Let's look at verses 1 and 2
again. Psalm 114. When Israel went out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah was
his sanctuary and Israel his dominion. Now this is a wonderful
description of all of God's people. This is the way we need to think
about this. How God deals with us, his people. What our relationship
with him is. what he's done for us and in
us, who he is to us. When Israel came out of Egypt,
everybody knows something about that. There's been movies made
about it, there's been cartoons made about it. Every Sunday school
teacher teaches it, the Passover. When Israel came out of Egypt,
everybody knows a little something about that. When God's people
came out of this world. Israel is the people of God. God's sheep. Not the earthly
nation of Israel, but the nation of Israel pictures the spiritual
Israel of God. We know that. We've referred
so many times to Paul's dealing with that. Not all Israel is
Israel. Those who are Christ's, those who have the faith that
God gave Abraham, if he gave it to you too, then you're the
seed. the people of God, the Israel of God, and heirs according
to the promise that God made to Abraham. So this is us. This is us. And we came out of
Egypt. Egypt always pictures the world.
Egypt was a corrupt, evil place with an evil ruler who defied
God to his face and claimed himself to be God. And so it's clear
what Egypt pictures. Egypt always pictures the world,
but it also pictures our condition under the cruel yoke of the law
of God. And I say cruel, not in the sense
that the Egyptians were cruel in that they seem to enjoy just
inflicting unreasonable suffering upon the people of Israel. But
there's a different definition of cruel. It means rigid, stern,
unrelenting, and strict. That's God's law. And under the
yoke of bondage that the Israelites suffered under in Egypt, they
were commanded to make bricks. But they said, we have no straw
to make bricks. So we need our tally. We need our daily tallies
or goals to be lowered. We don't have enough straw. But
then they doubled the tally and said, you're not getting any
more straw. You'll make twice the bricks, no straw. And that's
a clear picture. The Jews being made to build
bricks without straw is a great picture of God's law demanding
us to produce and us not having the resources whereby to produce
what the law demands. Through our own fault, through
our own sin, we are incapable of producing what God demands,
incapable of pleasing Him. But by the grace of God, we came
out of Egypt. We're not under the law, Paul
said, but under grace. We came out of Egypt. And how
did that happen? By the blood of the Lamb. We escaped Egypt. Isn't that
right? You know this story. You've all
read or heard the account of the Passover. Probably heard
it preached on more than once. And what God demanded and what
transpired on that amazing night The difference between all of
the other plagues, all of the other times that God sent a plague
and sent Moses to Pharaoh and said, let my people go. And Pharaoh
said, I don't even know who your God is. Who's he to tell me what
to do? I'm not letting the people go. I'm going to make it worse
on them. And he would. The difference between all of
that, all that did not result in the liberation of the Jews,
the difference between that and that which did result in their
freedom was the blood of God's Passover lamb. He said, here's
what you're going to do on this night. You're going to kill a
lamb and you're going to put the blood on the door and you're
going to eat all of the lamb. And Pharaoh is going to let you
go. He's going to let you go. And when I see the blood, I'm
going to pass over you. The death of that lamb. There
was a death in every house wasn't there? There was either the death of
a sinner or the death of a lamb. And so by the blood of God's
Passover lamb, we are brought out of this world. We are brought
out, saved out of every, out of every kindred, tribe, nation,
and tongue under heaven. Well, but Chris, we're still
in this world, in it, but not of it. We're still in the world, but
we're delivered from it. Listen to Galatians 1 3 grace
be up to you and peace from God the father and from our Lord
Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver
us from this present evil world according to the will of God
and our father to whom be glory forever and ever. He prayed Lord don't father don't
take him out of this world, but keep them from the evil. We're
delivered. We're saved. from this world. So Israel has come out of Egypt.
