Brethren, let's turn in our Bibles
to Exodus 14. While you're turning there, Melinda
is going to post a sign-up sheet for the ladies today for meals
for the conference. So if you want to sign up for
those, she'll be sending that out. Exodus 14. And when God has redeemed
us out of bondage, called us to faith in Christ, we tend to
come out with a high hand. That's how Israel came out of
Egypt. They came out with a high hand, the Scripture says. They
came out and they were full of joy and they had no fear that
anything was going to happen to them now. They were outside
of Egypt. and they were marching with a
high hand. And when God has called us to
faith in Christ, we tend to come out with a high hand. We are
full of joy and comfort and we think now everything is going
to be fine. And it turns out very soon not
to be that way. In fact, when God has called
us out, and first converted us, that's when a real warfare really
begins. Something we didn't know anything
about before. There's a warfare between the
flesh and the spirit within every believer. The flesh hasn't been
changed at all. It is what it is and it's sin.
And so there's a warfare now. There's a new spirit in us that
loves the Lord and believes the Lord. So there's a warfare between
the two. And there's a warfare between
the believer and the entanglements of this world. And there's a
warfare against our own unbelief. But God's promised to lead us.
We saw that in the 13th chapter. He said, I will instruct thee
and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee
with mine eye. And scripture tells us, He will
not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth Israel will not
slumber. So He will keep His people. But
He leads us through trial to remind us that we're sinners. We have no strength in us. and
to remind us that He is the one doing the saving. He is the one
that's leading and saving His people, so that we continue trusting
Him, looking away from ourselves. Now, first of all, in our text
today, I'm just going to read a couple of sections at a time,
and we're only going to go down to the 14th verse. But the first
thing we see here is an example of faith. When we look at Moses,
we see an example of faith. It says there in verse 1, The
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel,
that they turn and encamp before Pihoroth, between Migdal and
the sea, over against Baal-zavon. Before it shall ye encamp by
the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children
of Israel, they are entangled in the land. The wilderness hath
shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart,
that he shall follow after them. And I will be honored upon Pharaoh
and upon all his hosts, that the Egyptians may know that I
am the Lord." And they did so. Now, instead of taking them into
the desert, If they would have went into the desert, then Pharaoh's
chariots would have been of no use to him. They wouldn't have
been able to go in the sand of the desert. And plus they would
have been nearer to Canaan if the Lord had taken them that
way. But God here commanded Moses to turn the Israelites and go
south. Literally, if you looked at a
map, when he turned to go south, he literally would be turning
his back on Canaan, the promised land, and going south, and he
would be staying really close to the border of Egypt. By doing
this, instead of leaving and getting to put as much space
as they could between them and Egypt, the Lord told Moses to
turn them around and take them right back down by the border
of Egypt. And so, and then the Lord told Moses to take them
to this place where when they camped, they were going to be
trapped. He tells them to go before Piharoth. That was a mountain pass. It was just a little pass in
the mountains. He told them to take them through
this pass in these mountains and they were to camp between
Migdal and the Red Sea. Migdal was a big old, it was
a mountain that they had turned into a fortress. So it was a
big mountain they couldn't get over. And on the other side of
them, in front of them would be the Red Sea. And then over
to their right side would be Beelzebub. That was an Egyptian
idol, a big stone Egyptian idol carved out of the mountain that
was supposed to prevent slaves from escaping Egypt. And the
Lord takes them to that spot, to camp. And so when He takes
them there, they're going to be trapped. They're going to
be surrounded by mountains on each side, the sea in front of
them, and there's one way in and one way out. Whenever something like that
happens, brethren, when we come to a trial and we don't understand
what the Lord's doing, we have no idea, we don't understand
what He's doing. We have this word from the Lord. He says, My thoughts are not
your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. We have to learn there's somebody
that is much, much wiser and much smarter than we. And his
way is much better than our way. His way is much better than our
way. And so He tells us in Psalm 37.5,
Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him. He shall bring
it to pass. When you see some providence
and the Lord brings you into some strange providence and it
doesn't seem like it's making sense to you and you don't understand
why is the Lord taking me this way and why I'm coming into this
trial like this. Just remember. God's way is not
our way. His way is above our way. And
we are to commit our way to Him and trust that the way He is
leading us is going to be the best way. It's going to be the
best way. And then, not only did the Lord
tell Moses to turn and go south and tell him to camp out in a
place they're going to be trapped, the Lord told Moses the reason
He wanted him to go that way is because the Lord was going
to harden Pharaoh's heart so that Pharaoh and his army would
come after them. That's why the Lord told Moses
to go this way. You go this way because I'm going
to harm Pharaoh's heart so he will come after you. But, just like the Lord forewarned
Moses of what was coming, hasn't the Lord Jesus Christ forewarned
us of what to expect in this world? Hadn't He forewarned us
that in this world you shall have tribulation? He told us
that already, just like the Lord told Moses what He was going
to do. The Lord Jesus has told us what
we shall face in this world as believers. But our peace is not
in this world. Why should we be so troubled?
