Hebrews 11, where as you know, taking each
example of faith and doing a message or a study on it. Verse 29, we
come to this one. By faith they, that is the children
of Israel, passed through the Red Sea as by dry land. which the Egyptians are saying
to do, were drowned. By faith they passed through.
The lesson of this story, the truth being told us here, is
how God brings His people through this world, this world of sin
and tribulation, to His promised land. while the people of this
world perish in it. That's the whole story here.
That's the lesson here. By faith, these children of Israel
believed God and followed the man that God used to bring them
out, Moses. And they passed through this
great gulf that was fixed between them and the promised land. They
weren't going to get there unless they passed through this. And
by faith, Believe in God. Take in God at His Word. Trust
in Him. Look into Christ, the man that
God sent to bring us through, to save us. We too shall pass
through this world, this valley of the shadow of death that separates
us from our God in the promised land. So here's the story, and
the story is found in chapter 13 of Exodus. So go back there
to Exodus 13. Exodus 13. Moses wrote of me,
the Lord said. Christ said, Moses wrote of me.
They are they which testify of me. To him give all the prophets
witness. So in this story, Moses is not
the object of our admiration. Jesus Christ is. You remember
Peter, after seeing Moses and Elijah, with our Lord up on the
Mount of Transfiguration, Peter said, Let's build three shrines,
three memorials. And God spoke out loud from heaven,
and Peter hit the dust, and God said, This is My Son. He is the
object of your admiration and worship, not men. For He was
the object of Moses' admiration and worship. The word Exodus means going out. That's what the word means, going
out, as are we. We're going out. We're passing
through this world and we're going to leave it, just like
the children of Israel, going out. And our God is bringing
us out of bondage. Like He did the children of Israel
in bondage to Egypt, to the Egyptians. He's bringing us out of darkness
into light, out of death into life, out of this wilderness
of sin into eternal glory. For the praise of the glory of
His grace. Chapter 13, look at verse 21
and 22. It says, The Lord went before
the children of Israel by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead
them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them
light, to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of
the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from before
the people. Spirit of God. is the one whom
God sent, whom Christ sent, He said, to enlighten us, to bring
us to Himself all the way, to lead us, to guide us, to protect
us. Look at chapter 14, verses 19
and 20. Chapter 14, verse 19. An angel
of God which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went
behind them. behind and before, and the pillar
of the cloud which went from before their face and stood behind
them. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the
camp of Israel. It separated them. It divided
them. It was a cloud and darkness to
Egypt, but it gave light by night to Israel so that the one came
not near the other all the night. They could not be joined together.
Something separated them. What is it that separates or
sanctifies or sets apart God's people from this world? The Spirit
of God. The Word of God. Christ said,
it is the Word that is sanctified. Sanctified through the truth.
Thy Word is truth. Chapter 11. Go over there. I
love this. Chapter 11 tells us who maketh us to differ. Remember,
Paul said, who maketh thee to differ from another? Here it
is, Exodus 11, verse 7. You have it? Exodus 11, verse
5 says, The firstborn of the land of Egypt shall die. And
we saw Wednesday night there was not one house where there
was not one dead. But there was not one house in
Israel where there was one dead. Because God chose these people. God loved these people. God saved
these people by a blood redemption. Verse 7. It says, "...against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue."
It's still true. Nothing moves and nothing harms
us. Nothing can except what God allows. Against man or beast that you
may know, verse 7, you've got to know this, how the Lord doth
put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. Who maketh God's people to differ
from another, from the world? It's not us. It's our God. It's His saving, electing grace
is what it is. His sovereign mercy. His truth
that separates us. This is how you know God's people
from the people of this world. Faith. I mean the faith of God's
elect. They believe there's one Lord.
There is one Lord, so therefore they have one faith in this one
Lord. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. They were all baptized into Moses
in the cloud, it says. And so are God's people. Christ
is the one in whom we live and move and have our being, in whom
we trust. He is our salvation. He is our
mediator. He is that in Him, in the cloud, by the Spirit of
God. One Father. One Father, one gospel,
one way, one truth, one life. You hear the people of the world
say things like this. Well, there are many faiths.
People of different faiths. You'll never hear God's people
saying that, will you? One faith. These people, these
children of Israel had one faith. They had one Lord. They knew
it was one way, didn't they? One mediator between them and
God, wasn't it? A man named Moses. who represents
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it is with all of God's
people. That's what separates us. Chapter 14. Go back there. Chapter 14. Here's where our
story is found. passing through the Red Sea.