Now what? What does our text say? When
Israel came out of Egypt, Judah was his sanctuary and Israel
his dominion. We are now, now that God has
saved us, now that God has delivered us by the precious blood of his
son, we are his sanctuary and we are his dominion. What does
that mean? His kingdom. This is a very beautiful
teaching. We were many things to God before
He ever saved us, and He to us before He ever brought us out
of this world, before we ever experienced His salvation. But now that He has delivered
us, now that He has given us birth from above, that we've
seen and entered the kingdom of God, by a birth from above,
a new birth. Now that we've experienced His
grace and the power of the blood of Christ to save sinners like
us, He has indwelt us. He dwells within us. We are His
sanctuary. Now, I knew that He was my sanctuary. But I've never given much thought
to this. A little bit, maybe. We're His sanctuary. Now this
means we are set apart for Him. We are sanctified unto Him. We
are consecrated before Him. We are holy in that sense, holy
in Christ. The vessels of the tabernacle
were holy in that they were God's, and not to be used for any other
purpose, but for His service and worship. And when they were,
God wrote on the wall. You remember that. That didn't
end well for the person who defiled God's sanctified vessels. We are his vessels like that.
We are bought with a price and that price is his precious blood.
Paul told the Corinthians, your body is not for your own pleasure.
It's not for your own lusts, it's for the Lord. First Corinthians
6.13, now the body is not for fornication but for the Lord
and the Lord for the body. I'm his and he's mine. But the
word sanctuary is also used to define something else in the
scripture, a place of habitation, a sacred place. God said to Moses
in Exodus 25, eight, let them make me a sanctuary that I may
dwell among them. So there was a physical sanctuary
that they built that God's glory was seen in there. The high priest
went in there alone once a year, not without blood. There was
a physical sanctuary, and that pictured Christ. But also in
our text, God says that Judah, that is the nation of Israel,
sometimes referred to as Judah, sometimes as Israel. Judah sometimes
because being the chief tribe, the kingly tribe. But they themselves,
the people, are God's sanctuary, God's dwelling place, God's sacred
dwelling place. He not only dwelt with them in
the Old Testament, but he dwelt in them. And we see that all
in the New Testament, don't we? How mysterious this is. You ever
think about that? Paul said, your body is the temple
of God. Will you defile the temple of
God? Relations 220, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I
live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. So Christ liveth in me. We are the temple of God, Paul
said. Hebrews 3.5, Moses verily was faithful in all his house
as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to
be spoken after. But Christ as a son over his
own house, whose house we are. We just saw this passage recently
in another message. Whose house we are, if we hold
fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
If he built you, he lives in you. You're his house. It is Christ in us that sets
us free. Turn to Matthew 12 with me, please.
I want us to see this. We are the sanctuary of God.
Matthew 12, 24. And you'd miss this in this passage
now if you don't stop and think about what's happening. Think
about the context of it, because it doesn't say anything about
Christ living in us. It's not as clearly revealed
in this passage as it is where Paul just flat says, it's Christ
in me. And your body is the temple.
Don't make it something else. All right, but look, Christ has
set us free by coming where we are. Making us his own and setting
up an abode within us Matthew 12 24, but when the Pharisees
heard that he had cast a devil out of a man they said this fellow
does not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of devils
and Jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them every kingdom
divided against itself is brought to desolation Satan doesn't find
himself Satan doesn't cast out Satan That's just foolish And every city or house divided
against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan,
he is divided against himself. How shall then his kingdom stand? And if I, by Beelzebub, cast
out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they
shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit
of God, And we know that's right. This is how it is. He casts out
devils by the Spirit of God. Then the Kingdom of God is staring
you right in the face. That's what he said. It's come
to you. And here's what happens when he does cast out a spirit. It's a picture of his saving
grace towards sinners. How can one enter into a strong
man's house and spoil his goods except he first bind the strong
man? And then he will spoil his house.
And in parallel passages to this, it talks about him taking up
a boat. Natural man is dominated in the
dominion of Satan, taken captive by him at his will, Paul said
in 2 Timothy 2.26. But the stronger man comes along,
as he's referred to in another account of this, and binds him
and takes over the house. And that's Christ in us. free
from the bondage of Satan. Not under his dominion anymore
at all. Not taken captive by him anymore.
