May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
book of Exodus, chapter 14, and we'll read verse 13. The book of Exodus, chapter 14,
and reading 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 Word of God has so many wonderful
accounts to encourage the Church of God And surely we have here
an account which we read together in this 14th chapter of Exodus
to encourage us. Because very clearly demonstrated
is the power of God. And as we trace out the life
of Israel of old, we should recognize that it is typical of the life
of a believer. And so as we read these historical
accounts, may we pray that we may have spiritual eyes to see
the truth that it contains. The Word of God has a phrase,
the deep that coucheth beneath. That means not that which is
seen on the surface, but that which is underneath the surface,
which those who are blessed with spiritual eyes will observe and
be thankful for. But those, of course, who are
still spiritually blind will not see the glory and wonder
of such scenes which we find set before us in the Word of
God. Well, this account in this 14th
chapter of Exodus, we see that Israel had been gloriously delivered
from Egypt. And it was a wonderful occasion
An occasion, of course, which had been prophesied so many years
ago, 400 or so years ago, and it had come to pass. And it had
come to pass in a very remarkable way. A way, no doubt, that the
Israelites would never have thought of or appreciated, but God did
that which they could not do. And we can imagine the Israelites
came out and they were so joyful, and so thankful that deliverance
had come. And they probably thought everything
was now going to be easy, everything was going to be plain sailing.
God was with them, they'd been delivered, and now they could
expect a wonderful time of favour. They didn't expect to suddenly
be faced with great difficulty, as we have here in this 14th
chapter. But again, what it was to demonstrate
was the glorious power and deliverance which the Lord would once again
bring before them and into their lives. So that therefore really,
there would be no reason ever to doubt again. And yet, sinful
as they were, rebellious as they were, so often they turned their
thoughts and ways against God. Now we have such accounts to
instruct us today. They're not there just for our
amusement. They're not just there for an
historical account. They're there to instruct us
today in our lives as it's now our turn to walk upon the earth. It was Israel's turn to walk
upon the earth when this was recorded and now it's our turn
today. And so may we be aware of the
words that are spoken to us. Now they were faced with this
difficult situation. They were hemmed in. And the
Egyptians believed that, because they said they are entangled
in the land. The wilderness has shut them in. So it had a mountainous
region on one side, the Red Sea on the other. And the Egyptians
now come in on the other side. What were they to do? What were
they to do? Well, we read in this account
that when they realised the problem, the Israelites, the first thing
they did, which was a good thing, they cried unto the Lord. But they didn't just depend on
the Lord, which they should have done. And then they complained
to Moses. And they said, because there
were 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. So we see that they were very
quickly turned from realising that they had a merciful, gracious
and glorious God who had delivered them and now they were complaining
now because of the situation which had enveloped them. Now,
we should think in our lives Perhaps like that we may have
been blessed, we may have been delivered, we may have been favoured,
and now things have taken a slightly different turn. And it seems
as though God is against us. And we perhaps wish that the
path we were now walking in wasn't the path, and we wished it was
different, and we wished perhaps we'd gone back. Well, we're thankful
then to have an account like this to correct us. and to instruct
us. And so the Lord spoke to Moses
and Moses spoke unto the people and he said this, fear ye not,
stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Three things really. First, fear ye not. Second, stand
still or that can be also spoken of, be quiet and see the salvation
of the Lord or see his deliverance. So we have these three statements
before us here that Moses is speaking to the children of Israel
and having told them that, he then tells them you shall see
the salvation of the Lord which he will show you today, this
wonderful deliverance, for the Egyptians whom you have seen
today, you shall see them again no more forever. Well, perhaps
we can imagine, or try and imagine, the Israelites then pondering
what this could mean. How would they be delivered?
Why should they fear not? And why should they remain quiet?
And how would they see the Egyptians defeated and to be no more forever? Well the Lord really tells them
through the words of Moses in this statement, the Lord shall
fight for you and ye shall hold your peace. See, if God be for us, who can
be against us? Be encouraged by the Word of
God, whatever that may mean to you and to me in our life, our
natural life and in our spiritual life. We may of course be harassed
by the evil one, who is attempting to destroy us. And he may perhaps
bring all situations before us which appear so difficult, impossible
to actually ever be delivered. Well, if you and I are blessed
with such a statement like this, to realise the Lord shall fight
for us and we shall hold our peace. We won't need then to
to fight in that battle because the Lord God is with us and we
know that many years later in the time of Jehoshaphat there
was a very similar situation and yet the Lord wonderfully
appeared and the Lord wonderfully blessed Israel with a wonderful
deliverance and it is of course Always good to know that we have
such statements in the Word of God and such records to encourage
us so that we are not left to doubt the great truth of God. And in the second book of the
Chronicles and the 20th chapter, we read from verse 15 really, there was
this person, verse 14, Jehuziel. who was a prophet, the son of
Benaniah, the son of Jeel, the son of Mataniah, and Levi and
the sons of Asaph, came the spirit of the Lord in the midst of the
congregation. Now the history of course here
is that the Israel were really in a state because the Moabites
were about to defeat them it appeared and what were they to
do? Well of course Jehoshaphat had
prayed unto the God of heaven and He had stood up and he prayed
that the Lord would indeed come and the Lord would indeed deliver
them. And he says, Oh our God, won't
thou not judge them? We have no might against this
great company that cometh against us. Neither know we what to do,
but our eyes are upon thee. Now that is always a good position. to have our eyes upon the Lord
when we don't know what to do. And I'm sure that is so, naturally
and spiritually in our lives. Sometimes we don't know what
to do. But we have a wonderful example
here of Jehoshaphat, whose eyes were upon the Lord. And we're
told this, and all Judah stood before the Lord with their little
ones, their wives and their children. Again, that's a word of instruction.
