Turn with me again to Exodus
chapter 15 tonight. Exodus chapter 15. Last time
we talked about how this was the first hymn recorded in scripture. Look at verse one with me. Then sang Moses and the children
of Israel this song unto the Lord. and spake, saying, I will
sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare
him a habitation, my Father's God, and I will exalt him. The
Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name, capital
L-O-R-D. Pharaoh's chariots and his host
hath he cast into the sea. His chosen captains also are
drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them,
they sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord,
has become glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, hath
dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine
excellency, thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee.
Thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils,
the waters were gathered together. The flood stood upright as a
heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. And
the enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide
the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I will draw my sword, my hand
shall destroy them. But thou didst blow with thy
wind, the sea covered them. They sank as lead in the mighty
waters. Now does that sound at all to
you like the God that modern day religion preaches? Does that
sound like the God that loves everybody so much so that he
wouldn't dare judge their sin? Doesn't to me. This hymn of praise
is all about the Lord and about the Lord's doing. And our preaching
should always be about the Lord's doing, not ours. Paul said, it's
not by works of righteousness, which we have done. We ought
to strike that out of our thinking altogether, that we can do anything,
that we've done anything that would cause God to be merciful
and gracious to us. Not by words of righteousness
we've done, but according to his mercy, his mercy, he had
saved us. Notice in verse two again, they
sung that the Lord is my strength. Israel had no strength. They
had no strength of their own and neither do we. For when we
were without strength, Paul said, Christ died for the ungodly,
Romans 5, 6. The Lord is my strength. I have no strength at all. The
Lord doesn't just give us strength, though He does, but that's not
all. The Lord is our strength. Big
difference. I can lean upon Him because He
is my strength. He doesn't just give me strength
when I need it. If I can see past that and see
that He is my strength, I think there'd be less worry and fretting
going on. How strong is a believer? Well,
I say it with reverence. A believer is as strong as God
in the sense that the Lord is their strength. The Lord is my
song. It's the Lord that breathes music
into the hearts of His people. He's the subject of our songs. We don't sing about streets of
gold and pearly gates and mansions in glory. We sing about Him.
He's our song. We sing hymns of Him. The Lord
is my strength and my song and He has become my salvation is
what we read next. The Father in His eternal purpose
chose to save a people. The Son and His substitution
finished that work of redemption for those people. And the Holy
Spirit indwelling in His people, instructing them, illuminating
them, perfecting them and keeping them, God has become their salvation. Our great triune God not only
saves us, but He is our salvation. God not only provides for Himself
a sacrifice, God the Son is the sacrifice. To have Christ is
to have salvation. I wish people could see that.
He is my God, they sung. This may be the most joyous note
of all in this song. The God of justice. The God of
vengeance. The God of power. He's my God. And if God be for us, who can
be against us? He's my strength. He's my song.
He's my salvation. He's my God. And then Moses added,
He's my praise. He's what we sing about. Christ
is who we preach. It's Christ that we worship and
praise. Look at verse 11. This is my
text for tonight. Exodus 15, 11. Who is like unto
thee, O Lord, among the gods or among the mighty ones? Those
like Pharaoh, that's who they're thinking of here. They had just
been under the bondage of Egypt and under Pharaoh for 430 years. Who's like unto thee, O Lord,
among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Here's something
that you don't hear much about in preaching today. You hear
a lot about the love of God, But you don't hear much about
the holiness of God. This is a holy Bible. He's a
holy God. His Spirit's called the Holy
Spirit. His angels are called holy angels.
So why is there little or no talk about God's holiness? You and I will never understand,
and listen to me very carefully on this, you and I will never
understand anything concerning true redemption, true salvation,
until we first see that the Lord is holy. Matter of fact, a sinner
will never see his or her need for Christ until they see the
holiness of God. It's in the light of His holiness
that our deep darkness is exposed. God is glorious in holiness. That word glorious means magnificent,
means illustrious, triumphant. It means celebrated. The child
of God will be made to celebrate God's holiness. We celebrate
the holiness of God. Only a God of holiness and justice
can save. Now our salvation does not come
at the expense of God's holiness and justice. I say that all the
time. Sometimes I think to myself,
you know, I need to be conscientious not to say that every single
message. And then I thought that's the
gospel. of how God can be just and still justify the ungodly.