And Christ in us is our hope. Turn to Colossians 1 26. Christ in us is our freedom from
the bondage of sin and Satan. And Christ in us is our hope.
Colossians 1 26. And we're jumping in in the middle
of a passage here, so it starts referring here to something else,
but you'll see how this deals with our subject. Even the mystery
which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now
is made manifest to his saints. This is the gospel, the word
of God, the truth, mystery, but made manifest, revealed to his
people. It's given unto you to know,
to whom God would make known, the saints, the sanctuary, the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles, which is what? Christ in you, the hope
of glory. This is what he's revealing to
us now. As I said, very mysterious. It doesn't look much like Christ
dwelling in you, Chris. Well, I'm here though, ain't
I? I'm here. Do you have any idea
where you would be tonight? If you couldn't say with the
Apostle Paul, not I, but Christ. If you couldn't say that, where
would you be tonight? And we are his dominion. This
is beautiful too. This is the one thing. When he preached to the religious
Jews that they would see him one day sitting on the right
hand of the throne of the majesty on high, they began to spit on
him. Spurgeon said one time in language
that I can't remember, but basically this was the gist of it. People
are real happy with God as long as he's making earths Or blessing
them, giving them promotions in this world or things like
that. But when he ascends to his throne, people begin to grit
their teeth. When he sits upon the throne
of glory and says, I'll do what I want to do with you, when I
want to do it, the way I want to do it. And I may just leave
you alone completely. I'll save you or I'll damn you.
I'll give life to whomsoever I please. People don't like that
much. But we are his dominion, his
realm. And so we with Thomas by his
grace say of him, my Lord and my God, my God. Again, before he ever even saved
me in my experience, God was many things to me. But one day
by his grace, I bowed down unto him. I took my place at his feet
and I confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. And I was willing to do that
in the day of his power. The prophet said, Lord turn us
and we'll be turned. And when he turned me, I was
turned. And I bowed. Before I was as the one who wrote
the poem Invictus. You may have heard it before.
It ends like this. I won't quote the whole thing.
But it ends this way. I am the master of my fate. I
am the captain of my soul. Now I'm more like the dear lady
who wrote a response to that poem. The word Invictus means
unconquered. And a dear lady wrote a response
that seemed like she might have known the same Lord that I do.
She called hers conquered. And hers ends this way, Christ
is the master of my faith. Christ is the captain of my soul. When God brought me out of Egypt,
from then on, I was his dominion, knowingly, willingly. And this
is true of every believer. Every believer now, religion
talks about, you know, making Jesus your savior and then one
day maybe making your Lord too. It don't work like that. It don't
happen like that. The thief on the cross knew who
it was when he knew, when the Lord brought him out, when the
Lord saved him. The first word out of his mouth
was Lord. Lord. That happens a lot. What was
the first word out of Saul of Tarsus's mouth when the Lord
blinded him and knocked him into the dust? Lord. Lord, remember me. Lord, what
would you have me do? When the woman from Canaan was
put in her rightful place, when the Lord called her a dog, she
said, yeah, Lord, but I'm a dog that needs a crumb from whose
table? The master. That's what happens when God
saves a sinner right there. You're going to be his sanctuary
and his dominion. God's kingdom is not a democracy.
Have you been conquered by King Jesus? If and when you are, it'll be
the best thing that ever happened to you. The third verse in our text says
this, the sea saw it and fled. Jordan was driven back. Let's
read several verses together because they go together. The
mountains skipped like rams and the little hills like lambs.
