Exodus chapter 14. My text will
be found in verse 30. Text will be found in verse 30. The
title of my message is this, God our Savior. God our Savior. The scripture
here said, 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, and the people feared the Lord,
and believed the Lord, and His servant Moses." Now the Apostle
Paul, writing to Timothy, in his very first verse of the first
letter to Timothy, Paul says this, Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the commandment of God, Our Savior. God our Savior. If there is any peace, if there
is any comfort, any joy in the believer's heart, In this world of pain and suffering
and difficulty, if there's going to be any peace in your heart,
if there's going to be any joy to be had, it is in this immutable
truth that God is our Savior. God, listen, Himself is our Savior. That is God in the sacred Trinity
of His persons. Every person of the Trinity has
his part in our salvation. God the Father purposed our salvation. Planned our salvation. Chose
us to salvation. It was God the Son then to whom
we were given. It was God the Son who had accomplished
our salvation by His righteous obedience, by His death at Calvary. He accomplished our salvation
that the Father purposed. And it is God the Holy Spirit
who comes at the appointed time actually applies what God the
Father purposed, what Christ accomplished, the Spirit of God
comes and applies that salvation to our hearts, keeps us all the
way through this life, and even in death, preserves us, presents
us before the Father, Well, will we ever rejoice and
be with the Lord? So then, what? Salvation is completely
the work of God alone. The work of God alone. Now the first time this word
Savior is used is in our text. Now you don't see the word Savior. You see the word saved, but it
is the Hebrew word for Savior. And so we read this text, Thus
the Lord, the Savior of Israel, saved them that day. The Lord
personally was their Savior. The Lord personally saved who? Israel. That day. From the hand of the Egyptians. Now, in order to understand how
God is our Savior, Israel, before God saved them, what did God
teach them? Before God saved them, they must
of necessity needed a Savior. Before they were saved, God must
have first shown them their bondage. And that's exactly what He did.
Before this day came, God first of all showed them their need
of a Savior. Israel. before this was in bondage. In bondage. They were under the
hard taskmaster Pharaoh. And we know this from Exodus
chapter 1, that there arose in Egypt a Pharaoh that did not
know Joseph. And he feared because Israel
was so prosperous, he said, we should keep these people in bondage
so that they should not overtake us. And so in fear, He put them
in bondage and slavery. And we know this, that Israel,
in this book, is a picture of the elect, of every believer
in Christ, of everyone that God would save. Israel is a picture
of spiritual Israel. And so as the nation of God,
Israel must first of necessity know their bondage, even so it
is with spiritual Israel. If God is your Savior, this is
the first lesson He will teach you. It is concerning the bondage
of our nature. The bondage of every one of His
people under Satan. The bondage of His people under
the law. The bondage of His people under
sin. Every one of God's elect children,
this is where He always finds us. This is how we were born. You know, a child born into captivity
doesn't know anything of freedom. That's how we were born. We were
born captive, and that's all we know is captivity. Born under bondage. And you know this, that the law,
the law of God, it is only by the law of God that we would
know anything at all of sin. Yet God has left that law in
His Word and in our hearts so that we might know this. But we know that Paul said this,
the strength of the law is, the strength of sin is what? The
law. The law. Now the law, we know this is
good. There's nothing wrong with the law of God. The law is good
and holy, and the law does not make us sin. But I tell you this, had we no
law, there would be no conscience of sin at all in a man's heart.
