Well, let's go back to Exodus
chapter 15. Here's the Song of Moses. And
I've brought you a few messages from this already. And I've got
another message I wanna bring you tonight. I'm gonna endeavor
to deal with verses 11 through 18 of Exodus chapter 15. And
my subject is deliverance. and destruction. From Exodus
chapter 15 verses 11 through 18, deliverance and destruction. Now I'll begin by reading just
the last verse of the series of verses that I want us to study. And so that is verse 18 where
the saints of God, the children of Israel sang in this song that
the Lord, he shall reign forever and ever. And as I go through
this message, if ever there was a proof that the Lord reigns
forever and ever, it is in the deliverance of Israel and in
the destruction of Egypt. For you see, Israel could not
save herself, and Israel certainly could not destroy Egypt. But God could do both. And He
did deliver. He did deliver His people, as
we have studied. And He brought down destruction. He brought the mightiest army
in the world to destruction by His power. Now let me begin by
giving you five statements. First statement is this. The
Lord is the eternal, self-existent God. Look at verse 11. Who is like unto thee, O Lord,
among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Our God only is
eternal. He is the only self-existent
being and self-sustaining being in all of His universe. He is
the creator of all things. Somebody had to create everything,
and whoever created everything had to already exist himself. And the one who ever existed
is our God in the Trinity of His persons. And indeed, God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit inhabited
eternity in the fullness of the Godhead, delighting in each other,
if I may put it that way, and delighting in the salvation that
they ordained eternally. God is the everlasting God. The psalmist said, from everlasting
to everlasting thou art God. He is the only one who necessarily
exists by His own power and character. All creatures depend upon Him
for their existence. He depends upon no one and nobody. God alone is everlasting. I Timothy chapter 6 verses 15
and 16 says the following, which in his times he shall show
or manifest, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King
of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality. Get that, who only hath immortality. His existence had no beginning. and will have no end. Our existence,
on the other hand, had a beginning. It had a beginning. I know eternally
we existed in the mind and purpose and heart of God because He loved
us with an everlasting love and so we existed in the heart and
mind of our God. But as to our physical existence,
as to our real existence, body and soul, we began to exist when
we were conceived in our mother's wombs. Thus our life began. And the lives that we have are
lives that will never end. Because even at the death of
this body, the soul goes on in its existence, but we are not
immortal. Only God is immortal. And so
Paul continues that in I Timothy 6, "...who only hath immortality,
dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto, whom
no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen." He is the eternal, self-existent
God. His dominion is everlasting. And I just read that in verse
18. The Lord shall reign forever
and ever. He is the monarch of the universe. He sits upon His throne of absolute
sovereignty, exercising His will, which is carried out throughout
His creation. He reigns everywhere. He reigns
in all things, and His reign is absolute. And though Satan
led in rebellion one-third of the angels against God, our Lord
was reigning even then. The fall of Satan did not happen
outside of God's decreed will. Nothing, nothing either great
or little, great or small, ever happens outside of God's eternal
decrees. Not Satan's fall, not Adam's
fall. All things fulfill God's predestinated
eternal purpose. And though Satan raged against
our Lord, oft times through our Lord's earthly ministry, and
though going back to the Garden of Eden, though he tempted Eve
to sin, and then Adam sinned, and Adam's race, therefore, are
born sinners, all of us, God still reigns. When Satan entered
into the garden, God reigned. When Adam fell, God was still
reigning. When our Lord Jesus Christ announced
that He's the seed of the woman and then illustrated what He
would do when He came into this world, that He would lay down
His life, He would give up His very breath, He would shed His
own blood in order to save and cover and make righteous His
people, our Lord was even reigning then. Always. And when Israel in Egyptian bondage
began to suffer at the hands of a wicked monarch, God was
still reigning. And though they, most of them,
forgot about God and had been absorbed into Egyptian idolatry
and godlessness, Even then our God was still reigning. And though Satan entered into
a wicked man, Pharaoh, who made life absolutely miserable for
the Israelites, God was reigning then. And then fast forward hundreds
and hundreds of years into the future, when Satan entered into
Judas. And Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus
to the enemy. Our God was still reigning. That
did not happen outside of His purpose. And when the Son of
God was cursed and blasphemed and found guilty of blasphemy,
sentenced to be crucified, led to the cross where He was beaten
and crowned with thorns and they stripped His robe off of Him
and then He's nailed to a cross. When that cross was put in the
ground and His bones became out of joint, though not broken,
God was still reigning. And when all of the sins of all
of God's people were borne by our Savior, having been imputed
to him by eternal destination. And when he suffered the wrath
of God on the cross of Calvary, God was still reigning then.
