Exodus chapter 14. If the Lord would meet with us
today, both these messages would be a great blessing. Wednesday night, we may look
at Mark chapter 8 on our compassionate Lord. Exodus 14. Read verses 21 and
22 with me. Moses stretched out his hand
over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong
east wind all that night and made the sea dry land. The waters
were divided. The children of Israel went into
the midst of the sea upon dry ground, and the waters were a
wall unto them. on their right hand, on their
left. Now, verses 27 through 29, Moses stretched forth his
hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength. And the morning appeared. The
Egyptians fled against the sea, and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians
in the midst of the sea. The waters returned, covered
the chariots and the horsemen. All the host of Pharaoh that
came into the sea after them, there remained not so much as
one of them. But the children of Israel walked
upon dry land in the midst of the sea. The waters were a wall
unto them on their right hand and on their left." Water in this story. Water in the gospel, water throughout
the scriptures, represents something that is a blessing to some, a
curse to others, salvation of some, but the destruction and
damnation of others. Waters, as in this story, are
a wall and protection to God's people, but destroy all the rest. What could this water represent? Well, it represents the Word
of God. It represents Christ. You know,
you can always interchange the word, Word, with Christ, and
Christ, the Word. That's His name. Scriptures like
this, God created all things by His Word. He created all things
by Christ. Without Him was not anything
made, it was made. God upholds all things by the
Word of His power. Christ is the power of God. He
upholds all things. We're born again by the Word
of God. We're born again by Christ's
travail and birth for us. So, these waters that were a
wall to God's people that came crashing down on Egypt is the
Word of God that saves God's people and yet damns those who
are not. The Word represents Christ who
is the Savior of His people, but the judge and condemnation
of others. The Word of God, like water,
comes from where? Where does water come from? The
Word of God, like water, is the mercy of God. It's just the grace
of God, the goodness of God. We cannot live without water. It comes from God. Every good
and perfect gift comes down from the Father of life. There are
no variables or shadow of turning. Lord, this world still exists
because of water. Right? It's the only planet with
water. Man keeps looking for a planet with water on it, and
he's going to keep looking in black holes instead of looking
to God, instead of looking in this world. Christ is the water
of life. This world still spins because
the gospel is still preached, the gospel of Christ. God still
has people in this world. The Word of God, like water,
is the power of God. There's nothing more powerful
than the sea. I remember, some of you if you've
ever watched those shows, what's it called, these tuna fishermen and all
that, I forget what it's called. But anyway, one of those old sea captains, he doesn't worship
God on the Lord's Day and all, but he said this. He said, if
you don't believe in God, You come out here. He really didn't,
but that's a case in point though. The sea is so fearful. Nothing
more subject to the mercy of God and
in the hands of God than a sailing vessel out on the ocean. I don't
care how big the ship is. Titanic, you know, man-made,
this boat, unsinkable, cannot sink. It took one trip. The Word of God, like water,
is power. He created everything by the
Word. He upholds everything by the Word. He just speaks. That's
power. To speak. That's done. The Word of God, like rain, falls
on the just and the unjust. The Word of God is such a blessing.
It's such a blessing. We're so thankful for it. It's
to us the greatest gift on this earth. We cannot live without
this water of life, but the world don't need it. Well, yes, you
do. You just don't know it. You take
it for granted. The Word, like water, if it's
withheld, If he withholds water, there's judgment, there's punishment.
Drought, the Lord has always sent as a form of his judgment
against sin, drought. He withholds the water. What
happens? Everything dries up and dies without the water, without
the Word. It becomes a dry and thirsty
land where no water is. Amos 8, I quote it quite often,
says, in the last days there shall be a drought, a famine,
not of bread, not a famine of bread, but of the hearing of
the Word. The Word will dry up. They were
dark ages back from 400 A.D. till 1400 to the Reformation,
Martin Luther and these men that began to publish the Word of
God. It was dark ages because the
Word is light. It was dark for a thousand years
with no Bible. People didn't have the Bible.
