I am weak, but Thou art mighty.
Hold me with Thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more. Open now the crystal fountain
whence the healing stream doth flow. Let the fire and cloudy
pillar lead me all my journey through. Strong deliverer, strong
deliverer, be Thou my strength and shield. When I tread the
verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside. Bear me through
the swelling current, land me safe on Canaan's side. Songs
of praises, songs of praises, I will ever give to thee. That
fits that so well. We've probably sang it. I don't
know if we've sang it here or not. Well, y'all got better memories
than I do. You're probably about 10, 15
years younger than me too. All right. Exodus 14. Exodus 14. The title of this message, THE
RED SEA EXPERIENCE. THE RED SEA EXPERIENCE. As I was reading this several
times this week, it dawned on me what a blessing
to have the complete Word of God We can read these stories
and see the hand of God in every step of His people. Every step of His people, we
see His hand. And I thought, just think, if
you could read, if I could read our life story and see that every
step is ordained and directed of God, if we could see the end
from the beginning, if we could see it, how comforting it would
be. that we would see that there's
some hard times coming. But if we can see the end, how
that we have a good end, it would be comforting. We would know
that the Lord is going to bring us through it. It's not going
to destroy us. We'd know that. But that would
not be faith, would it? As I thought about that, I thought
that would not be faith because the Word of God says, THE JUST,
those who are justified in Christ, shall live by faith. And we live
by faith all the way home. All the way home we live by faith.
But let us never forget that God, the God we were reading
about this morning that led Israel on dry ground through the Red
Sea and the water was a wall. I mean, it wasn't way too deep. It was a wall of water on both
sides, enough to drown the whole army of Egypt. But let us never
forget that God s the same, He never changes. As He is, so will
He be forever. As He is to His people, that
s what He ll always be to His people. Now, in these first four
verses, we see God s leading His people with purpose. Everything
God does, He does on purpose. He's not reacting. God never
reacts. God is active, not reactive.
God's always active. Now in this passage, God directs
Moses to lead the Israelites into what appears to be a trap.
It appears to be a trap. At least that's the way Pharaoh
sees it. He thinks This is a TRAP! What are they doing? Camping
between Pyroth and the Red Sea? There is nowhere for them to
go! There is no escape route! You see, to the natural mind,
this is foolishness! Just like the gospel is foolishness
to the natural mind, to the natural man, the gospel of Christ crucified
is foolishness! It's not to you who believe,
but it is to the natural mind, it's foolishness. However, though,
God never brings His people into a trial without a divine purpose
in that trial. He has a divine purpose in it.
It's for His glory and our good. We read that in Romans 8.28. Pharaoh thinks the Israelites
are entangled in the land, and that's exactly what the Lord
lets him think. He lets Pharaoh be Pharaoh, that's
what He does. Believing that the God of Israel
is not very wise, He's not a very wise God, He's not a very wise
leader to lead them into such a trap, but the entire setup
is of God. It's according to God's purpose,
He's going to bring glory to Himself, He's going to defeat
Pharaoh HE'S GONNA PUT A FINAL END TO PHARAOH AND HE'S GONNA
SAVE HIS PEOPLE. AND WHEN HE'S DONE, THEY ARE
GONNA KNOW HE SAVED THEM. AND HE SAYS THE EGYPTIANS ARE
GONNA KNOW I'M THE LORD. EVERYBODY IN HELL KNOWS WHO GOD
IS. EVERYBODY THERE KNOWS WHO THE
LORD IS. TOO LATE, BUT THEY KNOW WHO HE
IS. EVERYBODY'S GONNA KNOW WHO JESUS CHRIST IS. The Word of
God says every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going
to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. Everyone's going to do it, every
knee. Billions upon billions of knees
are going to bow and confess this to the glory of God the
Father. Now God brings His people to
be placed in a seemingly impossible situation. Seriously, has God
ever put you in an impossible situation? You know you can't
do anything about it. You know you can't. You can't
change the situation. You can't get out of it. You
can't change it. But God does this not to destroy His children,
but to reveal His power and to make them to know this. You need me. You need me to get
through this. You need me. This is the path of faith. The
path of faith is God taking us to places we know that it's of
the Lord, our deliverance of the Lord because if not we ain't
going to be delivered, we're not going to come through this.
