Now there is a time to pray. And there is a time to stop asking
God and to go forward trusting the Lord. Does that statement surprise
you? Look at Exodus 14 and verse 15. prayed to the Lord. And verse
15 says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou
unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel
that they go forward. The Lord told Moses, You've been
heard. Now it's time to stop crying
unto me. And it's time to cry unto the
children of Israel that they go forward. It's time to put
faith into action. That's what he's saying. Now
let's get the context here. You know it well. The Lord had
delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, out of Pharaoh's
hand, and out of his taskmaster's bondage. And likewise, the Lord
has delivered every believer here, every believer that's right
here tonight. The Lord has delivered us from
bondage. He's redeemed us by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's redeemed us from the curse
of the law, having been made a curse for us. He's come and
He's redeemed us from our sin nature, delivered us from the
dominion of our sin nature by the Spirit of God in the new
birth. He's delivered us from Satan's bondage and his taskmasters. And then instead of taking the
children of Israel straight across into Canaan, the Lord took them
down by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And just like
that, the Lord, instead of taking us into Canaan, into heaven,
when He called us, when He called us out of darkness into His light
and made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance, instead of
calling us right then into glory, He's left us in this wilderness,
surrounded by all our enemies. And He's done that, brethren,
to teach us some things. He's not going to lose one because
Christ has paid all the debt that His elect owe. And He's
given us eternal life when He called us by faith. So He's not
going to lose one of us. And He's got some sheep that
are yet to be called out. That's why we're here. And none's
going to be able to pluck one of his sheep from his hand. Can't
pluck them from the Father's hand, can't pluck them from Christ's
hand. And then the Lord commanded Moses. He's told him to go down
and camp out between these two giant rocks with the Red Sea
in front of them, with one way in, one way out, so they're hemmed
in on every side except for that one That one way in, that one
way out. And before he did that, the Lord
told Moses why he was doing that. He told him exactly what he was
doing this for. This is how the Lord is going
to make us to trust Him. This is how the Lord is going
to make us to see salvations of the Lord. This is how the
Lord is going to make us to believe Him and to believe His servant's
word that He sent to declare His word. We'll see that at the
very end tonight. But the Lord told Moses why he
was doing all of this, told him what he was going to do with
his enemies, told him what he was going to do with Pharaoh
and his army, and told him why he was doing all this. Look back
up at verse 3. For Pharaoh will say of the children
of Israel, they're entangled in the land. Exodus 14, 3. They're entangled in the land.
The wilderness has shut them in. And by that, he's going to
take off after them. And when he gets down there where
they're at, the Lord says, And I'll harden Pharaoh's heart,
that he shall follow after them out into the Red Sea. And I'll
be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, that the Egyptians
may know that I am the Lord. Now whatever enemy we face, whatever
we come up against in this world, God will be honored. upon all
our enemies. He's going to destroy them. He's
going to make all our enemies to know He's the Lord. That's
what He's going to do. And He's told us that. He's promised
us this beforehand, before we ever come up against Him. And
so they did so. And Pharaoh made his chariot
ready, and he got 600 chosen chariots, and he got captains
over them, and he got all his horsemen, and he got all his
army, and he took off after them. And he overtook them down here
in this place where they're in now, down there by the Red Sea.
And verse 10 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. And they said unto Moses, Because
there were no graves in Egypt, has 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 listen to this sure word, this promise from the Lord to
His people delivered through His faithful servant. Verse 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 you shall hold your peace. This message that Moses delivered
to them, this is the same message, remember, that the Lord delivered
to Jehoshaphat and to Judah when their enemies came up against
them. We just saw this a few services ago, 2 Chronicles 20
15, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid, nor dismayed
by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours,
but God's. And then he told them, you shall
not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still,
and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not, nor be dismayed. But he added this to it. He said,
tomorrow go out against them. Go, he said. Go out against them,
for the Lord will be with you. Now Moses delivered the first
part of that message to the children of Israel. And then Moses began
to cry unto the Lord. He began to ask the Lord for
some direction, for further direction on what the Lord would have him
to do. In verse 15, our text says, And the Lord said unto
Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? Wherefore criest thou
unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel,
that they go forward. But 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.
