So if you would, turn with me
to Exodus 14. Exodus 14. Exodus 14. And as you're turning
there, we did hear this passage yesterday. And I just want to
read it. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with what
I'm going to preach today. That passage was this, for in
him dwelleth all of the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So if the fullness dwells in
Jesus Christ, because that's who the him is, is Jesus Christ,
we should preach Jesus Christ all the time. And by God's grace,
we do. Okay, so Exodus 14. I'm just going to read the whole
thing. It's pretty lengthy, but I'm going to read it all. And
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel,
that they turn and encamp before Phaaroth, between Migdal and
the sea, over against Belzephon, before it shall ye encamp by
the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children
of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath
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. And it was told the king of Egypt
that the people fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants
was turned against the people. And they said, Why have we done
this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? And he made
ready his chariot, and took his people with him. And he took
six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt,
and captains over every one of them. And the Lord hardened the
heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children
of Israel. And the children of Israel went
out with an high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after
them all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and
his army and overtook them in camping by the sea beside Phaharoth,
before Balzathon. And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the
children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians
marched after them, and they were sore afraid. And the children
of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And they said unto Moses,
Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us
away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus
with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word
that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we
may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us
to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.
And Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today
for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them
again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you
and you shall hold your peace. And the Lord said unto Moses,
wherefore Christ down unto me, speak unto the children of Israel
that they go forward. But lift thou up thy rod, and
stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it. And the children
of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
And I behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians and they
shall follow them. And I will get me honor upon
Pharaoh and upon all his host, upon his chariots and upon his
horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know
that I am the Lord when I have gotten me honor and Pharaoh upon
his chariots and upon his horsemen. And the angel of God which went
before the camp of Israel removed and went behind them. And the
pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind
them. And it came between the camp
of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And it was a cloud
and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these,
so that the one came not near the other all night. And Moses
stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the
sea to go back by strong east wind all that night, and made
the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children
of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground,
and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and
on their left. And the Egyptians pursued and went in after them
to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots,
and his horsemen. And it came to pass that in the
morning, watch, the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians
through the pillar of fire and of the cloud. and troubled the
host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels that
they drave them heavily, so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee
from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them against
the Egyptians. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come
again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their
horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea,
and the sea returned to its strength, when the morning appeared, and
the Egyptians fled against it. And the Lord overthrew the Egyptians
in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned and covered
the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that
came into the sea after them. There remained not so much as
one of them. But the children of Israel walked
upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were
a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. Thus
the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians.
And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. And Israel
saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians.
And the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his
servant Moses. We see in this passage the Lord
telling Moses to speak to the children of Israel. And he tells
them to go to a certain place. But he tells Moses that Pharaoh
was going to see something. He's going to see something that
he thinks is true. And in and of themselves, meaning
if the Israelites were there on their own doing, he would
have been right. But these have the Lord directing
them. But he tells Moses that Pharaoh
is going to chase after them. And the word is pursue or persecute. They were out to do them harm.
Or would when this come to pass anyway. They were out to do this
harm to them. But when they do, they will find
out who God is. At least God would show his power
for his namesake. So what happened? It says they
did so, both the Israelites and the Egyptians. Because what do
we see next? God bringing to pass all that
he has already said. And it was told the king of Egypt
that the people fled. Didn't he already know this?
He did. But God had hardened Pharaoh's
heart. Let's not try to justify God
in what it says. It says God hardened Pharaoh's
heart, whatever that entails. We read in Romans 9, 15 through
18, for he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore he hath mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. So there we have another witness
to this. What is the result of this hardening? Pharaoh gathered everyone with
him, gathered all the people of Egypt with him. Now we can
see how this hardening works, if you will. Pharaoh did exactly
as he wanted to do. He was doing exactly what God
said he would do, yet he was going against God. Then it says
in verse eight, and the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh,
king of Egypt. And he pursued. I mean, there we go. He was off
to destroy God and his people. That's what he thought. The heart
we were born with from Adam is a hard heart, a heart of stone.
