Everybody take your Bibles and
turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. And then, if you will, hold your
place here in Hebrews chapter 11, and then you can go to Exodus
chapter 14. Hebrews 11 and Exodus 14. Now,
this one verse here in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 29, this one
verse, this one sentence is the complete and concise events
that happen in Exodus chapter 14. So, the whole chapter of
Exodus 14 is summed up in this one statement by the Apostle. Verse 29 of Hebrews 11, it says,
By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which
the Egyptians, a saying to do, were drowned. Now, the Lord,
according to His promise He had delivered the people from bondage,
the bondage of Egypt, by a high hand. By a high hand. This exodus of the people of
Israel, was it not glorious how God did that? How God had sent
the plagues, ten plagues, had come, and the last being the
plague of the Passover. And how God, who took a king,
rose him up from nothing to be king over Egypt, the most powerful
nation in the world, just for the purpose of showing His power
and declaring His glory and fulfilling His promise to His people. If you remember, it was 430 years
before that the Lord had promised to
Abraham that his children would be captive in a land that was
not theirs. They would be in bondage for
400 years. And now then the time had come
for God to deliver His people, and He did it by His own high
hand. God delivered His people from
the angel of death, if you remember, by the blood of the Passover
lamb. That's in the previous verse
when Abraham, it says, through faith kept the Passover and the
sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn
should touch them. Now, in that night, that night,
that the children of Israel had left were to leave Egypt. That night the Lord sent His
angel of death, and every house in Egypt that did not have the
blood applied to the doorpost and the lentil as God had commanded,
those who did not have a spotless lamb slain, And the blood of
that lamb applied to the door. The firstborn of that house,
both man and beast, were killed. But those that received the Word
of God by faith obeyed. They obeyed the Word. Can you
see this, that faith and obedience go together? Faith and obedience,
saying you believe something and then not obeying the Word
of God, that's not faith. Faith comes with obedience. You hear the Word and you do
the Word. Jesus said that not hearers only. Those who are my disciples, those
who are saved, are not just hearers of the Word only, but doers of
the Word. And those who obeyed the Word
of God had this promise, when I see the blood, I will pass
over you. Judgment will pass over you. Why? Because judgment was already
executed in the sacrifice of the substitute, of the Lamb. The Lamb was the substitute. And no doubt, this was a shadow
of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God. This matter of blood. You know,
there is no gospel without this matter of blood. If you don't
have blood, you don't have a gospel. If you don't have perfect blood,
you don't have a gospel. Blood is the crimson thread that
binds the Word of God together. So it was in the beginning when
man sinned. It was God who made the first
blood sacrifice to cover the nakedness of our parents. When
Cain and Abel brought their offerings before God, it was the blood
sacrifice that was accepted. The crimson thread goes and binds
together the Scripture, but the blood also divides. It divides the people of God
from the children of the devil. It divides. Can you imagine that house? There
it is in the center of that, I don't know if you would call
it a neighborhood or what, but it had blood on it. And the house
next door did not have blood. The firstborn in the house with
blood was delivered, was saved, and the house next door, the
firstborn was dead. What made the difference? Was
the people in the house better that had the blood than the others? No. The difference was the blood. It wasn't the person. It was
the blood that made the difference. The blood of the Paschal Lamb?
was the only thing that separated them from the justice of God.
And the blood of Jesus Christ is the only thing that separates
us from the wrath of God, because He has already suffered. He has
already paid what justice demands. And so then, when God passes
over you, you that believe on Christ, you have the blood of
Christ applied to the doorpost of your heart. You have the blood
of Christ applied to your charge, and God's book that marks iniquity
for your sins is blotted out completely. Blotted out, the
scripture says, is a thick cloud. He's passed over us, and all
who have the blood is splattered on our hearts. Those who believe
on the righteousness and blood of Christ alone to satisfy God's
justice are now free. You see, after the Passover blood,
after the blood was shed, it was then the nation of Israel
was set free. Matter of fact, they didn't go
out by scourge. Pharaoh said, get them out as
quickly as you possibly can. Get them out of Egypt. But how did they go out? They
went out with the people of Egypt giving them jewels. Now is that
not something? You had a slave. And now then
the decree comes out that all your slaves have been freed.