And I, remember what he said he would do, I behold, I will
harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them, and
I will get me honor upon Pharaoh and upon all his host, upon his
chariots and upon his horsemen, and the Egyptians shall know
that I am the Lord when I've gotten me honor upon Pharaoh,
upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. I've titled this Wherefore
Christ Thou Unto Me. Now, let me clarify my opening
statement. Men ought to always pray. We
ought to pray and faint not. But when God's opened the way
and he's commanded us to go forward, that's the time to stop asking
God what we're to do and to go forward in faith, prayerfully
trusting that God shall deliver us as he promises he shall. I want to show you three things.
I want to show you first of all what Moses himself must do. Secondly, what he must tell the
children of Israel that they must do. And thirdly, what they
all must do together. Alright, first we see what Moses
must do himself. For now God commands Moses to
stop crying to the Lord, stop praying to the Lord, and go cry
unto the people. There's other business for him
to do now. Verse 15, he says, Wherefore criest thou unto me?
Speak unto the children of Israel. Now we don't have any words recorded
here that Moses prayed. That Moses is recording this
for us. And Moses didn't say that he
audibly with his voice prayed. But it's obvious he did because
of the way the Lord answered him. The Lord answered him, Wherefore
criest thou unto me? It's obvious he was praying unto
the Lord. But you know true prayer is heart
prayer. That's what a true prayer is,
heart prayer. I'm not suggesting that when
you pray with your words that you're not praying, but whether
we pray with words or we don't pray with words, true prayer
is heart prayer. Either way. You remember Hannah. Hannah, it says in 1 Samuel 1.13,
now Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but
her voice was not heard. But the Lord heard her. The Lord
heard everything she said. That's true prayer. It was heart
prayer. And the fact of the matter is, until a sinner's been born
of the Spirit of God, and our conscience has been washed in
the blood of Christ, and our bodies have been washed with
the pure water of the Word, and we've been given faith to come
to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, until that happens, we
haven't begun to pray anyway. Listen to this, in Ezekiel 14,
the Lord speaking here, He said, Son of man, these men have set
up their idols in their heart, and they've put the stumbling
block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired
of at all by them? He said, For every one of the
house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, would
separate himself from Me and set up his idols in his heart,
in his heart, settleth up his idols in his heart, and putteth
the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to
a prophet to inquire of him concerning me, he said, I, the Lord, will
answer him by myself. He said, I will set my face against
that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I'll cut him
off from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am
the Lord. He said in Ezekiel 20 verse 31, For when you offer
your gifts, and when you make your sons to pass through the
fire, you pollute yourselves with all your idols even unto
this day. And shall I be inquired of by
you, O house of Israel? He said, As I live, saith the
Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you. What I'm saying to
you is before a man is called by grace and saved by grace and
comes to God in faith, By God's grace, through Christ, he had
begun to pray. You think of Saul of Tarsus.
All that time he was praying. All that time he was in the temple
while he was in his religion. And then whenever the Lord arrested
him on the road to Damascus and called him by his grace, the
Lord said, Behold, he prayeth. He prayeth. Now he prays. Now he prays. But every believer
can have confidence that the Lord will receive us. Look over
at Hebrews 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Listen to this. Hebrews 10 verse
19. This is because of the work that
Christ has done for us, and it says, "...and the spirits of
witness to us, and declares to us that He has by His one offering
perfected forever them that are sanctified, and where remission
of these sins is, there's no more offering for sin. And He
says in verse 19, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter.
That's confidence. We've got confidence to approach
His throne of grace. to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He's consecrated
for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. You see,
we have liberty to enter the holiest of holies, where God
is, where He abides, by the blood of Jesus Christ. by His blood,
because He shed that blood for His elect, and because He perfected
us forever, and because Christ is the new and living way, as
opposed to those dead works, and those dead ways, and those
old pictures and types, and all the vain imaginations that we
thought This is the way to come to God. Verse 21, and having
a high priest over the house of God. Christ is our high priest
who's entered into the holiest of holies and made atonement
for His people. And so when He's washed us, we have boldness to
come in Him, in His name. That's why we pray in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're coming to God our Father
in His name. Verse 22, let us draw near with
a true heart. You see, with a true heart in
full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us
hold fast the profession of our faith without waiving for he's
faithful that promise. Just as we're assured that we
can approach him through Christ and he will hear us because of
what Christ has done for his people, Likewise, we have the
assurance that God is going to be faithful to us as we go through
this life. He's going to be faithful to
hear us. He's going to be faithful to answer us, to comfort us,
to strengthen us inwardly. Now, the Lord promised a blessing
to His people in Ezekiel. He promised this blessing to
them. He said, but I will yet for this be inquired of by the
house of Israel to do it for them. I will increase them with
men like a flock, He said, but I'm going to be inquired of.