And when God forsook His only begotten Son, because sin was
present with Him, and God cannot look on sin with any degree of
complacency, When God struck out at His own Son and punished
Him in our stead, and our Lord Jesus drank the bitter cup of
damnation dry, God was still reigning. He has never abdicated
His throne. He has never turned over to Satan
or to anyone else the reins of this world. He rules in all things. His reign
is everlasting. And amidst all the events of
life, He still reigns. I get weary
of hearing people talk about the weather and it's mother nature
this and mother nature that. I hate that kind of language. I'll tell you who's ruling the
weather, who sent the storms today. Here locally, toward Ironton,
out that direction, especially the storms were severe. Property
damage, you lost electricity, right? Maybe some of the rest
of you. I'll tell you whose thunder that
is, that's God's thunder. And I'll tell you whose lightning
that is, that's God's lightning. And I'll tell you whose wind
that is. He blew with his nostrils. Just like he blew a path through
the Red Sea, if he could, by his own power, merely blow a
path that was dry so that the Israelites went through the bottom
of the sea on dry land, if God did that, if his breath has that
much power, he can surely blow down trees when he's pleased
to do it. Mother nature doesn't have anything
to do with that. There is no mother nature. There
is no father time. I don't know why we decided that
we're gonna adopt those parents. God, there's God who rules in
all things. The Lord's dominion is everlasting. So I say first, the Lord is the
eternal self-existent God. Number two, the Lord's dominion
is everlasting. Number three, the Lord is God
indeed, and man is nothing. You read again in Isaiah chapter
40, we're all as grasshoppers before the Lord. And all of us
together, all of the nations of the earth, are like the insignificant drop
of water in a five-gallon bucket. It's nothing. All of us together,
add up all of humanity, we come up to not just zero, we're less
than nothing. And you read in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, the Lord has chosen to save those that are not. Those that are not, there's nothing
to us. We're in the minus column. There's
nothing positive about us. And the only reason we live and
love the Lord Jesus Christ, we live spiritually. The only reason
we love the gospel of God's redeeming grace, that gospel that isn't
an invitation but a declaration of the success of our Savior
upon the cross of Calvary. The only reason we love the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace is because God did something
in us. It was not us. because we're
nothing. The Bible says salvation's of
the Lord. But you know what man wants to
do? Man is always wanting to insert himself really into just
about any given situation so he can get a little recognition.
That only comes naturally. I've got a picture at the house
in my office. And, oh my, this picture is 60, probably 65 years old, I guess. And it was at the anniversary
party, a picnic, for my dad's mom and dad. We called them Papa
Sam and Mama Essie. His name was Sam Byrd and her
name was Essie Byrd. We called her Papa Sam and Mommy
Essie. I got a picture that shows people
in the background. The men are all wearing ties,
neckties, and the women are all in dresses. Everybody's dressed
up. And so they took a picture of
my grandparents. My sister found this picture
several years ago and gave it to me. And just before the cameraman
took the shot, I ducked in between my grandma and my grandpa so
that I would have a part in the picture. Because I wanted everybody to
know I was there. I was there. But that's the way
we are. We want to insert our thing,
ourselves, into events of life. But especially man wants to insert
himself into salvation. That's what he wants to do. We
want to get our picture taken with the Lord. We want to get
some credit with Him. And therefore you hear people
talk about The Lord wants to save you if you'll let Him. And
what they're saying is if you'll insert yourself into this salvation
equation, then you'll be saved, but God can't save you unless
you do. But they forget, God is everything
and we're nothing. And the only way we're inserted
into salvation is not because of anything we do, but because
of God's eternal purpose of grace. He put us in Christ before the
world began. I say, when it comes to salvation,
you ain't in the picture. You didn't have anything to do
with it. You didn't raise one finger, you couldn't. Because
salvation is God's eternal decree. You weren't there when God enrolled you in the
Lamb's Book of Life. In Bible college, I had professors
that irked me and say stupid things like, well, you know,
salvation's like this. God voted for you. And the devil
voted against you now. you'll cast the deciding vote. Men are absolutely ignorant of
the word of God. Because when the vote was held,
there was no devil to vote against you. And you weren't there to
cast your vote either. It's only one vote that counts.
That's the eternal counsel of God. We had nothing to do with
it. If you're a believer, he ordained
your salvation from old eternity. The Lord is all, and we're nothing. And then, let me make this statement. The Lord's infinite power is
always at work sovereignly accomplishing his will. Nebuchadnezzar made this statement. It's one of the reasons I read
that passage. He said of our God, he doeth
according to his will, his will, among the army of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth with unexplainable, sovereign,
infinite power, God governs all things and all people so that
everyone either by his making them willing to do his will or
they unwillingly do his will, they accomplish his eternal purpose. Make sure you understand nothing
ever happens outside of the decreed will and purpose of God. Say, Jim, I can't wrap my mind
around that. Well, I'm sure you cannot. You can't wrap your mind around
the infinite God, but you believe him, don't you? I do. It is not for me to understand
his ways, but it's to believe that his ways and his will is
always being carried out. And then I'll say this, the Lord's
will is irresistible and perfect. The will of God, what is the
will of God? I wrote this down this morning.