When something happens, and this is very telling on you and I
as believers, when something happens in this world and we
lose our peace and our peace is disturbed because the Lord
changes something in our life, that shows that we're counting
on whatever that thing was, we're counting on that thing for our
peace. Because our Lord tells us our peace is not in this world.
Our peace is Christ through His gospel. He said, these things
I've spoken unto you that in Me you might have peace. In the
world you shall have tribulation. See, He warned us. He told us
what to expect. But He told us where our peace
is. Our peace is in Him. It's not in these things in this
world. He said, in the world you shall have tribulation, but
be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. So it shouldn't surprise us when
God leads us into some trial. We shouldn't be surprised and
think that it's something strange that's happening. Because He's
already told us what to expect. You're going to have trials.
We're going to have tribulation in this world. Beloved, think
it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you. as though some strange thing
happened unto you, but rejoice in as much as your partakers
of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed,
you shall be glad also with exceeding joy. But here's something else
the Lord told Moses. He told Moses he was going to
get honor to himself on Pharaoh and his army. He's going to use
Pharaoh in the army and he's going to get honored to himself.
This is what the Lord told Moses. He said in verse 4, I will be
honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts that the Egyptians
may know that I am the Lord. Now this should settle us in
faith. and strengthen our faith, brethren.
We know that in all things that our Lord brings to pass, everything
that's coming to pass, He shall bring glory and honor to His
great name. Everything that comes to pass,
the Lord's bringing honor to His name. Let me ask you this. Did He glorify Himself and bring
honor and glory to His name when He chose His people before the
world was made without any cause in us. Did He bring glory to
His name? He told Moses, this is my glory. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. That is His glory as God to choose
whom He will and pass by whom He will. And He got that glory
to His name and you and I weren't anywhere around. He's not depending
on us to bring glory to His name. He's bringing glory to His name.
And then when He sent His Son into this world and Christ came
and fulfilled the whole law for His people and purged the sin
of His people apart from any works that you and I did, did
He get glory to His name? Yes. He brought great glory to
His name. He honored His name. He declared
His righteousness. And where were we? We weren't
anywhere around. We didn't contribute any to it. Well, what about when He sent
the gospel to you and He quickens you before you ever knew what
He had done? You didn't even know what had
happened and He had quickened you and given you life. And He
called you to Christ with such power that you couldn't do anything
but believe the Lord. Have you ever tried to stop believing
the Lord? A believer can't do that. You
just can't stop believing the Lord. Now we have seasons of
doubt. There's no doubt about that.
But you can't just stop believing Him if you're a true believer.
You just can't. You can't stop desiring His gospel
and assembling with His people. If you're a believer, you can't
stop it. Where were we? We were dead in
sins. And yet He did that work in us
and brought honor and glory to His name. So when we come into
a trial that He brings us into, we can be sure, brethren, the
Lord's going to bring glory to His name because these are lesser
things. These are lesser things. These
things aren't as difficult as what He's done for His people
already. And so He's going to get honor
and glory to His name. Now, the reason the Lord can
get honor to His name, and this is what really should be the
greatest, one of the greatest things to strengthen our faith,
is the reason He can get glory to His name is because He's absolutely
sovereign over everything and everyone. He told Moses that
He was going to harden Pharaoh's heart so that Pharaoh would come
after Him, and you look down the page, that's exactly what
He did. Look at that, Exodus 14.5, it was told the king of
Egypt that the people fled and the heart of Pharaoh and of his
servants was turned against the people. And they said, why have
we done this that we've let Israel go from serving us? And he made
ready his chariot and took his people with him and he took 600
chosen chariots and all the chariots of Egypt and captains over every
one of them. What made Pharaoh's heart be
turned? What made all the Egyptians turn
and decide, we've just done something? What turned their heart in the
beginning and made them let the slaves go? What made them give
them all the provision they needed to go and give them their gold
and their silver? The Lord turned their heart.