And so Moses, though he had this promise from God of what God
would do, like we have the promise of what God's going to do. Still,
he asked the Lord, because the Lord would be inquired of. And
the Lord sent men out always to pray and not to faint. Out
always to seek His face, to pray unto Him. Now listen to this. This is why I say that It doesn't
appear to me that God was displeased with the fact that Moses prayed
to Him. That wasn't what it was. Moses believed God's Word, that
God had spoken to him, that He was going to deliver him. And
Moses prayed to Him, and this was God confirming it in his
heart. that faith in his heart that
God was indeed going to deliver them. And the Lord's answer was
quick because there was work to be done. There was something
to be done. It needed to be done. And so
He was sending him to that task. So you remember, silent prayer
is still prayer. The Lord hears His people. We
have confidence to enter by the blood of the Lord Jesus and He
hears us whether we're speaking in words or not. It's heart prayer. I'd much rather, I'd much rather
pray from the heart with no words, than to pray with eloquent words
and no heart. Because God won't hear that.
He won't hear that. And then, though we have God's
promise to deliver us, we still ask Him. We still ask Him, what
will you have us to do? Which direction would you have
us to go? And God, He's opened the way, when He has opened the
way, and He's made it clear that we're to go. We're to go, we're
to stop asking. I've seen before men who, there's
opportunity to move forward and men say, let's pray about it.
And just keep saying, let's pray about it, let's pray about it,
let's pray about it. And never get past, let's pray
about it. We're not to use prayer as an
excuse for unbelief. Now that is displeasing to God. All right, secondly, we see what
Moses must tell Israel to do. See what he must tell Israel
to do. Verse 14, the Lord says, Stop crying to Me, Moses. You've
been heard. Now you go and you speak to the
children of Israel. And you tell them that they must
go forward. It's time for them to go forward.
Now the things that Moses had already spoken to the children
of Israel were the things that we need to instruct us in every
time of trial. Everything we face that brings
us into trial. Here's the first thing he said
to them back in verse 13. Moses said unto all the people,
fear ye not. Fear not. That's the first thing
he told them. They were, they were. So all this big host coming
from all this army, and you can understand it. I mean, there's
this, there's these chariots, over 600 chariots, plus all the
chariots in Israel and all these horsemen and these captains.
And there they come, you know, after them. And there's no way
out of this place they're in. And we're not talking about a
few people. We're talking about a lot of folks. Israel had a
lot of folks with them. It wasn't like they could just
scamper off to the side and they wouldn't be noticed. We're talking
about hundreds of thousands of people here. And so Moses told
them to fear not. Don't fear. We're told in the
Scriptures, we're told to fear God. The believers are commanded
to fear God, but we're told not to fear other things, especially
men. Listen to what the Lord said.
In Luke 12 verse 4, He said, I say unto you, my friends, be
not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have
no more that they can do. But I'll forewarn you whom you
shall fear. Fear him which after he hath
killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear
him. He said, Are not five sparrows
sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before
God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear not therefore. You are more value than many
sparrows. This is what the Lord said. Are
we His friends? This is what He said to us. Don't
fear men. Don't fear things. When we fear
men and we fear things, we're giving them glory. We're glorying
in them rather than glorying in the Lord. Do you fear the
Lord? I know that the fear of the Lord
is reverence, is respect, is a desire to honor the Lord. And
there is a healthy amount of just plain out fear involved
too. When I was studying 2 Peter and going through chapter 2 there
and seeing about how God's preacher is to preach the truth and what
He was speaking against false preachers and those that led
people astray, it was fearful to me. Because this is God. This is who we're talking about.
