Thank you, Robert. That was a wonderful song. That's a great story. The Lord
brought him into the wilderness and laid down the stones where
they were, the rock which was resting in place. The Lord showed
him that way to heaven, the ladder, Jacob's ladder. The Lord Jesus
Christ was one with the earth. Go with me now to Exodus chapter
14. Go to Exodus. Chapter 14, this
was a lesson that I hope will be of use. Chapter 14 does not deal with
the whole chapter as much as I would like. One part of a verse
stuck out. Let's read the first three verses. Exodus 14, the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they
turn and enter the camp, before Piah hath between Mithra and
Sid, over against Baal and Zekon, before him the seed, that is,
he shall be in the camp by the seed. The Pharaoh will say unto
the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land. The wilderness has shut them
in. Entangled in the land. Now, the word Aces means going
out. The whole story of Aces is how
a boy called his people, chose his people, and brought them out of Egypt. had
led them through the wilderness of sin and brought them to the
promised land. Egypt has always represented
the war in history. Egypt with all of its riches,
all of its glory, worldly glory, all of its temptations, all of
its license, all of its evil, Egypt. Pharaoh and scripture
has always represented the god of this world, Satan, who has
men and women kept at his will, who is the adversary of God's
people. who hates God and hates his people. And this is no Jewish faith.
You know that most modern Bible scholars today reject the whole
account of the Exodus. You know that very few of these
so-called scholars believe that there was an exodus of God's
people out of Egypt. This is no Jewish fable, nor
is it merely Jewish history, but this is a true story. As
we read in 1 Corinthians 10, these things were written for
our example. All of us people know where,
right where. Thankfully, not to where, but
we know right where. that the adversary is a very
real person, and he is dangerous. And all that this world does
to us is very real. It's a very real struggle, and
they're very real temptations. And often to get out in this
world and become entangled in it. And surely our adversaries say
as he did of Israel, I've got them now. They're entitled and
worthy. That's just what he says. That's what he said. Now, Israel had
20 escapees. The Lord had delivered them from
captivity in two ways. He sent his word through a preacher,
thus saith the Lord. And the Lord, through that preacher,
told them the adversary, let not be killed. And he did. But there had to be blood shed. They were delivered the day that
the Passover lamb was given. We know we're not redeemed with
corruption, such as silver and gold, but by the precious blood
of the Lamb. That God that saw the blood of Christ and delivered His people. But
look at this now. God delivered His people in the
way that He would have them to go. In verse 13, verse 18, Chapter
13, verse 18, God led the people about, that is, around about
the way. And so it seemed to them. He
led them through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. Children
of Israel went up harnessed. They were in groups, harnessed,
gilts together, that is. And then in verse 2 of chapter
14, he told Moses to tell the children of Israel to encamp
before Piahiroth between Mithril and the sea, over against Baal-Ziphon
before it came in camp." I don't always look up these words, but
I did this time, and I'm glad I did. The word Piahiroth, he
said, you tell them from the camp, between Piahiroth, Baal-Ziphon,
and right before the sea. High Hyroth means a deep gorge,
a pit. So on one side of there was a
deep pit which they tried to build that led to the fall of
that. On the other side, Bale Zipon
means dark, a dark and gloomy place. So on this side, there's
nothing but darkness and gloom. And on this side, there's nothing
but pit to fall in. And before them was a vast, dull
pit that they could not possibly cross over. Now, he said, you have to camp
right there. It didn't have to. They could
have gone no where. But God said, you put them right
there. We had a rock and a hard place. And now
I'm going to have Pharaoh Everything he could muster. Why? Why? To show forth his power. To show them the salvations of
the Lord. And Pharaoh thought this in verse
three. Pharaoh said this. I've got them now. They're entangled
in rivers. I've got them now. Where are
they? The Lord has lifted him up, and
I'll have him back again. That's what Pharaoh said. I'll
have him back again. I lost him, and I'm going to
get back. That's just what Pharaoh said. Satan, I threw him out of there,
and I'm toast. I'm not going to make any railing
accusation against him. It's like filthy drink right
there. and pray for his name and other
protection. But Satan knows and sees sometimes that he doesn't
know everything. We need to know this for our
comfort. Satan knows a great deal, but
he's not all of it. Only God is omniscient. Satan
is powerful. There's no man, even Adam, is