It wasn't just the adults, they all came. They all came before
the Lord. The children, the little ones,
they were all there. The husbands and the wives. And then we are
told, then upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of
Benaiah, the son of Jeel, the son of Mataniah, and Levi, the
sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the
congregation. The Lord was speaking through
him and he said, hearken ye, how good it is when We are told
to listen to what the Lord's going to speak. Hearken ye all
Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem and thou King Jehoshaphat, everyone,
including the King, thus saith the Lord unto you, be not afraid,
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. Tomorrow, go you down against
them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Ziz, and you shall find them at the end of the brook, before
the wilderness of Jerul. Ye shall not need to fight in
this battle." You see, when the Lord is with us, we need not
fear. And here's a wonderful statement.
No doubt they thought, what's all this about? We needn't fight. No. Set yourselves. Stand ye still. Be quiet. Very similar to this experience
that the Israelites had by the Red Sea. Stand ye still and see
the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah and Jerusalem, fear
not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them,
for the Lord will be with you. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head
with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord."
Now one aspect is very important. They believed the Word of God. How important it is for us to
believe the Word of God, even when things seem impossible.
When there seems there will be no deliverance, believe in the
Lord God. And the Levites, the children
of the Kohathites and of the children of the Kohites stood
up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. And they rose early in the morning
and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went forth,
Jehoshaphat stood and said, hear me, O Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God,
so shall he be established. Believe his prophets, so shall
ye prosper. And when he consulted with the
people, he appointed singers unto the Lord that they should
praise the beauty of holiness. And as they went out before the
army and to say, praise the Lord for his mercy endureth forever.
And when they began to sing and to praise the Lord, the Lord
began to defeat the army. What a wonderful account that
is and how very similar it is really to this account we have
here in this 14th chapter of Exodus. Now let us realize what
Moses spoke to the people. Again in similar words as it
was in the days of Jehoshaphat, fear ye not. Naturally there
was reason to fear. Sometimes in our lives there
may be reason to fear. Israel were not without their
faults. They had many faults and therefore
perhaps they did have reason to fear. And perhaps we do in
our lives. We look into our hearts and we
find such evil there and perhaps we have reason to fear, right
to fear. what God will do for us, what
God will do to us. And we know that really we deserve
to be cut off, we deserve to be punished by Almighty God. But we see in such an account
as this, the amazing compassion, the wonderful love that the Lord
had to his people Israel. Now our encouraging thought is
this. We come to the same God. That
same God who gloriously delivered his ancient people. My friend,
the same God that can come and deliver us from all the things
that we fear, spiritually and naturally. And the greatest concern
should be about our spiritual state. Because perhaps we do
fear that we shall be cut off. We may fear because we have not
listened to the Word of God. We have not obeyed the Word of
God. We've been disobedient and therefore
we have reason to fear. Now, the Lord speaks these words,
fear ye not, because he will show the power of his might in
delivering Israel. And my friends, that still is
demonstrated in the day and age in which we live. God still shows
forth his power. That power in destroying the
words and the actions of the evil one, the devil, who would
perhaps sometimes crowd into our hearts, into our minds, and
tell us there's no hope. We really are lost. There really
is no salvation for us. There won't be any deliverance.
