve the problem. How can God be just and justifier
of him that believeth in Jesus? How can that happen? I asked a prosecuting attorney
one time in the courthouse. I was to be in there to, I don't
know, stand up for somebody. I forget what it was. But I knew
the prosecuting attorney knew me. and talked to me a little
bit, and I said, well, yeah, I'm a preacher. I said, you're
a lawyer, I want to ask you this question. He said, what's that?
I said, how can God be just and justifier at the same time? How
can He do that? He just grinned and said, I don't
know. That's out of my realm. That's out of the realm of human
effort. You can't solve that problem.
Only God can solve that problem. How did God solve it? God become
a man. That's how he solved it. He became
a man, the man Christ Jesus. And as a man, he honored God's
law, every jot and every tittle of God's law. He gave obedience
to God's law. Not just the first command and
the second command, but he gave total, complete obedience to
every jot and every tittle of the law. He rendered it honorable,
magnified it, and offered himself without spot and without limit.
representing me, a poor sinner, offering himself on my behalf,
representing me, and the wrath of God fell on him as a man instead
of falling on me. And he bore the penalty as due
to me. Stand still and see God's salvation
in Christ Jesus. That's what I'm trying to say.
Say it, say it, and enjoy it. Oh, speak unto them. Go forward. Where are they to
go? There was an insurmountable barrier there, mountains all
around them, Pharaoh's army behind them, and a sea in front of them.
Can they go through the Red Sea? Human nature, I said, can't answer
the question. But rest assured of this, rest
assured now. Know this for sure, that God
never gives a command without, at the same time, giving power
to perform the command. Whenever he commands, at the
same time, He gives power to perform that command. Well, you
remember the man in the New Testament? He had a withered hand. And our
Lord came to him and said, Stretch forth thy hand. Now, it is not said in the Scriptures
that this man with the withered hand said, Can I stretch forth
my withered hand when my arm hangs dead to my side? Oh, no. How can I? He didn't raise any
question. For with the command, and from
the same source that the command came from, came the power to
obey. Now, in Israel's case, the command
was to go forward, and that was accompanied with the provisions
of grace. The rod and Moses' outstretched
hand over the sea divided the sea, and the children of Israel
went step by step, got across there, And Pharaoh and his army
rushed in behind them. And when they got out there in
the middle, God caused that Red Sea to come together and drowned
all of them. And God said, You'll never see
them anymore. Your enemies are forever gone. You'll never see them. Stand
still. Stand still. Quit your doing. Look what you're doing. See what
you're doing. Stand still and see God's salvation. Are you interested in seeing
God's salvation? Are you interested in that? Oh, if you're interested and
you haven't come to that point here this morning where you can
see it in Christ Jesus, why don't you beg God to show you His salvation? If you're really interested enough,
If you hunger and thirst after His salvation, then you'll say,
Lord, I want to be saved. I want to see Your salvation.
I'm all mixed up. And wait. I believe you'll see
God's salvation. Let's stand. I've taken too much
time.