And then in verses 5 through 9 we see Egypt's pursuit of Israel
and Israel panicking. We see what the old natural heart
is, don't we? We'll see it here. When Pharaoh
hears that the Israelites are wandering, he regrets letting
them go. He and his servants say, Why
have we done this? What were we thinking? Now we
got to work. We let our cheap labor go, those
who served us. Why have we done this? I'll tell
you why you've done it, God. God. You've done exactly what
the God's purpose. You know when over in the book
of Acts, I believe it was Peter, says, You by your wicked hands
have taken the Lord, crucified Him, the Lord of glory, and killed
Him. He said, You did what your wicked hearts wanted to do, but
you also did what God purposed to be done. Don't ask me how all that works,
but I know this, God's eternal purpose is accomplished by men
and women doing exactly what their wicked hearts want to do.
He rules, God Almighty rules and overrules absolutely all
things, all things, He does. So Pharaoh, he says, Why have
we done this? We are going to go after them.
You know one of the things that I see here is this, Pharaoh's
pride of heart, God let Pharaoh's pride. He's Pharaoh. I'm Pharaoh. Why did I do this?
I didn't have to do this. I'm the king. I got more power
than anybody in the land. It says in Proverbs 16, 18, Pride
goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. This is what we see going on
with Pharaoh. Pride, the pride of his heart.
He's lifted up and he said, I'm going to, I'm not, what have
I done? I'm going to go back. I'm going to go and get them.
and I'm going to bring them back, I'm going to enslave them again,
that's what I'm going to do. So Pharaoh's hardened heart,
his pride, moves him to pursue them with his entire army. He
takes 600 chosen chariots and captains and all his forces and
he goes after them, not realizing, not realizing THAT THE KING'S
HEART IS IN THE HAND OF THE LORD LIKE THE RIVERS OF WATER, HE
TURNETH IT WHITHERSOEVER HE WILL. He doesn't realize his heart
is in God's hands, that's what it says over Proverbs 21. He
doesn't realize that, I do now, you do! He didn't. Well, the same thing is going
on today. The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord, it doesn't
matter which king it is, it doesn't matter who's Who's in a in a
power of authority their hearts in God's hand? And like the rivers
of water He turns it with us wherever he will just like he
does the rivers of water You know God has made a way it says
for the water course they all flow to the sea and yet the earth
is not drained of its water and Then it goes back up in vapors
and comes back around and waters the earth and goes back to the
city That's all in God's hands, and he says so is the king's
heart So was the king's heart. But this pursuing, listen, this
pursuing after them is a good picture of Satan in the world
pursuing the believer trying to enslave them again. Satan,
now listen, Satan does not let his captives go easily. Turn over to Mark chapter 9. In Mark chapter 9, I'm going
to show you something here. In Mark chapter 9, let me see
the verses, look in verse 19. I'm going to read 19 through
26. And He answered him and said,
O faithless generation, the Lord answered, He said, O faithless
generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer
you? Bring him to Me. And they brought him unto him,
and when he saw him, straightway the spirit, that evil spirit,
tear him, and he fell on the ground, and he wallowed foaming.
This is the young man that brought his son to the disciples, and
they couldn't do anything, so they brought him to the Lord.
Anyway, he said, He fell on the ground wallowing and foaming,
and he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came
unto him? And he said, Of a child, and
oftentimes it is cast him into the fire and into the waters
to destroy him. But if thou canst do anything,
have compassion upon me. on us and help us. Jesus said
to him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried
out, and boy, I can just see the desperation of this. And
he said, With dear Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. When
Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked
the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit,
I charge thee, come out of him and enter no more into him. And
the spirit cried and rent him, and came out of him and he was
his one dead in so much that many said he's dead but jesus
took him by the hand lifted him up and he arose but you see what
happened when he cast him out that spirit cast him to the ground
and ran him he doesn't satan doesn't let go of his prey easily
but when the lord says come out he has to come out he has to
let go he can't do anything else And then we see Moses here in
verses 10 through 12 speaking to the children of Israel. God
always uses His man to speak to His people. And the people
of Israel see this approaching army, and they are so afraid. I thought it was interesting.