Verses 1 and 2, "...the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak
unto the children of Israel that they turn and encamp before Piahireth
between Migdal and the sea, over against Baal-ziphon. Before it
you shall encamp by the sea." Verse 3 also, "...for Pharaoh
will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land.
The wilderness hath shut them in." The Lord brought them the
way that he saw fit, a way that would humble them and prune them. These children of Israel, you
see, when he found them, they weren't meek and lowly and submissive
and believing. They were hardened. They were
unbelievers, just like the Egyptians weren't. God is revealing Himself
to them and humbling them. Their whole journey through the
wilderness was a humbling experience to bring them low, to see themselves
for what they were, poor, needy, dependent, faithless, helpless,
hopeless. That unless God Almighty brought
them through, they're not going to make it. And to humble them. We need humbling, don't we? In
the beginning and in the end. All our lives we need humbling. This whole life of a believer
is a lesson in humility. Because only those who are humbled
before God will be exalted. God has purposed it. To stain
the pride of all glory. to bring into contempt all the
honorable of the earth, Scripture says. Every mouth will be stopped. No room for boasting. No flesh
shall glory in his presence. And our flesh is so full of pride
And it needs humbling, doesn't it? And the world, this is the
prevailing characteristic of the people of this world. Pride. In 2 Timothy 3, it speaks of
the last days, perilous time. On and on it says they're heady,
high-minded, lovers of self. That is the description of the
people of this world. From the youth to the old. But
God's people, the prevailing characteristic, I think it was
John Calvin that said, the three greatest Christian graces are
humility, humility, and humility. Because by the grace of God we
are what we are. What do we have that we have
not received? What do we know? What can we do? Where are we?
Except by the grace of God. Especially salvation. Not by
works of righteousness which we have done. Moses kept telling
the people this, didn't he? He said, Lord's not saving you
for your sake, because you're a stiff-necked and hard-hearted
people. Didn't he? He said that over and over again.
He's saving him for his great name's sake. But he's going to
get glory to his name. You're not going to get the glory.
And you're going to glory in him when it's all over. And God's
proving them, proving their faith, proving Himself, that is. God's
proving Himself to them over and over and over and over and
over for forty years. He proved Himself. He proved
Himself. They proved themselves as being
unbelieving. He proves Himself as being true
and faithful to His Word, doing exactly what He said. So this
was God bringing them through. And the way He brought them was
not the easy way, but the hard way. Not the short way, but the
long way. We went through Exodus verse
by verse years ago. And we saw how if they had gone
the shortest route to Israel from Egypt, it would have only
taken a few months. But no, God led them what seemed
to be a roundabout way. No, they had to go down into
the wilderness of sin, it's called. They had to pass through the
Red Sea. They had to go through all of this, as do we. Our Lord
said, In the world ye shall have tribulation. It must be so. There must be troubles and trials. Why? To prove our God, to prove
our faith, that is, who you're looking to. And to humble us. So it's a good thing. And it's
not really a roundabout way, it's exactly the way that God
purposed. It's not the long way, it's the
only way. And our Lord was going to do this to mock Pharaoh. Our Lord said, for this scripture
in Romans 9, I love the way the Word of God read. In Romans 9
it says, Scripture sayeth to Pharaoh. Scripture saith, God saith, Scripture
saith to all mankind. God says what He says. Scripture
saith to Pharaoh, for this purpose I have raised you up, to dump
you in the river. I have raised you up to show
my power in you. to mock you. The God of this
world. Pharaoh represents the God of
this world. Pharaoh was the most powerful
man on earth, of the richest nation on earth, Egypt. He represents
Satan, whom our Lord called the God, small g, small g, of this
world. The God of this world. I love
the story of Job when it says Satan had to come and appear
before God like everybody else. He's not a free agent. No, sir. He only does what God allows
him to do. He goes where God allows him
to go. There is no God beside me, our Lord said. No capital
G, capital O, capital D. Just little g-o-d's and I control
them. And Satan is among those. And
Satan came to appear before God, and God said, where have you
been? And Satan said, running around, all over, looking this
here and that and the other. God knew where he was. He was
mocking him, wasn't he? I love to tell that story because
the people, the false prophets of this world mock our God. They