no match for Satan. Satan is powerful, but he's not
all-powerful. Remember that for our comfort. And I believe that Satan knows
when someone is no longer under his dominion, when someone is
no longer a willing captive of the enemy, when someone is no
longer a willing servant of his. But he's rather trying to escape
from his clutches, whether he knows how or what. The Lord doesn't
give an account of that, but I do believe that Satan knows
when someone is no longer his willing subject. And I believe
he knows, like you said, of Job, when the Lord has put a hedge
about it. When the Lord has put a hedge about one of his own,
let's say he can't touch it. Most people are easy pickings
for it, but not God's people, unless God allows it. But then, according to God's
purpose, like Joseph, the Lord put the hedge in it. Let's say that. Like Peter. The Lord protected them for three
years, three and a half years. And then according to the Lord's
purpose, He salvaged them. And then like Israel here in
our story, He put them through the world's sin and temptations,
made them go through every temptation of the world. And it looked like
the world had overcome them. And it does the same to us. The
Lord puts us in this world. And there are times when it looks
like we're all going to come back. And I'm sure our adversaries
say it's like we did in Israel. I doubt that. I'm going to give
back. I'm going to give back. Thank God our hope is not what
we say, but what the Lord says. Our hope is in His Word. The
Lord said, I'm going to part from Pharaoh's heart. And I won't
give you that. The Lord said, I will let all
Egypt come after you. I won't tell you to come after
me. He said, I will be honored upon
Pharaoh, and you're going to honor me. Scripture, my pastor
used to always say this, that scriptures are full of warnings,
as we present them. Full of warnings. When you meet
the Lord, warn him you're good. Be careful. Watch out. You know, you warn those you
love, don't you? Paul said to the people of Ephesus as he was
leaving, he said, I know that my heart shall grieve as fools
complain, and I'll spare it a lot. He said, I cease not to warn
you, night and day, with tears. God loves his people, and he
warns them. He's full of warnings. like this,
and they cried out. Scriptures like this should cry
out. If after they had escaped the
pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome,
the latter end is worse than what found them in the beginning.
It had been better to not know the way to go. that had no return
from it. You see, the Lord, to this
man, when I look, he sins. He's a heathen. He's poor. He
has a broken heart, and he's a criminal. That's not good. When I read that, I don't like
to read that. Do you, Tom? It scares me. But
do you? Because I often feel like I'm
becoming a tyrant. There's so many snares. The Lord
warns us. There's so many snares, so many
pits, so many nets, traps, entanglements in the world. So He gives us
this warning. Warnings are good. There's a
true story of a man who was driving on a road in a torrential rainstorm. And that rainstorm had washed
out a bridge. And he went over that bridge
into the river and almost drowned. And actually got out safe. Got
out of his car and went around up on the road and said, I've
done more than other people about it. And he got up on the road
and began to try to flag cars down. And about, true story,
about 15 cars Just let it ride with you. Didn't
mean to get warned. You may take it back, but this
time, somebody stopped you. A warning is a good arm. And
I won't ever warn, but only God's people heed that. Only God's
people will hear it. The Lord says things like this.
You must prove much tribulation against demons. He says, in this
world, you shall have tribulation. He said, marvel not, my brethren,
that the world hate you. He said, they'll do these things
to you, and when they do, you'll repent of them. But, thank God, they're also
given unto us exceeding precious promises. Warnings, as our pastor
said, warnings lest we presume. We don't want to be presumptuous.
Then he said, keep thy servant from presumptions, presuming
that I am one of God's people. Oh, no. Give him the evidence
to make him a prophet. Don't presume on his mercy. Hope
in his mercy. Trust in his mercy. But don't
presume on it. Let him that thinketh he standeth,
take heed. We read. Lesson five. But blessed promises lest we
despair. Promises. Our Lord said, ìIn the world
you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer.î He said, ìSatan hath desired
you, since you like me.î Thatís right. Our Lord said this
in his prayer to the Father. He said, Father, keep through
thine own name those that thou hast given them. He said, I pray
not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but thou shouldst
keep them. He's our hope. He said, you shall
be hated, my old man, for my name's sake, but fear not. He
said, there's not one sparrow that falls to the ground without
your help and fire, and not one hair of your head will be cut off. Our dear sister has cancer.
