Alright brethren, let's go back
there to Exodus 14. Is there anybody here who the
Lord has made to see that you are totally incapable of saving
yourself? Maybe it's the first hour the
Lord's ever spoken to you and taught you. that you're totally
unable to save yourselves from your sin. Or maybe you are a
believer who are in a trial and the Lord is once again bringing
you to a place where He's showing you, you are totally unable to
save yourself. That's what the Lord did for
the children of Israel and this is what He does for His people
when He's going to save us. Be it the first hour or in the
midst of trial. He brings us to the place He
would have us to be. Turns us out of our way. Turns
us out of the way we were going. Like He did them. And He brings
you to a place where you're made to see. You have no ability whatsoever. Sometimes we complain about feeling
like this awful thing has come upon us, this trial has come
upon us, and we can't get out of it, we can't do anything about
it, we're trapped where we are. But don't forget, the Lord brought
you there. You're there because that's where
God brought you on purpose. And if you can't do anything
about it, That's why He brought you there. To show you, you can't
do anything to save yourself. He brought Israel here to this
place, and in front of them were these tumultuous waves of the
Red Sea, representing the sea of God's wrath against sin. And
then on each side of them were these mountains that were impossible
to climb. And then behind them is Pharaoh
and his army rushing headlong against them, picturing a lot
of things, picturing our sin, picturing the devil, picturing
all our enemies. And worst of all, brethren, within
them there was only unbelief and crying out in fear against
the Lord. Did you notice when you go back
and read Exodus 14, it says in Exodus 14, in verse 10 at the
end, it says when they saw the Egyptians coming at them, the
children of Israel cried out unto the Lord, and they said
unto Moses. They were saying this to the
Lord, but they said it to Moses. In their heart, they meant this
against the Lord, but they said it to Moses. And they cried,
why have you brought us out here to kill us? And that's what we
tend to do. That's what murmuring is. We
might be saying it against somebody, but we're really saying it against
the Lord because He's the one that brought us to where we are. If you're brought to that place,
I have a message for you. It's the message Moses declared
to them in verse 3. Moses, I'm sorry, in verse 13,
Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see
the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today. For the
Egyptians whom you've seen today, you shall see them again no more
forever. The Lord shall fight for you,
and you shall hold your peace. Whether it's the first hour or
it's every hour of trial, the Lord declares to His child, salvation
is not by your hand. You stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. You stand still and see as the
Lord fights for you and you hold your peace. And when the Lord's
brought you there, it's time to hear the Lord's next word.
When He's brought you to stand still and to behold with faith
the work of the Lord, the hand of the Lord, and to look to Him
alone, now it's time to hear the next word. Look at verse
15. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Wherefore criest thou unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel
that they go forward. There's a time to cry unto the
Lord. There's a time to pray for the Lord, to help. And then
there's a time to go forward. There's a time to stop crying
to the Lord and take action. But the Lord just commanded them
to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Now He's telling
them, go forward. That's no contradiction. That's
no contradiction for faith, true faith in Christ. is standing
still, ceasing from our works, believing salvation is of the
Lord, and true faith in Christ will be justified as true by
continuing to stand still and trust the Lord to fight for us
as we go forward. It's called walking by faith. Walking by faith. You're moving,
you're going forward, but all the while you're standing still.