They SEE this approaching army, and it scares them to death.
None of them have died yet. It's not like a battle going
on and a bunch of them are dying. They just see it, and they're
freaking out. They just see it. They immediately, I want you
to notice, they immediately turn on Moses, but in turning on Moses,
they turn on God. You turn on God's man, you turn
on God. And they said this, Because there were no graves in Egypt,
hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Have you brought
us here to die in the wilderness? Oh, the unbelief and the carnality
of the human heart. After witnessing all those ten
plagues in Egypt, they still complain. After all they saw in Egypt,
they still complain. They still complain. THIS IS SO PROFOUND THAT THEY
WOULD STILL COMPLAIN. I KNOW THIS THAT THE NATURAL
HEART DETESTS THE PATH OF FAITH. IT DOES NOT LIKE TRUSTING GOD. TRUST THE LORD. WELL, THAT'S
NOT WHAT I WANTED TO HEAR. I wanted to hear that it's going to be
all right. It's going to be okay. No, trust
the Lord. Trust the Lord. You know, I've,
I've had people that come to me and I've had them talk to
me about trouble. And most of the time I have,
I have said to them, you're probably just going to have to go through
it. You're going to have to go through it. But the Lord said,
when you go through the water, I'll go with you, but you're
going to go through it. And you're going to find out
who God is. That's the only way you're going to find out who God is.
We read about it, but then we experience God. We experience
God. One writer wrote this, How often
we prefer the miseries of the world over the trials of faith,
simply because the eye of sense cannot see a way out. Isn't that
amazing? We prefer the miseries of the
world to the trial of faith because we just can't see the way out.
But Moses responds in faith here and not fear. He says in verse
13, Fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the
Lord. One of the hardest things to do when you are afraid, when
you are gripped with fear, one of the hardest things to do is
stand still. We have that fight or flight, and most of the time
it's flight. It's like I'm getting out of
here. Stand still. Here's a man, Moses,
surrounded by fear and complaint, but yet he stands firm in faith. I like what Spurgeon said, the
limping of the leader is the lameness of the people. If Moses
had started limping here, it would have been really bad. But
he stood firm. He stood firm. Standing still
is a critical spiritual principle in faith. It is. It's a critical spiritual principle
in faith. It implies ceasing from one's
own effort and trusting God alone to bring you out. That's what
it is. Salvation is not something we
work for, it's something we see and trust God for. David said,
I had fainted unless I had BELIEVED to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living, BELIEVED to see, not see first and then I'll believe. He said, I believe God and then
I see. That's how it works. And then
verse 14, Moses said, The Lord shall fight for you, my soul. I tell you what, if the Lord
fights for you, you don't need anyone else to fight for you.
IF THE LORD FIGHTS FOR YOU, AND YOU SHALL HOLD YOUR PEACE, JUST
BE STILL! BE STILL! Psalm 46, 10, BE STILL AND KNOW
THAT I AM GOD, AND I WILL BE EXALTED AMONG THE HEATHEN, AND
I WILL BE EXALTED IN THE EARTH! C. H. MACKINTOSH SAID THIS, IT
IS WHEN NATURE'S STRENGTH IS GONE, WHEN HUMAN RESOURCES FAIL,
WHEN HOPE SEEMS LOST, THEN THE SALVATION OF GOD APPEARS MOST
GLORIOUS. And that's the position God brings
us into just so we might see Him. You want to see God? You want to see? Those who do business in deep
water see God. Those who go down in ships, He
says, and do business in deep water You see, naturally, we
don't want to be taken to deep water. We're surface swimmers. We like it when we get to our
swim, we can actually just stand up. But he takes us out to where
there's no water to stand, nothing solid to stand on, but it cries.