She's lost every hair. Who did that? Look, that's our company. Nothing can be called us but
what we seem to be about. The world-fleshed devil will
pursue us, and he said in our text, don't mourn him. You will
see him all day. You won't see him tomorrow. Now,
I'm going to tell you about some of these worldly attainments,
and the kind that we're going to warn us all about, some of
these temptations, trials, tribulations. We read in 1 Corinthians 10 how
that there's no temptation that hath taken any of us but such
as is common. And Peter said the same thing.
He said, note this, that the same afflictions are accomplished
And you're right. That is, God sent them to accomplish
something. But in glory, you're good for your time. God sent
them to accomplish something. And the same afflictions that
you go through, every one of God's people go through. So there are many in time for
us, things that threaten us in this world. One of them, well,
two of them, in my past specific, I find myself remembering things
he said. to me, to us, all of us who are
here remembering more so now than ever. He said, the two most
dangerous things in the world for one to believe in are the
people of this world and the things of this world. The people of this world. Our Lord said, a man's foes shall
be those of his own household. And it doesn't always have to
be strong opposition. And we're certainly talking about
unbelievers. We're not talking about believers. A man's family
and friends can be a great entanglement to him or to her, particularly
a new and younger individual. An unbelieving cousin or any
tribe to him, including your wife or wife's person. An unbelieving
son or daughter. There's a great tribe, there's
a great allure and great influence over the believer. And old friends,
old acquaintances that we have known all our lives and are not
so ready to give up and want to retain. I remember wanting
to retain my old friends after the Lord began to give them up.
And I didn't get rid of any of them. I didn't cast them out. I tried to make them with them,
and I quickly found out there's a difference now. And they did, too. They did,
too. But there's a real danger there,
and it could cause evil communication, corruption, good manners. the
unbelieving family and friends will seek to keep you from your
Lord. I knew a man, and I told you
about this, true story, a man who loved whom the Lord revealed
himself to, and he had to worship, he had to go hear the gospel,
and his wife did not love that guy. She hated him. And one day,
one Sunday morning, he got up, and she stood in the doorway,
actually stood in his way, and said, you don't have to go worship
there. You don't have to go to that
church. That's the way to go. That church is better. He said, you do. You come home,
I'm going to be here. And he sat down. And I hope we all say the same
thing. I don't have to go to church. I go because I want to. So it doesn't mean that I'm logged. But since you have said that,
I have to go there. I have to. John Lennon said it. He was on
board, sir. And he did. When he came back,
he was gone. So if they're only a child, if you didn't see a
son for many years. And then, even the religious
family members will be a snare and a time bomb to God's people,
especially if the young are new believers. And they always say
this. When someone, a young believer,
a new believer anyway, begins to hear the truth and believe
it, and come out from their father's religion or mother's religion,
they always say this. That's a code now. That's a cost. Nobody else believes
that. We're Christians and so on. And
try to bring that person back to themselves. I love Monius
Pilgrim's prophecy. Spurgeon read it over 50 times. And I read it quite a few, don't
want to read it again. But in that story, Christian, the pilgrim,
the Lord revealed himself to him. The Lord revealed the pilgrims
to him, revealed his sin to him. He put this burden on his back,
which was his sin. He didn't have it before. When
the Lord revealed his sin to him, now he has this burden on
his back that he has to get rid of. And the Lord told him, the
only place he's going to get rid of it is at the foot of the
cross. And you've got to go through that straight gate. There's only
one way to get there, through that straight gate. And the Lord
told him, the place you live now is a city of destruction.
I'm going to destroy it all. He said, you go through that
straight gate, and you go straight to that cross to get rid of your
burden, and you look up, there's the celestial city. And you don't
leave that way until you get there. And he believed. And he felt
the purpose. And he felt the need. And as
he was leaving, it says, all of his old friends and companions,
his wife, who was another believer, and his children were begging
him to stay. Don't leave. Don't be a pilgrim. Stay here with us. His neighbors
were stopping at him and laughing at him. What are you doing there?