It is his eternal purpose of predestination, which in every
way is consistent with the character of his being. God cannot will
to do anything that is against His holy character. He cannot
lie that goes against His character. He cannot save a sinner apart
from His justice being satisfied, for that would be to go against
His character. He cannot condemn anyone whose
debt of sin has been fully retired by the bloody sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He cannot do that. As Top Lady said, twice payment
God will not demand. First at my bleeding surety's
hand and then again at mine. A debt once paid is paid forever. God's will,
God's purpose is the cause of our salvation. He said, I will
do all my pleasure. And know this while I'm on this
point. God's will only is free. Men speak of the freedom of man's
will. And really free will rings out
from almost every pulpit in this country and no doubt throughout
the world. Could I define free will for
you? Free will is the absolute ability
and power to fulfill your desire and your will. Now who alone has the ability
to fulfill His will? Only God. Man doesn't have a free will. Because you see, as God's will acts always consistently with
His character, That's right, isn't it? God's
will always acts in a manner consistent with his character,
so man's will always acts in a manner consistent with and
according to our own character, which is dead in trespasses and
sins. That doesn't sound like freedom
to me. Nebuchadnezzar said, none can
stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? But man cannot hinder God. He does his will. I've been asked
before, when's the last time you gave an invitation? I said,
before I knew the gospel. See, the gospel of the grace
of God is not an invitation. It's a declaration. It's a proclamation
of what somebody did when he came into this world, and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the good news of his finished
work. that he did when he satisfied
the justice of God, he gave up his own life to save sinners. He accomplished his will. And
he will accomplish his will in the salvation of sinners and
in the damnation of sinners. That's a fact. Well, let me give you these two
points in this message. Deliverance and destruction. Number one, the deliverance of
Israel. I'll give you several things.
I'm just gonna touch on them, because I don't have a lot of
time here to go through this, but number one, their deliverance,
it was a divine deliverance. You read down through here in
this Song of Moses, the Song of Redemption, it's always what
the Lord did. What the Lord did. This was a
divine deliverance. Look at verse 6. Thy right hand,
O Lord, is become glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord,
hath dashed in pieces the enemy. Nothing of what Israel did. It says in verse seven, in the
greatness of thine excellency, thou hast overthrown them that
rose up against thee. Thou sentest forth thy wrath,
which consumed them as stubble. And the psalm keeps talking about
what the Lord did. This is a divine deliverance.
Secondly, it was deliverance of a particular people. Look
at verse six, I'm sorry, 16. Speaking of the enemies, fear
and dread shall fall upon them by the greatness of thine arm.
They shall be as still as a stone till thy people pass over. Oh Lord, till the people, that's
the people of his choice, God's people. This was the deliverance
of a particular people. Were there other nations in the
world? Lots of other nations. And I
would say, and I'm not by any means knowledgeable of world
history back in this time, but I wouldn't be afraid to say that
there were other nations who were held in captivity by larger
nations. I don't think that's beyond the
stretch of the imagination, do you? There were other people
who were enslaved, who bowed to the masters of other
countries. I'm sure that existed. But of
all the nations that were enslaved in the world, only one, only
one nation did God deliver from oppression. And he referred to
them, the Israelites in this song referred to them as thy
people. And I tell you, our God's got
people. Chosen unto salvation from every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. I'll tell you something else
about this deliverance. It was a merciful deliverance.