Trust in the Lord to do the fighting and do the saving. That's faith,
brethren. That's faith. In that first hour,
He tells us to go forth. He's telling us to go forth to
Christ. Lay hold of Him. Go into the waters of baptism. Confess Him publicly. Commit
yourself to Him. Go forward with His people. Following
and learning the gospel as you go. And in every hour of trial,
when we start trusting ourselves, He brings us back to the place
where we're trapped again and can't do anything to help ourselves
or save ourselves. And once again, He gives us this
lesson all over. And once He's brought you to
stand still and look to the Lord, then He says, now, go forward. Don't stop standing still, don't
stop looking to the Lord, but put one foot in front of the
other and go to Him. and go forward. And whatever
the situation is, or whatever the trial is, and you don't have
to wonder if you're in a trial, well, I'm trying to figure out
what the Lord's teaching me. You're going to know what the Lord's
teaching you. When it's time to go forward,
you won't have a doubt in your mind, and it'll be as obvious
as a noonday sun, this is what I'm supposed to do. God doesn't
try anything, God does. Alright, first of all, how does
faith go forward? Faith goes forward trusting the
protection of Christ Himself. It says there in verse 19, and
I'm going to read this in order as it happened. And so we get
a picture of how this progressed. So the Lord told them to stand
still, and then He tells them to go forward, but there was
a night that they had to go through before the morning came, and
they went forward. And here comes these Egyptians
barreling down on them. They're coming. They see them
all. And we're not talking about just a handful on one side and
a handful on the other. We're talking about over 600,000,
not counting women and children, on the side of Israel. That's
probably way over a million. Plus all Pharaoh and his chariots,
his 600 men, and then it says all the horses and chariots in
Egypt. A mighty army. The biggest army
there was in the world at that time. Coming after them. But
look what happens. Verse 19, And the angel of God
which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind
them. And saying the same thing, he
says, 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, and it was a cloud
and darkness to the Egyptians, but it gave light by night to
the children of Israel. So that the one came not near
the other all night. The angel of God is Christ Jesus
our Lord. He's the one who is going forward
here in this pillar. It was a pillar that looked like
a cloud by day and it was a pillar that was lit up like fire at
night. And He went before them and He
led them. But Christ not only leads us
brethren, He's promised He'll be our re-reward. And that word means our rear
guard. It's like He's going before us
and guarding us and protecting us from attack on the front.
He says, I'll be your rear guard and I'll protect you from attack
from behind. Go to Isaiah 52 and verse 11.
I'll show you this real quick. Isaiah 52, 11. The Lord says,
depart ye, depart ye. Go ye out from them. Touch no
unclean thing. Go you out of the midst of her.
Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Do you recognize
that? The Apostle Paul declared that
in Corinthians. Come out from among wherever
the darkness is. Whatever the Lord showed you
that you need to depart from, He says, come out. Leave it alone. He's purified you, He's sanctified
you, He's made you holy. He says, now come out. Come out. Wash your hands of it for good.
And look what He says. For you shall not go out with
haste, nor by flight. You're not going to be scared
and running. He says, for the Lord will go before you, and
the God of Israel will be your re-reward. That is, He'll not
only be protecting you from the front, He'll be protecting you
from all sides and from the rear. The Lord Jesus Christ, brethren,
is the shield and the defender of His people. Verse 20 says,
It came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel.
Christ comes between His people and our enemies. That's what
He does. He came between us and the law. He came between us and our sin. He came between us and the devil. He came between us and the fierce
fury of God's wrath. And whatever enemy we face as
we're walking through this world, Christ comes between us and the
enemy. He's our shield and defender.
And He's light to His people, while at the same time, He's
darkness to the enemy. Verse 20, it says, He was a cloud
and darkness to the Egyptians, but He gave light by night to
the children of Israel. Christ, who is our wisdom, He's
wisdom, He's made wisdom unto the believer, so that we know
and see and understand, but at the same time, He's confusion
to the unbeliever. While He's given you light so
you can see, He's a cloud and darkness to His enemies. And
it will always be that way. The Lord Jesus Christ said, Him
that followeth me, He said, I'm the light of the world and him
that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the
light of life. That's what I'm saying. You're
not going to have to wonder. Did you have to wonder? When
the Lord called you the first hour to cast all your care on
Christ, you didn't have to wonder, is this what I'm supposed to
do? It was obvious. I got no other choice. I've got
to cast my care on Christ. And in every trial, wherever
He's leading us, He's going to make you know, this is the way.