It was dark ages. Amos 8 says that there will be
a drought of famine, not of bread, but of the hearing of the Word
of the Lord. And he said you're going to have to go here and
there. You're going to have to go a long ways to find it. There are more Bibles today than
ever, but they're so twisted and so perverted and so corrupted
and translated away that they don't even resemble the original
Word of God. They've taken all the offense
out of it. And you have to go a long way. You can go here and
there looking for somebody that's got the truth as it is, as it
was written, and a man that stands up and preaches the truth as
God says it. Not everywhere. The Word of God reveals God. The Word of God reveals Christ.
You can't know God apart from His Word. You cannot know Christ
apart from His Word. You cannot sit on a mountain
and cross your leg and find out God. You come up with some kind
of imagination of God. God is only known and revealed
through what He writes about Himself. And by what He says
about God Himself, what He says about man is just We use the
word spot on. It's just true. And God's people
know it because He's revealed it to them from the Word, and
they know it from experience. They've been born again. They've
had their eyes open, their ears open, a new heart. To do what? To hear this. To see. The Word of God, like water,
is comforting. Potter's so comforting, you know,
you hear a brook or a stream and it's so calming, so soothing,
isn't it? But it's frightening. I was out on a ship, a sailing
ship with five other men, 150 miles out to sea, and we sailed
800 miles down the Atlantic Ocean, and I'm a landlubber. You know,
I'd never been out there like that. I've been on, you know,
deep sea fishing, you know, five miles out. We're 150 miles out. Completely subject to the weather
and all that. And man, that boat heeled over
in the wind and I was scared. I was scared. In verse 16, it
says the Lord gave the word to Moses, lift up your rod, stretch
out your hand and divide this sea. Children of Israel are going
to go over. He made a promise, my people, my people are going to get through
this sea. I'm going to divide it. And this
ocean that could destroy any human being is not going to destroy
my people. Now why did Israel get through
and not destroy and Egypt was destroyed? God gave the Word. God said so. Not fair. Doesn't care whether you think
it is fair or not. It's so. God's people are glad. We escape through these exceeding
precious promises and we find them in God's Word. He gave the
promise and also because Moses was lifting up his hand and stretching
forth that rock. God's people had a mediator between
them and God. God was angry with Egypt. And the reason God's people got
over was God gave the word and Moses held out the rod and held
out his hand and they had a mediator. Egypt did not. That ain't fair. Well, that's the way it is. And
then when Egypt assailed, Hebrews says, or tried or intended to
go over, it was Moses, the mediator, that stretched forth his hand
and killed them all. The Jesus Christ of Scripture
is both the one who makes alive and the one who kills. He's the
Savior, but he's the judge. He's a Jesus men don't know.
Life is in His hands to do with as He will. That's the Jesus Christ description,
which men aren't preaching, but the scriptures clearly declare
Him that. This Moses, this Moses, the one
mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. And that
holding up the rod, And his hand is when Christ is the rod, Christ
is the hand of God, but Christ literally stretched forth his
hands willingly and let them put nails in it
or they couldn't have done it. Go ahead, nail me to this cross. Kill me. He laid down his life. Kill me. He did what God determined
before to be done. And he willingly did this. Why?
So that God's people will cross over. There's no other reason. Not their goodness, not their
will, not their works, not their You know, sincerity, not them
turning over a new leaf. It's because Christ died. That's what parted the waters
for God's people to destroy. God gets going. All Egypt went
into the sea. Israel went into the sea, didn't
they? They all went through the sea. Everyone has to go through
this world. We live in this world. Now, all
of Israel saw these waters, didn't they? Tyre opened up. Didn't
they? Egypt saw them. Tyre opened up. What's the difference? You know,
all hear the Word of God. Everyone hears the Word of God.
Paul wrote in Romans, He said, turn with me to Romans 10. Most
can quote just one verse in Romans. Romans 10, verse 13, what most people could
quote, or maybe verse 17, faith cometh by hearing. And he says
here in verse 18, I say, have they not heard? Yes,
barely. Sound went into all the earth.
What's that? The Word of God. They're words.
The prophets, apostles, our Lord, the sound of words went to the
ends of the world. The ends of the world. Have they
not all heard? Have not all heard the Word of God today? Yes. We
have the means now to go into every corner of the globe, the
most remote parts of this planet. And they've all heard, all here.