And they were all mocking him. And you know what he did? Says he put his fingers in his
ears and ran to that straight gate. Crying out, my life, eternal
life. I'm not going to speak. I've heard that one before. So this people of this world
are entangled. Riches of this world, that's
my best perception. That's the Lord's sin. All that
is in the world thanks to the Lord. He said, love not the world,
but the things of the world, and the riches of this world.
Look here in chapter 12 of Exodus. Let's go back there. Chapter
12, verse 35. The children of Israel did according
to the word of Moses, and they borrowed a bit of the Egyptian
jewels of silver and jewels of gold and rank. Did the jewels
of silver and gold have any appeal to the children of Israel? Well,
sure they did. Sure they did. But notice what
he's saying. They borrowed him. They borrowed
him. And then verse 36, when these
things are borrowed, we can't. We've brought nothing into this
world, Job said, and it's certain we can take nothing with us.
It's all borrowed. It's all just for our needs.
Look at verse 36. The Lord gave the people paper
inside of the Egyptian. so that they lent them such things
as they required, just what they needed, required. Not more than
that. The Lord gave them favor in the
sight of the Egyptians. We don't need to court the favor
of the Egyptians. Can a person succeed in this
world of business and so forth, can a person succeed in this
world without courting the favor of this world? Well, you might not
get rich, but you don't need to court the world's favor. You
don't need connections in this world. The world has never
provided one of them. The Lord gave them favor and
such. The Lord is the one that told the Egyptians to do this.
And we need not court and bow and scrape to the people of this
world. That's an entanglement. To court people in high places
is an entanglement. The world doesn't provide for
us God willing. We don't trust in Pharaoh or
Egypt. We trust in the Lord. But it's finally, we ought to
do that. We often do that, actually seek
to get a hand or whatever by whatever means. And it often
is in failure. Thank God for failures in this
world. I had a brother and his wife
sitting in the study just the other day, and he said to me,
ever since the Lord revealed Himself to us, since we confessed
Him, All our troubles have started.
I said, our troubles started when we confessed to the Lord. We're good. Good. Very good. Very good. You know, so all we
used to think was gained to us, it's lost. It's lost. What we used to to do that turn
to gold? I don't want that. Because the tanker of that will
rise up in judgment. He better leave this world with
nothing, but to rise up in judgment. What is gained in this world
is lost in the next. What is lost here is great gain.
Our Lord prayed that He would keep us from it. Our Lord, remember,
had nothing but rain, food, and money. But look over here in
our text, in 1 Thessalonians 3, verse 9 and 10. Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh.
The Lord did this. Before this, Pharaoh and his
servants said, why haven't we done this? Why haven't we let
them go? But he made ready his chariots. He did what he wanted
to do, what his evil mind decided to do. He took, verse 7, 600
chosen chariots, strongly, the best, the fastest, and all the
chariots of Egypt, everything he could run, captains, his strongest
men, every one of them. And Herzliot and the Egyptians
pursued and killed the children of Israel, all the horses and
chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overthrew them. They overthrew
them. And the people, they all, to
a man, said, we're done. We're done. And they complained,
and they blamed Moses, and they said, it would have been better
for us to die in Egypt than to die here in the wilderness. No,
it would not have been. It would have been better to
die in bondage without knowing the Lord than to die as a stranger
in the wilderness. No, sir. But here's what the
Lord had His preacher tell them, tell us. Verse 13. Moses said
unto the people, fear ye not, stand still. and see the salvation
of the world. How many times does
the Lord tell us that the word waits makes what? Stand still. Hardest thing in the world. It's
impossible for them to just stand still. You know about the only
time people stand still? It's right here. The Lord has to physically make
us lie down. And pretty passionately. He decided
to stay away. He was told to stay away. He thought about that. Stand
still. You ever been trying to address
your little children, you know, and they're just trying to be
good people? He said, stand still! Stand still! He said to the salvation
of the Lord. I love Isaiah 30. Their strength
is to stand still. Sit still. Be still, he said,
and know that I am God. And we come here to sit. He said
that again, and I said, for him returning and rest. Keep coming
back and hearing this message. Stand still. Be still. Know that
I am God. God returning and rest. Resting
in His sovereignty. Resting in His promises, resting
on His Word, resting in His Son, resting and returning and rest,
you shall be saved. Yeah, yeah. Saved on this faith. Saved. This is a refuge. A safe
haven where Christ gives it to His people to hear the Gospel.