Walk in it. And He'll teach you the way every
time. And so we have this constant
protection from our enemies. Brethren, I believe it was I
believe it was William Law, I can't remember, but I read this this
week. He said, if our enemy wants to
hurt us, if our enemy wants to do anything to us, they have
to defeat omnipotence first. And I thought, man, that's a
good statement. If our enemy wants to do anything
to us, they have to defeat omnipotence first. Now secondly, Faith goes
forward assured of our deliverance because of Christ's finished
work. We go forward assured that we're
going to be received by God, we're going to be accepted of
God, and we're going to be delivered all our days as we walk through
this earth. And we're not going to perish, we're going to come
into God's presence and be saved by our Lord. And we have this
assurance because of the justice of God that Christ satisfies.
That's our assurance. Look here, now back up to verse
15, God said to Moses, speak unto the children of Israel that
they go forward, but, I love this, tell them to go forward
Moses, but, now watch this, lift thou up thy rod and stretch out
thine hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel
shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. Now look
down at verse 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. And the waters were divided.
And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon
the dry ground and the waters were a wall under them on their
right hand and on their left hand. Do you believe any of this
really happened? I know it happened. Because I
know what it pictures and what it pictured is way harder to
do than that. I know God did that because what
it pictured He did. And what that work was, was way
harder than this work right here, dividing a sea. But listen to
what it pictures. Moses is the mediator between
God and the children of Israel. He's picturing Christ, our mediator. The one mediator between God
and man. God and his people. God and men.
The Lord Jesus. And then the Lord gives this
command. He's the one, Moses is the one
who tells the children of Israel, go forward. Alright? And then, but the Lord says,
but this rod, you take this rod and you stretch this rod out
over the sea. This rod, brethren, later on
Moses, this is the best illustration of it, there's other things I
could say, but this rod later is that rod that Moses is going
to take and he's going to smite the rock. And water is going
to come out of that rock. And that picture, that rod is
picturing the law, God's holy law, God's holy justice. that smote Christ, God's holy
justice, that's what it pictures, this rod. And then he says, now
Moses you stretch forth your hand over that tumultuous sea. And so he stretches forth his
hand. Now way back there when God gave Moses this rod, you
remember he has the rod and Moses said, the Lord said, now Moses
stick your hand in your vest and he did and he pulled it out
again and it was leprous. His clean hand went into his
vest and came out and it was leprous. And God said, put it
in again. He did it again. He brought it
out and it was clean. And that pictured, brethren,
this hand pictures Christ bearing the sin and the curse of His
people and by His own hand satisfying that rod of justice for us. And so that sea, that tumultuous
sea, that's a picture of God's wrath toward sin. And so get the picture now, Moses
gives the command to go forth and then he stretches forth his
hand with that rod in his hand. And that sea parts. And so the
children of Israel go right through the midst on dry ground to the
other side. Here's the picture. God's mediator,
Christ Jesus, He effectually commands His brethren to go forward. And when He commands us, we're
going to go forward. It's an effectual command. He's
the mediator between God and His people and He's the one that
gives the command, go forward. And that's where we're going
to go. And as He stretches forth His hand, He's holding the rod
of the law. He has the rod of the law in
His hand. You ever heard men say that? Now the law is in the
hand of Christ. Yes, it is. It sure is. And here's what it does for His
people. He stretches forth His hand with that rod of the law,
and it's that law that once would have condemned us. But now Christ
having satisfied all its holy demands, that same law, that
same justice now opens the way for us and demands the deliverance
of every child that Christ justified. We must be carried across on
dry ground because Christ dried up the wrath for us. satisfying
the justice of God, honoring God's justice. And so when I
say we go forward assured that we're going to be preserved and
kept because God's justice is satisfied, I'm saying you and
I go forward always being assured that Christ is the end of the
law, including the end of God's wrath for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. When He calls you to go forward
in the first hour, He's commanding you to come to Him, to go to
Christ and cast all your eternal care on Christ. And He's going
to show you when He does that, that you have full assurance
that Christ is the end of the law. He has satisfied justice. He has made an end of sin. He
is the one in whom God is satisfied and has no more wrath toward
His people. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is He that condemneth? It's Christ. that laid down His
life. Yea, rather that's risen again,
who's at the right hand of God, who even makes intercession for
us. This is why, this is the picture we have here, back over
in Isaiah 43. I think we read it last week.