Now you've got to do the work. You've got to go out. And you've
got to make bricks, and you've got to do all of these things
that they did. But instead of being mad about
it, they were glad to give them the possessions of their household. Is that not something? They went
out with a high hand. Friends, if Christ shall set
you free, you shall be free indeed. No question. No question. Free from the bondage of Egypt. Free from the bondage of sin. We are born enslaved to sin and
held captive by sin. That's a cruel taskmaster. Have
you not seen sin to be a cruel taskmaster? Have you not seen
sin and how it offers riches and pleasures and joys and yet
gives nothing but misery, nothing but grief and pain and struggles? And yet men run after it as though
it were precious. It's insanity. Depravity. None of these earthly pleasures
are lasting. only leaves the need for more
sin. Have you been satisfied with
just one sin? Has there ever been a sin where
you say, well, man, that's enough. I just had enough of that. That's
great. I'm finished with that. That is so pleasurable that I
just don't even need that anymore. No. Sin only creates a void for
more sin. But we who believe in Christ,
do you know that you are free from all sin? Is that not amazing? You are free from the bondage
of sin. Condemnation of sin. This means
you are free from the condemnation, the wrath of God, the guilt of
your sins, because Christ bore the guilt In a transaction only God can
explain. I can't explain this transaction,
how guilt is transferred. But God took the guilt of His
people, imputed it to His Son, and He died under our guilt. None of us would ever want to
take the place of a guilty person. Matter of fact, we strive, even
when we're guilty, to try to get out of being guilty. We don't
want to take the place of a guilty person. I don't see many people
signing up to take the place of people on death row. I just
don't. I don't see a big movement to
make a law saying, hey, let's have a substitution law where
we can take the place of those people on death row. You don't
see that. But the Lord Jesus Christ, in
grace, did that. And yet, not only that, but He
took the guilt. We could take their place, but
we still can't take away their guilt. God took away our guilt. God
took away our guilt of sin. Where there was only one nature
by birth, there is now two by spiritual birth. Is this not
our experience of grace? Do we not have two contending
natures in us? A nature of righteousness that
hates and abhors our sins, that hates and abhors the old man,
the old nature, and longs for nothing else but to be rid of
him. We that hated God now love God,
and we do it freely. You don't have to force me to
love God. You know that? You don't have to twist my arm,
and you don't have to make me come. You don't have to beg me
to be here. I love God. I love him because
he first loved me and gave himself for me. I am free to serve God because
of the Passover lamb, and I'm free from the bondage of that
old nature. You know what? That old nature
no longer rules in us. If you're a believer in Christ,
that nature doesn't rule. Listen, if we want to, we can
use that excuse all the time. Well, I'm just the old man. I can't help it. Well, no, you
just wanted to sin and you want to give yourself an excuse to
do it. That's what we do. Because that old man's not in
charge. He's not ruling. I know this. All we do is mix
with sin, but it is not the desire of the new man to sin. And so we would struggle. We
would struggle and not cater to him. We are free from him. He doesn't control us. We serve
Christ in everything. And one day we'll be free from
this nature when he comes back. Paul said, I find in a law that
when I do good, his evil is present with me. For do I delight in
the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in
my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me
into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members? O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. I shall be delivered from the
body of this death. I have that promise. If I have
the blood, I will be just as Israel was delivered by the blood.
And they went out with a high hand. Even so will God deliver
me from this body of death with a high hand." His own hand. All who rest in faith will be
delivered from the old man, the world, and the devil. For God
himself will preserve us, and he will bring us to himself.
Now, this matter of the Red Sea. They came from this deliverance.
Now they've come to the Red Sea. After they left Egypt with the
high hand, all of a sudden, trouble came. Friends, when we come by
the grace of God, when we come to faith in Christ, most New
believers expect that all trouble is now removed. See, we receive
the grace of God, we receive the faith by faith, the grace
of God concerning Christ. And we're free. We go out with
a high hand. It's joyful. I'm set free. Surely
God will let open the doors of heaven and rain down all manner
of blessings and roses will fall before my feet as I walk down
the street. No, you get led to the Red Sea. That's where we go. The Red Sea
of trouble. And God led them to this sea.
And now they were hemmed in by the mountains on the right hand.
Mind you, God led them there. He led them to this sea. And
on the right hand, if you were to look, there would be mountains
too high to climb. You look to the left hand and
there's a wilderness. Nothing but a vast wasteland. You look in front of you and
you've got a sea. OK, well, let's go back. Turn
around. Uh-oh. God had hardened the heart of
Pharaoh, and He had sent 600 chariots, not including His army
of marching men to come with their swords and spears. Scripture said they drove those
chariots hard. You imagine the rumble of the
ground of 600 chariots. I imagine that's almost a mile
wide worth of chariots coming towards you. There's nowhere
to go. Where are you going to go? You see, Israel had to understand. They have to understand, just
like we do, that we cannot save ourselves. This thing begins
by grace, and this thing will finish by grace. And what are
we to do? What are we to do? We are hemmed
in. Go to Exodus 14, just a moment. Exodus 14 and verse 13. Here's the words of God's prophet
to the scared, fearful people, entrapped. Moses said, fear ye
not, run! Is that what it says? Hurry! Go climb the mountain! Hurry! Start swimming across
the sea!" Is that what he said? Stand still. Here's a bit of wisdom that's
just... These are pearls of wisdom now.
Listen up. If there's nothing you can do,
then do nothing. If there's nothing you can do,
then do nothing. Stand still and see the salvation of the
Lord. Blessed salvation is here at
the Red Sea. This is the experience of every
believer hemmed in by his own sin. Being pursued by the justice
of Almighty God. Helpless. Hopeless. And as soon as God exposes our
depravity, He comes with a man that says, stand still. Cease from your labors. Stop
trying to earn God's favor. Stop doing and start looking
to Christ. Fear not. Cease from striving. Behold the promise of God that
all who stand still will see the salvation of the Lord. They
will. Who would have thought this would
have been the way God delivered Israel? Would anybody have thought
that? Would anybody have planned this this way? No. But the very thing that stood
in their way was the very thing that saved them, the Red Sea.
What stood in your way? The law. The law stood in our
way. It was a barrier. The justice
of God was coming from behind. There was no escape but to go
forward into the law of God. Because we are all going to be
judged by that law. But praise God, it was by the
same law that He saved us. Jesus Christ stretched forth
His rod as Moses did. And what happened to the sea?
It parted! You see, Christ had already obeyed
the law of God. and satisfied the justice of
God, what then could the law do but part and give us a pathway
to glory? It could do nothing else. The
law can do nothing to you except honor you. Because in Christ
we have honored the law. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight, yet Christ, who honored
and magnified the law as our substitute and bore our sins
in his own body, the law could do nothing but let us go through
on dry land. Even so, as they followed Moses,
we follow Christ, who is the first. When Moses stretched his
rod and the winds blew, guess who was the first one to step
down on there? It was Moses. Moses led the people. Christ leads us through the Red
Sea. Is this scary? You suppose they
were afraid? Hundreds of feet of water was
on both sides of them. And God had made it to where
the land was completely dry under their feet. But I guarantee you, they'd look
over and see a fish swimming next to them, and they'd be kind
of scared. Just the wall of water. I tell you, we feel troubled
sometimes by the wall of water. Our conscience is always troubling
us. But don't be afraid, the angel
of the Lord is with us. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord
is the shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day nor the moon by night. Do you realize that the sun cannot
touch your skin unless God permitted? Is that something? Nothing shall touch you unless
God permits it. It was God that led them there,
and it was God that saved them there. And so it is with us. And so it is when we are in the
troubles of life. He will lead us. Therefore, let
us go forward to glory. Let us learn by the Holy Spirit
not to fear the circumstances of life. Not to fear what men
can do to us or what they think about us. You know, the greatest
hindrance of your witness is what men think about you. You
know, that's the greatest fear that we have in our day. It's
not necessarily fear that they're going to kill us. It's what are
they going to think of us when we start talking about election
or predestination? What are they going to think
about us if we start talking about justification and righteousness,
holiness, sanctification only by God and not by our works? What in the world are they going
to think about us? Who cares what they think about us? I follow Christ. I follow Christ through the sea. Through the dark path, He will
give us light. The Scripture says in Proverbs
4, 27, Turn not to the right hand or to the left. Remove thy
foot from evil. Friends, don't look to the right
or to the left. Look to Christ. The same way you begin this walk
in the Red Sea is the same way you'll finish it by faith in
Christ alone. And I'll tell you this, there
are many who are saved to do what you do. There are many false professors
of faith. I'll tell you what, Pharaoh went
through the Red Sea after the people of God. What was the difference? He went through because of the
lust of his flesh. He went through in the power
of his own chariot. and army. Any man who tries to
go through this sea without faith in Christ alone, who holds anything
as merit before God, the Egyptians, assaying to do the same, were
drowned under the wrath of God. Only one way of deliverance.
Only one way to glory the Red Sea. May God bless you and keep you.
I pray that this was a blessing to your heart. We're dismissed.