Well, if the devil is tempting us perhaps in that way, He may
be indeed harassing us, rightly, then this is why we have such
accounts in the Word of God, to encourage us in our life. Fear ye not. My friends, it is
a word of encouragement. It is a word that we, and that
means, if we are to fear the Lord, it means that we're not
going to do things in our own strength. We're going to rely
upon the great and glorious work of Almighty God. Remember the
well-known words in the 41st of Isaiah, in the 10th verse,
the 41st chapter, Isaiah says, fear thou not. And why should
they fear not? And why should we fear not? Because
he says, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. He goes on, a few verses further,
verse 13, for I, the Lord thy God, would hold thy right hand,
saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee. And the 14th verse
should be encouraging. We might feel to be very low
and very insignificant. And it speaks like this, describing
Jacob as a mere worm. He says, fear not, thou worm
Jacob. And ye men of Israel, I will
help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer. the Holy One of
Israel. Well there we have some encouraging
words in the 40th of Isaiah and we could go on, there are very
similar words in the 43rd chapter of Isaiah. In just the first
verse I'll read, But now thus saith the Lord that created thee,
O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have
redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, Thou art mine. So if God, in his sovereign will
and purpose, has called us, if he's called us, it's because
he's redeemed us. And if he's redeemed us, it's
because the blessed Saviour has died for us upon the cross at
Calvary to take away all our sin. And therefore, surely, this
word is true. Fear not. Fear not. So this morning, this word, fear
ye not. Fear ye not. Stand still. Be quiet. Rest in the Lord. Sometimes we can be very anxious. And it's right to be anxious.
But here we have this encouraging statement. Stand still. Be quiet. The Lord God omnipotent
reigns. The Lord God is dealing with
us as he was with Israel. He deals with us today. He knows
exactly how he will deliver us. He knew exactly how salvation
would come to Israel. He knew what would bring honour
and glory to himself and therefore these words were spoken, fear
ye not, stand still. It's not always easy to stand
still. We suddenly want to be up and
doing. Nor to be quiet. We want to get a solution. We want to solve the problem.
We want to find that we're on the right way and that all things
are going to be nice and smooth. Israel were told this and they
didn't know how they were to be delivered from the situation.
But what happened? Well, they were able to have
their hope and their confidence in Almighty God. The Lord shall
fight for you and you shall hold your peace. And so we should
be encouraged to remember that the devil can go Only so far. Only so far. We may perhaps feel
like the Israelites, and like those of Judah in Jehoshaphat's
day, that we're going to be annihilated. We're going to be utterly destroyed.
We might feel our faith, which we think and realize is just,
it appears to be almost non-existent. And we think perhaps There's
no hope for me. Well, fear ye not. Stand still. This is the command
of God. This is the command of God to
Israel. It was the command of God to
Judah. My friends, may it be the command
of God to us today. indeed to go in the strength
of the Lord God. And of course that verse carries
on, we make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only. And you see
you can bring that in prayer to God. And my friends, the devil
cannot stand against that. He cannot stand against the righteousness
of God. He cannot stand against the imputed
righteousness which his people receive, because he is a defeated
foe. And so such words here are indeed
surely true and surely encouraging. Fear ye not, stand still, be
quiet. It's the grace of God that grants
this to us. Because you see naturally we
want to try and save ourselves. We want to try and do that which
we think is right and we want to be up and doing. Well, God
works in his gracious, sovereign and glorifying way in the lives
of his people. And what a wonderful thing it
is to be able to observe it. If we're rushing around all the
time, we don't observe it. if we're still, stand still,
if we're quiet, if we're watching to see how the Lord will appear
and to believe. Indeed he will appear. Yes, the Apostle Paul, when he
wrote to the Corinthians, he knew something of the opposition
which existed in his day. He had to fight many many things,
but his confidence was in his God. In the second epistle of
the Corinthians in the fourth chapter and the eighth verse
and further on we read, we are troubled on every side. What
does he then say? Yet not distressed. We are perplexed,
but not in despair. Persecuted. but not forsaken,
cast down, but not destroyed. If you think of those things,
you might say, well, I'm troubled. Yes. I'm perplexed. Yes. I'm persecuted. All those things. And yet you see, don't forget
what the apostle was able to tell us from a personal experience,
always bearing about the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. See, this work,
the work of the Holy Spirit, is to make us like Christ. What a mercy it is then, if we're
able to trace out our spiritual experience and realize we have
the evidence, the wonderful evidence of the work of God in our hearts. Yes, fear you not stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. And this wasn't something
that was just to be forgotten, The psalm tells us about this
in the 106th psalm. The 106th psalm we read in verse
8, or perhaps we ought to read from verse 6. We have sinned
with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We
have done wickedly. You and I won't be able to escape
such condemnation as that. Our fathers understood not thy
wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude
of thy mercies, but provoked him at the sea, even the Red
Sea. Nevertheless, he saved them for his name's sake, that he
might make his mighty power to be known. He rebuked the Red
Sea also, and it was dried up. So he led them through the depths
as through the wilderness. And he saved them from the hand
of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy,
and the waters covered their enemies. There was not one of
them left. Then, believe they his words,
they sang his praise. What a blessing that would be
for us today, if we remember the words of the Lord. And if
we come and we sing praise to our God for that which he has
done, stand still, fear ye not, stand still, be quiet, and see
the salvation of the Lord, the deliverance that God brings. God does bring deliverance to
his people. Yes, they may be perhaps kept
under the power of the evil one. And my friends, the power of
the evil one is such, he doesn't want us to have any freedom,
he doesn't want us to have any deliverance, He wants to keep
us tight in his clutches. And you see, one of his great
pleas is, there's no hope. You've sinned. You've gone too
far. There's no hope for you. Well,
you can tell him, there is hope for the worst of sinners. What
a mercy that is. for the worst of sinners. And
you can tell him about the Israelites, how they turned their back upon
God, and how again and again He delivered them, and again
and again He was merciful to them. If you read the 107th Psalm,
again, the truth of God when he came
and spoke to them such as sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death being bound in affliction and iron because they rebelled
against the words of God and contend the counsel of the Most
High therefore he brought down their heart with labor they fell
down and there was none to help you see God brings us Like he
brought the Israelites, like he brought the men of Judah,
there was none to help. It brings us to dependence upon
the blessed Lord. And what was the result? Then
they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out
of his distresses. He brought them out of darkness
and the shadow of death, and break their bands in sunder.