Sovereign God. Holy God. This is who we're talking
about. So where to fear Him? And then
he said to them there in verse 13, he said, stand still. Stand
still. We may not know what stand still
means. Stand still doesn't necessarily
mean you're not moving. You realize that? Standing still
doesn't necessarily mean that you just stop and you're not
moving. Even when they go forward, here we're going to see them
go forward, they're still standing still. in the meaning of this
Word. Because the meaning of this Word
is to stand still, is to cease from looking to our understanding
and to ourself. And it's to put all our confidence
and our trust in the Lord. Trust Christ. That's what it
is to stand still. Let me give you a Scripture that
tells that. Isaiah 30. Isaiah 30 in verse
7. Isaiah 30 in verse 7. You're familiar with this Scripture,
but look, he puts it together here for us. Verse 7, he said,
the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose. You see, they
were looking to self. Their idea was, let's go make
a covenant with Egypt. They'll help us. That's looking
to self. And the Lord said, they won't help you. Therefore have
I cried concerning this, their strength is to sit still." You
see, the opposite of looking to Egypt, looking to self, is
to look to the Lord. Look down at verse 15. For thus
saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and
rest shall you be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your
strength. Returning to who? Resting in
who? Having confidence in who? Confidence in the Lord. Returning
from self, from our wisdom and our way and our planning and
our strategies and all that, to the Lord, to trust in the
Lord. That's standing still. That's standing still. That's
your strength. Because our strength's the Lord.
Realize when he says, when Paul said, when I am weak, then am
I strong. Then am I strong. How could that
be? When I'm weak, then am I strong.
When I'm totally shut up to the fact that I got no way of saving
myself, no way of helping myself, no way of even pulling myself
up off my bootstrap just a little bit, and all my strength is the
Lord, that's when I'm strong. When I have none and He's all
my strength, that's when I'm strong. That's what the Lord
means when He says He's going to divide the small with the
strong. It's not those who are strong
in themselves, it's those who are so weak in themselves, they're
entirely dependent upon the Lord. That's the strong. That's when
we're strong. So our confidence, sitting still,
is turning from this little weak, nothing, nobody, frail dust that
is our flesh, to the Lord God Almighty and resting in Him."
And then, this is what else he told them there in verse 13. He said, "...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."
If we would see the salvation of the Lord, where are we going
to have to look? It's just about as obvious as
it could be, isn't it? If we're going to see the salvation
of the Lord, then to whom do we need to be looking? We need
to be looking to the Lord. Looking to the Lord. He said,
there's no God else besides Me, so there's nobody else we can
look to. He said, I'm a just God and a Savior. He justly saves
His people, and justly has mercy on His people, because He's put
away the sin of His people by the sacrifice of Himself, by
going to the cross and laying down His life Himself for His
people, so that He can justly show them mercy. And so He says,
look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, no
matter where you are in the end of the earth, no matter who you
are. He said, look unto Me, for I'm God and there's none else.
So if we're going to see the salvation of the Lord, we have
to look to Him. And when we look to Him, we see
that He purposed our salvation before He ever even made the
world. God doesn't do anything haphazard. He doesn't start and
not be able to finish what He started before He made the first
grain of sand. He already determined the end
from the beginning. When we look to the Lord, we
see that He purchased our salvation when He went to Calvary's tree.
He went there and He paid the ransom price. He went there and
paid the redemption price. Blood! And where the remission
of blood is, where the shedding of blood is, there is remission
of sins. And when the sins have been remitted,
justice is satisfied. And now justice requires they
got to be saved. They got to be brought into the
presence of God because justice demands it. And they shall be. When we look to the Lord, we
see we wouldn't even be looking to the Lord if He hadn't come
in irresistible grace and turned us to look to Him. We see His
sovereign hand by God the Holy Spirit coming and creating us
anew and giving us a willingness and repentance and faith to even
look to Him and away from our sin. And then when we look to
Him, has He preserved you so far? He's done it so far at me. He's kept us so far all think
back. Think back a year ago. What was
it this time a year ago, you were so worried about? There
was something you remember what it was now. Go back three, four
years ago, remember what it was? 678 10 years ago, remember what
it was you're so worried about. And he provided didn't we make
it in to be bigger than it is. But he did it, he provided. Oh
Lord, help us to understand. He that has begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He will
do everything necessary. He's going to preserve us. And
He's promised us He's going to resurrect us into glory and raise
us anew. There's an inheritance there
reserved for us in glory and it's ours. And you know what
He's given us? He's given you the foretaste,
the first fruits, the earnest of what that's going to be. He's
given you a delight in Christ, that's what heaven's going to
be. He's given you a desire to hear His glory proclaimed, that's
what heaven's going to be. He's given you a desire to see
sinners called out of darkness and converted to faith in Christ,
that's what the angels rejoice in heaven to see that. That's
the angels rejoicing in heaven. He's given us a longing to be
away from sin and everything that defiles because it's dishonoring
to our Savior. That's a heaven-bound desire.