And yet, all mankind tries to go through this world ignoring
the plain truth of God. Try to ignore it, okay? And the
sad thing is, the tragic thing is, is that all is going to come
crashing down on the heads of men someday, just like God said. Christ is coming down. How? Like
rain. Like fire. Look at verse 27 in our text.
It says, the Egyptians tried to go through the sea, and the
Lord took off their chariot wheels, and they drove heavily. They
were driving heavily, bogged down, weighted down, trudging
onward, trying to get through this Red Sea. And they were bogged
down and couldn't make it. very far. And this is such a
picture of mankind. He's bound by sin, bound by ignorance. He's in darkness, but he trudges
onward, not asking for light. He goes through all these things,
all the The wrath of God, Romans 1.18
says, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and righteousness of men. The man just trudges on in his
sin, trudges on in his rebellion, in his obstinance against God.
No matter what happens, God takes his wheels off. And he goes on
without repentance, without thanksgiving. Romans 1. Read it if you've never
read it. This is man. He changes the truth of God. Things that are clearly seen.
God's eternal power in God, and man is ignored. That's not God. It's luck. It's faith. It's chance.
It's whatever it is. It's just no God. I don't want
there to be a God. I don't want to believe these
clear things. I refuse to believe in God. I'm
just going to trudge onward in my rebellion against Him. David in Psalm 9, I love Psalm
9. I read it again this morning.
I thought, we need to look at that together. But David, the
last, he says, put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations may
know themselves to be just men. Put them in fear. And he does.
God sends things. Look at verse 25. It says the
Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel. The Lord
fights against the Egyptians. Man fears. Yes, man fears because
God sends things to put him in fear. He boasts, he brags of
his independence, what he can do and will do and free will
and all of this. And then God has sent one little
thing and just strike mortal fear in him. One germ. And everybody's
running and hiding in fear. Don't get near me. That's all that it is. One little
germ. And big proud man boasting. Put them in fear, Lord. Make
them know they're just bugs, worms, little insects in my hand. God's people know that. They
know that. You know, man fears danger, man
fears things, but he doesn't repent. In Revelation, Revelation
16, read that if you haven't read it in a while. It says,
God scorched men with heat and they cursed God. It gets too
hot. They curse God, but they don't repent. I'm sorry. Lord, forgive me. Have mercy
upon me. God sends drought. They don't
repent. God sends too much rain. They don't repent. They just
curse God. Just curse God. Because man, his mouth is full
of cursing and bitterness. And like Pharaoh in Egypt, man
hardens his own heart to God's Word. He hardens the judgment
of God. Now, all right, enough about
Egypt. Oh, the amazing love and mercy
and grace of God that Israel, who were just like the Egyptians,
Just like the Egyptians, obstinate, hearted. But God said, you are
going to know me. You, I'm going to put the fear
of God in you. You are going to know. You are
going to believe me. You are going to know there's
one way that you're going to get through all this. It's me. You're going to know then. And
you're going to repent. And you're going to bow. And
you're going to call. And you're going to give me thanks.
And you're going to meet together. And every time you meet together,
you're going to give me all the glory for everything. You're
going to know me. And the end of this chapter,
it says, all Israel saw what God had done to the Egyptians
and to them. Why? Why would he do that to
some? He ought to just kill them all. He didn't. See, none of them deserve to
live. The Israelites, they didn't deserve to live any more than
the Egyptians did. And all mankind, by nature, has
got his fist raised in the face of God. But God. But God. And the waters were a wall to
the people of Israel, the children of Israel. A wall. By the Word
of God, because of the mediator of God, the waters could not,
would not, could not fall down on the heads of the Israelites.
They're sinners. Just hang on. For the next 40
years, let's see if these Israelites Our sinners are not. Oh, my. But God, he made a covenant. They had a mediator. For 40 years,
they had a mediator. They had a covenant. And God
spared him the whole time. Why? Because he said so. He said
so. Now, think about this. This is
a real story. The world doesn't believe this
happened. The world doesn't believe it was creation. The world doesn't
believe Adam and Eve. They think it's just some kind
of allegory or whatever, some Jewish fable. They don't believe
the flood. They don't believe Noah's Ark.
They don't believe anything. It doesn't matter to God whether they believe it or not.