Whenever the Lord said, now Israel and Jacob, that's us. In our
flesh we're Jacob, but in the new man we're Israel. And he
says to us, fear not, I have redeemed thee, I've bought you,
I've called you by my name and you're mine. I've called you
the Lord my righteousness, I've said you're righteous in me and
you're mine now. And he says, and when you pass
through the waters, I will be with thee. And when you go through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When you walk through the fire,
you won't be burned. Neither shall the fire kindle
upon you. He's saying God's holy wrath will not come against you. Sometimes, you know, we're chastened
by the Lord. The Lord does chasten those He
loves. And only those He loves. And sometimes to us, it feels
like it is wrath. And it seems to us that God's
angry. But that's not the case. He says, when you're going through
the waters, whether it's the waters of God's chastening, it's
the waters of trial, whatever it is He's sending you through,
He says, it's not going to hurt you. God's wrath, that's not
God's wrath, that's love. And He says, and I'm with you
every step of the way. Justice is never going to fall
a second time on His people because it's already been satisfied in
Christ. That's what we looked at this
morning. Now thirdly, faith goes forward seeing and beholding
the Lord fight for us. The Lord told them, stand still,
see the salvation of the Lord. All these enemies you see, you're
not going to see them anymore after this day. He said, the
Lord's going to fight for you and you're going to hold your
peace. Now if they'd have stood there, crying to the Lord, murmuring
to the Lord, and never taken a step, they'd have never seen
that. that had never seen the Lord fighting for them. But because
they went forward, they saw the Lord fighting for them. And look
here, they didn't have a single weapon. You ever thought about
that? The children of Israel came out
of bondage. They had been in bondage in Israel
as slaves for 430 years. They didn't have any weapons.
They didn't come out with a single weapon. And here you've got Pharaoh
and his army, they're loaded to the hilt. They've got weapons
all over them, and armor and everything else. Children of
Israel don't have a single weapon. You know what, brethren? We don't
have a weapon. We don't have any carnal weapons
whatsoever. But we don't need them. We don't
need them. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood. but against principalities and powers and rulers of the
darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in our places. The
devil and the rulers of darkness may use some carnal things and
it may look like you're up against men and you're wrestling against
flesh and blood. That's not who's behind it. And
the one that's in control of all the darkness is God our Father
and Christ our Lord. Wherefore, take unto you the
whole armor of God. Take His armor, that you may
be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all, to
stand. To stand. We don't have to fight. We have the promise that the
Lord will fight for us. Now look here. He said, you hold
your feet, peace, I'll do the fighting. Look at verse 17. He
says, I behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians.
And they shall follow them, and I will get me honor upon Pharaoh
and his host. Look at verse 18. And the Egyptians
shall know I am the Lord when I have gotten me honor upon Pharaoh
and all his army. And he even made the Egyptians
say it. Look down at verse 25. The Egyptians said, Let us flee
from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them against
the Egyptians. And I tell you, when you're going
forth, brethren, through the life, through your life, walking
by faith, don't you see this time and time again? Don't you
see the Lord fighting for you against your enemies? And He
often brings our enemies to flee. And when they flee, you know
what they're saying? I can't come against them. The Lord's
fighting for them, against me. I can't do anything to them.
They may not say that audibly, they may not confess that. But
by fleeing or by turning away or by you being delivered from
them, that's exactly what's being said. The Lord's fighting for
you against them. And so right now in this earth,
in this good providence brethren, because Christ has already executed
justice for His people at the cross, you know what He's doing
right now? He's executing justice for us in this earth right now.
And what He showed us on the cross by doing everything in
perfect righteousness with no hint of injustice. He's showing
us that He shall do right by us. He will do us right in His
judgment and send the providence needed for us to protect us all
our days in this earth. Now look at this, verse 23. The
Egyptians pursued and went after them to the midst of the sea,
even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. Why
did they do that? Because the Lord said, I'll harden
their heart. What makes a man, this is a picture of a man trying
to come to God by the works of his own hands. Not by faith,
by the works of his own hands. What makes a man try to do that?