That's given us by the Spirit of God. And all of those things
are just a little taste of what heaven will be. They're just
a little taste to guarantee us, I'm going to bring you into that
inheritance. It's reserved for you. So he says, look to the Lord.
See His salvation. Then look what he says in verse
14. He says, and hold your peace.
Look at verse 14. The Lord shall fight for you,
and you shall hold your peace. They were crying aloud. Crying
out to God. Murmuring against Moses. Said
all those things against Moses. saying now, praising Egypt, praising
Pharaoh, saying, it would have been better for us just to stay
back there and serve Him. And they've just been delivered
from Egypt. They've just seen that the Lord put a difference
between them and Egypt by the plagues that He sent. They've
just seen Him provide them a lamb, whereby when the Lord saw the
blood, He passed over them. Their firstborn died just like
the firstborn in Egypt died. The difference was a lamb died
in their place in substitution. And they saw Him make all that
provision for them when He gave them all that spoil from the
Egyptians. We've been shown all these things,
brethren, in a much greater way. We have seen the real plague. Come upon our Savior and save
us from our sins because He bore it in our place. And put a difference
between us and the rest of the world. We've seen Him provide
the lamb. We've seen the blood. We've seen
Him give us the riches of the spoils. The increase that He's
accomplished for us. We've seen what these types and
pictures meant. But we do it, don't we? We come
into these trials and we start crying out to the Lord and we
start murmuring against His people and His preachers and everything
else like we never have even heard of a holy, sovereign, righteous
God. Like it's the first day we ever
even set foot on the planet. And He told us, I will never
leave thee, I'll never forsake thee, so that we may boldly say,
the Lord is my helper, I'll not fear what man shall do unto me.
So He says, now before you get out here in front of these Egyptians
and start saying all this and go and try to make an allegiance
with them and end up back in there in bondage with the Egyptians,
Before you turn around and start mouthing and complaining about
this light bread and turn around and go back into the harlot's
den and go back into those false churches that are preaching free
will works religion. He says, hold your peace and
just wait on the Lord. Stand still, see what's about
to happen first. That's a wise thing. You know,
knowledge without wisdom just puffs a man up. It's like a If
you have a horse and he's strong and he can pull and he can do
all the work you need him to do, but he has no true wisdom
so that he's been trained to walk where he should walk and
do what he should do, he'll just tear everything up. That's what
knowledge of God without a love in the heart does. He tries to
tear everything up because He doesn't know the strength is
to sit still. The strength is to hold my peace
and wait and watch the Lord do His work. He's going to fight
this battle. It's not mine, it's His. Now,
we come to what Moses has to tell. Now, you think about it.
The Lord tells Moses, now go tell them to go forward now.
They've been sitting here murmuring against Moses. The last word
they said to Moses was, this is all your fault, Jack. And
now the Lord's telling him, now you go back and tell them to
go forward. I can kind of picture them. I can kind of picture them,
you know, looking at that big army and say, Moses, we can't
go forward into that army. Look how many people they got.
Moses said, I'm not talking about the army. I'm talking about go
forward into that sea. And they say, Moses, you flipped
your lid. Go into the sea? Yeah, go to the sea. We're fixed
to go through that sea. You see, why would the Lord say,
why would He say that? Why would He say, go into this
sea? Huh? Why would He say, go into this
sea? You see, we can say we fear God and not men. We can say,
I'm standing still, I'm not trusting myself, I'm trusting the Lord.