And what was it now that made their heart turn back and want
to pursue after Israel? Look at verse 8. The Lord hardened
the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued after the
children of Israel. Now brethren, that's one of the
greatest things there is to make us always trust the Lord and
never doubt. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord and He turneth it as the rivers of water, He turneth
it whithersoever He will. That's our God. That's the sovereign
God of heaven and earth. He's doing what He will. He said, shall there be evil
in a city and the Lord hath not done it? That's great comfort to a believer
when we see evil come to pass in a city. The evil is all of
sinners. It's all of wicked, sinful men. But it's all fulfilling God's
purpose. He is permitting it to come to
pass or He's turned the heart to make it come to pass because
it's fulfilling His purpose. The wrath of man shall praise
thee and the remainder thereof shalt thou restrain. Whatever
is going to honor and glorify Him, He'll let that evil come
to pass or cause it to come to pass by turning the heart of
a sinner. But if it doesn't bring glory
to His name, He'll restrain it and won't let it come to pass.
Doesn't that make you want to trust Him? Everything that's
happening in this world right now, everything that's coming
to pass is God working His eternal purpose to glorify Himself and
save His people from our sins. Everything. Everything. What about, you mean things?
He said not even a sparrow falls to the ground without His consent.
Everything. From the king's heart to the
little sparrow, he's moving everything to accomplish his will and his
purpose. So here's faith in God. This is what we ought always
to do. Verse 4, and they did so. Moses believed God and he feared
God rather than men. And so when the Lord told Moses
to turn and go down to this place and camp, that's what he did. He believed God and he proved
he believed God by obeying God and doing what He said. You see
brethren, wherever there's faith, wherever God's given faith, God
gives, He produces works of faith. Scripture says, as the body without
the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Wherever
God's given faith, He's going to produce works of faith. They always go together. Just
like if there's a body that's alive, it's going to have a spirit
in it. And wherever there is faith,
there's going to be works. They're works He produces and
they're all rooted in believing that God is able to do what He
promised. And they're rooted in love for
brethren. Moses heard God say what He was going to do. And
Moses obeyed Him because Moses believed God was able to do what
He had said. And Moses did what he did because
he loved his brethren. And he knew that the way God
leads is the best way for me and my brethren. And so because
he loved them, he obeyed the Lord. Every good work is rooted
in believing God that He's able to do as He promised and loving
our brethren. Every one of them. Now that's
a look at faith. That's what we ought to always
do in the trial. But now let's see what we usually
do in the trial. We look at Israel now, Exodus
14 and look at verse 8. It says at the end of the verse
there, ìIsrael went out with a high hand, but the Egyptians
pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his
horsemen and his army, and overtook them in camping by the sea beside
Piraeus and before Beelzebub. 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. And they said unto Moses,
Because there was no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away
to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus
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. Now every believer knows this
trouble. We know this trouble. God delivers us and we come out
with a high hand full of joy, happy, with no fear of man. Canaan seems near at hand. But
then God sends us a test. He puts us in a test. On one
side there's a mountain. We have trials He brings us to
face that are so large like they're like a mountain and there's no
way we can possibly get over them. And then on the other side,
there's the Red Sea. That Red Sea could only be dried
up by a rod. By the rod of God. That's the
only way that sea could be dried up. And the only way that justice
could be satisfied so we could go over on dry ground was by
Christ Jesus the Lord. The only way. And then, bearing
down on them, there was Pharaoh and his army. Sometimes by permission
the Lord allows the devil to attempt to sift his people. He
goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour by
God's permission. And then on the other side was
an idol. This big giant idol was there. And we have a lot of idols, brethren. Our fleshly heart is full of
idols. And God has to continually make
our idols fain unto us. This idol was supposed to prevent
slaves from fleeing from Egypt. And God brought them right there
to make a mockery of that idol. And God's going to make a mockery
of all our idols and show us there's only one God and only
one Savior. But we tend to react like the
children of Israel did. We panic as if God has delivered
us from from the curse of the law only to bring us into this
trial now and kill us. Don't we act that way? Like God
did all that work on the cross and brought the gospel to us
and called us to faith in Christ only now to bring us face to
face with some trial where He's going to slay us. You really
