Thank you. Exodus 14. This will be so profitable and
I hope a great comfort to God's people, Israel, spiritual Israel. Read the first three verses. Every verse in God's Word could
make up a message or several messages. But something really
struck me here. We dealt with it years ago. We're
going to look at it again. We're not going to get past the
first four verses this morning. Read it with me. The Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that
they turn and encamp before Piahiroth between Migdal. Now those names
mean something. One means like an abyss, a deep
hole, and the other one means a high place. And then the sea is against them,
over against Baal, Ziphon, which means a cold place. And before
ye shall encamp by the sea, that's where you'll encamp awhile. For Pharaoh will say of the children
of Israel, They are entangled in the land. The wilderness has
shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart
that he shall follow after them. And I will be honored upon Pharaoh
and upon all his hosts that the Egyptians may know that I am
the Lord. And they did so. Pharaoh is going
to say about God's people, I've got them now. They're entangled in the land.
They're shut up, shut in, hedged about. I've got them. You got
it all wrong. Now, I keep reminding us, exodus
means going out. And Egypt represents this world. Pharaoh was the most powerful
man on earth at the time. He could do what he will with
whom he will, humanly speaking. He represents the God, the ruler
of this world, small r, small g, God, Satan, who has the world
captive and is the adversary of God's people. Now, this is
no Jewish fable. It sounds like that to the world,
like it's some kind of cunningly devised fable. But Peter said,
no, this is no fable. We have a very real adversary,
the devil. The world can't see him. The
world doesn't believe him, in him, but we do because we're
assaulted by him constantly. He's very real. The world, the
flesh, the devil tempt God's people constantly and try us
almost to the point of despair. And Satan must surely say often,
I've got them now. They're entangled in this world.
And oftentimes we say, I think he's got me now. Now, Israel had clean escaped,
hadn't they? They left. The Lord delivered
them from captivity. You know, the scripture says
that Christ has made us free, God speaking. The truth shall
make you free. Christ has made us free. If the
Son had made you free, you're free indeed. You really are.
You really are. We're assaulted by this God of
this world, the things of this world. And God led Israel the
way he led them. Remember, a roundabout way, he
led them through the wilderness. God purposely led them through
the wilderness, brought them to this place where he would
try them. greatly tried them. And in the
rest of this chapter we're going to stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. God pardoned the great savior.
He brought them to this place where they despaired for their
lives, all of them. They were so sought after and chased by and
hounded by Pharaoh and all of his hosts that they all, every
one of them, despaired of their life except Moses, maybe Joshua,
maybe Caleb. They shouldn't have. You know,
Mindy and I were talking and she said, Moses told the people
these things, what God said, and they shouldn't have been
afraid. That's right, nor should we. We are, because we are very
really assaulted, very really. And Pharaoh here in verse 3 said,
they're entangled in the land, I have, they're shut in. The
Lord has left them alone and I'm going to have them, I'm going
to take them captive again. Are you getting the picture here?
Now Satan, It's powerful. And I do not, dare not do as
those false preachers and prophets Jude spoke of, who spoke evil
of dignities or principalities and powers. You hear these Pentecostal
fellows bragging about how they, what they're going to do about
the devil. when they're under his dominion all the whole time. They're doing his bidding. We
dare not speak evil or boast of. Michael the archangel wouldn't
speak, wouldn't deal with Satan personally. All he would say,
all he said to him was the Lord rebuked, they say. So I dare
not speak, I'm not boasting against one of whom I'm no match. But
he's powerful. He's not all powerful. He knows
and he sees things, but he doesn't know all things. I've said before,
and I still believe this, that he's the greatest fool who ever
lived. It's foolish to fight against
God. He's been fighting against God forever. He's seen half of
his, a third of the host cast into and bound by chains and
cast into the outer darkness. And yet he continues. And he
knows he has a short season, yet he continues. That's foolish,
isn't it? But he's a real person. And for
someone to believe God and bow to God, they have to be given
faith and repentance to God. He's reprobate. Satan knows when someone is no
longer under his absolute power. He knows that. He knows what
God has used to take that person out of his power, his hand, the
gospel. He knows that. He's seen it happen
too many times. He's seen the power of God on
display through the preaching of the gospel take that person
from him. Yes, he has. He knows when someone is no longer
a willing servant, they begin to resist him. Whereas before, they never resisted
him. Right? They never resisted him. They
willingly followed him. And he knows when God has hedged
them about like Satan. I mean, like Job. The Lord did
Job. Remember? It's true with all of God's people.