That's true. But the Israelites, think about
that. Try to imagine walking through
that sea with those waters. How deep was the sea at that
point? 30, 40, 50, 100, 150 feet deep. Those walls rising above
them probably so they couldn't see the sky. It was so tall and
raging. Was it quiet? Were they afraid? Were they afraid? Were they trembling? To a man, they're trembling. They're walking
through that, and they're trembling. You know what the Lord said?
In Isaiah 66, He says, To this man will I look, that he is poor
and a contrite heart, and trembleth at My Word. To a man, probably
they were all saying, it's going to come down on me. That water
is going to come crashing down on me. To a man, they were all
guilty. They were all sinners. To a man,
to a woman, God's going to kill us all. What happened? No, it can't happen. It can't
come down on you. God promised. God promised. God gave the Word.
Now look at this. Now here's the great picture.
Here's the great picture. Here's the Gospel picture in
all this. In verses 26 and 27, it says, the Lord told Moses,
stretch out your hands. And the waters came again. It
came crashing down on the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And
verse 28 says, there's not one of them remaining. Not one of
them. Not one single Egyptian that was pursuing after those
Israelites remained. Not one enemy of Israel. Not
one drop of water fell on them, and not one enemy laid hold of
them. They were gone. In verse 30,
it says, they all saw that the Lord saved Israel. Who saved
who? Did the Lord ask Israel? Really,
please, if you'll just take the first step through this. Would
you all accept me as your personal?" He didn't ask anybody anything. He did the work. And He saved
them out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians
dead on the seashore. All the enemies of God, of God's
people. all the adversaries of God's
people, all those that pursue God's people, all our lives,
this thing that threatens to overthrow us and overcome us,
that vexes us, that keeps us in bondage for all these years,
our sins, will not cannot overthrow us, according to the Word of
God, because Christ died and holds forth His hand and separated
us from our sins. And in the end, they're all going
to be gone, and we're going to see it. Not one lust will bother us ever
again. Not one temptation will bother
us ever again. Try to imagine it. Not one regret. We will not have one single regret
in our hearts and our minds about anything. Not one single feeling of guilt,
of shame, of worry, of doubt, of fear, not one. Gone. Gone forever. Perfect peace, happiness, intent,
and quiet. Try to imagine it. You can't. We're going to see them all dead. So how can we praise God for
forgiving us of sins if we don't remember our sin? I don't know,
but we will. We'll just know that we're all
dead and blind and sinners and guilty and all that, but not
anymore. Not anymore. And we all know it's because
of one person, Jesus Christ crucified. We all know. See, heaven wouldn't
be heaven. There wouldn't be perfect peace
and contentment if there's any regret, if there's any shame,
if there's any feeling of remorse or guilt or whatever. It can't
be. No, no. In Revelation 7, now the next
chapter, verse 31, we didn't read that. It says, Israel saw
that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians. All Israel
knew who did this work. Who saved you, Moses? God did. Who saved you? How were you saved,
Joshua? The Lord did it. Caleb? How did you get through that
secret? Well, God brought me through it. Ask one Israelite. Ask one of God's people. Any
of them. Ask them all. They'll all tell
you. Salvations of the Lord. He did it. What did you do? Nothing. We're all going to see the work
the Lord did. And the people, verse 31, feared
the Lord. You know, we never quit fearing
the Lord in this lifetime. And they believed the Lord. They
believed the Lord. And his servant, Moses. He's
just a man where what he said was the Word of God. And they
all knew it. Now we know. God sent this man. It all came
true. And the next chapter is what? It's a song in it. Song of Moses. What is it about? Same thing. Same thing. It's the same story. And you know, the Bible never
leaves this. Does it, John? You've read it
all the way through. The songs keep rehearsing it. In the New Testament, Hebrews
and all that. And you know what? Over in the
Revelation, this took place 3,500 years ago. 3,500 years ago. They were singing
the Song of Moses. And you know what? In glory,
you know what we're going to be singing? In Revelation 15,
it says they sang the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb. Two songs. throughout eternity. Same songs, forever. All the
people of God, still singing, two songs. Salvation of the Lord
and Worthy is the Lamb. What do you think about those
songs? The waters are a wall. Yes, fear
the Lord, but trust Him. You do both? Fear and trust? Yes. Yes. You know what I mean.