make Satan more powerful than God. And so I mock their God. Like Elijah of old on Mount Carmel. Where's your God? He's taking
a visit? And maybe he's asleep. Wake him
up. Everybody get together and holler and wake him up. That's
not our God. That's not the God of the Bible. The God of this
world is like that. Not the God of the Bible. Not
our God. He mocked Pharaoh, didn't he? He told Moses and the people
exactly what Pharaoh was going to say and what he was going
to do. This is what he's going to do. Why? Because I'm going
to make him do it. The king's heart is in the hands
of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turns
it with us wherever he will. Boy, that's power. Yeah, that's
God. Look at it. Verse 4, I will harden Pharaoh's
heart. Who did? God did. Whom He will, He hardened. That's our God. And he shall
follow after them, and I will be honored upon Pharaoh and upon
all his hosts. And the Egyptians, even these
ungodly people, these unbelievers will know when it's all over,
they're all going to know that I am the Lord. Every knee will
bow and every tongue confess whether they like it or not,
I am the Lord. And they did so. And they did so. That's our God. I love to tell that. Why do I
love to tell that? Because it gives my hope is, my peace is,
my God reigneth. All my comfort and peace is,
it's the Lord that cometh what may. It's according to His eternal,
all-wise purpose. And he worketh all things unto
the counsel of his own will, and none can stay his hand. And
that purpose is nothing but good for God's people. And it's all
in Christ. And they're all like these children
of Israel. All of them. Every hoof is going
to go through the Red Sea. Every single one. Not one hoof
left behind. They're all going through. Why? God said so. The whole eye on
the children. I've just told you the end of
the story. But that's alright. Something may happen. They all
pass through. Everyone. Young, old, weak. So Pharaoh, you know, he's no
God. And again, these... Jeremiah said, my heart is grieved
because of these false prophets, what they're saying about God.
He's no God at all who wants anything. Nowhere in Scripture
does it say God wants you. Nowhere does it say that. Not
one time. We want things. God doesn't want
anything. God wills everything. He is no
God who men let do anything. Huh? That's no God at all. He is no God who is subject to
anybody or anything. That's what His name means, doesn't
it? Jehovah, self-existent, depending on no one and no thing. Well, Pharaoh made ready, verse
6 and 7. He made ready, mustered all his
forces, 600 chosen chariots, took his people with him, and
all the chariots of Egypt and captains over every one of them.
He got all his forces together, all the power that he could muster,
and he went after them. Now, I am not mocking Satan. That's what false prophets do. 2 Peter 2 says they speak evil
of dignity. I'm no match for him. No man
is. Even Michael the archangel wouldn't
contend with Satan. He said the Lord rebuked him. So I'm not doing that. These
fellows talk about step on the head of the devil when they are
in his hands in captivity to him. And we wrestle not with flesh
and blood, but principalities and powers. Spiritual wickedness
in high places. The prince of the power of the
air. Rulers of the darkness of this world. Adam and Eve were
no match for him, and how much less of him. So he is a powerful
foe. And he has at his disposal, and
I don't understand this, but I know it's true. He has at his
disposal the things of this world. demons and devils, powerful forces
he has at his disposal, given to him by God for God's purpose
concerning his people. But all the forces of hell and
Satan cannot come nigh God's people. Why? Because there is
a stronger than he. We're going to sing that hymn
of Martin Luther's, Mighty Fortress is Our God, in a few minutes.
Oh, how I love it. Oh, how I love it. One little word from our Lord
shall fail him. Alright, so they went after the
people. And since verse 8, they went
out with a high hand. He pursued after them. And they went out with a high
hand. This was before they knew he was chasing them. You know,
when things are going well, that's what a high hand means. Yes! Victory! Touchdown! It's no coincidence that whenever
we're happy, hey, yes, yes! But when you're sad, what are
you doing? Your hands hang down. Scripture
talks about that, doesn't it? Lift up. The hands that hang
down, the feeble knees. Now, why? Well, they went out
with a high hand. Yes, we're leaving this place.
We're going out in the beginning. In the beginning, all of God's
people, when He reveals the truth to them, man, they're just ripped
open. My troubles are over now. Oh,
my. And then the first sign of trouble,
See, they don't know what's about to pursue after them. They don't know who is after
them. The God of this world knows,
He knows when the Lord Jesus Christ removes from His absolute
bondage and sway one of His own. Yes, He knows that. He knows
that. He sees, like Job, you've made
a hedge about him, I can't touch him. Doesn't it? Yes, it does.