He knows that. And according to God's purpose,
though, He allows Satan to try us, like Job. The Lord said to
Satan, OK, I'm going to take my hand off him. I'm going to let you have him. And like Peter, the Lord allowed
Peter to be sifted by Satan. And like Israel, He put them
in this place right here where Satan said, I've got them now. But the Lord said this, I'm going
to be honored in here. I'm going to harden his heart.
He's going to think he has you, but I'm going to get great honor
through them going through this terrible temptation. And so the Lord puts us through
this world of sin, temptation, and tribulation. And oftentimes
we look like the world has overcome us. And we think so. And the adversary must surely
think so. I thought about this. You know,
Satan believes in the sovereignty of God, doesn't he? That's what
James said. You believe there's one God, Satan believes in. He
trembles. He knows God is sovereign up
there. I believe he believes in election. But I don't think he believes
in the perseverance of the saints. I don't think he believes in
perseverance, the preservation of the saints, because he thinks,
I have them now. But our hope is, that a stronger
than he has bound him and led captivity captive. Now that,
you can look at that two ways, okay, and both work. That he
took Satan captive. He led captivity captive. He's going to parade him someday,
like in Bunyan's book, Mansoul, The Holy War. for all to see
him in chains and he's going to cast him in outer dark. See
your adversary. Like Isaiah 14, the whole, all
of God's people are going to say, is that the one that, that
he's weak now, he's in chains, he's a nobody. Is that the one
that was so powerful that bothered us? No. No more will God's going
to cast him. But, and then captivity. We're captives. We were captives. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
and took from Satan, our captor, took captivity. Captive. His captive. Now we're His captive.
That's who's captive you want to be. You want to be His bond-server. His bond-slave. Yes, you do. You want to be captive. As I've
often told you, that Scripture does not say that the Son shall
set you free. You don't want Him to set you
free. You don't want Him to say, OK,
there you go. Have at it. No, no. You want to be on a leash.
You want to be on a, with a bridle, it should rain, a short rain
at that, right? A lead rope, and a short one. You don't want
Him to let you go. He's made you free from Satan. But He has us captive. Now, the
Scriptures are full of warnings, and we've said this
many times, lest we despair. And promises, I mean warnings
lest we presume, full of warnings lest we presume. Israel presumed
upon God's mercy and grace and the Lord let them go through
so much. And then it's full of promises
lest we despair. And here's what God says here,
I'm going to harden Pharaoh's heart. I'm going to harden, he's
going after you. But I'm going to give you a new
heart. And you're not going to follow him. You're going to follow
me. I'm going to cause Pharaoh to pursue you. He's coming after
you, but he will not apprehend you. It's a warning. He's coming after you. Satan
desires to have you. Peter wrote it because Peter
went through it. He said, Satan is a roaring lion, walketh about
the earth seeking whom he may devour. And we feel his hot breath. I love the story of Pilgrim's
Progress when he was on his way to the Celestial City and he
looked in the way, in a straight way. The Lord told him, don't
look to the right or left, look straight on. He looked and he
saw two lions. Two lions that looked like they
were in the way that he had to go. And they were roaring. He
said he had to go. That's the way. He had to go
this way to get to the Celestial City. So he went. He kept going. And the closer he got, he could
just feel their hot breath. He could hear them roaring. He
could just... And he was trembling. And he
said the closer he got to him, finally he looked. And they were
on chains. The lions were on chains. They
could only get so far, so close to him, but they couldn't have
him. And so he went by them, trembling,
but he went by them, he went through them, went past them.
So Satan has a roaring lion, a very real adversary, but God
has him on a chain. Thank you. Remember that. That's
a promise. He says, I will be honored upon
Pharaoh. You're going to honor me. You're
going to honor me after this heavy trial. These temptations,
all these temptations you go through in the world that you're
no match for, you're going to, when it's all over, you're going
to realize I'm the one that brought you through every one of them.
Listen to this, 1 Peter, Peter again, because he was He was
so tried severely. And Peter said, for a season,
if need be, you're going to be in heaviness through manifold,
many temptations. But the trial of your faith,
that's more precious than gold. Your faith is going to be tried
with fire, the fiery darts of the wicked. And it's going to
be found in the end. unto praise and honor and glory."
That's the appearing of Jesus Christ. His honor. His honor. He said, I will be honored upon
Pharaoh. You're not going to get yourself through this. I
am. He said. And you're going to
honor me? My, my. So I said, I quoted my
pastor, Scripture is so full of warnings. I tell you that
you need to read 1 Corinthians 10 all the time. When's the last
time you read that? I've told us all to read that
constantly. It's a brief summary of the children of Israel going
through the wilderness. And with many of them, they were
overcome. They were entangled, all right.
And they were captured and went back. It's full of warning. And then he comforts us. But Peter wrote this again, this
second letter. He said, if after they have escaped
the pollutions of the world through the knowledge, the gospel of
the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled and
overcome, the ladderium end is worse than the beginning. He
even said it would have been better if they had never heard
the gospel, to go back. Did you hear that? Did you hear
that? That's a dire warning. But many
stairs and many pits, many nets, many traps, and brothers and
sisters, I fell into every one of them. Have you? Many entanglements
that, bless God, they're exceedingly... Listen to Peter. He's given us
exceedingly great and precious promises that by these you might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. Do you desire that? I don't
want to escape. I don't want to be entangled
in lust. So, here are the warnings. You're
going to go through much tribulation, our Lord said, but here's the
promise. Be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. You
look to me. Here's the warning. In the world, you're going to
have tribulation. Marvel not if the world hates you. But here's
the promise. Satan hath desired thee, but
I have prayed for you. The effectual, fervent prayer
of our righteous Lord availeth everything. Here's the promise. They're going to hate you. They're
going to be after you, Satan and his hosts, the world and
everything in it. They'll do these things. Remember I told
you. But not one hair of your head
is going to fall to the ground. You shall never perish. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Just look to Christ, okay? And
in the end, we're going to see in Exodus, after the Red Sea,
we're going to see all our enemies. After they crossed the Red Sea,
they looked and saw every one of their enemies dead on the
seashore. They're all dead. They can't
pursue us anymore. Rest. Now, let me tell you about
some of the worldly entanglements, all right? There's so many. Many worldly entanglements. Satan
said, Pharaoh said, they're entangled in the Lamb. Here are the entanglements,
some of them, just a few of them, to watch out for. Number one,
the people of this world. and the things of this world.
My father once said, the two greatest dangers for believers
are the people of this world and the things of this world.
It was not war that made the children of Israel fall back,
but it was the things and the people of this world that they
began to mix with and become like. liked them, and they liked
it, and they forgot God. And they were in the world, and
apparently they were of it. But there were a few that were
not of the world. They were not overcome by it. They didn't want
to go back, like Joshua and Caleb. But the people of this world,
family and friends, our Lord said, a man's foes shall be those
of his own household. Didn't He? And that's our Lord
who cannot lie. And it's particularly so of new
young believers when they start out. And they be married to an
unbelieving husband or wife or unbelieving children. a new believer,
a young believer, young in the faith. You can be an old person
and still be a young believer. But to be married to an unbelieving
wife or husband and have sons or daughters or children that
are not believers and old friends that you had for so many years
will seek to hinder you from following the Lord, from this
journey that you're on. Without a doubt. Your irreligious
family. I told you about that man years
ago whose wife hated the gospel and hated the fact that her husband
was going to worship the Lord. And she literally stood in the
way one Sunday morning with their only child in her arms and told
him, if you go to that church today, It was a church my father
pastored. And she said, if you go to that
church today, me and your son will not be here when you get
back. I told you about that, didn't I? Many times. He said,
I have to. You made me choose between you
and my Lord. And he left, and she did too. And he didn't see that boy for
years. What would you do? What would you do? Now God's people, God's true
people have no choice. If there are God's choice, He
said, they will follow me. And a stranger's voice, they're
not going to hear Satan through this woman said, you're not going
there today. And God says, yes, you are. And
our Lord said that. Man's enemies should be those
of his own household. Then there's the religious family. We all have religious families.
And what they will say when you start going to where the true
gospel is preached is the Lord calls you out of false religion.
Nearly everybody in here was in false religion and the Lord
called you out of it by this gospel. This is the gospel. That's
the fact, isn't it? I mean, raise your hand if you
were in false religion before you came here. Raise your hand. It was false, wasn't it? The
religion that says God loves you, Jesus died for you, it's
up to you, free will and all that. It's false religion, isn't
it? Then you heard the truth. What you're hearing now, the
true God, the true cry. God brought you out of that.