All God has to do was let him go to himself. And a heart like that is going
to harden even more. There were also those that went
with him. They feared Pharaoh rather than
God. But this fear is in all of us,
even those who God is bringing out of bondage. Verse 11 and
12 we read, Verse 11 and 12, And they said
unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou
taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus
with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word
that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we
may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us
to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. We're going to die anyway. Why
do we have to do it this way and in this place? I know in
one place the children of Israel complained about the manna. You
remember that? It was in Numbers 11.5. We remember
the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and
the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlics. No doubt they loved eating these
things while their taskmasters were over them. you know, making
them do the work, forgetting they were slaves. But then we
have something said, and this is where I want to concentrate
on. Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the
Lord. And I have the following things I want to look at. God
is in control, and that place to see his salvation and the
results of his work. So just think about it up to
this point. God is in control, that's my
first point. They were putting all the children
of Israel, all the male children, to death at one time back in
Exodus 2, 3, 4, I can't remember all the chapters, but God calls
Pharaoh's daughter to take in Moses when he was put on the
river. And then Moses has to flee and
God meets him in the burning bush. And then he sends Moses
back to Egypt. And then God brings about 10
plagues, but he told Moses that he was going to do this before
Moses even went to Pharaoh. And then Pharaoh says, who is
the Lord that I should obey his voice? And then he made it harder
on the Israelites to work. And then he brought the rest
of the plagues as well. And God hardens Pharaoh's heart
then each time, that's what it says. And here at one point,
Pharaoh says, you go, but leave your animals. But Moses said,
not one hoof will remain here. And then the last plague, if
you will, against Egypt, the Passover. Every firstborn of
every house would die if there was no blood. and many died,
and this was, you know, to Egypt and Israel. If they didn't have
the blood, they would die, the firstborn. So then it says the
Israelites spoiled the Egyptians, and God said they would. He said
that they would, and the Egyptians gave the Israelites everything
that they needed. God is in absolute sovereign
control. and you think you might come
to Christ tomorrow, people just put God off on them. He may harden
your heart tomorrow. God hardens whom he wills, and
this hardening is a hardening so that the one being hardened
will not bow down to God. If he hardens you, you will be
hardened. Romans 9, 15 through 18. Turn
over there, I know I just read it, but turn over there, let's
look at it. Romans 9. Romans 9, 15 through 18. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth." We see that God made a difference
between the Egyptians and the Israelites. When it comes to
man, the Egyptians were a far superior people. The Israelites
didn't even have any weapons. But there is none like unto our
God. 2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4 we read,
but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,
in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not. Lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. It takes God for the light of
the glorious gospel to shine unto you. And that is what we're
talking about here in this passage, the gospel. Thankfully, there
were some who have God fighting for them in verse 14 of our chapter,
verse 14. The Lord shall fight for you
and ye shall hold your peace. I'm not saying that God will
fight with us or that he helps us. I'm saying that God fights
for us. We have no strength of our own.
Romans 5, 6 says, for when we were yet without strength in
due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And some might say,
well, dying is not fighting, but I beg to differ. The only
way that we could be saved is for someone to die for us, end
the fight for us, and this is what we see in our text. The
fight is not a carnal fight. Physically, some would see some
of the saints as losing because they didn't triumph in anything,
but Christ triumphed for them in their fight. I wanna turn
over to Psalms 44, Psalms 44. You can turn with me if you want.
Psalm 44. Psalm 44, verses one through
three. We have heard with our ears,
O God, our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their
days in the times of old. how thou didst drive out the
heathen with thy hand and plantest them, how thou didst afflict
the people and cast them out. For they got not the land in
possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save
them, but thy right hand and thine arm in the light of thy
countenance, because thou hast favor unto them. God not only hardens whom he
wills, but, thank God, he also has mercy on whom he wills. Again,
for he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth. It doesn't matter if
you You're not gonna wheel yourself into this. It's not him that
runneth. You're not gonna work yourself
into this. But it is of God that showeth mercy. And as we see
in his sovereign control of all things and people, we know his
people are no different than any other. But those who are
his will be directed by him. And it has nothing to do with
what we do, but all of God. The scripture tells us in Acts
17, 28, for in him we live and move and have our being, as certain
of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. And I want to say, this goes
for everybody, even those who are not in Christ. But he works
in us both the will and to do of his good pleasure, and he
brings all of his people to the same place. And that place is
to see his salvation. If you read here, we see the
place's name where they were located or told to go. And one
is Paha, and I apologize for my pronunciations, but Pahaheroth. And that is place where the sage
grows. What is this? They are directed
to a garden. And remember the Shulamite in
Song of Solomon 6? Remember, Walter preached a message,
the Gospel Arboretum. We read in Song of Solomon 6,
two and three, my beloved is gone down into his garden, to
the beds of spices to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies.