Look at verse 13. Thou in thy mercy, literally,
in thy steadfast love and tenderness, hast led forth the people which
thou hast redeemed. Did they deserve to be liberated? No, they were as idolatrous
as the Egyptians were. But they were God's people. And
they typified us. And I'll tell you something else
about this deliverance. It was a purchased deliverance. Look at the end of verse 13. Even the first of it. Thou and
thy mercy has led forth the people which thou hast redeemed. These
are a purchased people. Look down at verse 16. Fear and
dread shall fall upon them by the greatness of thine arm. They
shall be still as a stone till thy people pass over, O Lord,
till the people pass over which thou hast purchased. He bought
them. How did he buy them? by the death
of the Passover lamb. He bought them. This is a purchase. In Acts chapter 20, when Paul's
giving final instructions to the elders of the church at Ephesus,
he talked about the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
he purchased with his own blood. He didn't purchase all people. He purchased a particular people,
his people. In 1 Peter 2, 9, Peter talks
about a peculiar people. And that doesn't mean weird,
though we are kind of weird, I suppose, to the world, but
it means a purchased people. We're purchased. And it was a deliverance with
a design. Watch this. Look at the last statement of
verse 13. Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy
habitation. It was a deliverance with a design. It is to bring them to God's
holy habitation, literally to Mount Zion, to the church, to
the church of the firstborn, where our Lord dwells with His
people. You see, we are His habitation. He inhabits His people. And it
was a powerful deliverance. It says here, in his strength,
in thy strength, not our strength, we're weak, but his strength. And it was a guaranteed deliverance. Till the people pass over, pass
over into the promised land. which thou hast purposed. This mountain he speaks about
in verse 17, thou shall bring them in and plant them in the
mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou
hast made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which
thy hands have established. What is this sanctuary? What
is this mountain? It is Zion, the hill of the Lord. It is the church. Hold your place here and look.
Here's a beautiful verse in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 6. And this
is shortly before the children of Israel go across the Jordan
River into the land of promise. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 6. Kind of winding things up. He's
at the end of his tenure as pastor of this vast congregation. And he says this, Deuteronomy
6.23, and he brought us out, Deuteronomy 6.23, he brought
us out from thins that he might bring us in. He brought us out
that he might bring us in. He brought us out of the Egyptian
bondage. He brought us out of the land
of Egypt to bring us into the land, to give us that land which
He swore to our fathers. He brought us out to bring us
in, and I'm telling you, He has brought us out of bondage, of
imprisonment. to bring us in to the land that's
more glorious than one of milk and honey, to bring us to glory. And he's gonna abide with us
forever and ever. And as you go back to the text,
he says in verse 17, thou shall bring the men and plant them. in the mountain of thine inheritance. Or when I read he's gonna plant
them, I tell you, that gives me the idea of they're gonna
get rooted. And they're gonna live. And in Isaiah chapter 61,
we're called trees of righteousness which the Lord hath planted by
his grace. Now real quick, let me talk about
destruction. Number one, it was the destruction
of the Egyptians. Verse 12, thou stretchedest out
thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. And I'll tell you something else,
when I was thinking about what got destroyed, what was destroyed? All ideas of self-salvation were
destroyed. Isn't that right? All ideas,
any thought of self-salvation has now been destroyed. Who did
the deliverance? The Lord did. Israel didn't conquer
its enemies. You didn't conquer Satan. You
didn't conquer your sin. You didn't conquer the world.
It took one with all power, omnipotence. He conquered. And I'll tell you
something else. It was a destruction that was
heard by others. Look back in chapter 15 again
in verse 14. The people, other nations, shall
hear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the
inhabitants of Palestina. Then the Dukes of Edom shall
be amazed. The mighty men of Moab trembling
shall take hold upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan
shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them." You see, words spread quickly. The most mighty army
in all the world, the God of Israel had drowned them all.
And word spread quickly. Some said from Goshen to Jericho
was roughly 150 miles. They didn't have telephone, they
didn't have telegraph, they didn't have cell phone, they didn't
have anything like that. But I tell you, word spread.
And nations were afraid. And they were even more afraid
when they heard this, the God who destroyed Egypt, He's coming
our way. He's on His way to our towns
and our cities, to our lands, and fear and dread just gripped
their hearts because they heard what He did
to the Egyptians. Do you remember in Joshua chapter
2, when Joshua's going to lead them
in marching around Jericho? The spies went in to check things
out and they met Rahab. You know what she said? I want you to spare me because
we have heard, we have heard what your God did. Tell you what,
I've heard of the wrath of God. I've read of the vengeance of
God upon his enemies. And fear and dread filled my
heart. I don't want to deal with that
God. Because he's angry with the wicked every day. News travels fast. And I'll tell you what. Let all
unbelievers know this. He who came the first time, he's
coming back. And he's coming back to gather
his people and set in judgment upon all those who despise his
name. I read of what he did to his
enemies here in the Old Testament. By God's grace, I'm not gonna
be numbered among them. Now if you wanna take sides against
God, you go ahead and have at it. But not me, not me. When Moses said, who's on the
Lord's side? Let him step over here. I say,
I am. Now what you say, I am. Count me among the friends of
the Lord. He's sovereign. He's almighty. He's powerful. He's eternal.
I bow before him. He's God. He's all, and I'm nothing. And I need him to show mercy
to me, because I don't want to deal with him. I want somebody standing between
me and God who's angry with the wicked every day, and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I bow before him and say,
Lord, if you will, you can show me mercy. You did for the Israelites,
and they weren't worth anything, and I'm not worth anything. I'd
sure be grateful if you'd do something for me.