What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest, thou Jordan,
that thou wast driven back? What made this happen? Well,
we know the answer to that. God said, you stand right there
and watch me save you. And that's when the Red Sea departed. Ye mountains that ye skipped
like rams and ye little hills like lambs. When Christ is your
King, when He brings you out of Egypt, when He saves you and
indwells you and rules over you, every obstacle in your path will
clear the way for you. No Red Sea, no hills, no mountains, no obstacles. He gives his angels charge over
us lest we even dash our foot against a stone. Because he is your king. You
see, you see the language here? When they saw it, when the sea
saw that he brought you out, when the sea saw that you were
his sanctuary, when the sea saw that you were his dominion, then
it fled. That's when it flees. They weren't
running from you. They saw your master. When the
disciples cast out demons, it wasn't that the demons were scared
of Simon Peter. They weren't scared of the Apostle
John. It was that name in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth
rise up and walk. Or be ye cast out. Whatever it
was they said. In his name. They were given
power to do these miracles in his name. And when the sea sees
who dwells in us and who rules over us, it'll flee. Jordan,
the river Jordan, dried up, driven back when it saw who our king
is. Does this mean God's people don't
have any trouble? Maybe you're sitting there thinking,
I hit my toe on a rock every once in a while. Oh, but hold
on a second. Does this mean we don't have
any troubles or problems in this life? I think we know better
than that, but those are not obstacles to keep you from Him.
Those are blessings to drive you to Him. You're going to be
brought on your way better by those things, not hindered. Those are not roadblocks to keep
you from the destination that God has promised you. Those are
working together for your good to bring you on your way to the
desired haven This world and all your enemies. They may mean
it for evil, but god means it for good God's going to put joseph
on the throne of egypt. How's he going to do that by
dropping him in a pit? By putting him in prison by making
him a slave And then raising him to the throne There's nothing
going to stop you from arriving where God has predestined you
to arrive. You know where that is? To be
exactly like his son. That's where I want to be. How
about you? With him? Like him? How are we going to survive? With all the pitfalls, with all
the dangers, David said yea though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death I'm not going to be afraid of any evil because
you're with me listen to the language verse
7 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
the flint into a fountain of waters Think about that. Is this not a comfort to your
heart? God is going to make all of your
enemies, every obstacle in your path, everyone that opposes you,
everyone that would make a charge against you, everyone that would
hinder you in this world, to be scared to even dare to get
in your way. at the presence of the Lord in
the context of verse 6. In the context of the verses
we read before. Tremble. Don't you dare. God
said you'd be better off tying a millstone around your neck
and casting yourself into the depths of the sea than to be
a stumbling block to one of my children. Oh, tremble at the presence of
the God of Jacob. Nobody much scared of Jacob.
We're not going to inspire any awe in anybody in this world,
but our God might. He will one of these days. Isn't this glorious? What a comfort. Tremble. And look, he's going to make
water come out of the rock to refresh your soul all along the
way. Tremble thou earth, and this
is God brought us out of Egypt. Why? To take us to Canaan. What's
Egypt, this world? What's Canaan? Glory. His presence. And all along the way, All you
nations that oppose my people, tremble. You're not going to
be able to stop it. You're not going to be able to
do it. There are a lot of people, a lot of enemies. But no weapon formed against
you will prosper, not a dog or a wagon's tongue against you.
A thousand will fall at your right hand, ten thousand at your
left, or vice versa, whichever. Thousands are going to fall one
way or the other. It's not going to come near you. How will we survive this desert
world though? What sustenance can we find here
in this blasted, depraved desert that will refresh our souls?
When it seems that everything about this place, do you ever
come to the conclusion that Solomon did in Ecclesiastes.
I'll never have the means that he had, but even being able to enjoy
everything that this world has, being able to experience everything that this world has to offer,
he said it's all vanity and vexation of spirit. every bit of it. And he said, here's the conclusion
of the whole matter. The Lord gave him wisdom, didn't
he? The Lord said, nobody ever has
had wisdom like you're going to have and they never will.
He said, here's the conclusion of the whole matter. After taking
this world in his hand and wringing it out, he said, here's the conclusion
of everything. Fear God and do what he says.
And you know what God says? Hear my son. This is my beloved
son. You hear him. You bow to him. You believe on him. You come
to him. And all, what are we gonna, in
this world that's vanity, desert, nothing. How will we refresh our souls?