He sees that about every one of you. Satan, that deserved you to sit
you like wheat, he told Simon Peter. Like a roaring lion seeketh
whom he may devour. God's people. They went out with a high hand.
Well, their hands didn't stay up long. Just as soon, the first
sign of trouble, Pharaoh overtook them and camped by the sea beside
Pi-hi-rath and Baal-ziphon. He overtook them. And boy, it
says, they were sore afraid. They were sore afraid and they
cried out unto the Lord. They were hemmed in. They were,
as it were, between a rock and a hard place. And their enemy
was behind them. They couldn't go back. And now
they were right before this vast Red Sea, this gulf, something
they could not get through. And they thought, we're gone.
We're dead men now. First sign of trouble. I remember
it. I remember it all so well. And
things haven't changed much, really. I hope I have a little
more faith. I remember when the Lord first
revealed Himself to me, man, everything was just wonderful. Just wonderful. It wasn't long
after that that I thought, I'm lost. I'm a goner. It wasn't
long at all. until I thought, I'm a phony,
I'm a fake, I'm lost, I'm going to die in the wilderness. You
know, they said in verse 11 and 12, they said, Why have you brought
us out here? To die? It would have been better
for us to have served the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.
Oh no, no, no, no, no. Oh no, no, no. That's just not
true, is it? Just not true. Besides, you're
not going to die. God's people don't die. He that
liveth and believeth in me shall never die, the Scripture said.
If you're going to go through the wilderness, you think you're
going to die, but you're not going to die. All of God's people,
all those with Christ, in Christ, look to Christ. This journey
is not to die, it's to live. This journey is not for us to
die in the wilderness, perish with the world. It's to take
us out of it, to live. This journey was to show forth
God's glory, to the praise of the glory of His grace, His power. He's going to bring them through.
Oh, we're going to die. No, you're not going to die. I'll tell you what though, remember
Lot's wife. If you do, if that's what you
want, you go back, you look back, you go back to Egypt, you will
die. You will die in the wilderness. You'll die with the Egyptians.
You'll die with the world. Leave the gospel. Forsake the
living God. It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of a living God. Go back to Egypt, you will die
with the Egyptians. You'll perish. You'll go out
of this world and you'll perish with it. You'll drown in it.
When you look to Christ, no one dies that looks to Christ.
By faith, they all pass through. Fear not, he said in verse 13,
Moses said, fear ye not. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord which He will show you to you this day. The Egyptians
whom you have seen today, you will see them again no more forever. Stand still. Oh, what a verse
this is. You know, every time we come
in here, this is what I want to tell God's people. Sit down. Stand still. I want to show you
the salvation of the Lord. This is how we're going to pass
through this world. This is how we're going to make it. Religions of this world, some
famous preacher, you know, tells you to jump and shout and carry
on like that. Act like the Gadarene demoniac,
you know. We say, sit still. Just come
here and sit still. Shut your mouth. Listen. Hear
the salvation of the Lord. See the salvation of the Lord.
Over in Isaiah 30, it says, their strength is to sit still. This is where we gather strength.
We come in here and we sit down. And we hear a man stand up and
say, by God granted, we're all going to sit down. Listen! Push up now! Put your cry in! God brings! Not hell or high water is going
to bring God's people down. If you look to Christ, not one
has ever perished and looked to Him. Their strength is, and Isaiah
said, is to be quiet. Returning and rest is your confidence. We keep coming back, don't we?
We keep coming back in returning and rest. We keep coming back
and hearing the same story. Why? Because we go out into Egypt. We have to come back in and the
man has to say, sit down now, let's tell it again. Christ reigns. Isn't that what you need to hear? That's
what I need to hear. Now, I'm going to see the salvation
of the Lord. I need to see that every time.
Because I'm a sinner. I'm a no-good, worthless son
of Jacob. And if left to myself, I'll perish. And I look around and I get full
of fears and worries and doubts, and I think I'm going to die.
