If you would, turn to Exodus
chapter 14, and I want to begin reading in verse 13 of Exodus
chapter 14. Very familiar, should be. 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 ye have
seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you,
and ye shall hold your peace. And the Lord said unto Moses,
wherefore criest thou 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. One more verse. 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 upon Pharaoh,
upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. What I want to speak to you today
is and see the salvation of the Lord. The instructions of the Lord
for the children of Israel are given here. The instructions
to Moses are given here. The Egyptians were pursuing them
and had caught up to them where the children of Israel could
see them coming. Cried unto the Lord it's in verse
10. Why because they were sore afraid
Then verse 11 they started fussing at Moses They started fussing
complaining Accusing God's man Why bring us to this wilderness?
You brought us out here to die. I'm paraphrasing. We told you
to leave us alone back when we were in Egypt. And now you brought
us out here to die in the wilderness. It would be better to be slaves
in Egypt than to die in the wilderness. Well, they were wrong. They were
wrong. Because no, it's not. It's always
better to be with the people of God no matter where they are.
Even in affliction and in pain, it's better to be with the people
of God than be a slave of the world. And that's the truth. There is no hope in the world.
There was no hope for Israel in Egypt outside of God. There's
nothing but hope with the children of God, because they have a hope,
a hope that lives, a hope that breathes, a hope that takes care
of them, a hope that brought them to this very spot. There is a difference between
the children of Israel and the Egyptians. And we know why, because
God said, I'm going to make a difference. There's no difference naturally.
There's never been a difference naturally between the people
on this planet. But there is a difference spiritually
if God makes one. And only if God makes one. There is a difference between
believers and unbelievers. And it is God that maketh thee
to differ. It's not natural, but it's nonetheless
real. It's spiritual. But there are
those who are told to see the salvation of the Lord. And there
are those who are not. That's the way it's always been.
That's the way it is here in Exodus. Moses said unto the people
in verse 13 at the beginning, because this is whom, to whom,
the message was sent. It was sent to the people of
God. And I'm going to keep saying this until everybody gets really
tired of it. There was no message for the Egyptians. Now, in this
message for the people, there is a message about the Egyptians. But that ain't the same thing
as a message to the Egyptians. God talks to his people. He doesn't talk to the Egyptians.
God sent Moses to his people. He sent Moses to Pharaoh to tell
him to let his people go. Again, not a request. No messages
were sent to the Egyptians. Why? Because there is no message
for the Egyptians. There are messages about them.
Like I said, one in this verse. But I don't really think sometimes
we realize exactly how terrible that is. Earl used to say it,
I remember it quite well, that this book here, unless the Spirit of God has
done something for you, to you, in you, and He is in you, this
Bible is a closed book to a lot of people. It used to be a closed
book to me. I remember it, but then sometimes
I forget it. Because I can't open it now without
seeing something. Even if it's something I already
know, I can read it again and I can rejoice. And I'm happy. Why? Because it is good news
for me. It is good news for those who
believe. But to these Egyptians, there
wasn't any good news. It was exactly the opposite.
It is a closed book to some, and that is a terrible thing. But the message starts off with
three words, fear ye not. These are the words of the Lord.
Why did Moses speak these three words? Evidently, thus saith
the Lord. And the reason the Lord picked
these three words is they were sore afraid. There are times we're afraid
and we shouldn't be. We should never be afraid. We are. We are. We are. But there's no reason ever for
a child of God to live in fear, okay? I remember reading a story
in, I don't know, it was high school, 11th grade I think. It's
an English class I took. And I don't really remember what
it was about other than there was a bear involved. And the
teacher asked us at the end of the short story, he said, what's
the meaning of this short story? And we all guessed wrong, of
course, because we were kids and we were dumb. We didn't know
anything. So he told us, and he was right. The message of
that story was, it was about a bear after some guy, and then
he faced the bear, and he lived through it. And actually, the
bear did, too. That's not important. The message
was important. It said, be scared, but don't
be afraid. There's a difference between
being scared and being afraid. We are not to live in fear. God
brought these people right here. Now, sure, they were there. There were Egyptians behind them,
there were mountains on the side of them, and the Red Sea in front
of them. They had nowhere to go. But they had forgotten the
one who had brought them there. They cried out to him. And didn't
wait for an answer, they started railing on his man for bringing
him there. We are not to be afraid because
we know who is running this whole show, this whole world. God is sovereign over people. God is sovereign over circumstances. God is sovereign over nations. God is sovereign over rulers. God is sovereign over all. We are exactly where we're supposed
to be right now. He's put us here. And he's put you wherever you
are. Now that does not mean that circumstances will not affect
you. They will. And sometimes you might be scared. But fear ye not. Fear ye not. The Lord said to his people,
fear ye not. It's always personal. It's always
personal. It's always individual. Paul explained it this way. I'm
not going to turn there, because I'm just going to read this one
phrase. Romans 8 he said if God before you Who can be against
you? Now I understand and I'll be
perfectly clear. This is a rhetorical statement.
You don't have to answer so I will Well, that's the way it is. I
like answering rhetorical statements because sometimes I figure some
people miss them Not necessarily you people here, but maybe somebody
else listening Because of this point, if God
be for you, it doesn't matter who's against you, fear ye not. If God be for you, no one of
any real consequence is against you, whether it's a ruler or
a nation or the police force or whatever. Fear ye not. If God be for you, no one who
really matters is against you. Fear ye not. But do let me be
clear about this. There are those who are not with
him and are against him. He did tell us, marvel not if
the world hate you. It hated me before it hated you. Fear you not. Fear you not. Even if the world hates you,
fear you not. They tried to kill him before
his hour. Tried to stone him, tried to throw him off of a hill,
tried to stone him again. These Egyptians were here to
kill. This wasn't a picnic they were
out on. This was Pharaoh's army. Fear ye not. That's the words
of the Lord to the people of God. Fear ye not. I brought thee here and I am
with thee here. Right here. Right in the middle
of this. I'm here. They had the pillar
of fire. They had the cloud. It was a
light to them. It was darkness to the Egyptians.
So what? That they didn't even meet in
the night. But even in the midst of that,
we can be afraid. We can be afraid. We're good.
I mean, we're bad. We're good at breaking things,
and we're good at being afraid. Fear ye not. I have brought thee
here, and I am with thee here. The next thing he says is stand
still. How are we to manifest this fearing
not? Stand still. Stand still. Now
both of these are commands, not requests. These are all commands. God doesn't make requests. God
doesn't ask you how you feel. He knows how you feel and tells
you not to feel that way. Fear you not. But he says, stand
still. Why? We are to stand. We are to stand. Put on the whole
armor of God, what? That you might stand. And therefore,
stand. But here he says, stand still.
Stand still. You are standing, OK? We are
not to be in fear. The Red Sea in the front, the
mountains beside, and the Egyptians are behind. They were exactly where God wanted
them to be. Stand here. Stand here. Surrounded. No way of escape. No way of running away. No place
to hide. And enemies right behind you.
Stand. And stand still. God doesn't
need us to do anything for Him. He never has. And he never will. He will have us to do things. But that's mostly for our benefit. He doesn't need our help. He's
never needed our help. Stand and stand still. And stand
still right where he put you. They were where they needed to
be. They were where they were supposed to be. And God had a
message for them. First, fear not. Second, stand
still. This has to be the word of the
Lord, because this goes completely against human nature. OK? I mean,
I do remember Henry Mahan from that message, one of those messages
we heard. He was preaching on this or mentioning
this. And he said, you know, there
was some guy in the back saying, if there's anything we should
do, it's not stand still. There's always somebody. Human nature, I wrote this down
because I remember it and I like it. Human nature says this, when
in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. That's our answer to being in
danger. That's our answer. It's not God's answer. God says
stand still. He doesn't need you to run. He
doesn't need your hands. He doesn't need your feet. He
doesn't need your mouth. You just stand still and fear not. Because that's basically our
reaction to danger is A, the flesh wants to run, to fight,
or to hide. And sometimes a combination of
the three. The answer is none of the above.
God says stand still. we are not to be paralyzed by
fear or curl up in a ball what they call the fetal position
we are to stand still because only when standing still can
we actually possibly get a proper view of his worth There's a reason. He's wanting
you to fear not and stand still. We can't do anything anyway.
You know somebody always says, can't we do something? What can
you do? What can you do when the salvation
of God is involved? Absolutely nothing. Except fear not and stand still. There's a fear. There's a reason
to fear without him. But with him, there is no reason
to fear. Because if we don't see this,
if we don't see that we can't do anything anyway, we can't
run, we can't fight, and we can't hide. If we don't see that, and we don't see that God put
us here, we won't stand still. You won't stand still. If you
think you've got a place to go, you'll go. Whether you do or
not, if you think you've got a place to hide, you'll hide. And if you think you can fight,
you'll fight. Peter had the right answer when
the Lord asked him, will ye also go away? Peter's answer was,
to whom shall we go? Now has the words of eternal
life. I got nowhere else to go. If you don't know that you won't
stand still and you'll fear and you'll fear. But God put them
here where they couldn't hide, where they, there was no way
they could put up a fight and they couldn't run. Why? and see the salvation of the
Lord. Fear you not, stand still, and
all three of these together, you got to have all three together,
see the salvation of the Lord. We are to stand still in sureness
of a victory that is not of our making. We must stand still in order
to see the salvation of the Lord. The word is see. The word is
not help. Okay? The word does not help
the salvation of the Lord. The word does not cooperate with
the salvation of the Lord. The word does not even participate
in the salvation of the Lord. We do have a part, but that comes
later. We'll get to it. We'll get to it hopefully Our
part comes later Ch Macintosh wrote this and I copied it. I'm
gonna read it to you Because I like what he says here about
see the salvation of the Lord This is his words there is a
peculiar force and beauty in the expression See the salvation
of God The very fact of our being called to see God's salvation
proves that the salvation is a complete one. It teaches that
salvation is a thing wrought out and revealed by God to be
seen and enjoyed by us. I like that. I like that. It is not a thing made up of
partly God's doing and partly of man's. Were it so, it would
not be called God's salvation. In order to be His, it must be
wholly, completely, divested of everything pertaining to man. Stand still. The only possible effect of human
efforts is to raise a dust which obscures the view of God's salvation. And that's what the world around
us is doing. They are obscuring God's salvation. Why? Because they don't believe it's
God's salvation. It's not the salvation of the
Lord. I agree with what he said. I do. God's salvation is complete. The question is, do you see it?
Do you see it? At best, we would get in the
way. That's our best. The salvation
of the Lord is not only completely wrought by the Lord, but I also
like this point what he brought out, that it is only revealed
by the Lord. Fear you not, stand still, and
see. That message didn't go to the Egyptians. Message doesn't
go to the world That message is only for those who fear ye
not and stand still It is to be seen it is seen by
everyone who is born from above Walter says they see the kingdom
of God And the kingdom is entered by
everyone born of the water and the spirit and And I'm here to tell you this,
the salvation of the Lord is just as complete and just as
perfect as his kingdom. Because you enter the kingdom
by his work. Being born from above. Being born of the water and the
spirit. The Lord says, see the salvation of the Lord. Now, it's
easy to come up with that revelation thing, because how does anyone
see the salvation of the Lord? Well, he tells you. Right after,
fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,
which he will show you today. OK? How do you see it? Well, he's going to show it to
you. If he don't show it to you, you ain't gonna see it. If he
does show it to you, you'll see it. And he's gonna show it to
you today. Right here in this place where
we are, fear ye not, he stands still, and you're gonna see the
salvation of the Lord. Why? Because he's gonna show
it to you today. If you got anywhere else to go,
you might as well go. If you've got anything else to
do, you might as well do it. But today, I'm going to show
you the salvation of the Lord. Fear ye not. Stand still and
see. They had nowhere to go. They
had no way to get there. These people were stuck. And they had been stuck by God
for this purpose. to see the salvation of the Lord
today. Today. We teach this and preach this
and talk about this and people think we're making it up. They
think we've got some new doctrine. They think that God's sovereignty
is a new thing. No, it's as old as the Bible
and even older. It's as old as creation. It's
eternal in the mind of God and the Son and the Spirit. This is nothing new, but one
day it becomes new to you. It becomes new to you. This is
eternal. This is ancient. This is old
doctrine. We drive past a church and priest
says, we preach apostolic doctrine. And every time I drive by it
with Debbie, I say, I doubt it. Matter of fact, I can pretty
much bet against it. Because this is the apostolic doctrine.
Fear you not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord,
which he will show to you today. Because if he doesn't show you,
you will never see it. This is the work of God. Christ
told some people that you believe on him whom the Father sent. Wait a minute, wait a minute.
You're saying it's the work of God that we believe? Oh yeah,
that's exactly what I'm saying. Most commentators don't tell
you that part. Most preachers don't use it that way. They say,
what must we do to do the works of God? God's gotta work in you
first. Fear you not, stand still and
seek. and he'll show it to you today. It takes the work of God to see
the salvation of the Lord. And if he shows it to you today,
you'll see it today. Then the message about the Egyptians,
those Egyptians that you've seen, you will see no more forever. God puts up with a lot for a
time. For a time. He's long-suffering toward us,
not willing that any should perish. But he does put up with a lot
from the wicked for his time. But when his time's up, so is
theirs. These Egyptians you see, you
ain't gonna see them no more. God's gonna kill them. And I
read that last verse, those last two verses, What was the purpose of the death
of those Egyptians? He could have closed the sea
behind them before they ever got on the water. But he didn't. He emboldened them to go. He hardened their heart to chase
after the people of God. And guess what? He got honor
from that. He gets honor from the salvation
of his people, and he gets honor from the destruction of his enemies.
These Egyptians are going to be seen no more forever. And guess what? However many
thousand years ago, we're still talking about it. Still talking
about it. Why? See the salvation of the
Lord. Vengeance is mine. I will recompense. Vengeance is mine. I will repay.
And he does, in his own time. What are we to do? Fear ye not,
stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. Verse 14 explains
it, the Lord shall fight for you. Guess what, this is a part of
the salvation of the Lord. He'll fight for you. How can
we not fear? He'll fight for you. How can
we stand still? He'll fight for you. For you. Not for them. For you. Take heart. Take heart. The Lord fights for
you. The Lord fought for Stephen even
when he was being stoned. Stephen saw him standing. Now
Stephen ended up dead, stoned. Saul was there consenting unto
his death. But the Lord fought for him and
brought him home. Whether you end up dead or whether
they end up dead, God gets the honor both ways. And you get
the reward. He'll fight for you see his salvation. He fights for you see his love
He fights for you See his compassion He fights for you and ah See
his sovereign grace He fights for you And I can't leave this one out
He shall hold your peace Shut up. That's what it is. Hold your
peace. Don't be crying out to me being so afraid. And don't
bad mouth my man that sent you the message that got you here
where I wanted you. I brought you here. He's just
the one I told to tell you some things. Hold your peace. He heard their cries in Egypt
and he had regard for them. He had respect unto them. He
heard their cries in the wilderness and their railing, complaining
against his man. And now he says, hold your peace.
They don't. You read on in the story. But
that's the point here. There's a time to shut up. And keep your doubts to yourself.
Now there's a time not to. But here, when you're in the
midst of a battle, there's a time to shut up, stand still, and
see the salvation of God. Why? He's going to fight for
you. Hold you peace. There's no reason for fear. The other expression is be silent. Because it's easier to hear when
your mouth ain't talking. Okay? I read something the other
day and I got tickled at it again. I told Debbie about it. I'm not worried about the voices
in my head. I'm worried about the voices
in yours. Okay? There's a time for me to
be silent too. But there's also a time for y'all
to be silent. There's a time for everyone to be silent. Why?
See the salvation of the Lord, which He's going to show to you
today. I will fight for you. Hold your
peace. Verse 15, And the Lord said unto
Moses, Wherefore Christ unto me speak unto the children of
Israel. What? Here's our part. They go forward.
That they go forward. Here's the message. Stand still. Well, excuse me, fear you not. Stand still. See the salvation
of the Lord. I like that. I do. I do. I do. I do. He's going to show it to you
today. He's going to fight for you. Be silent. What? And go forward. Go forward. You don't go backwards. God never
told anyone to go backwards. Christ actually had a couple
of admonitions for some. If you look back, you got no
part. We're going forward. We're going
forward. We're not going backwards. We're
going forwards. So what are we to do? People
ask. People are curious. We go forward.
We go forward. Only after, you fear not, After
standing still, after seeing the salvation of the Lord, then
you get the instruction. Be silent and go forward. That
they go forward. That's God's way. He's always
forward. That's God's path. Straight is
the gate and narrow is the way. going forward. There's no place
of turning in His way. Straight is the gate, narrow
is the way. And the instruction is to go forward. But with that
instruction is also given the provision of grace. Told Moses,
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. They are told
to go forward by the Lord, and the Lord makes a way for them
to go forward. If you're going forward, it's
only because he's made the way. They still got the Egyptians
behind them. They still got the mountains on the side of them.
The Red Sea's in front of them. But Moses lifted up his rod and
stretched forth his hand. And that sea divided them. And it says, the children of
Israel go forward on dry ground. They go forward. But they go
forward on dry ground. They are not contaminated by
the sea around them. They're not touched. And I believe
I see something here. I kind of know what Earl used
to say, Walter. I want to know if I can relate
this. Because Moses is shown here as the deliverer, with his
rod up and his hand out, dividing that sea. This is not Moses as
of the law. The law hadn't yet been given.
Moses as a type of Christ, as the deliverer of the children
of Israel, all the congregation of Israel. He's the deliverer. What happens? That sea divides. And they go down. But they go
down on dry ground. That sea's not touching them.
Separate them. But walls, it says. They go through the sea. They're in the sea, but they're
not of the sea. Now, you know that, well, I forgot the chapter, Revelations,
where it says the beast comes out of the sea. And I know you've
heard it as well as I have. Everybody always says, well,
the sea is a picture of people, multitudes, multitudes of nation,
multitudes of people. and the beast comes out of it,
that means he's a person, okay? This sea is divided. There's a division between the
people of this world and the congregation of Israel here.
And there's a division between the people of God, all believers,
of all time, and the world. The sea, it's there. It's on
both sides of us. and we've got to go through it.
We are in the world, but we're not of the world. They were in
the sea, but they weren't part of that sea. They went through
dry, dry. Why? Because of God's power. And they went straight forward,
and they went straight through to the other side. Paul states
that they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and the sea. They were in that sea, but they
were not of that sea. Because the deliverer made a
division. It says he divided the sea. Christ said when he came, I came
to bring division. I came to bring the sharp sword.
I came for that purpose. We go through this world. only
by the power of God, kept by His power, propelled forward
by His power through the way He has made for us. See the salvation of the Lord
and go forward. That sea will not touch us unless
He wishes it to. Nothing can harm His people.
Nothing can stop His purpose. They're going through. They're
going through. There are multitudes all around
us, but we are separated from them. We go forward and they
stay exactly where they are. And those that try to follow
us get exactly what they deserve. There are those who pretend.
Christianity. Pretend to be believers. