Psalm 114. I titled this, I had several
different titles for it, but I finally settled on God's Power
to Deliver. I had titled it The Comfort in
Time of Trouble, but as I read it and re-read it and re-read
it, this is about God's power to deliver His children. This is about the power of his
presence when he's with his children, his church. And that's what this
is about. He's with his people. And as he goes forth with his
people, nothing can stand before them, not even the sea. Even Jordan, when it swelled
its banks, I was reading where they say that it was like a mile
wide and it reversed its flow. It actually reversed its flow
and stopped and reversed its flow. And they went on dry ground
over into Canaan. This psalm is all about God and
His power to deliver Israel And you and I should take much comfort
from it tonight. In this Psalm, we see the elect
of God, Israel. We see His relationship to them,
His sanctuary with Judah, Israel His dominion, His power used
for their deliverance. And His provision for them, there
in verse 8, the water standing out of the rock. You remember
Moses struck the rock and water came out of it? And that rock
followed them all through the wilderness. No other people had
that. No other people had that on this
earth. They had the rock that followed
them in the wilderness and the water just kept gushing out. But you and I have, we have that
real rock. We have that rock that that rock
represented. We know that rock was Christ,
but we have and know who He is. We have Him. Now, so often in
the Old Testament, the exodus of Israel from Egypt is referred
to. They refer to that from the time
it happened all the way to the end of the Old Testament. And
even in the New Testament it's referred to. It was always a
reminder of God's redemption of His people Israel and of His
protection and provision for Israel. And we need to remember
that these things are written for our learning. They're not
written for our entertainment. It's not written just as a history
lesson. It's written for our learning. Because Israel being
a type, we can see spiritually what we have in Christ, and what
God has done for us in Christ. Now He protects us, and cares
for us, and watches over us. Now he said in verse 1, when
Israel went out of Egypt, Israel we know is God's elect, it started
with Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, then the patriarchs, And
when they were only 70 people, they were just 70 people is all
they were, they went into Egypt. And God foretold this. God told
Abraham, He said, your seed, your people, they're going to
go into bondage for 400 years, and then I'm going to bring them
out. God is good for His Word. He did this. He did this. And we have a record of it. We
have a record of it. All things are ordered of God
for His elect. Even our bondage, our troubles,
our sorrows, our heartaches, whatever it is, it's ordered
of God. God said to Abraham, your seed
is going to go into bondage, and I'm going to bring them out.
And their exodus from Egypt is a picture of our exodus from
bondage, The bondage of sin, the bondage of Satan. That sin nature is a bondage. It's got you. It's got you. Satan, under the power of Satan,
under his influence, that's a bondage. It's a real bondage. But you
don't really know it until God gives you life. Until God gives
you life, until God saves you and brings you out, you don't
realize, and I didn't realize, the bondage we were in. But we were in such a bondage.
And this is a picture. This is a picture of how God
brings us out of bondage. You know, when they went out
of Egypt, you know, they went in, 70, And then the Egyptians made slaves
out of them. They turned into about two million
people, from what I've read. And then God brought them out.
They were slaves in Egypt, but you know how they come out? And
this is a real picture of us in Christ. They came out of that
place rich, I mean richer than they'd ever
been. The Egyptians gave them gold and gave them just all kinds
of stuff. They loaded them down. They just
loaded them down. They came out rich. They came
out healthy. The Scripture says there was
not one feeble folk among them. Not one. Not one. They went in just as a small
group. and then became slaves, and then
they came out rich and healthy. You know, we have been made whole
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been made whole. Now, we
don't feel it. I don't feel it. Do you feel
whole? I feel sinful. And then you go home and you
get sick, you get physically sick, you don't feel whole. But
in Christ we are. In Christ we are whole. and rich,
rich. We have the true riches, wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, redemption. And listen, this
is a blessing to me. And when it comes time for us
to cross over Jordan to the promised land, death will give way and
let us pass over, just like it did then. It's so interesting
when you read this psalm, if you just step back and you look
at their beginning, And then we know they had that 40 years
in the wilderness, and we see their end. We have their beginning,
they're standing at the Red Sea, and then we have their end, standing
at Jordan, getting ready to pass over into the promised land,
Canaan. Now he says here, Israel went out of Egypt. God brought
them out. He brought them out. The house
of Jacob from a people of strange language. They went down as the
house of Jacob, And though they grew in great number, they were
still considered the house of Jacob. They had not yet divided
into two kingdoms. They were not divided yet. Even though there's about two
million people, they came out as one house. They came out as
one family. They came out as one group. They
were undivided, as the Lord's church is an undivided house
in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ we are one. We are
undivided in Christ. They went out as one house and
we, and we, I tell you this, when we leave this world, we're
going to go out as one house, one family. We're going out as
one family, not separate families, but one family, the Lord's family. And they went out from a people
of the strange language of barbarous peoples, what that is. The Hebrews
retained their language. They didn't adopt the language
of the Egyptians, which Egypt always represents the world.
To me, it represents not only the world, it also represents
that old sin nature. Hard taskmaster. Cruel taskmaster. There's no more cruel taskmaster
than that sin nature we're born with. It just dominates. It absolutely destroys your life.
It will destroy your life. But they retained their own language. God makes a difference between
His people and the world. God makes a difference. Listen
to John 17. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. We have a different language,
don't we? We have the language of grace. We have gospel language. We have language that's seasoned
with grace. We don't talk like the world
no more. We don't speak after the world
no more. We speak differently. They retain their language. But
now notice where God's dwelling place is here in verse 2. Judah
was His sanctuary. His dwelling place, a sanctuary,
is a holy place. It's where God dwells. It's where
He dwells. Judah was the royal tribe. The
tribe of Judah led the way in the wilderness. Judah is the
one who also led them down into Egypt. Jacob said, You lead the
way. Judah is also the one who talked
his brothers out of killing Joseph and just selling him instead
of killing him. Judah. And the Scripture says
that the scepter shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh comes. And it says here, Judah is his
sanctuary. Every believer, I thought about
this today, every believer is God's Judah. There's a real sense
in which every believer is God's Judah, God's dwelling place,
God's temple. You are the temple of the Holy
Spirit, are you not? You're the temple of God. Judah
is His dwelling place. And Israel, His dominion, Israel
is His kingdom. His kingdom. Even though God
rules over all the world, His special rule as a king is in
Israel. I'm talking about the true Israel
of God, the spiritual Israel of God. That's His dominion,
that's His kingdom, that's where He rules from. And what this
is speaking of is His theocracy. God is Israel's King. We have
a King. Christ is our King. Christ rules
over us. We live under His theocracy,
don't we? We live under His theocracy.
We seek His will. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come. We desire His
kingdom to come. We desire the welfare of God's
kingdom to come. We desire the prosperity of His
kingdom. I'm not overly concerned at all
about the kingdom of men. I'm not. I'm concerned about
the prosperity of God's kingdom, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the kingdom I'm concerned about, is His kingdom. The church lives under the theocracy
of King Jesus. Is that real to you? I have to sit down and ask myself,
John, is this real to you? I'm talking about things we can't
visibly see. I can't see him with these eyes. Eyes of faith, I can see him,
but it's very real to me. It's very real to me. We have
a King and we live in His kingdom, His dominion. Israel is His dominion. The whole spiritual Israel of
God. Now in verse 3 we see the first and last obstacles in Israel's
path to Canaan. God's leading them to the Promised
Land. He brought them out of Egypt. There was a Passover, the sin
and the blood, they were redeemed. And He brought them out of Egypt,
they go through the wilderness, but they're going to the Promised
Land. That's where they're going. And
there's two main obstacles in the way. There's the Red Sea. There's the Red Sea. Then you
got Pharaoh's army behind coming after them, and they come up
to the Red Sea. And then when they get over into
the wilderness, after 40 years, they come up to Jordan. And they
don't come up to Jordan, and this is God's providence, they
don't come up to Jordan when it's dry, when it's at its lowest
ebb. God does not bring them to go
over into the land of Canaan when Jordan is at its lowest, when it's overflowing. Because
He's going to demonstrate His power His power to deliver, His
power to keep, His power to protect. So they come up and they have
these two obstacles in the way. The first is, and I see this
when I was reading this, the first is the beginning of a believer's
life, and the last is the end of that believer's life. And as we know, there was 40
years living in the wilderness between the two. I don't know
how long I'll live in this world. I'm 67 years old, so I've lived
in this wilderness for 67 years. They were in it for 40 years.
Some of you have been in it longer than that. Dad was in it for
91 years. I don't know how long I'll live
in this wilderness, but it's a wilderness, isn't it? Is this
a world of wilderness to you? It is to me. It's a dry, parched
wilderness. And the older I get, the more
wicked it seems to be. It just seems to be ate up with
wickedness. But I know this, that 40 years
is like the dash on the tombstone between the date born and the
date of death. It's that quick. It's that quick. And it says here in verse 3,
The sea saw it and fled. I started to title this, What
Did the Sea See? I started to title it, What Did
the Sea See? The sea saw it and fled out of
fear. This has the meaning of fear. It fled out of fear. And Jordan
was driven back. It actually reversed its flow,
went backwards. In the springtime when it was
flooding, it reversed and flowed backwards. Here the sea and Jordan are spoken
of as having eyes. It's speaking of nature as having
eyes and as being like a person. What did they see? What did they
see? that made them go back, that
made the seed part. What did they see? Well, I'll
tell you what they saw, and it gives us that in verse 7, but
I'll go ahead and get ahead of myself. You know what they saw? They saw the presence of God
with those Israelites. You know, in my mind, when I
read the Scriptures, I use my imagination. That helps me to
keep reading, keep my thoughts on what I'm reading. But I can
see two million people coming, and God, though He's invisible,
yet God in the forefront leading them. Christ, Christ in the forefront
leading them. And He leads them right up to
the Red Sea. And when He gets up there, what did the sea see? His presence, the Creator, the
Redeemer, the Almighty God of heaven and earth. God's presence
is with His people. You think we can get a hold of
that? You think we can get a hold of the fact that God's presence
is with us? Why do you think this church
is still here? God's presence is with you. Believe me, these people around
here that left would have destroyed you if they could. Satan would
destroy this place if he could, because the gospel of his glory
is preached here in his pulpit. And if he could destroy it, he
would. But he can't, because God's presence
is with you. God's presence is with you. God's
with His people. And it's saying here that out
of fear, the sea saw it and fled, and Jordan was driven back. It's
like he was driven back in awe. Boy, what majesty! What majesty! This shows God's power over all
of nature and how it's used for good. His powers used for good
and how His powers used to deliver us at all times. At all times. It ought to give
us great comfort in times of trouble to look in the Scriptures
and see how God delivered Israel time after time after time. We
ought to look in the New Testament and see how God delivered the
apostles time after time and how He delivered His church time
after time. That ought to encourage us because
God hasn't changed. God has not changed. Where His
people are, His presence is. And you can count on that. And
this shows us how God is able to make all things work together
for our good. That sea standing in front of
them was for their good. They are about to see the power
of God. They are about to see the invisible
do something visible. They couldn't see God. But you
know what they did see? They saw this water just part. Just part. And it stood up as
a big high wall on both sides. And it was dry ground. It was
dry ground. The sea and Jordan represent
great obstacles in the way of God's people. But there's no
trouble to God. There's no trouble to God. But
I thought of this. I thought, we have a sea of sin.
It just seems from top to bottom, head to toe. We have a sea of
sin and overflowing of corruption. Don't we? We have it in us, in
us. Not just around us, that's in
us. Yet through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ,
they have to give way. They have to give way. And they
have to give way and let us go to Him in glory. They have to
give way. They can't stand before Him.
Can't do it. Then he says in verse 4, "...the
mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs."
The mountains shook at His presence. That's what he's talking about.
The mountains shook at His presence when He descended on Mount Sinai.
The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.
They shook when God descended on Mount Sinai. Let me tell you
something. The mountains... never shook when Pharaoh came
in front of them. When Pharaoh with his great army,
when he'd go by a mountain, it didn't tremble. The little hills
didn't shake like lambs. It's kind of like you see a mountain,
say there's an earthquake, it's trembling and the lambs and the
rams and the animals on it are shaking, they're shaking. They
had no footing. They had no footing. The mountains never shook at
the presence of other kings, but when the King of Glory brought
His people forward, when He brought them
forth, and He brought them to Mount Sinai, and He descended
upon that mountain, that mountain smoked and shook. That whole
mountain just shook at His presence. You want to talk about power?
You want to talk about power is when you walk up to something
and it starts to tremble and shake. Just your presence. You know, I've been in the presence
of a few people that I thought was, you know, they had a strong
presence. You know, they got your attention.
That's all they got, your attention. But God Almighty, God Almighty, He walks up to
the sea and it splits. He walks up to the Jordan and
it dries up and it goes backwards. It's like it's fleeing from Him
at His rebuke. And that's what the Lord, when
the wind and the sea was raging and He was in that boat with
the disciples, He said, Peace! It says He rebuked the wind and
the sea. Peace be still! And it was a dead calm. Just His presence. My, the power
of God just in His presence. But he asked this question, why
such violent reaction from the sea and Jordan and the mountains
and the little hills? What aileth thee, O thou sea,
that thou fleddest thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? Ye
mountains that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills like
lambs. Why did you do that? That's what the psalmist is saying. Why did you do that? Give us
an answer. Tell us. Tell us why you did
that. Well, He gives it to us here
in verse 7. Tremble thou earth, not just the hill, not just the
mountain and the little hills. Tremble thou earth, the whole
earth. You know, it says when the Lord
comes, that by His presence, it'll all be melted. It'll melt
with a fervent heat. The earth, all the elements of
heaven, it'll all melt at His presence. Why did you react in such a way? Creation, why did you react in
such a way? Tremble thou earth at the presence
of the Lord, listen, at the presence of the God of Jacob. The God of Jacob, the God of
the elect. Tremble thou earth because His
presence is still with His people. Be careful how you deal with
God's people. His presence is with them. Be
careful. I try more and more, and I hope
to do this till I die. I try more and more not to say
anything about anyone, unless it's good. I don't know. That rotten person out there
might be God's child. That beggar laying there at Lazarus
Gate, that might be God's child. That person that cut me off out
there on the street and down the road might be God's child.
It just might be. One writer said this, quake when
Jehovah walks abroad, quake earth at sight of Israel's God. Quake. My, what a mighty God
we have. What a mighty God, what a mighty
Savior we have in Jesus Christ. God is ever with His people.
Let the people rejoice and the earth tremble at the presence
of the Lord. And then we have God's provision
here, and I'm going to close. Here's verse 8. You see, Israel
came out of Egypt. Jacob was his sanctuary, Israel
his dominion. And when He led them to the Red
Sea, the Red Sea just parted, and they walked across on dry
ground. Egypt, when they came through the Red Sea, it just
folded up and drowned them. It drowned them. They were gone. And then he led them through
the wilderness. And we know their experience in the wilderness.
Their shoes never got old. Their clothes never got old.
He fed them manna. They just went out and picked
it up every morning. Gave them water out of the rock. That rock
was the Lord Jesus Christ. But it says here in verse 8,
which turned the rock, and this is his provision, he turned the
rock into a standing water pool, a pool of water. the flint into
a fountain of waters. When Israel was thirsty, God
commanded Moses to strike the rock, which we know represented
the Lord Jesus Christ crucified. And when he did, water flowed
out of it for Israel to drink, and it stood as a pool. And you know, two million people
drank out of that pool of water, and it never went dry. It never
went dry. We know that Christ is the rock,
the living water of life in which we drink, and He never runs dry.
His mercy never runs dry. His grace never runs dry. His
power to save never runs dry. It never runs dry. And I like this thought. I thought
that rock, as they went through the wilderness, that rock followed
them all through the wilderness. It's written over in Hebrews,
"...I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." He had many opportunities that
he could have by their grumbling, their complaining, their murmuring. I mean, on every turn, every
time something happened, it was like, we should have stayed in
Egypt. Let's go back to Egypt. It's
a wonder God didn't kill them before they even got to the Red
Sea. They constantly wanted to go
back to Egypt. At least we knew what was coming
day by day. God said, I'll never leave thee
nor forsake thee. We murmur a complaint too, don't
we? Way too much. If there's probably
any sin that troubles me, In me, more than anything, it's
my murmuring and complaining. It's just murmuring and complaining. It's just so natural for us to
do that. And it's so ungodly for us to
do that. God has provided for us all things
in Jesus Christ. In Him you lack nothing. like nothing in the wilderness,
like God provided everything, everything. And He has provided
for us, in Christ, everything we need. What do we have to complain
about? We have His presence. We have
in Christ wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and power, or
sanctification. We have all of that in Christ.
Redemption. That's what I was trying to think
of. Redemption. We have it in Christ. I'll tell you what we need to
do. We need to drink of Christ more and more and more. We need
to drink of that water more and more and more. We need to drink of that water
and we need to drink large. I went to the doctor the other
day, and he was talking about this dizziness. He says, how
much water do you drink? I said, well, I probably drink
maybe one of those 16 ounce bottles. He said, well, it's no wonder
you're dizzy. He said, if you drink a lot more
water, you'd probably get over that. He said, that was his prescription
for me. Drink at least four to five of
those a day. I said, you've got to be kidding.
I said, I can't hardly do that. He said, I think that's your
problem. He said, I think you're just
not drinking enough water. You know, I just drink maybe
two of those a day. And that's if I'm doing something. Drink large. Drink large of the
water of life. Our greatest problem is we don't
drink large enough of Christ. We don't drink enough water. We don't drink enough of the
water of life. There's plenty. It's not going
to run out. It's not going to run out. "...and the flint into a fountain
of waters," Spurgeon had this, he said, "...which flowed freely
in streams." This one flowed in streams, following the tribes
in their marches. Behold what God can do. It seemed
impossible that the flinty rock should become a fountain, but
He speaks and it's done. Not only do mountains move, but
rocks yield rivers when the God of Israel wills that it should
be so." Streams come out. Streams out there. God did that.
They saw that. They saw that. Now in closing, let us never
forget this. God chose Israel as God saved
you. God chose to save you. He chose
you, chose to save you. You are Israel. I'm talking to
Israel. God redeemed Israel. He shed
his own blood for you. God came into this world, took
upon Him flesh, took upon Him our sins, went to the cross,
and redeemed us. Redeemed us. Bought us with His
blood. You are bought with the blood
of God. That's what it says in Acts 20, 28. Purchased with the
blood of God. He's led us through this wilderness
of sin, this world of And here we are. Here we are. I've been well taken care of
all these years. I have. I've not lived in poverty. I've
not lived in poverty. God has well provided for me. He's led us through this wilderness.
He's removed all the obstacles to come to Him through the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's no obstacles. Well, I'm
such this, I'm that. No, there's no obstacles. He's taken them all out of the
way. He's taken them out of the way. Have you heard what Jesus
said to me? They're all taken away. There's
no obstacles that stand between them. You know, the only one
that will stand between me and Christ, you know what it is?
Unbelief. They didn't enter into the Promised
Land, most of them, because of unbelief. He's removed all the obstacles.
He's provided all that we need. He's provided all that we need.
I have everything. And someday, someday, you and
I gonna come up to Jordan's waters. We gonna come up to Jordan's
waters. And you know what's gonna happen? Death is just gonna move away. Death is just gonna get out of
the way, because you're not gonna die. You're not gonna die. When they went across Jordan,
they went across alive. They went across. They didn't
go across. Nobody carried them across in a coffin. They weren't
carried in a coffin, a casket, over to Canaan's land. They walked. They walked there. You know,
the last thing my dad said to me, he said, I'm just about to
walk on the other side. Just about to walk. They walked
over to Canaan. They were alive. And in a little while, and I
mean in a very little while, even for the youngest ones here,
in a very little while, we're going to come up to Jordan. And those who believe, those
who believe, you're just going to walk right over. That's all
you're going to do. You're going to go from the wilderness
to the promised land of milk and honey that God promised. And God keeps His promise. God
keeps His promise. Do we not have this in its fullness
in Christ? Do we not have all that we need?
Do we not have everything in Christ to take us from beginning
to end? Do we not have everything? Do
we not have everything in the rock of ages? It's no wonder the next psalm
says in Psalm 115.1, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but
unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's
sake. After you see the deliverance of Israel and the presence of
God with Israel and what God has done for Israel, you have
to start the next psalm, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
but unto Thy name give glory. And that is our song and our
prayer until He takes us home. Lord, You get the glory. You
get it. Salvation's over the Lord.