God said, I will harden his heart. All God has to do to harden his
heart is leave him alone. But sometimes God even hardens
the heart in reprobation. Though a man can't believe Him.
But why did God say I'm going to do that? Because I'm going
to get honor to my name, the Lord said. See, all men in this
world are created to glorify God and to honor God. And we're
going to all glorify God. That's the purpose God made us
for. And we're going to glorify us in the way God made us. We're
going to glorify Him as a trophy of His mercy and His grace. whereby
His justice was satisfied by Christ, or we're going to honor
and glorify Him in His justice being poured out on us because
we went through our life and would not believe on Christ.
Read Romans 9, that's what he's saying. And the reason that he
does that with some and has mercy on the others, Romans 9 says,
is so that he can show you who he's had mercy on, what great
mercy he has had on you. Now watch this. I said to you,
the Lord is executing justice, Christ is executing justice for
us. Watch this, verse 24. So here goes Pharaoh and his
horses and they rush into this sea. And it came to pass that
in the morning watch the Lord looked, capital L-O-R-D, that
is God the Father, let's say God the Father, this is the Lord
Jehovah, but let's say this is Peter, Richard, the first person
of the Trinity, God the Father, and he looked unto the host of
these Egyptians, but watch this, but he looked through the pillar
of fire, that pillar of the cloud, he looked through the pillar,
that pillar is Christ. You have God the Father here
looking at His enemy, who's attempting to come to Him without faith
in His Son, who's attempting to come to Him without faith
in the propitiation He's provided. But God's judgment upon them
is through Christ, who they rejected. That's the picture here, watch.
And he troubled the host of the Egyptians. The Lord looked at
his enemies through Christ. See, the judgment of the Lord,
the judgment of God that troubled these enemies did so through
Christ. Why? Our Lord said, The Father
judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. That's what I'm saying. That's
the picture here. You see the Lord looking at the Egyptians. But He's looking at the Egyptians
through Christ. Why? Because He's committed all
judgment to Christ. All the judgments in the hand
of God's Son. And He has given Him authority
to execute judgment also because He is the Son of Man. So all
the authority and judgment is His. Now notice the difference
here. Notice the difference. The children of Israel went into
that sea committing themselves unto Moses, being baptized unto
Moses, Paul said in 2 Corinthians. And the picture there is of a
believer who's committed it all to Christ, all his eternal souls
in the hands of Christ, and he goes into the water of baptism. publicly professing that Christ
is all his salvation. He's trusting Christ alone. When
Christ died, he died. When Christ arose, he arose.
His old man's buried with Christ and his new man's risen with
Christ. He's under new management now. He's following the Lord
now. Committed to the Lord now. That's the picture of Israel.
They're walking forward by faith. But now look at these Egyptians.
They went into that sea by their own strength. Nobody told them
to go into that sea. Nobody told them to go this way.
They are trying to go on their own by their own strength. And
their motive is not the motive of Israel when they went across.
Israel went across looking to the Lord, wanting to see the
salvation of the Lord. Pharaoh is going through because
he said, I don't care if you think He is going to save you.
I am going to destroy you. And what happened? Look at this
judgment of our Lord, verse 26. This is the judgment of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the Lord said unto Moses. The Lord said this to his mediator. God committed all judgment to
the Son. He said to Moses, stretch out thine hand. That same hand
that satisfied justice for his people. He says, now you stretch
it forth. over the sea, that the waters
may come again upon the Egyptians. Verse 27, And Moses stretched
forth his hand over the sea, that sea of God's wrath, and
the sea returned to its strength. And when the morning appeared,
and the Egyptians fled against it, and the Lord overthrew the
Egyptians in the midst of the sea, and the waters returned
and covered them, covered them all, and 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 on each side to them, to their right and to their left.
And thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the
Egyptians. Our Lord Jesus said, marvel not
at this, after He said all judgments committed to the Son, and given
him power to execute justice, he said, marvel not at this,
for the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall
hear his voice and shall come forth. They that have done good,
that's pictured in the Israelites, casting all their care on Christ,
committing all to Christ, that's what he's calling good. They
that have done good, those that have trusted in all to Christ,
They're going to be raised to the resurrection of life. Justice
has nothing else to say to them. Judgment was settled at the cross
for them. And they that have done evil, pictured in Pharaoh
and the Egyptians, those that tried to save themselves, they're
going to be resurrected to the resurrection of damnation. Men
speak of the law in Christ's hand, and it is. It is. He's executing justice. He's
getting honor to himself. He's saving his people from all
our enemies. Because that rod of that law
doesn't speak to us in a negative way. That rod of that law now
says for his people, they must be saved. They're justified.
Justice is our friend, believer. Because Christ has satisfied
justice. You want justice. Don't you want justice? You don't
want to see the poor oppressed and the helpless trodden down.
That's us. And justice says, I won't have
it. That law is in Christ's hand. It is Christ. And He says, I
won't have it. So He's executing judgment for
us in the earth, protecting us, and He's going to do it all our
life. He executes justice, brethren, in this way. All who reject Him,
attempting to come to God by the work of their own hands instead
of by faith in the work of His, He's going to protect His people
from them. all our days. He's going to come
between us and them all our days. And at last, when they try to
stand before God in judgment, Christ, who men rejected, will
be the one who will stretch forth His own hand. See this hand? This is the hand that saved my
people. This is the hand you rejected. Now this is the hand
that damns you justly, because you refused the only salvation
there is. But that same hand and that same
rod of the law, that same justice, brethren, because He satisfied
the law's justice, God is happy and satisfied and appeased, He's
going to do what the justice demands. He's going to come to
all His people and take us out of our way on our run to hell
and He's going to turn us and hedge us about on every side
and make us to be trapped and make us to see that we have no
way of saving ourselves. And then He's going to speak
in our hearts and He's going to teach us the gospel. Fear
not. stand still, see the salvation of the Lord. All your enemies,
all your sins that you behold right now pursuing you, you're
going to see them no more today. I fix to show you, you stand
still and you see the Lord fight for you and you hold your peace. You don't even say a word. And
then He says to you now, go forth. And when He's taught you that
gospel, He effectually commands you and you go forth and lay
hold of Christ. Why? Justice demands it. Justice
demands it that you be saved, Christ's people. And then He
gives us a heart to commit to Him. I mean to commit to Him.
And He says to you, you're looking at that pool of baptism and that
public profession of Christ and publicly professing you're united
to His people. And He says, go forward. And
you go forward. And you publicly profess Him,
confess Him that He's all your justification and all your righteousness. and you unite with His people.
You know why He's going to make His people do that? Because He
satisfied justice and now justice demands they must be saved. And
all our days as we go through this life, He's executing justice
for us, brethren, in this world by His hand of providence. And
it's justice just for us and justice just toward us. That's
what He accomplished at Calvary. He's doing it for His people.
And in the end, we're going to come to Him by the safety of
His hand, and that same justice will be
what saved us. And so when we get to glory,
here's what we're going to find out. Faith goes forth all our
days, assured that in every trial and against every enemy, our
God and our Savior shall accomplish His purpose. You can be assured
of that. He's going to accomplish His
purpose. Look at this, verse 31. And Israel saw that great
work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians. He said they would
see Him again no more. And the Scripture said there
remained not so much as one of them. Do you realize, brethren,
all the sins of Christ's people is slain and is gone out of sight,
out of God's sight. just like they saw those Egyptians
no more forever. Our sins have been slain by Christ,
they're gone, and God says, I see them no more forever. When he
blots out, you take a man that's got a record book, and there
he's got all the debts in it, he's been keeping up with all
the debts that you owe him, and they're all written down in that
book. God says, I've taken the blood of Christ and I've blotted
out all those sins. I've blotted them all out. So
that when I open up my record book now, looking for a record
of the sins of my people, I've got no record of your sin.