There would be no guilt at all of conscience. And so what is
the purpose then of the law? The purpose of the law was never
to free us. The purpose of the law is this,
that we might see our bondage, know and feel the chains of our
sin. Now what do you suppose the world
would be like if God not left that law in a man's heart? What
kind of... Men are rebellious against the
law by nature, but what kind of world would it be had there
no conscience? God left no conscience or guilt
in a man. Yet I'm comforted in this, that
the wrath of man shall praise him, and the remainder of wrath
he shall restrain. Do you suppose the bondage of
Egypt was some kind of bad luck? that they just happened into
this bondage. That this just snuck up on God
that He had no clue what was going to happen and all of a
sudden His people are in trouble. No, we know this, that He told
Abraham that His people would be in bondage. He even gave an
express time in which they should be delivered. Four hundred years
they would be there. And then He would deliver them. And I'll tell you this, by nature, men don't like the law. They
despise the law of God. They kick at it by nature. We
oppose it. But listen, we can never free
ourselves from it. Now Israel may have hated the
bondage of Egypt, but one thing about it, they could not free
themselves. They needed a Savior. And so
when God sets out to save, I'm going to tell you this, the law
binds us, surely. The law cannot save us. But when
God's purpose to save Israel, He did it by sending the gospel. The gospel. You remember Jesus
told those Pharisees, He said, "...if I had not done among them
the works which no other man did, they had not sinned." Now
what is He saying that they didn't have any sin? No, He said they
wouldn't even know about their sin. Had I not come and done
the work, had I not come and preached the gospel of God's
grace and salvation by my work, they had not known anything of
their sin. but now they had seen and heard
and they hate me and my father." You know when the Gospels preach
to write, and in the power of the Holy
Ghost to the unregenerate man, to the self-righteous man, When the gospel is preached to
the man who is trusting in his own works, when the gospel is
preached to the man trusting that his work or will has some
effect on the will and work of God's salvation, when the gospel
is declared plainly that man is completely enslaved to his
sin and cannot by any means free himself, That God alone is Savior. That God alone has decreed to
save Israel. Only Israel. That God has purposed
that Jesus Christ accomplish salvation for Israel. That the
Holy Spirit alone will come and save Israel. When that gospel is preached
to right, the religious world will hate it. because our hearts
are depraved and dead, and because of the rebellion of our hearts,
men do not honor or keep the law, men will despise the gospel
and hate it. Only when it comes in power,
only when that word comes in power, and truth will a man see
the impossibility of salvation by the law. Now men think that
they can be saved by the law. Now men are friends with the
law so long as they perceive that they have some ability to
obey it. But once the law of God comes
in power through the preaching of the gospel, Paul says, I was
alive without the law once. But when the law came in power,
sin revived and I died. I died. When the gospel comes in power,
it's then we know that no one is justified by the deeds of
the law. No one. In fact, cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things written in the book of the law.
As it is written, the just shall live by faith only, not without
the deeds of the law. Now then, this morning, to you
who are in bondage, are you in bondage? Are you in bondage to
sin? Are you under the power of sinful
passions moved by Satan? floating along with the circumstances
of life that help you judge a what's good him circumstances do you need a safe do you need
one then I tell you that only God
can save Only God. I can preach the best message.
Now, we're hypothetical here. I could preach the best message
that had ever been preached. I could say it with such eloquent
words as to move you to tears. But I can't convince you of your
bondage. I can't do it. If God's ever
going to save you, that's the first thing He'll teach you.
Your need of salvation. Like Israel of old, men are in
bondage and stand in great need of a Savior. And it's only God
who saves Israel. It's only hope is that God be
your Savior. In Exodus chapter 3, the Lord
says that I have seen the affliction of Israel. I have seen and I
have heard their cry. You know, what a wonderful thing
to have men cry unto God in their bondage. Would that not be the
greatest thing? For men to cry. Now that's not
what people want in church. They want everybody to be happy.
They want to be happy. No, friends, I want those in
bondage to see their bondage, and that'll bring them to tears,
bring them to cry unto God. Not to the preacher, not to their
mother, not to their father. They can't do anything for you.
Only God is Savior. If you're in bondage, you should
cry unto God. And listen, as God saw the bondage
of Israel, heard the cry of Israel, so he will hear the cry of anyone
who is in bondage. See, only Israel's in bondage.
Egyptians weren't in bondage. They never were. God's people
were. And they knew it. And listen,
God always saves with the same means. Always with the same means. How does He do it? He sends a
man to preach freedom. Like I said, a man in bondage,
all he knows is bondage. He knows nothing of freedom.