What did your family say? Without exception, every one
of them said, that's a cult. Isn't it? Every one of them. Raise your hand if your family
said that. It's a cult. That's not the truth down there. Nobody believes like that. All
these people can't be wrong when that little group be right. Isn't
it? Without exception. That's what
they said to Israel, that's what they said to Noah and his family,
that's what they said. That's what they said throughout
the New Testament and the religious. I remind you again of Pilgrim
and Pilgrim's Progress, Christian his name. The Lord, oh how I
love that book because it's full of this book. But the Lord came
to this man and put a heavy burden on his back called sin. He didn't have it before. And
the Lord didn't put it on his family's back. They're doing
just fine. But he put this heavy burden
on this man's back called sin. And he felt it and he was weighed
down by it, his own sin. Sin all around him. He was vexed
with it, within and without, and he wanted delivered from
it. And the Lord, he told him the truth through an evangelist,
said, there's one way to be delivered of this heavy burden on your
back. You can't get rid of it. Right there's the way. Head toward
that straight and narrow gate and get through that, and you'll
see a cross with a man hanging on it. When you get to that cross,
that burden will fall off your back. You look to that man hanging
on that cross, your burden's going to fall off your back.
And don't you let anybody or anything hinder you from going
through that gate, that way, and you get to that cross right
now. And it says the man was standing
there with a burden on his back and a book in his hand. It was
telling him the way. All right, so he was leaving
and he told his family, I'm leaving, I got to get this burden off
my back. What burden? You're okay. They kept telling
me, you're okay. No, I'm not. I'm a terrible sinner.
No, you're not. You're a good person. You've
been a good father. You've been a good husband. You've
been a good son. You're good. No, you're a good... No, I'm
not either. No wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me? I don't know what you're talking
about. You do, don't you? You know what
he's talking about. So he said, I'm leaving. And
they were all begging him and pleading him. His wife and his
children was, don't leave. Don't go there. Stay here. We're okay. We're not. And he was leaving and all the
neighbors were laughing and mocking and scoffing. Where are you going?
Nobody's going with you. You're going alone. So be it.
And finally he put his fingers in his ears. He didn't want to
listen to anybody. And he looked straight. through
that gate, toward that cross, and he ran, crying, life, life,
eternal life. I'm not going to listen to my
family. I'm not going to listen to my old friends. I'm not going
to listen to this world. I'm going to listen to what God
told me, and I'm going to get to Christ just as fast as I can.
Anybody? Your family. That's a cult. Look at all these churches. So, Satan does this. He says, I'm
going to send so-and-so to him, to her, and try there. And I'm
going to entangle him. I'm going to bring him back through
so-and-so. He'll not turn away from her like Samson and Delilah. I'm going to send Delilah. Or
David and Bathsheba. I'm going to send Bathsheba.
I'll get him. I got him now. I got him now. It may look like it. No, you don't. You can't have
what belongs to Christ. He paid a price for it. He's
going to have it. Isn't that good news? It may
look like it. No, you don't. Then there's the
riches of this world, so the people of this world. Then the
riches of this world. Riches. They threaten to entangle it.
Back in chapter 12, remember verse 35, they were leaving. This is amazing, isn't it? They were leaving, and the Egyptians
knew it, and it says they borrowed jewels of silver and gold and
raiment from the Egyptians. They borrowed it from the Egyptians.
And they got favor. They obtained favor in the sight
of the Egyptians, verse 36. They borrowed these things, riches.
Remember that. Would you please remember that,
O Israel, that you don't own anything? Would you please? We got riches. No, we got riches.
We're rich in increasing goods. There's not a person in this
room who has need of anything physically. There's not a person
in this room that doesn't have two of everything. Right? Yeah? Refrigerators, freezers
full, attics full of stuff you need to haul off. Right? Not a person in this room. Okay?
But do you, please remember that we don't own any of this and
we're going to lose every bit of it. Every bit of it. Ask Job. Ask
Job. And the Lord tried him, showed
us through Job, I'm going to take it all away. And at one
time, he took every single thing in this world away from this
one man. He took his home, he took his
riches, he took his health, he took his family, he took everything
that he had and enjoyed, which God gives us richly to enjoy.
He took it all away at one time. What did the man say? What did
Job say? The Lord gave. I borrowed it for a while. He
gave it to me a while. He loaned it to me for a while
and he took it back. Bless his name. Bless his name
for giving it to me and bless his name for taking it. Can you
say that? Some of you have found out after
so many years how blessed it is to go through troubles. It's
good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn his statute.