think that God would send His only begotten Son and that He
would make him to suffer being made sin for His people, make
him suffer being made a curse for us, make him suffer what
was the equivalent of eternal separation from God on that cross,
and satisfy justice, dot every i and cross every t, and fulfill
the law perfectly for His people. and then give us faith to believe
it, create life within us, just to bring us to some little piddly
trial that's not anything to the Lord, where He's going to
slay us. Do we really believe that God
would do that? Do we really believe God would do that? He divided
the waters for us, brethren, so that we can go across on dry
ground. And that's what the Lord meant
when He said, in this world you shall have tribulation, but be
of good cheer, I have overcome the world. He was telling us,
because I've overcome the law, and the devil, and sin, and I've
established you in righteousness, nothing is going to happen to
you. Be of good cheer, even though you face tribulation, I've already
overcome the world. And so I will deliver. I will
deliver. So there's no way He's going
to allow one of His purchased possessions to fall away or be
taken captive. He's not going to do that. He
said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which
gave them to Me is greater than all and no man shall pluck them
out of My Father's hand. He will not lose one. If God
be for us, who can be against us? Now think about this. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? Has He freely given you free
justification? Has He freely given you righteousness? Has He freely purged you of your
sins? Has He freely given you eternal
life? Has He freely given you the Spirit?
Has He freely given you His leadership and His guidance in this world?
Brethren, He'll freely give us everything else that we need.
That was the major trial. That cross work, that was the
mountain. That was the greatest thing anybody
ever faced. And He's already accomplished
that work. Every other trial we come into, it's a mole hill
compared to a mountain. It's nothing compared to the
cross work He's already accomplished. And it ought to make us see how
weak we are when something that's really nothing to God seems like
it is a unconquerable mountain to us. Did that show you something
about how weak we are? And that's why he brings us to
these trials is to make us see that we have no strength in ourselves. Absolutely none. And that's something
we have to be reminded of all the time. Because everything
that's happening in this world, everything we achieve and little
things that come to pass, it's all feeding us our ego and our
pride to think that we really have some power. And so by God's
grace, He keeps bringing us into trials where we can't do one
thing to stop it. One thing to save ourselves to
show us you really don't have any strength. And I don't either. We don't have strength, brethren.
And He does it at the same time to teach us this, all our strength
is the Lord. All our strength is the Lord.
He is God, our salvation. So lastly, brethren, when we're
in the midst of a trial, Now we can't hear a thing, we can't
believe, we can't do anything as long as we're still trying
to save ourselves out of the trial. But when He's brought
you, you used the trial and He's brought you to the end of yourself.
Brought you to that place where you realize there's nothing I
can do about this. I cannot do anything to save
myself. then he's going to strengthen
his messenger and send him forth preaching this gospel, this very
gospel I'm declaring to you. And that's what he did here with
Moses. Look, Exodus 14, 13, And 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 have
seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. The Lord
shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. Now this is
what He's teaching us, brethren, over and over and over and over. We have to learn this lesson
over and over and over because we don't ever truly learn it.
We've got to be taught it over and over. He's teaching us, fear
ye not. What is it in this world that
you and I should fear that's greater than our God? Nothing. Nothing. So we shouldn't fear
anything but God. A fallen sinner, though, is a
fearful creature. Over and over and over, Moses,
as they go through the wilderness, you read Exodus and Deuteronomy
and you'll find Moses over and over and over telling the children
of Israel, fear not, fear not. And then when Joshua took Moses'
place, over and over and over you read Joshua telling them,
fear not, fear not. Why? Because we're a fearful
people. We're scared of everything. We're fearful people. But you
know when we fear man or we fear earthly things, what we're doing
is we're exalting that thing over God. We're treating that
thing as if it's more powerful than God is. Let me show you
what God says. Go to Isaiah 8. And this is what
God says right here. Isaiah 8 verse 10. Isaiah is
speaking to the enemy. He tells them, take counsel together. Isaiah 8, 10. He tells them,
take counsel together, it shall come to nothing. Speak the word,
it shall not stand, for God is with us. For the Lord spake thus
to me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not
walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not a confederacy
to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy? And
watch this. Neither fear ye their fear, nor
be afraid." He's saying, don't be like the rest of the world.