We can say, I've seen His salvation, and I believe I'm going to see
His salvation. And we can say, I believe the
Lord's going to fight for me so I can hold my peace. We can
say all that. You know how we're going to prove
it? And how we're going to prove it, that we really believe it?
When we go forward. When we go forward. Not until
then, when we go forward. whatever our current situation
is. If it's a poor sinner and he's been persuaded by the grace
of God that Christ is all and he believes in his heart and
he believes Christ has purged his sins, he believes that he's
been made the righteousness of God in Christ, he believes that
he's been made accepted in the Beloved, he can say it. But you know what his first act
of obedience is going to be that proves that he believes it? He's
going to go forth and confess it publicly. He's going to go
forward. Now go stand back in the shadows,
in the closet. And what about God's promise
to Moses? You remember what God's promise to Moses was back in
Exodus 3? In Exodus 3.12, He said, Certainly,
remember this is when He first called Moses in the beginning.
He said, Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be
a token unto thee that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought
forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this
mountain. When God made that promise to
Moses, he was on the other side of the Red Sea from where he's
standing in our text. He was over there on that other
side at Mount Horeb, at Mount Sinai. And the Lord said, when
you go get Israel and you bring them out, this is going to be
my covenant to you. You're going to worship God in this mountain.
And so there stands Moses now with the Red Sea between him
and that mountain. How's he going to prove he believes
the Lord? How's he going to prove he believes the word of the Lord?
He's going to go forward. He's going to go forward. James
said, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had
offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Likewise, was not Rahab
the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers
and had sent them out another way? You know what that means? That doesn't mean justified with
God by their works. We're not justified by our works
with God. He justifies us freely by His
grace through the propitiation that He set forth in Christ through
faith in His blood. But proof justifying that we
really do believe Him as we say we believe Him, that's going
to be manifest when we go forward. when we go forward. They believed
God is able. That's what Hebrews 11 says. Moses went up, I mean Abraham
sacrificed Isaac because he believed God is able. God is able. That's what they're about to
prove. The Lord made the same promise to Joshua. He said, There
shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days
of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I'll
be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee. He made the same promise to Gideon.
The Lord said unto him, Surely I'll be with thee, and thou shalt
smite the Midianites as one man. He made the same promise to David
and Solomon. In 1 Chronicles 28, David had
laid up all this store for him to build a house. And Solomon's
a young man. A young man. And he's fixed to
be in charge of everybody building that house. And David said to
Solomon, his son, Be strong and of good courage and do it. Fear
not, nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, will be
with thee, and He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until
thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house
of the Lord. And he said, and all these skilled
men that are here, they're going to help you. Don't fear. Look over at John
12. John 12. I want to show you something
there. John 12. Remember this? You remember this? When it came time for the Lord
Jesus to go to the cross, John 12, 27, He said, Now is my soul
troubled. You see, every trial, every cross
is troublesome. And it's very much so troublesome. He said, Now is my soul troubled.
And what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto
this hour. So he said this, Father glorify
thy name. Glorify thy name. And then there
came a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and
will glorify it again. And the Lord said, He didn't
speak this for my sake, He spoke it for your sake. To His disciples
that were standing there. Do you remember what He was teaching
His disciples? Do you remember why He said that
right there? Do you remember what He was teaching
them? Look back at verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But till we die, we're going
to be alone. Die to our understanding, die
to our wisdom, die to our reasoning, die to our excuses, die to our
unbelief, die to our rebellion, die, die, die to self. Till we
die, we're going to be about alone. But look now, but if it
die, it bring us forth much fruit, much fruit. Now here's what he's
teaching. Remember, those Greeks came and
they said, we would see Jesus. And they didn't want to take
them and show them to the Lord Jesus, because at that time,
everybody was wanting to kill Christ. And they were even wanting
to kill Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. And they didn't
want to die, and they didn't want their Savior to die. And
this is why he's saying this to them. They didn't want to
suffer. They didn't want to have to Sacrifice. They didn't want to.