It's good for me to have him take my health, that I might
learn that, you know, I took it for granted all those years. It's good for me that he does
this and does that to me, or else I'd be entangled, completely
entangled and captured by this work. He reminds us it's just
only long. It's just on loan. I'm going
to take it from you. And the favor of this world. They obtain
favor. Bless God that we're in this
world and the world can't kill us until he says so. And often we get favor on the
side of the Egyptians, favor inside of the world. We get jobs.
They hire us and we work for them. They don't kill us, they
hire us. It's amazing that they gave them
favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And they loaned them all this
money, but they're leaving. And the Lord did that. You remember
the Lord said, I gave Ethiopia and Saba for thee, Egypt for
thy ransom. This world exists. This world
still exists for God's people. Do you understand that? This
world exists for God's people, for the bringing in of his people
into his kingdom. When the last elect person is
brought into his kingdom, this world is over. And God's going
to burn every bit of them, everyone in it. Take all of his people
out, he's elect, from the four corners of the earth, take them
out, and fold us up like a vegetable. It's over. It's the only reason
this world exists. It's for God's people to be born
in it and come to hear the gospel, be brought into the kingdom,
and it's over. It's over. And all these things
exist. If we could see God's hand in
everything, see how he's gathering his elect together. And God does everything, everything.
Everything. We don't need, here's the thing,
we don't need to court the favor of this world. We don't need
to court the favor of this world. God will give enough favor to
where we, you know, can get by in this world. You can't get
rich without the favor of this world.
If you want to get rich, then you'll have to court the favor
of the world. You have to run around with them and do what
they do and be their friends and forsake God. You have to. But we don't need the court to
favor us this way. The world didn't give us these jobs. God did. Right? And we've seen
so many times, haven't we, that God can take it away after you-Brother
John Sheasley worked at J.T. Stevens for how many years? One
hundred years. It seemed like a hundred-thirty-six
years. He was real near retirement,
and they laid him off. God gave him this job. God gave
him that job, didn't he? And God took it away. Are you
all right? Everything's fine. Look at you. He didn't need what the world
gave him. He didn't need the world. No court to favor this
world. We don't bow and scrape and court
to favor this world. If I don't suck up, I'll lose
my job. And you need to quit that job.
Lean on the Lord. The world doesn't provide for
us, God does. If you don't trust Pharaoh in
Egypt, we trust the Lord. We court His faith, not the Word. Okay, so he sends these entanglements, and these things Our Lord said
this. Let me close with this. My time's
up. Go back to our text. Look at verse 4. Satan says, I've got them now.
They're shut in. You know what? Don't you love the Scripture
that says we're shut up? I'll tell you where we're shut in.
All those who look to Christ, all those who really believe
Christ, all those whom Christ is their life, their hope is
in Christ, in Christ. Their hope is truly in Christ. All who truly love the Lord Jesus
Christ and look to Him and bow to Him and believe Him, trust
Him, that belong to Him. You know where they're shut up?
In Him. They're in that ark. They're
in Him. We're going to see that in the
next message. But God said in verse 4, I'll harden Pharaoh's
heart. It's going to get harder and harder. This world's going
to get harder and harder. Not easier. It's going to get
harder. Your adversaries are going to get tougher. The trial
is going to get worse. I remember asking an old believer
when he was in his 70s and I was in my 20s, a young believer,
I remember asking him man to man. I said, Brother Cecil, oh,
I love this man. He was a faithful, he was an
elder in the church and he taught and preached and I loved him. He was such an example to me
and us young believers. He was a World War II veteran,
he was a pilot. Came back from a mission one
time with 85 bullet holes in his plane. And Lord, all Japan
couldn't bring that plane down. I said, Brother Cecil, you know
a young man full of young man hormones. I said, Brother Cecil,
does it get easier when you get older? Surely this subsides. He said,
no, it gets harder. I said, I didn't want to hear
that. Brother Cecil, I didn't want to hear that. But I'm sorry. But God, but God. where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound, where the temptation tries you even harder. I'm going
to harden Pharaoh's heart, but I'm going to get honor. He's
going to come after you so fiercely that you think, I'm a goner. I'm gone now. We're all there
up against the sea between a rock and a hard place. There's no
going to the right, no going to the left, there's no going
back, and there's a vast gulf fixed between them. It's over. What's the next thing he'll say?
Stand still. Now they had no choice but to
stand still. They got him to me and hedged him out. He had
some hedged him out already. And they had no choice but to
believe him and look straight ahead. And watch God perform
a miracle. Okay.