Don't join in a confederacy with the rest of the world. Don't
fear what they fear. Look, sanctify the Lord of hosts
Himself. You see God as separate and powerful
and holy. and different from anything else
that you might fear in this world. You see Him above all and let
Him be your fear and let Him be your dread. That word dread means tremble. God should be the only one that
makes us tremble. We should fear offending God
more than we fear anything that comes up against us. Look at
this. Fear Him, let Him be your fear,
and He shall be for a sanctuary. But He'll be a stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for Jinn
and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. That is, to anybody
that doesn't trust Him, He's going to be a stumbling stone
to them. But for you that fear Him, He'll be a sanctuary, and
He'll protect you. He'll protect you. Now, the second
thing He told them is stand still. Because there's no help in us.
There's no help in us. Leave it all to God. This is
the Gospel warning. There's no self-salvation. There's
no power in man to save one soul from sin. Cease ye from man. Cease from all vain attempts
and stand still in this current trial. If you're in a trial,
He says stand still. And He says, and see the salvation
of the Lord which He will show you today. For your enemies that
you've seen today, you're going to see them no more forever.
Christ alone has finished all the work of redemption. He didn't
have anybody to help Him. Alone he paid the penalty of
sin. Alone he satisfied God. Alone
he brought in everlasting righteousness. Alone he trod down all our enemies. Alone he took away our sins just
like he took away the Egyptians from them. Alone he did these
things. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. He doesn't need our help. He
says, verse 14, and the Lord shall fight for you and you shall
hold your peace. Christ is our strength. He is
our victory. He is the one that fights for
His people. All creatures are the least little dust before
Him. He has no problem defeating them.
Now all this is put forth to be our shield, be our power. Our Lord is. So He is telling
us now, you stand still, you stand behind the Lord and watch
Him fight for you and give you the victory. It's just that simple. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. I guarantee everybody in here
could tell about trials of the past where the Lord did some
miraculous thing and brought you through it in a way you never
thought He'd bring you through it and did more for you than
you ever could imagine He'd do. Why can't we remember that when
we come to the next trial? We seem to just have a short
term memory, don't we? And we forget. We forget. The Lord said, ìI cried concerning
this, their strength is to sit still.î ìFor thus saith the Lord
God, the Holy One of Israel, ìIn returning and rest shall
you be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.î
Let me show you what heís saying. 2 Corinthians 12, weíll end with
this. 2 Corinthians 12, this is what
heís saying right here. He gave Paul that thorn in the
flesh. Paul began to pray for it to be over and asked for Him
to remove it. And this is what the Lord told
him. This is the lesson. 2 Corinthians 12, 9. And He said
unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee. For My strength is
made perfect in your weakness. You know when you go see God's
strength? When you have none. That's the only time we really
see it. Because until then, we're looking to ourselves. But His
strength is made perfect in our weakness. Most gladly, therefore,
will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions
and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am
strong. When Christ is my only strength,
That's when I'm strong. Alright brethren, let's stand
together. Thank you Lord for this day and
for this opportunity to hear your gospel preached. Lord, we
are told to thank you for the trials and we don't usually do
it. But we do thank You for our trials.
We're thankful for what You work through them, that You bring
us to trust You and not ourselves. Lord, we ask that You would keep
us ever looking to Christ, ever casting our care upon Him. Keep
us never, ever, ever looking to ourselves. Lord, we pray for
all our brethren who are in trials and who are suffering They're great to us no matter
whether they're great or not. They're the biggest thing we've
ever suffered. And Lord, help us to know that
our brethren are going through the same sufferings that we suffer.
We're not alone. Help us to know, Lord, that You're
working Your will. You're giving glory to Yourself.
And You're instructing us, teaching us this lesson over and over.
And Lord, make us rejoice and thank you, knowing that it's
all going to be for our good and for your glory. In the name
of our great, holy, all-powerful God-man mediator, we pray. Amen.