Don't forget the Lord God is the same today. He hasn't changed. He's able to deliver today in
a glorious way. But don't forget also what the
psalmist goes on to say. Oh that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children
of men for his broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of
iron in sunder. Spiritually consider that. Those
things which have bound us down. The devil has kept us in his
cage if he can. But realise the Lord breaks the
bars, falls because of their transgressions, and because of
their iniquities are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner
of meat, and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they
cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of all
their distresses. And see the salvation of the
Lord. Now, all his people are blessed
to be delivered, to see the salvation of the Lord. to see the salvation
of their souls, are blessed to understand the great and wonderful
plan of salvation, that which may have appeared just a statement
and just history. When the Spirit works in our
hearts, when we are called by His grace, when He sheds forth
His wonderful love toward us, we stand amazed that our eyes
should be opened And then we shall behold marvelous things
out of the law of God. And surely then praise must come
forth. We have reason, great reason
to praise God. The Israelites had great reason
to praise God because if you follow this through the end of
the 14th chapter and the beginning of the 15th, what occurred, then
sang Moses and the children of Israel, this song unto the Lord
and spoke saying, I will sing unto the Lord. for he hath triumphed
gloriously, the horse and his ride hath he thrown into the
sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare
him, and habitation my Father's God, and I will exalt him." There
really must be the desire and the ability to exalt and praise
the Lord if he's delivered us out of the enemy's hands. Here
was a great occasion, spoken very beautifully, very simply,
so that we can understand the historical account of that wonderful
deliverance and to realise, yes, the Lord fought for Israel. And
they held their peace. They didn't need to fight in
that battle. And the Lord destroys the devil. Yes, what a blessing
it is. He keeps him from us. We may still be tempted right
down to the dying hour of our life. But nonetheless, he is
a defeated foe. He will never be able to gain
the conquest. Why? Because Jesus has died. Yea, rather, he's risen again. Yes, a conqueror over sin, death,
hell and the grave. Well, what a mercy then to know
then this great truth that the Lord shall fight for us and we
shall hold our peace. Now, naturally, what the Israelites
were told here is not that which you and I do by nature. But when
God speaks, it is his command. And so he speaks in this way,
to us today. Fear ye not. Fear ye not. Because the Lord God omnipotent
reigns. Fear ye not. Commit your way
unto the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall
bring it to pass. And then, don't rush around everywhere. Don't try and do that which you're
not commanded to do. Be quiet. Stand still. And then to observe. deliverance
of the Lord. Now what is the result? The result
is this. The Israelites didn't have any
hand in their deliverance. My friends in our spiritual life
we don't have any hand in our deliverance. The Lord does it
and it's the Lord's work and that's why we have it clearly
set before us in the second chapter of Paul's epistle to the Ephesians
in the 8th verse when he tells us this, for by grace are you
saved, a free and merited favour of God. We never deserved it,
we never will. For by grace are you saved, through
faith, God-given faith, to stand still, to be quiet. Yes, God-given
faith, through faith, and that none of yourselves, it is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained,
that we should walk in them. The Word of God directs us in
the path that we should walk. And here we have the words this
morning to encourage us in whatever path we may be in, however difficult
it may appear. It may appear to be a dead end,
like it was to the Israelites. No way of escape. The Lord shall fight for you
and ye shall hold your peace. There is a way of deliverance.
The Lord's ways are higher than our ways. Be encouraged by that. And the Lord's thoughts are far
superior to ours. We only have finite minds. God is infinite. Bless God for
that. And so, may we have confidence
today to go in the strength of the Lord God, make mention of
His righteousness, even of His only. And Moses said unto the
people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the
Lord, which he will show you today. Today. For the Egyptians whom ye have
seen today, ye shall see them no again, no more, forever. God was faithful. God is faithful. Blessed be God. Amen.