Peter started to sink and he said, Lord, save me. And the
Lord reached down and got him by the hand and pulled him out. And then we see here a divine
command to go forward in verse 15, 18. God asked Moses, Why
criest thou after me? That's interesting. This is one
of the first times God says shut up, pray and start work and just
start moving, start doing what I said. I gave you a command. So it's now it's time to act
instead of time to pray. You've already prayed about this
and I told you what to do. Now do it. And here's what's happening,
God gives him a rebuke and He's implying here that the time for
prayer has passed and the time for action has come, and here's
what He says, GO FORWARD! Go forward! This is a paradoxical command
because He says, GO FORWARD! And you know what's in front
of Him? The Red Sea. It's like There's no bridge here. You know, there's no bridge,
there's no... Go forward, and they're turning there, and they're
looking, and it's nothing but the Red Sea in front of them. But
what they see is death in front and death behind. And I know
it's way too far for them to swim across. This is not a river,
this is the Red Sea. But boy, what they're about to
see, my, my, my, what they're about to see. Here's a vital
truth that we need to learn. Faith is not passive. It acts
on God's Word even when the path is not visible. Go forward. The rod of Moses, which had symbolized
judgment over Egypt, now becomes the instrument of deliverance
for Israel. I thought of that scripture in Psalm 23, Thy rod
and thy staff, they comfort me. God takes that rod and He parts
the Red Sea, they go over and He takes that same rod and He
drowns the Egyptians. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. You know, God's judgments, we
find comfort in judgment. God judged Christ for my sins
and guess what? They're gone. They're all gone. I'll show you that in a little
bit. He says here, He says, Go forward. THIS IS THE WATCHWORD OF FAITH,
NOT BECAUSE THE SEA PARTED, BUT BECAUSE GOD SAID TO. GOD SAID
GO FORWARD BEFORE THE SEA WAS EVEN PARTED. Then he says in
verse 16, Lift up thy rod, lift it up, and he's going to use
that rod, as I said, he's going to use it to part the sea and deliver
them, and that same rod he's going to bring judgment on the
Egyptians. In verse 18, God also declares
that He will again be honored through Pharaoh's defeat. You
see, God's sovereignty is not only over His people, it's over
His enemies also. And then we come to the cloud,
that cloud and fire. In verses 19 through 22, The
angel of God and the cloud that had been leading them now moves
behind them. I am thy rear reward, that's
what God said to Abraham. He moves behind them, coming
between the Israelites and the Egyptians. It brings light to
God's people and darkness to their enemies, that's what it
says. It was light to them, but it was darkness to the Egyptians.
You know the gospel is not light to everybody. IT'S FOOLISHNESS TO A LOT OF
PEOPLE. IT'S FOOLISHNESS. IT'S A STUMBLING BLOCK TO THE
RELIGIOUS PERSON, TO THE JEW, TO THE RELIGIOUS PERSON. IT'S
A STUMBLING BLOCK. BUT TO GOD'S CHILDREN, IT'S LIGHT.
IT'S LIGHT. WHO IS THIS ANGEL? WHO IS THIS
CLOUD AND THIS FIRE? WHO IS IT? IT'S THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST, THE SAME ONE THAT WAS THE BURNING BUSH. The same one
that was the burning bush is the angel, the cloud, and the
fire. Christ is all things to His people.
