Turn back to Exodus chapter 13,
Exodus chapter 13. The title of this message, God led them
through the wilderness. This message is about God leading
His children. He never leaves His children
alone. He never leaves them alone. God's
people are a led people. We are not wandering aimlessly
through this life. We are guided and directed by
our Lord. You are not no one. Here's the gospel by accident.
You're not here by accident. God's hand is in this. I know
that God's hand is in every person here this morning and his purpose. will be accomplished. He said,
My word will not return to me void. It is written in Psalms 37 23. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. We know that in Christ, all who
are in Christ are made good. They are made good by God. They
are made righteous, they are made holy, and their steps, their
steps, every step you take is ordered by God. I asked my pastor
one time when I had become the pastor
of Hurricane Road, and I was there for about eight years,
and when we very first began It was a difficult journey, without
going into that whole situation, but I sat down and I talked to
Henry about some things, and he said, the path is never plain. We never see the whole path.
He said, what you do is when one stone comes up, you step
on it. And then when the next stone comes up, you step on it.
And that's the way it will be. all the way home. Whenever the
Lord brings one up, He said, you step on it by faith, trust
in Him, you step on it. Then you step on the next one
and then the next one. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. Every step we take is divinely
ordered. It is divinely ordered by infinite
wisdom. and foreknowledge, however, God
knows all things. Not only does He know all things,
He has purposed all things. He's purposed all things. And
God never leads His children to a place where He's not. He
said He will go before them. He put forth His sheep, and He
goeth before them. Wherever He leads us, He's already
there. He's already there. AND GOD NEVER TURNS OVER THE
LEADERSHIP OF HIS CHILDREN TO THE FLESH. HE NEVER TURNS OVER
HIS LEADERSHIP TO THE FLESH. HE'S ALWAYS GUIDING AND GUARDING
THEM. You know Jeremiah said this,
Jeremiah 10, verse 23, OH LORD, I KNOW. And it takes a while
sometimes for us to know this. I know, I've learned this, that
the way of man is not in himself. It's not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. Do you know what's going to happen
a minute from now? Then how would you really know
how to direct your steps? I know we have our plans, but
God has His purpose. And we have to learn to trust
the Lord in guiding and directing and leading us, even though we
don't understand. We'll see this here in just a
little bit. Now let me give some observations
on verses 17 through 22. First of all, the Lord leads
them through a suitable path, a path that He has determined
to bring them down. In verse 17, And it came to pass,
as it always does. How many times do we read that
in the Scriptures? And it came to pass. Whatever
God has purposed for me and you will come to pass. you just mark
it down and it came to pass what happened to you this morning
and it came to pass what happened to you yesterday and it came
to pass because God purposed it specifically for you and it came to pass when Pharaoh
had let the people go as God said he would God said when I'm
through with you you're going to let them go that God led them
not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although
that was near, that was three days journey I think, it was
about three days journey to go from Egypt to Canaan where he
was going to take them. For God said, God led them not through the
way of the land of the Philistines, and the reason I want to read
this again is that I heard or I read, I can't remember which
it was, the word Philistines means to wallow in oneself. One of the meanings is to wallow
in oneself. He's not going to lead them the
way that they're going to wallow in oneself. But it says here that He didn't
lead them through the way of the land of the Philistines,
although that was near. For God said, lest peradventure
the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt.
Now this is an interesting statement to me. For God didn't even let
a dog move its tongue against them, and not even a dog could
bark and move its tongue against them. And yet He says, lest they
see war and they return to Egypt. But what it is, there's a much,
much deeper meaning here than just what we are reading here
on the surface. You know, God could have shut
those Philistines down, but there are some deeper lessons for us
to learn. And we'll see this, we'll see
this, that the Lord was gracious to them even though they did
not know it. They didn't know the Lord was
being gracious to them. They didn't know that every step
was the tender mercies of God to them. Just like we don't realize
that usually until it's over with. And then we realize the
tender mercies of God. But we must learn to trust our
Lord's leadership. We have to. He knows us. He knew Israel. He knew them. He knows our weaknesses and He
knows how we will handle every situation. Job said, He knoweth
the way that I take when He has tried me. He knows our weaknesses. He knows where to take us and
what to keep us out of. He knows that. But here's what we have to learn.
We have to learn our weaknesses. and we have to learn his strength.
We must learn, and the only way we can learn this is by the places
he leads us to, is the Lord will provide. The Lord will provide. You know, in our early years
of our marriage, I lost three jobs, they went out of business.
You know what I had to learn? You know what the Lord taught
me? And I didn't know it at the time. All these years later,
all these years later, I can tell everyone in here, especially
you younger ones, the Lord will provide. I had to learn that. At the time, I thought, why was
he doing this? At the time, I was anxious about
it and a little upset about it. I have to admit, at times I got
upset about it. But I've learned the Lord will
provide and I had to learn that. And I had to learn that for this
hour, for this hour. I'm your pastor, I'm your pastor. And I know this, the Lord will
provide. He'll use you to provide for us, take care of us, He'll
do that. He's done so, done so very well. The Lord will provide. And we have to learn that our
trials are ordered and tempered. Now listen, tempered. by our
Lord so not to overwhelm us." They feel like they're going
to overwhelm us, don't they? We think this is just too much.
I've been there, this is too much. It's like you want to ask
the Lord to let up a little bit and let you breathe. It's like
Job, you know, let me breathe. You feel like an elephant sitting
on your chest. It feels so heavy. But you learn this after you
go through it, and not just once, but you go through some of them.
It takes a while to learn. We're slow learners. But in 1
Corinthians 10, 13, there has no temptation taken you but such
as is common to man. It's nothing new. Whatever I've
gone through, whatever you've gone through, millions have gone
through it also. Millions of God's people have
gone through it. But God is faithful. God is faithful, who will not
suffer you to be tempted above that you are able. It took me
a while, I was going to say a long time, to learn this truth, that
whatever God puts me through, He will enable me to bear it,
no matter how difficult it is. He will enable me to bear it.
You know, you pray, Lord, You said, You said You would not
tempt us above what we're able to bear. Well, if He said it,
He meant it. He meant it and He will enable
us to bear it even though we may feel like we are falling
apart. He will enable us to bear it. But will with the temptation,
the trial, also make a way to escape that you may be able to
bear it. So our Lord orders our trials,
they're tempered by Him, and they have a time frame on them. They do, they have a time frame.
In Ecclesiastes chapter 3, look over there. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Look at this. Now to everything
there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
There is a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time
to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill, a time to heal,
a time to break down, a time to build up, a time to weep,
a time to laugh, a time to mourn, a time to dance. A time to cast away stones, and
a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace, a time to
refrain from embracing. A time to get, a time to lose.
A time to keep, a time to cast away. A time to rend, and a time
to sow. A time to keep silence, and a
time to speak. Time to love, time of hate, time
of war, time of peace. What profit hath he that worketh
in that wherein he laboreth? I have seen the travail which
God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He
hath made everything beautiful in his time. Have you seen the
beauty of what God's brought your way? And what it's conforming
you to? To the image of Christ? He's
made everything beautiful. It didn't look it at the time,
but I see the beauty in it now. I see it. And sometimes, listen, last week I said that, let's
see if I can remember how I said it, I said, when the Lord saves
us, He doesn't bring us through difficult trials, usually at
first. And Jane gave me a look, just like she did just there.
And you know, I hadn't forgot that look all week. I hadn't
forgot it because I know the difficulties you went through. But I thought about this, I thought
about this, and this is true, this is true. Sometimes the Lord
brings us through a great trial to bring us to Himself. you know Lydia opened or God
opened Lydia's heart that sounds so gentle but you know right
after that what it says that Philippian jailer got sent an
earthquake so for some he sends an earthquake some he sends a
very difficult trial to bring them to him but now generally speaking A
baby in Christ, the Lord leads them along, and as time goes
by, trials condition us for another trial, and for a harder trial,
they do. But I never forgot that look. She's like, you don't know what
you're talking about. I do. But now verse 18, but God
led the people about through the way of the wilderness of
the Red Sea. Now, and back in verse 17, and it
came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go that God led
them not through the way of the wilderness. That's a different
word, led, than verse 18. In verse 17, He led them, He
took them, He brought them out of Egypt, He brought them through
the way of the wilderness, He did not take them through the
land of the Philistines. In verse 18, listen, that word
led, you know what that means? He surrounded them. He surrounded
them. But God surrounded the people
about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. He
surrounded them. And the children of Israel went
up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. They had some lessons
to learn. You see, God didn't take them.
The first lesson they're going to learn is not war. It's going
to be about God. It's going to be about themselves. That's what they're going to
learn. They're going to learn about God, about themselves.
And listen, and this is for our learning. We needed them to have
the Red Sea. We needed to be able to turn
over to Exodus and read in Exodus 14 of them going through the
Red Sea. We needed that. God did that
also for us. We need to see God parting that
Red Sea and drowning all their enemies in the Red Sea. We need
to see that and have a spiritual significance to it concerning
our relationship with Christ and what Christ has done for
us. He's drowned all of our sins. They're gone. He's cast them
where? Into the depths of the sea. We needed this. We need the Red Sea. We don't
need them fighting the Philistines. We need them going through the
Red Sea. What we need. You know what else we need? We
need them to be hungry and then God give them manna. That manna represents who? The
Bread from Heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ. They don't
realize that what they're going through is for us also. It's
for us. We needed that water to come
out of the rock, just like they needed it. Most of them didn't
see any of the significance of it, but we do, don't we? We see
that water out of the rock. They needed to experience, now
listen, they needed to experience God. Our trials make us experience
God. There comes a time when we go
from reading about God to experiencing God. We find out who he is. I want to know who he is, not
just by reading about him, but a living, a real living union
experience of God. Knowing God. And that's what this is about. They experience MERCIES I don't
even have time to go through all the scriptures I've read
about them experiencing the mercy of God. They cried unto the Lord
and He delivered them. They cried unto the Lord and
He delivered them. Read Psalm 106 when you have
time. They needed this. You ever wonder
why the Lord doesn't take us home when He saved us? Instead
of leaving you here for another 50 years or 60 years or whatever? We have many spiritual lessons
we need to learn. We need to learn, we need to
learn, we need to be, listen, we must be conformed to the image
of Christ and it's done so through sufferings and trials. Listen
to what Paul said in Colossians 1 24, Who now rejoice in my sufferings
for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions
of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church.
Paul said, There is a measure of suffering that is given to
me for the body of Christ. That can be said of all of us.
We all have a different measure of suffering for the body of
Christ. You know, one member in this congregation suffers.
We all suffer. We all feel it. We all feel it. The Lord took one of them home.
He took Brother Bill home here. We feel it. We feel it. We feel his absence. It's a part
of the body of Christ. And then here's a promise fulfilled
in verse 19, And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. You
see, every one of God's promises will be fulfilled. For he had
straightly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely
visit you, he prophesied to them, and you shall carry up my bones
away hence with you. Now that's a promise fulfilled.
God keeps His promises. He took the children of Israel
from Egypt out. And He said, when you do, you
take my bones with you. But now here's a thought, and
I don't believe this will do any damage to this scripture,
but it just struck me this morning as I was going over my notes. For 40 years, they carried that
coffin. For 40, every time they moved,
they carried that coffin with them. Joseph is a type of Christ. We know that. There was nothing
negative ever said about Joseph. His life, we know, is a type
of Christ. But boy, it struck me this morning, I thought, they
carried that coffin for 40 years. We preach Christ crucified until
He comes. We carry that with us till he
comes. This do in remembrance of me
when we take the Lord's table. Yes, he's risen. Yes, he's seated
at God's right hand. But Paul wrote to those Corinthians,
I have determined not to know anything among you save Jesus
Christ and him crucified. And it just struck me how that
they kept Joseph with them all the way through that wilderness.
until they went into the promised land. And we keep Christ crucified
with us all the way home, don't we? I don't believe it does any
damage to that, it's just a powerful thought that I had this morning. And then listen, in verses 20
through 22, the Lord was with them every step of the way. And
as I said in the beginning, this is for our learning. There's
a spiritual application here for everyone of God's children.
And they took their journey from Sukkoth and encamped in Etham
in the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them
by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way and by night
in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night.
He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar
of fire by night from before the people. But it says they
took their journey They were not settlers. They were not settlers. They were pilgrims just as we
are. We all have, each one of us,
every one of God's children, not everybody that exists has
a journey, but especially God's children. WE EACH HAVE A JOURNEY
AND A PATH THAT HE IS BRINGING US DOWN. WE EACH COME FROM DIFFERENT
PLACES IN LIFE AND DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS BUT HE IS BRINGING
US HOME. WE HAVE DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES
BUT THE LORD IS BRINGING US HOME THROUGH HIS JOURNEY HERE IS EXACTLY
WHAT THIS LIFE IS. And while the Lord did this,
He provided their need. You know, they lacked nothing.
I'm going to read something to you at the end of this to tie
this up. But He provided their need, they
lacked nothing. And He especially provided light
and protection. Light and protection. Christ
is both our sun and shield. They had the cloud by day and
the fire by night. And that represents Christ as
our sun and shield, our light and shade, as our different necessities
require. You know, Paul said this in Philippians
4.19, that God shall supply all your need according to His riches
in Christ Jesus. You know, there was times that
I worried. There's times I thought, how are we going to make it when
I lost my job? And you know, the Lord provided. I never missed a meal and never
missed a payment. The Lord will provide, but He
has to bring us into those places to prove to us He will provide. Not just the physical necessities
we need, not just the daily necessities, but the spiritual necessities
we need. HE'LL PROVIDE THAT TOO. HE'LL
LIFT YOU UP WHEN YOU NEED LIFTED UP. HE'LL BRING YOU DOWN WHEN
YOU NEED TO BE BROUGHT DOWN. HE'LL PROVIDE THE MEANS TO DO
BOTH. And another thing here, HIS PRESENCE
WAS ALWAYS WITH THEM. IT WAS ALWAYS WITH THEM. THEY
WERE GIVEN LIGHT AND DARKNESS And I thought of this this morning
again. I scribble a lot of notes before
I come out here. I usually look at these about
three hours in the morning before I come out here and I start scribbling
some notes. I try not to scribble too many
because it never ends. It would never end. But I thought
about this. That was a large group of people.
That was a large group of people. And those at the back had just
as much light as those at the front. He's a light. He's a light to them. Listen,
let me make a spiritual application here. Do we not have light in
this dark world? Just like you have light this
morning right now. God's giving His children this
morning here light. How do I know that? Psalm 119,
105, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. How many times I've had different
ones of you leaving here and say, I never saw that before.
It's the first time I've ever seen that. Light, God's given you light. Now let me close with some scriptures. on this, and I'm not going to try to make
too many comments. Our Lord never leads His people
down a wrong path. Don't ever think God is leading
you down a wrong path. Psalm 23, 1 through 3, The LORD
is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me, He leadeth me
beside the still waters. He restores my soul, He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. He leads us
in paths of righteousness. And we need to take Him at His
Word for that. Then the Lord leads us for His namesake. In
verse, well, I just read it to you in Psalm 23 there, but in
Psalm 31-3, listen, For Thou art my rock and my fortress,
therefore for Thy namesake. Lead me. Lead me, Lord, lead me. Guide
me. Don't lead me to myself. Lead
me and lead us for your name's sake. I don't wanna bring reproach
on the name of my Lord. Lead me in a way in this life
that I don't do that. Lead me in a way in this life
that I give unto you all the glory that's due unto your name.
Lord, lead me for your name's sake. In Psalm 106 verse 8 it says
this, Nevertheless, He saved them for His name's sake. If
you read Psalm 106, they're a bunch of rascals just like us. Just
like us. But it says, Nevertheless, He
saved them for His name's sake that He might make His mighty
power known. Mighty power to be known. And
then our Lord, listen, our Lord leads us safely. Safely. Psalm 78, 52 through 53, But
he made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided
them in the wilderness like a flock, and led them on safely. Safely. The Red Sea was not a
problem to God. What is a problem to me and you
is not a problem to God. We need to remember that. It's
like one lady, after leaving the service, she listened to
her pastor preach, and she said, Pastor, is it wrong to pray about
the little problems also? He said, Ma'am, all our problems
to God are little. They might be great to us, but
they're little to God. Just with a word, He can make
them go away. HE LED THEM ON SAFELY. THE LORD
IS LEADING YOU SAFELY. SOME OF YOU ARE JUST WAY TOO
FEARFUL. YOU ARE WAY TOO FEARFUL. AND HE LED THEM ON SAFELY, SO
THAT THEY FEARED NOT, BUT THE SEA OVERWHELMED THEIR ENEMIES.
OUR LORD LEADS US IN THE WAY WE SHOULD GO. Isaiah 48 17 thus saith the Lord
thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel I am the Lord thy God
which teacheth thee to profit spiritually spiritually which
leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go you know it takes a while to
learn this but there's there's a there's a time when it comes
when you just kick your feet out and you say Lord you got
me you got me you you you lead the way that
i should go i don't know what way to go i don't know what way
to go but you do you do i wrote verse 72 down in isaiah
17 i don't remember what it was let me read it nobody's in a
hurry are they I think it's verse seven, I gotta
get to Isaiah 48. Let me see what verse 17 says,
I don't remember it. Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord thy God, which teaches
thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest
go. I mean 72, I just read that to
you. Isaiah 48, well, I've got the
wrong verse down, so anyway, you get it. That's the thing about preaching
home, it don't matter if I mess it up, you'll straighten it up.