But the Lord said, verse 25, he that loveth his life shall
lose it. He's going to lose it. And he
that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life
eternal. And this is where He ends the whole thing. He says,
if any man serve Me, this is what He's talking about, let
him follow Me. Let him follow me. And where
I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, this
is how he's going to bring forth much fruit. If any man serve
me, him will my father honor. Him will my father honor. You
see, it's not meant to be easy, else it wouldn't be called a
trial. And it's not meant to be, we're meant to go forward
trusting the Lord or else it wouldn't be called a trial of
faith. A trial of faith. But if we're going to see the
salvation of the Lord, if we're going to see all these things
that the Lord has promised He's going to do for us, and if we're
going to see Him put His fear into the hearts of our enemies
and destroy our enemies, the only way we're going to see it
is go forward trusting Him. The only way. The only way. The only way. We can stand still
and get a dim view or go forward and see it manifest gloriously. Alright, thirdly now, let's go
back to our text and let's see what they all must trust God
to do. Look now back there at verse
16. Have to trust God to drive the
sea for us. Now look at verse 16. But 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. You know what
this rod pictures? This is that rod that Moses smoked
the rock with and the water came out. It's a picture of the Gospel. It's a picture of Christ bearing
the justice of His people, that rod of justice, and putting satisfying
justice for His people so that He's dried up the sea for us. He's dried it up so that God
will receive us now. And this rod represents that
gospel, the preaching of that gospel. This is how it's going
to be done. What I'm sitting here tonight
doing is holding up the rod and telling you what the Lord has
said to tell you. And He's going to have to dry
up the sea. He's going to have to dry up the sea of unbelief.
He's going to have to dry up the sea of rebellion. He's going
to have to dry up the sea of covetousness, the sea of everything
that's hindering us. He's going to have to dry it
all up. But this is how He's going to do it. He's going to
do this and work good for His people through the Gospel. And
this same rod that He's going to use to work good for His people,
in a minute He's going to say, now hold it up again and He's
going to destroy His enemies with it. That's the two-fold
work of this rod. It's saving His people and it's
destroying His enemies. The chastisement of our peace
was upon the Lord Jesus Christ. When He went to that cross, He
said, if you want to serve Me, this is where you go. He went
to that cross and He went there and He endured that shame of
being made what His people are. Of bearing their stroke, bearing
the justice of God in their room and their stead. Of being forsaken
of His own Father. What He's saying to us is light.
It's light. With His stripes we've been healed.
We have eternal life. We have everything. We have everything. We literally own everything. Folks around you just paying
taxes on it for you. We own everything. And this is the way He humbles
us too. This is the way He humbles us. Isaiah 63, 13 said, He led
them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness that they should
not stumble. As a beast goeth down into the
valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest, and so didst
thou lead thy people to make thyself a glorious name. You
see, it's humbling. It's humbling. to have to stand
still and do nothing and have the gospel declared and have
Christ come forth and do all the work for His people and save
us entirely and us just to trust Him and go across simply because
He's done everything. The reason that we don't want
to go forward is we really and truly want to say in it. That's
the reason. We really and truly want to say,
we did this wisely. I did this wisely. We're not going to be able to
glory in it. God said, you've got to throw that out the window. You've got
to leave that back there in Egypt. Alright, we have to trust the
Lord to destroy all our enemies. Look at verse 17. Behold, I'll
harden the hearts of the Egyptians and they shall follow them and
I'll get me honor upon Pharaoh and upon all his host, upon his
chariots, upon his horsemen. The Egyptians shall know I'm
the Lord when I've gotten me honor upon Pharaoh, upon his
chariots, upon his horsemen. Christ destroyed our enemies.
He put away sin for us. He satisfied the law for us.
He created us anew in the heart. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. That's what this C, this C pictures.
Baptism, going into obedience, going into the baptism. That's
what Paul said in Corinthians. It pictures our trials. It pictures
the cross. where the sea of judgment and
wrath was dried up. It pictures all our trials being
dried up for us. It pictures that last day when
He's going to dry up that last enemy which is death. We're going
to go across it dry ground. We're entirely trusting the Lord
for everything. And then we have to trust Him
to give us light and protection. Look at verses 19 and 20 there.