And therefore, God must send a man to proclaim freedom. And that's what he did, didn't
he, to Israel? He sent Moses. And what was the message of Moses? Go to Exodus 5 and verse 1. God heard their cry in three,
and afterward, after much to Moses' objection, God sent
Moses. And look at Moses' message in
verse 1, "...afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh,
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto
me in the wilderness." Now just rationally thinking,
the Lord God said to Pharaoh, let my people go." Do you not suppose that it's
just rational that Pharaoh would obey the command of God? But he doesn't. Pharaoh said,
who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel
go? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. This is the response of everyone
by nature. This is a hatred of God by nature. Who is God and what is He to
tell me what to do? You'll find out. Just like Pharaoh
did, you'll find out. Today, Pharaoh, thousands of
years has been finding out who God is, that he should have heard
His voice. And so will you. But not only
that, I want you to know this, Israel rejected his voice. Not
only Pharaoh, but Israel did. You remember what happened in
this chapter here, chapter 5, that he put more burdens on them,
that they should make more brick, and he took away the straw, and
they became so burdened that they came to Moses and said,
why are you doing this to us? We don't want your freedom. You're causing Pharaoh to hate
us and kill us. He's doing that anyway, but they
didn't know it. Not till God's man came and told them. They
began to feel the burden of their bondage. This is the same result
of everyone God will save. The gospel must come and first
kill before it makes a life. It will wound you before it ever
heals you. It will expose your bondage and
sin to you before it ever delivers you from it. This Gospel always stirs up the
bondage. And it will and must reveal the
condition before God will ever deliver us. We must by the Gospel
first show us our need. Your true condition. No one who's ever been delivered
of God argues depravity of man. No one. Why? That's the first
thing God showed us. See, I don't need a partial Savior.
I need God to save me. I know this, I was so in bondage
that I could never deliver myself, ever, in a million years, with
all the abilities of man and all the passions of a heart of
man, I could never deliver myself. I was totally and completely
and utterly ruined. I could not save myself. That's the first thing God teaches.
He confronts us with our hopeless condition. And I'll tell you
this, the first reaction is not good, is it? The first reaction
of our heart is, why are you bringing this on me? Are you
seeking to kill me? No. I'm going to save you. I'm going to save you. And I'll
tell you this, we would hold so violently to our religion
and our false gods, and if God had not ripped them from our
hands, we'd still be holding them. But when God comes in power,
when God purposes to save and deliver the sinner, all things
will become worse for him. His taskmasters, his burdens
will become worse. You remember in Hosea, when he
is going to allure his bride after she had prostituted herself. He laid out those gifts and before
he allured her, he took away those gifts. that she said were
for her lovers. He took away her mirth. He took
away her gods. He took away all the joys and
comforts of this life. And then what did He do? Then,
when she had nothing, then, when she was empty and ruined, it
was then He said, I'll draw her to Myself. You see, Christ didn't come to
save the righteous. He came to save sinners. He didn't come to let those who
are free go. He came to let those who are
in bondage go. Listen to what God says about
the nation of Israel. He says, Wherefore say unto the
children of Israel, I the Lord will bring you out from under
your burdens. This is chapter 6 and verse 6.
The Lord says to the children of Israel, I am the Lord, I will
bring you out from under your burdens of the Egyptians. I will
rid you out of their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched
arm and with great judgments. And I will take you to be, to
take you to me for a people and I will be unto you a God and
you shall know that I am the Lord your God which bringeth
you out from all, from the burdens of the Egyptians." Is this not a joy to the heart of those in bondage?
This is a message of surety. It's not a message of maybe.
This is not a message of perhaps. Listen to you who are in bondage.