It gives us hope. It's like Brother David preached
on this down in Mexico. The servant of Elijah. Elijah. went out, and he saw the hill
surrounded with chariots and the enemies. They were after
one man. And they were after, and that's
a picture of Christ. Although they came to get Christ
in the garden. But they were surrounded, all of them surrounded
Elisha and his servant. And the Lord said, open his eyes.
I mean, Elisha said, Lord, open his eyes. The Lord opened the eyes of his
servant to see, with the eye of faith, what only his people
could see. And what he saw was that the
hills were full of chariots of fire rounded back him in a lash. And the Lord said, may this be
for us. And it got him. So we come and we sit here to
hear the servant of the Lord say, just be seated. And know
that the Lord is with us, he's promising. See the salvation
of the world. What's the salvation of the world? Christ. Christ is the salvation
of the world. Look at this, verse 16. He told
Moses, lift up thy rod and stretch out thy hand over the sea and
divide it, and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground
with this and say, If that's not Christ, then crucified, I
don't know what is. And He had brought us to this
fact at that time. Stretch out thy hand. Divide us away. Let sin separate
us, and Christ will pay the sin. The world threatens to drown
us, and Christ overcame the world. And you know that scene is not
called the Red Sea Man. Because we go over it with blood. And what is our salvation is
a wall unto us to keep the wrath of God from us. Drowns us. Drowns us. He said, if you will,
go over on dry ground. Moses stretched out his hand,
verse 20, said, and Jehovah Mishra went into the midst of the sea
Oh, blessed are those who are in the crowd. On dry land, the
waters were a wall over them. On the right hand, on the left hand. I remember
a story years ago about a bunch of pioneers. True story. A bunch
of pioneers were going through the wilderness of Kansas at the
time. Kansas, though, as we say in jail. And they were prone
to have prairie fires. Catch those grasses on fire and
they would just consume everything that they had. And they were
in this wagon train and they saw this fire coming. And the
leader of that group said to them, circle the wagons. And
he set some grass on fire. and carved a huge, round area. And then they put those writings
into that carved-out area. And then one of those numbers
saw that fire coming and said to the leader, he said, is it
going to get us? And he said, son, fear not. You're standing on fire right
now. You can't argue with that. And Christ, he said, burned away.
He endured the wrath of God for that. He's dragon man. He's a
solid rock. And look at this, and I'll close.
It says, the Lord, in verse 30, saved Israel that day out of
the hand of the Jews. The Lord did. They didn't fight. The Lord fought for them. He
said, you'll not fight, I will. I'll do all the fighting for
you, and you'll hold your people. The Lord saved Israel that day
out of the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians
dead on the sea shore. Those enemies that once pursued
them hounded them, and saw them dead. Someday, we will know that we
have been delivered by our Lord Jesus Christ. Because He has
washed us from our sins in His own blood. And verse 31 says,
Israel saw that great work which the Lord did among the Egyptians.
The Lord did it. He is the Lord. And the people
feared the Lord and believed the Lord. And His servant, Moses. Brother Stephen read this statement
in the study, and he beforehand showed me the scripture, and
I wanted to read it to you, and I thought, it's in here. There it is. And it goes so well, you didn't
know it, but it does. It says in Micah chapter 6, the
last part, it says, Lord will turn again, He will have compassion
upon us. He will subdue our iniquities,
since sins are not everything. It may look like you're in pain.
No, you're not. He will subdue our iniquities
and will cast all of their sins into the depths of the sea. He
will perform the truth. He will not only show it, reveal
it, and mercy of Abraham, which he swore to our fathers from
the days of old. Hereinon, thanks be to you, the
city is salvationable. Satan says, they're in pain.
Everything will work out. But now, I'm going to give them
back. The Lord says, so you know. There's always a problem. Watch this.
That's good news for them. OK.