He has to be because he's holy. We miss that. We miss the whole
thing. God is glorious in holiness.
He's magnificent, illustrious, triumphant. The child of God
be made to celebrate his holiness. Our salvation does not come at
the expense of God's holiness and justice. We must be made
holy to be saved. God doesn't just zap us and make
us holy. There's a great price to be paid.
Christ had to die. The just were the unjust to bring
us to God. A perfect righteousness had to
be wrought for the believer in order for them to be saved. Great
expense, a great price to be paid. You've been bought with
a price. The word holiness means separateness. God Almighty is
separate in holiness. God is alone in holiness. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord,
and glorify Thy name, for Thou only art whole? For all nations
shall come and worship before Thee, for Thy judgments are made
manifest, Revelation 15.4. And the only hope of obtaining
holiness. The only hope that we have is
to be chosen in Christ. Isn't that what Paul said? We
read the verse all the time, Ephesians 1, 4. According as
he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we, this is why, that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love. Isn't that so simple? It tells
us right there how we're to be made holy. In Him, chosen in
Him before the foundation of the world. And because of that,
we should be made holy and without blame before Him in love. God
is separate in holiness. When you hear the word God and
when you hear the word holy, you should think separate. God
commands us to be holy. God says, sanctify yourselves
therefore and be ye holy for I am the Lord your God. Have
you been able to do that? But as He which hath called you
is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. That
conversation, that word means behavior, way of life. Can you
provide this holiness before God? It's a fair question because
God requires it. Because it is written, be ye
holy for I am holy, 1 Peter 1 16. God says, wherefore come out
from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not
the unclean thing, and I will receive you. Now let me ask you,
we're friends. Have you been able to accomplish
that? Have I been able to accomplish that? Can we provide a perfect
righteousness for ourselves that God will accept? Well, we know
the answer, don't we? Absolutely not. I remember Brother
Mahan telling me one time that there are three points that should
always be noted in our preaching, in gospel preaching. First, the
holiness of God Almighty. We declare Him to be as He is,
holy. Secondly, the sinfulness, the
ungodly nature of the sons and daughters of Adam. And then thirdly,
how ungodly sinners can be reconciled to this thrice holy God. And
if you tell someone how that's accomplished, then you've preached
the gospel. God is holy, we're unholy. How
are the two gonna be reconciled and brought together? For whosoever
shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point. Oh my,
he's guilty of all. The law's gotta be kept perfectly.
It must be perfect. to be accepted. Master, what
good thing must I do if thou wouldst be perfect? It's not
about being good, it's about being perfect. Well, I can keep
some of the commandments. No, you can't. You can't keep
any of them. You've offended all of them.
The word of God is very clear. We, by nature, are unholy. Every
man and woman born of Adam and their fallen nature have been
lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, and unholy. That's what God says
about us. We can pat each other on the
back and call each other good boys and girls if we want to,
but that's not how God sees us. Do you see the contrast between
us and God? God is glorious in holiness. He's magnificent. God is fearful
in praises. And that word fearful here in
the Hebrew means reverenced. God is reverenced in praises. A lot of what religion calls
praise and worship today is far from being done with reverence.
None of us are able to praise our great and holy God the way
He deserves to be worshipped in reverence. God is so holy
that we must fearfully, reverently praise Him. His law is holy. His justice is holy. His word
is holy. His nature is holy. God's holy.