I will bring you out, saith the Lord. I will do it. You will know who I am. You will
know I'm the one that did it. You will be my people. I will
be your God. That sound iffy to you? Absolutely
not. Why? Because He who is God, who
made all things, has established a covenant of grace for His elect
people. And even while we were yet in
bondage, God purposed before that He should save us. Remember,
our text is in chapter 14. This is chapter 6. And God says,
even while they were in their bondage, I will bring you out. Don't you know this, that your
salvation was purposed? There's no such thing as accidental
salvation. That's Arminian doctrine. That's
a lie. Our salvation was purposed of
God. Before it happened, God says,
I will and you shall. I'll bring you out and you shall
be my people. No question here. He was God
alone. Now, in our text, it said the
word saved there. I want you to know that that's
referring both to the one who's saved and the people who are
being saved. God is the Savior of Israel. And listen, Israel is the object
of His salvation. In order for someone to be a
Savior, there has to be somebody He saves. There has to be an object. What
good is a Savior if He has nobody to save? No, God says, I'm the
Savior of this group of people. Israel, the objects of His salvation,
and even so, of God's Israel, He has appointed a time, a place
in which they should all be saved. And that's the time in our text
the Lord saved them, that day. That day. Now, how? How? He's got a people in bondage. They can't save themselves. They
can't deliver themselves. He purposes to save them. He
said, I will save you. But how should He save them?
He doesn't leave this to our imagination, does He? He saves
them as He always has saved sinners. by blood and by water. By blood and by water. You know this. In Exodus chapter 11, the Lord
has sent all those judgments, by this time the Lord has sent
all those judgments on the nation of Israel. The lice, the frogs,
the blood, all of those plagues He had sent on them. Now which one of those plagues
moved Pharaoh to let him go? Which one? None of them. But here the Lord in chapter
11 verse 1 says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring
one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. And afterwards
he will let you go, when he shall let you go He shall surely thrust
you out hence, all together. Now what is this last plague?
This is the Passover. The Passover. In chapter 12,
verses 3 through 13, I won't take time to read it all, but
I want you to see this, that God told them to pick out a lamb,
a spotless lamb, from the congregation, from the assembly. Pick out a
lamb for the assembly. You set this lamb aside for 14
days for observation to make sure that it's spotless. Then
you take this lamb and you slay this lamb. You kill this lamb
in the midst of the assembly, in the midst of the congregation,
and you take his blood. You apply it to the doorpost
and the lintel, and you enter in. That's important. You enter
in. And he said, don't go out. Don't
leave. Stay in. And that night when
I come through, when I see the blood, this is what we call Passover,
right? When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And you take that lamb that you
killed and you eat it. Eat all of it. Burn the rest
of it. Put your shoes on your feet. Gird yourself. Get ready
to go because in the next day He's going to send you out. You're
going to go out. Now I'll tell you this, you cannot
who believe in Christ, you cannot hear that and immediately not
see Christ. Jesus Christ is the Passover
Lamb. This is how God delivers His
people from bondage. Through the blood of the Lamb,
Jesus Christ. He's the Passover Lamb. He was
set aside those 14 days to be examined, and He was found what?
Without spot. He was found righteous before
the religious rulers. They could not find one sin in
Him. And yet He was slain in the midst
of the assembly. He was slain in front of everyone. You see, all the sins that kept
His people in bondage, God put them in the body of His Son. and God's justice fell on His
Son, and that blood, that blood by grace He applies to the hearts
of His people, in the place of His people, and all of His people
have entered in by that covenant of grace, have been put into
Christ, surrounded by His blood, always by His righteousness. Now friend, do you need salvation?
This is only where it's found, right here. It is only in the
blood of Christ that sinners are redeemed. It is only when the blood of
Christ is applied to the heart will God's judgment pass over
you. Jesus is the only one who perfectly
paid for sin and in whom God is completely satisfied. No one
else. No one else. and all who believe
on his blood his death god is justice is satisfied and god
will pass over is that not amazing This is sin, is our chain. It keeps us in bondage. But now
Christ has come to take away the chains, to remove the bondage
by enduring the wrath of God Himself in our place. And as these Israelites were
commanded to eat the lamb, so is every one of God's people
that would be set free. You must eat the lamb. You must
believe on Jesus Christ. Jesus said, except you eat my
flesh and drink my blood, You can't have any part in this life.