What sustenance will we find here? The smitten rock. The smitten rock. Christ crucified. That rock was
Christ and that smiting was God pouring out his wrath on his
own son under the curse of his law that
he might redeem them that were under the law. The rock must be smitten That's
what he commanded Moses and then water, life, flowed from that
rock in the desert. And even so our Lord Jesus Christ
must be stricken, smitten, afflicted of God. A man of sorrows acquainted
with grief so that every blessing that is God's to give might flow
unto us. And he was smitten. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures and we are blessed with every spiritual
blessing that there is in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Isn't
this a beautiful song? A pure river of water of life
clear as crystal flows from the very throne of God to his sheep
and that river is Christ. Christ is the river. What will be your soul's refreshment
and sustenance and joy in this desert world? I want you
to turn to one final verse and we'll conclude with this, John
14. We're brought out of Egypt now and
we're on our way to Canaan. There's a whole lot of desert
in between, isn't there? Forty years of desert. Forty years of desert. But God promised your shoes will
never even wear out. And he follows us with a pillar
of cloud by day so that the sun shall not smite us by day. He
follows us with a pillar of fire by night to drive away any dangers
and to keep us warm. What else do we need? Listen
to this. He said in John 14, 13, Whatsoever
you shall ask in my name, and keep in mind now, this context
in John 14, this is our Lord Jesus Christ leaving this world
bodily, leaving these disciples who he walked with for three
years at least in this world, and they depended on him for
everything. He taught them. He fed them. He was everything to them. They said, we've left everything
Lord and followed you. Remember what else they said
in that context to you. What will we have therefore?
How are we going to survive? We've left everything and followed
you. Do you know the answer to that? Whatever you ask in my name,
I'll give it to you. But what if we ask for something
stupid, Chris? Well, you see, we've talked about
this before. There's something better than getting everything
you want. And that's getting everything
you want that's good for you. You can't mess it up. This is
I'll give you everything you asked for that you can't mess
up right here Whatever you ask that will I
do that the father may be glorified in the son If you shall ask anything
in my name, I will do it. God's glory rests on it. Did you see that? If you love
me Keep my commandments. This is how we're gonna get through
this world. I And I will pray the Father and he shall give
you another comforter. Now he's saying this to these
disciples that he's leaving them. They're breaking their hearts
now. Can you imagine walking with him? Speaking with him face
to face for years? Having him, every time they did
something stupid, he tenderly corrected them. Can you imagine
having that? You do have that. Can you imagine not being able
to mess up? Yeah, I kind of can. He hadn't left us alone. Listen,
I'm going to send you another comforter that he may abide with
you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom this world cannot
receive. It seeth him not unless you're
born of the spirit of God. You can't see the kingdom or
enter into it This has got nothing to do with the world. Now. This
is for you. This is for my sheep when he said Lord don't take
him out of the world, but keep him from the evil. He said i'm
not praying for this world. I'm praying for my sheep But
you gave me The world can't receive because it seeth him not neither
knoweth him But you know him That's how you're going to make
it in this desert. You know him. For he dwelleth with you and
shall be in you. You're going to be his sanctuary. I will not leave you comfortless. Have you ever heard beautiful
words than these next five words? I will come to you. He came where I was one day.
And I've never been without him. Even before that, I wasn't without
him. But as far as I knew, I was. I will come right where you are. I imagine at least two or three
of us here gathered in his name, wouldn't you reckon? Maybe a little more than that. He said, there I am. There I
am. And when you need comfort, there
I am. Yet a little while in this world,
it's not going to see me anymore, but you will. I've never seen
that before, I've read this passage a thousand times in my life,
and I've never, have you ever seen that? This world is never
going to see me again once I leave here, but you will. We have eyes better than this
world has, by his grace, the eyes of faith. You see me, because I live. You shall live also. That's how
we're going to make it through this desert because He lives. The one who dwells in us lives.
The one who is our God and our King lives. As long as He does,
I'm going to be fine. At that day you shall know that
I am in my Father and ye in me and I in you. Isn't that beautiful? The Lord Jesus Christ, we're
His sanctuary. And by His grace, we are His
dominion. When the scripture talks about
all places of His dominion, I'm one of those. By His grace. Isn't that beautiful? Let's pray.