And I come in here and I see Christ lifted up. And it settles
me. It settles me. I get peace again. This is our salvation, both eternal
and temporal. It's to sit still, stand still,
stand on the rock, Christ Jesus. And here's what the Lord told
Moses. He said in verse 13, Moses told the people, the Lord shall
fight for you and you'll hold your peace. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Captain
of our salvation, defeated all our foes. He met our adversary
head on. He said, Satan has come. He found
nothing in me. I've met him. Now is the God
of this world judged. John, he said that right before
he went to Calvary. Now he's cast out. By who? Stronger than he. Not us. Him. Now, just hold on to me. The truth is, He holds us. We're
going to see that in the next time. The Lord shall fight for
you. The battle is not yours, it's
the Lord's. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 15, And he told
Moses not to cry unto him, but speak to the children, Lift up
thy rod, stretch out thy hand over the sea, and divide it.
And the children of Israel shall go, not might go, shall go on
dry ground through the midst of the sea. Lift up your hand,
stretch out your rod. What's that? Christ and Him crucified. This is how He defeated Satan. This is how He overcame the world.
This is how He paid for our sins. This is how He made the way for
us to come to God. This is how Christ and Him crucified,
stretching out His hand. His right hand and His holy arm
have gotten Him the victory. And His rod and His staff, they
comfort me. Lift up thy rod. The children,
they're going through. Behold I and the children that
thou hast given me. And verse 22 says, the children
of Israel went in the midst of the sea upon dry ground. Their waters were a wall unto
them on the right and on their left. We walk through the midst
of this world. We walk through the midst of
sin. We walk through the midst of tribulation and trials and
sufferings and amongst our enemies and things that the world, the
temptations of this world. Remember when Paul said that
Timothy, those that desire to be rich, they drown in these
things. The world and everything in it.
Our Lord said it won't overcome His people. Sin shall not have
dominion over them. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world. How's that? You know, they can
only look one place. Good. Passing through. Straight
ahead. Look to the right. Oh! It's all
going to come crashing down on me. I'm going to drown. There's only one place to live. You see, Moses was already over
on the other side. Moses lifted up his rod, and
I know for a fact Moses went first. Why? He doesn't say that. Yes, he did. Christ did. And everything testifies of Him.
Christ went before, behind. He was always before them. He
went through the valley of the shadow of death, didn't he? On
the other side, and there he sits at the right hand of God,
looking unto Him. That's chapter 12, isn't it?
Looking unto Him, the author and the finisher. We'll pass a path on dry ground. When we get to the other side,
there won't be any mud on our feet, no mud on our clothes. No soiled clothing. Our garments
are going to be white. Not one sin. Faultless, unblameable
before our God. And it says they passed through,
but the Egyptians are saying to do. The Egyptians said, we'll go
too. And they went on. 25, God took off their chariot wheels.
All man's power, all that he trusts in, he will someday come
to not want it. Whatever people trust in, God's
going to show them, you trusted in the wrong thing. It won't
save you. Your silver, your gold, your
vain conversation, Egypt, Pharaoh can't save you. Neither is there
salvation in any other. Only one. But for some, it's
too late, isn't it? Too late. And the Lord said to
Moses, stretch out thy hand over the sea. The chariots come again. Our God said, I kill. I make a lot. I won't. He stretched out his hand, and
oh, look at this. The Lord overthrew the Egyptians
in the midst of the sea. And verse 28, it says, "...the
waters returned and covered the chariots, and all the host of
Pharaoh that came into the sea after them, there remained not
so much as one of them." And verse 30, it says, "...the Lord
saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and
Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore." Our sins. Oh, the bliss of this
glorious thought. Our sins, not in part, but in
whole. He nailed to the cross. I bear them no more. Oh, praise
the Lord. It is well with my soul. In heaven,
everyone is going to know that they were a sinner. Everyone,
the sins that have pursued us, our past, our guilt, everything. We are going to see them dead
on the shore. Every one of them would have
worked. They can't touch us now. And they still plague us now,
don't they? They still pursue us all the way through this world. Our sins pursue us. Our past,
our troubles pursue us. The world is after us. The people
of this world threaten to undo us. But when we get over there,
we're going to see. Never anything to worry about
anymore. Really. You look into him, need
not worry now. We need that peace now, don't
we? So, they all knew, it says they all knew that the Lord did
this. The Lord saved Israel. Verse
31, Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians. And the people feared the Lord. There is forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be feared. Why does God forgive us? Not
because we're better than the world, but because God was merciful
to us, because we found grace in His hand. And believe the Lord and His
servant. We believe God and we trust His servant, His elect,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the Lord did this. Everybody in heaven is saying,
the Lord did this. We're here because the Lord brought
us through that vast Red Sea. We didn't drown. The Egyptians
did. We didn't because the Lord did
that. Thank you.