You must eat my flesh and drink my blood. Now what is that? That's
spiritual language. He said these words I speak,
they are spirit and they are truth. It is simply to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, to embrace Him as all your salvation. It is to enter in the door and
shut it behind you. It is to come to Christ and believe
on Him. And listen, all who do God will
never punish you. Why do you think he passed over
then? Because the payment had already been made. God cannot
demand twice payment for sin. So, this is how God saves, but
not only by blood, but by water. This is not speaking of physical
baptism, as most foolish men suppose. There is no salvation in water
baptism, but these people, in order to be saved, Israel must
have passed through the Red Sea. They must have passed through
the Red Sea. After, even after they had been delivered by blood,
God sent them forth and came to the Red Sea. And behold the
picture of this. Israel was delivered, they were
moved out, they'd gone out. Now then, they come to the sea. And all of a sudden, Pharaoh
comes in behind them. charging to bring them back into
captivity. They have the mountains on one
side, a desert on the other side. God hemmed them in here. And
they could not do anything else but cry to God. And this sea before them, that's
the justice of God. Have you not often feared facing
the eternal God? Does not your sin and the accuser
of your soul press hard behind you? Not the mountains of your
sin on the right, the desert of your self-righteousness on
the other side? How then could you go forward?
God says, go forward! How could you do it? How could
I go into eternity? You see, because of Jesus Christ's
blood, what happened to the sea? It parted. and they walk through
on dry ground. Listen, you who believe in Jesus
Christ, don't you know that the justice of God is parted for
you? That it will never touch you?
I'm sure that those Israelites looked up at those walls of water
and began to fear. I'm sure they trembled. But listen,
they were never ensnared. That water never touched them. And oftentimes we may fear the
judgment of God. We may look upon the judgment
of God. We look behind us and see our sins pursuing us. But God says, fear not. Stand
still and see the salvation of who? The Lord. How do you know
you're going to make it? The cane inside. Listen, because
God is your Savior. Because God promised. Therefore, we are to go forth
in faith. Go forth in faith, remembering
that we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. We've been
made righteous by His imputation, by the impartation of a new nature.
And though we are yet still engaged with this old flesh, and Satan
often accuses our souls, and the justice of God causes us
fear, yet we may have this one thing, By which we are assured. God said, I will deliver you. I will bring you out. And what
did God do in the end here? He showed them, didn't he? The
experience of it. There was nothing sweeter than
to see those dead Egyptians wash up on the shore. Why? Because
they knew that there was no chance of those men hurting them again. There would be no more captivity. Isn't this what we see every
time we read the Word of God? Can you not see that your sins
have been washed? that God has taken your sins
and cast them behind his back. That God says, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith the Lord. Speak comfortably unto them.
Why? Because there the Lord hath received
double for all their sins. Oh, is God your Savior? then who shall you fear? What circumstance should come
up so as to move God not to fulfill His promise? What sin do you
suppose your wicked heart could come up with that would not be
washed away with the blood of Christ? Do you suppose your sin
is superior to His blood? No. Friends, God saved Israel that
day. He is God, our Savior. And listen, have you believed
on Christ? Then you are saved. Listen to this, you are being
saved. And listen to this, you shall
be saved. God purposed it. Jesus accomplished
it. The Spirit applied it and showed
it to you. And I know this, He keeps showing
you. Those bodies just keep washing up on the shore. And we keep
singing. That's what Israel did, they sang. What'd they sing? They sang salvation
is of our will. Salvation's of our power. We
help God. No. Salvations of the Lord. That's
what they sing. They sing glory to God. They
sing praise to Him. And so do everyone who knows
their bondage and knows the deliverance of God. We sing praise to God. Is that you? Hope it is. Pray
it is. If you're in bondage today, I'm
telling you that there's hope. There's hope. Only by blood. Only if He washes away your sins.
Only if God is your Savior. I pray God bless you.