A sinner who's seen something of their sin, something of their
depravity, something of their desperate need, will with great
fear and reverence praise the Lord Jesus. And it's not just
when they come to church, it's every day. Sometimes it's when
we're in the world that we get the biggest whiff of this humanity
and this depravity that lies within. And I immediately think
to myself, the Lord has died for my sin. I should reverently
thank Him and worship Him day in and day out. Only by the offering
of a perfect sacrificial lamb can we be made holy before God. And when you see that that lamb
is Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
and that He is your only hope of eternal life, I'm telling
you'll reverence Him. If you truly see that, you'll
reverence Him, you'll praise Him, you'll worship Him. Occasionally someone that doesn't
know me, but only knows what I do, will call me Reverend Edmondson.
I'm telling you, I despise the title. There's nothing reverend
about me. And most of the time, I'll tell
the folks that call me that. Nothing reverend about me. Nothing
in me to revere, to adore, to idolize. No true preacher and
servant of God's gonna demand reverence from those whom he
serves. Just not gonna do it. He directs the believer's reverence
to Christ. And for that matter, every child
of God does. We're not here to talk about
us. When the Lord delivered Israel from the hands of Pharaoh's army
and drowned them in the Red Sea, they sung about what the Lord
did. What are they going to sing about what they did? Nothing
to sing about. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
If you want to sing about that, go ahead. He gives all the glory,
because he did all the work. The psalmist said, for men shall
be blessed in him. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory. For thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? We'll tell you where He is. Our
God's in the heavens and He's done whatsoever He hath pleased. This is the God of the Bible.
He has mercy on whom He has mercy. And He has compassion on whosoever
it pleased Him to have compassion. And He saved and He saves those
that He chose to save before time ever was. He's done whatsoever
He's pleased. And He didn't make salvation
possible for all. He made salvation certain for
some. That's who Christ prays for.
He prays not for the world, but He prays for those that the Father
gave Him. There are none like God. Who's like unto Thee, O
Lord? He's glorious in holiness. He's fearful in praises. And
He does wondrous things. Isn't that what He said? God
help us to worship Him as He ought to be worshiped. That word
wonders here in verse 11, excuse me, means miraculous wonders,
miracles. Just think about all the things,
all the miraculous wonders that Christ did for us before he ever
came into the world, before we were ever born, before we had
done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. Why, he
loved those whom the Father gave him. He loved those who were
to be unlovable. He became a surety for them.
He became a sacrifice in their stead. He entered into a covenant
with the Father on their behalf and He became the treasury of
mercy and grace to them. Before He ever came into the
world and before we were ever born, how miraculous is the work
of Christ. Even before the foundation of
the world, Christ was the Lamb slain, wonderfully providing
atonement for every sin that would ever be committed by any
of His elect. Then, in His incarnation, God
the Son worked wonders. Yes, in the fullness of time,
when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman, made under the curse. Why? To redeem them. that were under the curse, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. So he worked out a perfect
righteousness for his lek. He satisfied God's holy justice,
and he made us one with him. He conformed us to his perfect
image. He redeemed his people who were
under the law, that they might receive the adoption of sons. In our room instead, Christ was
crucified and forsaken of God because that's what the wages
of our sin deserved. Do we see that? I love you and
I know you love me, but I wonder if we have any true understanding
as to how holy and perfect our Lord Jesus had to be in order
to pay and put away all the sin debt of all His people that was
owed throughout all time. I want you to think about that
for a minute. You know, our eternal death and condemnation wouldn't
suffice to pay for one single sin. If we burned in hell for
eternity, it wouldn't justify one sin that we've done. Christ
is so holy that He justified and made perfect all the elect
of God, forgiving all the sin of all His people throughout
all time. How holy Christ Jesus is. So much so that for those for
whom the debt was paid, have now been given the very perfect
righteousness of God in him. God is glorious in holiness. So glorious we can't fathom it
if we had any idea of how holy God is. We'd crawl in this building
on our faces before him to worship. God is fearful, reverenced, and
praised. If we had any idea how holy God
was, I'm convinced we would sing the hymns that we sing with a
little more zeal and thankfulness than we do. Don't you think?
If we could clearly see, not dimly through a dark glass as
we do by nature, But if we could clearly see the holiness of God
Almighty, we'd be on our faces singing with the seraphims, holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. But we only see in part, and
we only know in part. One day soon, face to face. And
then, I shall know even as I am known. Friends, Christ is still
doing wonders. He said, other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring. And they shall
hear my voice and they shall be one fold and one shepherd.