You've never sinned. It would be in my book if you
had. I don't have a record of it. You've never done it. He declares you. Justified. Justified. Justified. And the people, when He shows
you this great work, the people feared the Lord, that was His
purpose. And they believed the Lord, that
was His purpose. And they feared and believed
His servant Moses. Remember who Moses is? He is
the Mediator. Not only do we believe God our
Father, we believe God our Father by believing and fearing His
Son, our Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we committed all
to Him. And now, brethren, from the day
He first saves us, this is our song. In every trial when He
brings you out, this is our song. And when we get there to that
day and we see what justice demanded because it was satisfied by Christ,
and we see all this He did righteously for His people because His holy
character demanded it because justice was satisfied toward
us. We see this great work in that day and we're going to see
it fully. You're going to know as you've
been known, Scripture says. Right now, it's so foolish for
people to get in arguments and to rail and try to cause divisions. All that is, is men trying to
make disciples after themselves. You know why it's ignorant to
do that? Because we see what you see when you look at that
iceberg. We see just a little bitty part of it. And there's
a whole lot more we have never, ever, ever, ever seen. Scripture
says it hasn't even entered into a man's mind the things that
God's prepared for them that love Him. I'm not talking about man comes
along preaching, you're saved by your will and your works.
You know I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about things
that that we ought to say, well, I hope it's that way. But I trust
it is. I don't know. I see through glass
darkly. I'm not going to get mad at you
because you disagree with me. But in that day, brethren, look
at this. We're going to see it fully. We're going to know it
fully. Won't it be something to look over your life and to
see everything? You see every situation where
you complained and murmured, just like they did at that sale.
Oh, the Lord just brought me out here and is going to kill
me. And the Lord shows you what He was doing and all that. And
here was some big, great enemy that if you had kept going the
way you were going, was going to destroy you and you would
have perished right then and there. And what the Lord was
doing in taking you this more difficult way and this harder
way was saving you from sudden death. And now you see it. What a dummy I was to murmur. And look how wise the Lord was.
Look how loving the Lord was. Look how just the Lord was. Look
how He protected. and we're going to see it so
fully and know it all. And look at this, and then we
will sing with Christ and with the children of Israel. Christ,
remember He said, I'm going to sing in the great congregation.
Go read Hebrews 2. I and my brethren are one. I'm
going to sing praises unto God. Here's Moses who's the mediator,
picture of Christ, and the children of Israel singing. Watch this,
and this was their song saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for
He hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
He thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength. The
Lord is my song. He is become my salvation. He my God. And I will prepare
habitation for Him. You and I can't do too much to
prepare a habitation for Him. He's got to do it all. He's got
to sanctify us and give us a new heart, make us holy. But when
He's done it and He says you go forward, you come out from
that former way of life and that former rebellion and those former
companions and He says you leave that alone. You prepare a habitation
for Him. You come out. Prepare up His
abiding place. Take care of His abiding home
where He's going to abide. Why? Because you try to save
yourself? No, read that. He said, I just
see all this He's done for me. I see He's my strength. He's
my salvation. That's why. That's why. He's my Father's God and I will
exalt Him. I will exalt Him. I pray God
will make us now stand still, see the salvation of the Lord,
and go forward while we do it, assured in faith. All these things
we're assured of, brethren. All right. Let's stand together and we'll
be dismissed in prayer. Brother Art will come lead us
in a closing hymn. Father, we thank You for this
Word. Thank You that You are the one that teaches us Christ
by way, makes us enter into Him and leads us into Him and leads
us by Him. Lord, we ask that You would command
that poor sinner now that sees You and is beholding what You've
done, command him to believe on Christ. Go forward and cast
it all into Christ's hand. Confess Him and join with His
people. And Lord, we pray for that believer that's in a trial
and doesn't know what to do. We pray, Lord, that you'd command
him to go forward, trusting Christ, assured in faith that justice
will not let us perish. God will keep us and direct us
and bring us safely home. Lord, forgive us our murmuring.
Forgive us for not wanting to go forward and walk by faith.
Forgive us for complaining against you and exalting the enemy as
if the enemy is more powerful than you. Forgive us, Lord. We ask these things in the name
of our Lord and our Savior, our great mediator, our righteousness,
our justifier, our holiness. Christ the Lord. Amen. All right, I got one announcement
real quick before.