And then our Lord leads us continually, continually. Isaiah 58 11, and
the Lord shall guide thee continually. Isn't that comforting? Isn't
that comforting? You know most of the time we
get up in the morning we just go about the day, don't we? We
really do. But the Lord's leading you continually
every day throughout the day. And the Lord shall guide thee
continually and satisfy thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones
and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water
whose waters fell not And then in the New Testament, Our Lord
leads us out of this world. In John 10, 3-4, To him the porter
openeth, and his sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own
sheep by name, and leadeth them out. You know, that's exactly
what God's doing with everyone here that believes the gospel
and every one of His sheep in this world. He's leading you
out. He's leading you out. Bill's time was last Friday.
The Lord led him out. I don't know when our time will
be, but the Lord, He's leading us out. He is leading us out. And leadeth him out, and when
he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the
sheep follow him. For they know his voice, they
know the Master's voice. Then the Lord leadeth us by His
Spirit. Romans 8, verse 14, For as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. We are not just reading
the book to see what to do next. The Spirit of God takes the Word
of God and leads us. Leads us into green pastures,
by still waters. And then our Lord leads us to
glory, where sorrow shall be no more. This is the final end
of the leading. He'll lead us throughout eternity.
I don't even know what that's gonna be like. But I know this,
in Revelation 17, FOR THE LAMB WHICH IS IN THE
MIDST OF THE THRONE SHALL FEED THEM, AND SHALL LEAD THEM UNTO
LIVING FOUNTAINS OF WATERS, AND GOD SHALL WIPE AWAY ALL TEARS
FROM THEIR EYES." That's where He's leading us to, glory, a
place of no sorrows, no more tears, no more crying, no more
dying. I won't conduct another funeral,
it'll never happen again. Now I ask in the beginning, why
does the Lord not take us when He saves us? So in closing, turn
to Deuteronomy chapter 8 and I'm going to read that whole
chapter to you. It's not very long but... This will give us some spiritual
insight as to what the Lord's doing. Chapter 8, in Deuteronomy 8,
All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe
to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in, and possess
the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt
remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty
years in the wilderness. Sit down and reflect. TO HUMBLE
THEE, AND TO PROVE THEE, TO KNOW WHAT WAS IN THINE HEART, NOT
THAT HE WOULD KNOW, BUT YOU WOULD KNOW WHAT WAS IN THINE HEART,
WHETHER THOU WOULDST KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS OR NO. AND HE HUMBLED
THEE, AND HE SUFFERED THEE TO HUNGER, AND FED THEE WITH MANNA.
BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS,
THEY SHALL BE FED. But he humbled thee, and suffered
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest
not. Neither did thy fathers know
that he might make thee know that man does not live by bread
only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon
thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years. Thou shalt
also consider in thine heart, that as a man chasteneth his
son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. Discipline. Therefore thou shalt keep the
commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in thy ways, and
to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth
thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains
and depths, that spring out of the valleys and hills, a land
of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates,
a land of oil, olive and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat
bread without scarceness. Thou shalt not lack anything
in it, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills thou
may dig as brass. Now when thou hast eaten and
art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good
land which he hath given thee. Beware now, that thou forget
not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and
his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day,
lest when thou hast eaten, and are full, and hast built goodly
houses, and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks
multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all
that thou hast is multiplied. Then thine heart be lifted up,
and thou forget the LORD thy God." Isn't that awful? He's warning them. You know what
He's doing? He's warning them about what
they are going to do. Because that's exactly what they
did. "...which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, the
house of bondage." We have been saved from our sins. Don't ever
forget that. who led thee through the great
and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions,
and drought, where there was no water, who brought thee forth
water out of the rock of flint." Boy, I mean, I could just preach
the gospel through this! Spiritual applications are so
so great here who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which
thy fathers knew not and that he might humble thee and that
he might prove thee to do thee good at the latter end this is
why he brought you the way he's brought you to do you good at
the latter end and thou say in thine heart my power and the
might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth don't be nebuchadnezzar
Don't you walk out on that balcony and say, this is what I've done.
God put you out to pasture. He'll teach you who's given you
what He's given you. But thou shalt remember the Lord
thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth. Don't
you go bragging on your intelligence and your skills. No, don't you
do that. God said, I gave you power to
get what you have. that he may establish his covenant which
he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall
be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after
other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against
you this day, that you shall perish, as the nations which
the LORD destroyed before your face. So shall you perish, because
you would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.
He said, There's a reason why I've led you the way I've led
you, to prove you. Not to Him, but to yourself. God led them through the wilderness
and that's exactly what He's doing with us. And let us never
forget it. And let us not murmur and complain
as we will see in chapter 14 when they were complaining about
being brought out of Egypt. They said, we could have died
in Egypt. Well, you're going to die doesn't matter where you're
going to be. I'd rather die under the will of God and purpose of
God than a bunch of heathens. All right, I'm done.