Verses 19 and 20. He says, the angel of God which
went before the camp of Israel removed and went behind them,
and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood
behind them, and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and
the camp of Israel, and it was a cloud and darkness to them,
but it gave light by night to these, so that the one came not
near the other all the night. We wouldn't have any light if
it wasn't for Him. And what's light to us is darkness to our
enemy. We wouldn't have any protection if it wasn't for Him. They didn't
know He was going to do that. They could have never imagined
that Christ was going to do that. Go in there and protect, skip
between them and their enemy and protect them. If you'd have been sitting there
and you saw that, wouldn't that have comforted you? When He did
that, they couldn't even see Him anymore. We believe the Lord,
we won't even be able to see our enemies. They won't even
bother us anymore. That's what faith does. Alright,
and then they obeyed. Type of faith, type of submission
to Christ, type of believer's baptism. Verse 22 says they obeyed. The children of Israel went into
the midst of the sea. They went into the midst of the
sea, upon the dry ground, and the waters were a wall unto them
on their right hand and on their left. They went right across. That's a picture of, like I said,
a picture of faith, a picture of obedience, a picture of baptism.
You can read that in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 1 and 2. We're buried
with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should
walk in newness of life. If we've been planted together
in His likeness of His death, we should also be in the likeness
of His resurrection. Knowing this, our old man is
crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin." When they come out
on the other side, you know what they're going to be saying? They're
not anymore under the dominion of Pharaoh. They have no allegiance
to Egypt. They got no connection with that
land anymore. Now they're following Moses.
They're united to Moses, united to their brethren, united to
His people, serving the Lord. They're following Him. That's
what they're going to be confessing. That's what you're going to be
confessing when you come out of those waters, leaving the
world behind. done with it. It's dead to me.
I'm dead to him. My old man's crucified. I'm serving
in newness of life now, newness of spirit. Well, did God do what
he said he would do? He did exactly what He said He
would do. He always does. He always does. Verses 23-29,
you can read it at your leisure, but He did exactly what He said
He would do. But look down, I want you to
see how this worked effectually in their heart. Look down at
verse 30. I said to you, this is how the Lord is going to make
His people see salvation is of the Lord. He makes us see it
over and over and over through these trials. This is how He
makes us to fear Him. You remember in the beginning,
Moses argued and argued with God. He didn't want to go forward.
And then he got into Egypt. He just kept doing what the Lord
told him to do. Here, he didn't argue with the Lord at all. The
Lord said, go tell them. Go forward. And he went and did
it. You see, he's growing in grace. Well, this trial is going
to make them grow in grace too, the ones that are truly His.
And it's going to make them believe the Lord, and it's going to make
them believe Moses who is leading them. Watch this, verse 30. Thus the Lord saved Israel that
day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians
dead upon the seashore. And Israel saw that great work
which the Lord did upon the Egyptians. They'd have never seen that if
they hadn't have gone forward. Now look at the next thing. And
the people feared the Lord. The Lord worked that. This is
how He's going to put more fear. It's called growth in grace and
in knowledge of Him. And they believed the Lord. You
see that? They believed the Lord. And they
believed His servant Moses. They believed Him. See what I'm
saying? This is how the Lord's growing
His peace. Everything about the trial, from the first hour when
He shows us our sin and makes us tremble before all our enemies
and then speaks these words of grace to our heart, fear not,
stand still, see the salvation of the Lord, hold your peace,
go forward, lay hold of Christ, it's done for you. That's when
you do that, what happens? Your heart overflows. You see
the work of the Lord. The fear of the Lord fills your
heart. You believe the Lord. And you believe what His preacher
and His people have been telling you. Trust. Believe your brethren. And then when you go to the next
trial, same thing. He tells you all over, teaches
you all over, grows you a little bit more in all of these graces.
and just keeps doing it on and on and on. And you know what
he's preparing us for? That last trial, when we see just how much
strength we've got in all of these we're facing right now.
You ever watched a man eat up with some kind of disease or
something about to die? He got no strength. He's got
none. That's how much me and you have
right now. Exactly how much we have right now. To do what? Take your next breath. I'll bat
your eye. That's right. Unless He gives
us the strength. And that's what He's teaching
us over and over and over. So that we resign to Him. Resign to Him. Submit to Him.
Surrender to Him. Now look back in verse 15. And
the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto Me? It's time
to stop crying to Me, Moses. I've heard you now. Here's what
you need to do now. Speak unto the children of Israel
that they go forward. Amen.