We're talking about the holiness of God. And sadly, it's a subject
that many today know nothing about. God is so holy that we
know he will by no means clear the guilty. Let's don't just
make these words. That means exactly what it says.
God will in no means, under no circumstances, clear a guilty
sinner. Sin's got to be paid for. It's
got to be dealt with. But men and women don't seem
to know that. Men and women don't seem to believe that. It seems
that many today just continue to sin in order that grace may
abound. Men just flippantly sin. Sin's no big deal. If we sin,
would God forgive us? And that's the damning effects
of universal redemption. Preachers claim that God loves
everybody, that Jesus died for everybody. God's too good and
loves sinners too much to punish their sin. A holy God isn't. A holy God will by no means clear
the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children upon the children's children until
the third and the fourth generation. Only in Christ does God keep
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression of
sin. In Christ, and in Christ alone. Holy God is the only God worthy
of worship. Do you see that? Who is like
unto Him? All my life, preacher after preacher
would tell me about a God that wanted to save me. Well, God
wants to save you. If you'll just lend Him your
free will, if you just help Him out a little bit, you know, God's
cast a vote for you, Satan's cast a vote against you. The
deciding vote is up to you. Do we really believe that? Do
men and women really believe that? They told me that this
Jesus had made salvation possible, but the rest was up to me. He
needed for me to cooperate and give Him my heart. That kind
of preaching led me to have no reverence at all for a God like
that. God has never wanted to do anything.
He does what He wills in heaven and in earth and in the seas
and all deep places. God never tried to do anything.
He's in the heavens. He's done whatsoever He's pleased.
And when God sent me a preacher, a preacher that told me about
a holy God that demanded from me what I couldn't provide, that
got my attention. And that God required of me what
I couldn't produce. Oh, I saw I was in trouble. Trouble,
trouble, trouble. And it calls me by His mercy
and grace to cry out for just that, mercy and grace. We don't
serve a little pygmy God who's dependent on anyone for anything. Isaiah wrote, the Lord of hosts
has sworn, saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it come
to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand. That's the
God with whom we have to do. Isaiah went on to say, this is
the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth, and this
is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For
the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And
his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? That's
what God says about Himself. And that's exactly what Moses
and the children of Israel sing in this song, sung by the Red
Sea. Look at verse 12. Thou stretchest
out thy right hand, and the earth swallowed them. What's going
to happen to those who oppose God and His Son? God's right
hand of wrath, judgment, and judgment drowned Pharaoh and
his host, so that it may be said that the earth swallowed them
in the depths of the sea. His hand is stretched out. Who
shall turn it back? Are you? Am I? How about man's
will? How about man's work, man's worth,
man's way? Are they going to turn his hand
back? This God who is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises,
who is constantly doing wonders, the God who has destroyed our
enemy of sin and drowned them in the Red Sea of His blood,
says concerning your sin, in chapter 14, verse 13, you shall
see them again no more. Verse 13, thou in thy mercy,
has led forth the people which thou hast redeemed. Thou hast
guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. You see,
brothers and sisters, it's in mercy that God leads forth his
people, and it's by his sovereign strength that God guides his
elect into his holy habitation. And with The psalmist, we can
confidently say, Lord, into thy hand I commit my spirit. We commit
our spirit, we commit our soul unto him, for thou hast redeemed
me, O Lord, God of truth. Canaan was the land of promise
for Israel, and it pictures heaven's glory. For heaven is the holy
habitation of God's people, and it's with mercy and strength
that God leads us there. We're on a journey. We're just
passing through this life. We're on our way to a holy habitation. What do we have to fear? Is there
anything that should cause us concern or worry? If the Lord
leads us in His strength and mercy and in strength, is there
anything that should cause us to fear, to worry, or to fret? No wonder those who serve the
helpless God of free will works religion fret constantly in fear.
I did for years. Only those who are endeavoring
to do a work of righteousness of their own to be accepted by
God live in constant fear, for they know that if they can do
something to save themselves, then they must be able to do
something to lose their salvation. But those that God saves, forever
saved. And they're not basing that upon
any goodness or work that they do, but totally and 100% upon
the work of righteousness that Christ did for them. That's why
we preach Christ and Him crucified. He is our salvation. Everything
that follows in this glorious song that Moses and the people
of God sung is prophetic and a prediction of future events. when the rest of the world heard
the reports of the plagues that God sent. When they heard what
God had brought upon the Egyptians for the sake of Israel, how He
brought Israel out of Egypt with a strong hand, how they passed
through the Red Sea on dry land, how God destroyed Pharaoh and
the host of his powerful army, they were afraid. Look at verse
14. The people shall fear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take
hold on the inhabitations of Palestine. Then the Dukes of
Edom shall be amazed. The mighty men of Moab, trembling,
shall take hold upon them, and all the inhabitants of Canaan
shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them. By the greatness of thine arm,
they shall be as still as a stone till thy people pass over." I
believe that's speaking of the Jordan River. Oh Lord, till the
people pass over which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them
in, speaking to the land of Canaan, the land of promise, and plant
them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O
Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary,
O Lord, which thy hands have established." And we have proof
of what we read here from what Rahab told the spies when they
came to see her in Jericho. Turn with me to Joshua chapter
two for a minute. Joshua chapter two. Look at verse
nine. Rahab said, I know that the Lord,
verse nine, I know that the Lord has given you the land and that
your terror is fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants
of the land faint because of you, verse 10, for we have heard
how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you. When
you came out of Egypt, and what he did unto the two kings of
the Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan, Sihon and
Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. Now look at this, verse 11. And as soon as we had heard these
things, our heart did melt. The same word that Moses and
them sung in Exodus 15. And she said, neither did there
remain any more courage in any man. because of you. For the Lord your God, He is
God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Can't help but to think
again about what Paul said in Romans 9. For this same purpose,
Pharaoh, have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in
thee, that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Trust
me, they'd heard. What proof we have that when
a sinner sees the holy, true, and living God of the universe,
see that He's sovereign, powerful, in control of all things, that
He shall fight for His people, that Christ is a man of war.
The sinner will plead for mercy, grace, and kindness. I can assure
you of that. Rahab says here in verse 12,
now, therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I
have showed you kindness, that you will also show kindness unto
my father's house and give me a true token. and that you may
save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and
my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from
death. And the man answered her, our
life are yours, if ye utter not this our business, and it shall
be when the Lord hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly
and truly with thee. I was thinking today as I read
those verses again, have you ever thought about How Rahab
was spared. It was by substitution, wasn't
it? They said, our life for years.
Dear believer, because God is a holy God. That's what we're
talking about. The holiness of God. Because
God is a holy God who cannot, at the expense of His justice,
excuse your sin. He is glorious in holiness and
He can by no means, we've established that, clear the guilt. Your sins
got to be punished. God's holy justice demands it.
You cannot be saved apart from justice being kept. There's only
one way God can remain just and justify the ungodly. Would anyone
like to answer that? In Christ and in Christ alone. That's how he justifies the ungodly,
only by putting our sin upon the Lord Jesus and him justly
paying the wages of our sin, which is death. That's why we
proclaim and preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul wrote
in first Corinthians chapter two, that your faith should not
stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. I hope that's
where our faith stands tonight, not in something that we can
do, but in the wisdom of God and the power of God. We speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of
the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would
have not crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written,
I have not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him, But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. Friends, God is holy. He's glorious in holiness. Man
is unholy, ungodly, without hope, without God in this world. How
can unholy men and women be reconciled to this thrice holy God? Only
one way, in Christ and in Christ alone. May God enable you and
I to trust in Him as all our righteousness and all our holiness
before Him, the God who is glorious and holiness. Who's liking to
Him? That's a good question, isn't
it? There are none liking to Him.