I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. He feedeth among the
lilies. To most, maybe this, our text,
doesn't look like much of a garden. But I want to be in his garden,
where there is nothing but good things to see. This garden is
between the tower, Migdal, and the sea, God's judgment. So they
are in a garden where they will see from the tower God's judgment. So they are brought to a garden
where the tower will reveal God's purpose in this judgment. We
read here, when the Israelites see the enemy behind them and
the sea before them, what do they do? Like all of us do when
God is dealing with us. They complained. Just think about
it. What are they about to see? And what do they say? You should
have left us in Egypt. But thank God he didn't, despite
us, despite me. But again, what are we told in
verse 14? The Lord shall fight for you,
and ye shall hold your peace. So next, another point in this,
God will fight for you, so shut up. We are told in scripture,
be swift to hear, because you're going to hear something worth
hearing, so listen to what God says. And it says, slow to speak. Remember Job? He wanted to put
his mouth over here so he couldn't say anything. Because our opinion doesn't matter.
Only what God says, and then it says, slow to wrath. Because
it would not take long for that wrath against God to show itself
in complaint, even though God is fighting for us. But if God
is doing something and he is fighting for you, then listen. And do what? Stand still. There's a purpose in standing
still and being quiet. First of all, the enemy is on
your tail. And what God does is what we want to know. We need
it. But God is about to show us something. The salvation of the Lord. I
already said it, but what do we read in Job, Job 44? Behold,
I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will
lay my hand upon my mouth. When God causes him to hold his
peace and hear God, what do we hear him say then? Job 42 5,
I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ears, but now
mine eye seeth thee. God who is in absolute control
will cause you to listen and to hear who he is and what his
work is. And by his spirit and by his
power, you will see his salvation. How was this salvation revealed,
or where do we see it specifically? The raising of the rod. Zechariah
13, seven, awake, O sword, against my shepherd and against the man
that is my fellow, sayeth the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd,
and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon
the little ones. Moses was told to lift up the
rod and stretch out his hand over the sea. The work of the
Lord was to die on that tree where he spread his hands. With
God's wrath having done this willingly, he was smitten by
God and died. The whole purpose for God directing
them here was that we or they might see his salvation. God took them the long way around. If you remember, I mean, some
people say that where they were, it was just like, just right
over the line there and they would be in a good place, be
out of the wilderness. But God took them around the
long way. But God took them the right way,
the only way. It may have not seem right to
others, it may not seem right to us, but it was right because
God was going to deliver them and He did. And it was all for
His honor and glory. But He takes us there to see
His salvation, but we do not stay there. What do we do? We move forward. Verse 15. And the Lord said unto Moses,
wherefore Christ thou unto me, speak unto the children of Israel
that they go forward. We're not going our own way,
we're not doing our own thing, if God is directing us. We're
going forward, but all the time we are seeing his salvation. We are seeing what he has done,
not what we do. We are moving forward with our
eyes fixed on His salvation. Nothing else will do, looking
at His salvation and moving forward. Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, we read,
wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the
sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience
the race that is set before us. looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. There is but one thing
to see, and we should keep our eyes on that one thing, and that
one thing is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That is the salvation
of the Lord. But there's one thing for sure,
there is consequential results to what God has done. So the
results of his work. First of all, dry ground for
his people. Not one drop of water gathered
on the children of Israel's feet. Clean every whit. And we heard
it yesterday. We are made the very righteousness
of God in Christ. But there's another result, destruction
to those not in Christ. Those who deny what Christ has
done already have the judgment of God on them, but they will
be or it will be manifested one day that God will destroy them. He destroyed the whole army of
pharaohs. God will harden them and they
will not bow. God fights for us. He directs
our steps so that we will stand still and see his salvation. He will then direct us forward,
looking to his salvation that has been revealed. He is in absolute
sovereign control, having mercy on whom he will have mercy and
hardening whom he wills. What is the result of God causing
us to see his work of salvation? Belief. We believe and the faith
of Christ is counted to us for righteousness. This is the only
thing we are looking at by his grace and him directing our steps
and fighting for us. We look to him and what he has
done. I have this quote that I sent
to Tommy yesterday and I like it and I'll end with this. It
is not great faith, but true faith that saves. And the salvation
lies not in the faith, but in the Christ in whom faith trusts. Amen. Dear Lord, we're sinful creatures,
dear Lord, but we know you are a merciful God, and we thank
you, dear Lord. Forgive us of our sins. Too many to number, dear Lord.
But we thank you that in Christ, you have redeemed us from the
curse of the law, dear Lord. Keep our eyes stayed on your
salvation. All these things we ask in Christ's name. Amen.