He's all things. Then here in verse 20, we see
the two sides of God's presence, light to the one and darkness
to the other. Grace to His people, judgment
to His foes. this very moment right here this
what's going on right here and this is for our understanding
over in first corinthians 10 these things are written for
our admonition it's what it says there were examples this is an
example right here in first corinthians i think it's first corinthians
10 it illustrates this what's going on right here they said
they were baptized into moses they drank of that rock And it
says, These were examples for us. This is going on for us right
now. God not only did this for them,
but He did this for us that we might learn something here this
morning. We have the Word of God on this. We get to see the
whole picture, knowing that God is the same God is working in
our lives, knowing this. But this moment here illustrates
divine protection and separation. IT SHOWS THAT GOD NOT ONLY LEADS
HIS PEOPLE, BUT SECURES THEM ON ALL SIDES. WE ARE SECURE ON
ALL SIDES. WE ARE SURROUNDED BY GOD. I READ
TO YOU LAST WEEK WHERE HE LED THE PEOPLE, THAT PARTICULAR WORD
MEANT SURROUNDED THEM. JUST LIKE RIGHT NOW, YOU ARE
SURROUNDED BY AIR. CAN YOU SEE THE AIR? YOU DON'T EVEN FEEL THE AIR RIGHT
NOW, BUT YOU'RE BREATHING IT. Take the oxygen out of this room
and you're dead. But you are surrounded all by
air. God's people are surrounded by Him. In Him, Paul said, we
live and move and have our being, our existence. We do. The same presence that lights
the path of the faithful blinds the path of the enemy. The gospel,
listen, the gospel is a savior of life unto life to some and
a savior of death unto death to others. The children of Israel said this,
I thought about this yesterday. The children of Israel said,
Let His blood be on us and on our children. That can be good
and that can be bad. The blood of Christ by which
we are saved can also be judgment against those who despise it.
We saw that in Hebrews this Thursday. They trampled underfoot the Son
of God and despised the blood of the covenant. That's it. Be good, be bad. If
God's blood's on our children for salvation, that's good. But
if they despise it, it'll rise up in judgment. It will. And then we have the parting
in verse 21, and I'll see if I can wind this thing down. There's
a lot. There's just so much here. Oh,
it's so much. I tell you, I wish you had the
opportunity to study it like I have. You're just getting bits
and pieces of what I've got. I couldn't bring out all the
things that I was enjoying, but the parting of the sea and the
path of faith as we see it in verse 21, in God's command. He
commands Moses to stretch out his rod and the sea parts, and
Israel walks over on dry ground. You know, this miraculous event
is a type of a spiritual resurrection, passing from death to life. From
bondage to liberty, the Egyptians pursued them no more. They had
no power. The Egyptians had no power against
them no more. And then, you know, it's also
here and a picture of baptism were baptized under Christ, it
says, as they were baptized under Moses in the sea, in the cloud,
it says, and in the sea on first Corinthians 10. It's a picture
of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord. Egypt, the symbol
of the old life of bondage, is definitively left behind.
It's left behind. And God's salvation is complete
and it's irrevocable. There's no way it's going to
go back or turn over. The believer's enemies are not
merely defeated, they are buried. They're gone. THAT WHICH ONCE
HELD US IN BONDAGE HAS BEEN JUDGED AT THE CROSS. IT'S BEEN JUDGED
AT THE CROSS. AND IT'S OVER. SIN SHALL NOT
HAVE DOMINION OVER YOU ANYMORE. THAT'S LIKE GOD SAYING TO ISRAEL,
EGYPT SHALL NOT HAVE BONDAGE OVER YOU ANYMORE. THEY'LL NOT
BRING YOU INTO BONDAGE ANYMORE. THEY'LL NOT HAVE POWER OVER YOU
ANYMORE. SIN SHALL NOT HAVE DOMINION OVER YOU ANYMORE. GOD HAS DEFEATED
IT ON CALVARY STREET. And then we see Israel's response
of faith in verses 23 to 25. The Egyptians try to follow,
but God removes their chariot wheels. He takes those wheels
off the chariots. You know, the wheels just start
falling off those chariots. They have no idea that God's
doing that. God's in everything. God Almighty's in everything. And whatever it is, you know,
I had a young girl hit me this past week, rear end of my truck,
didn't do a lot of damage, but she got out and she was, I mean
this, she was trembling. And her mother came and she was
just, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I said, listen, life's full of
fender benders. This is not something I'm gonna worry about. I said,
both of us are fine. It'll get taken care of. And
she was just shaking. Life's gonna be full of these
troubles and heartaches, they are. But thank God, we have a
place to go, don't we? We have a place to go to in time
of trouble. It's called a throne of grace.
called the throne of grace he says to come to it that you may
find help in time of need in time of need but anyway here here's israel's
response of faith god removes those chariot wheels he throws
him into confusion satan and sin no matter how hard they pursue
they can't they can't bother you no more THE ENEMY IS GONE,
26-31. WHEN MOSES STRETCHES HIS HAND
AGAIN, THE SEA RETURNS, AND PHARAOH'S ARMY IS DESTROYED. YOU KNOW,
WHEN GOD CAST ALL THAT WICKED INTO HELL, YOU KNOW WHAT THE
HOST OF HEAVEN IS GOING TO SAY? HALLELUJAH! I DON'T THINK ONE ISRAELITE WAS
BROKEN HEARTED BECAUSE THE EGYPTIANS WERE DESTROYED. THEY WERE SHOUTING
HALLELUJAH, in their hearts if not allowed. But the enemy is gone. Moses
stretches his hand and Pharaoh's army is destroyed. Did you hear
what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. You see,
this is also a picture, this whole army of Israel, of Pharaoh
coming in after Israel. When you first had a real conviction
of sin, now this is when you have a real conviction of sin,
What is it that really, really, really troubles you? YOUR SINS! YOUR SINS! YOUR SINFULNESS! YOUR SINS! YOUR WHOLE LIFE! YOUR WHOLE LIFE! It is a picture
of our sins pursuing us, and then God turns us to Calvary
and makes us to see they are all gone! Listen to Micah 7.19,
He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us, He will subdue
our iniquities, and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the
depths of the sea. This whole army, I've got a whole
army of sins, believe me, I've got a whole army of sins, more
than 600 chariots. I have a whole army of sins,
and you know, my sins trouble me, but as I have matured in
Christ, I know where to go real quick. I know where to go real
quick when they start to bother me, when they trouble me. And I see that all my have been
taken away and cast into that sea, and they're buried, they'll
never come again. You know what Israel saw? They saw those Egyptians floating
dead on the shore. They're powerless! If it's dead,
it's powerless! Paul said, RECKON YOURSELVES
TO BE DEAD TO SIN! It's not your master! And that
word RECKON means COUNT, it's a counting term. RECKON YOURSELF
just like you would reckon numbers. RECKON YOURSELF TO BE DEAD TO
SIN because it doesn't feel like it. It does not feel like I'm
dead to sin or sin's dead to me, but it is. Through the cross
of Christ, Christ crucified, my sins are gone. Those sins
that trouble me and molest me and aggravate me, I know more
now than ever, they're gone. They're dead. I'm looking at
sins that have been dealt with and are dead. They can't condemn
me no more. Can't do it. All right. This
chapter ends with Israel standing on the far side of the Red Sea,
free and safe. Now, they've got a wilderness
to go through yet, just like every believer when God says,
You've still got a life to live. You've still got a life to live. But you're free, free in Christ
and you're safe, you're safe. And for the first time the scripture
tells us this, they feared the Lord, they believed the Lord
and His servant Moses. Just like some of you here have
this morning. This moment of simple faith and worship comes
not through reasoning of human strength, nope, but by witnessing
God's salvation at Calvary in Christ. Here is the proper response
to grace, faith, and reverence. They feared the Lord. See, they
were afraid of the Egyptians, and they were fussing at Moses
and God, and now they fear the Lord. I mean, have you ever gone
through a trial, and you just you're irritated and aggravated,
and you really you're blaming God? Then when it's over with,
you're thankful, thankful. Now this is not a one-time experience
but the pattern of a believer's life, saved by grace, through
faith, apart from works, walked by faith, day by day, any walk
with God. I end with this question, who
do you want to walk with? You want to go back to Egypt?
You want to go back to Egypt? You want to walk with God? Whatever
it costs, whatever it takes, Lord, I want to walk with you,
whatever it takes, because I know the end is good. The opposite is what happened
to the Egyptians. This is the Red Sea experience.
And it's just now, it's just getting started now. They're
going to walk through the wilderness for 40 years.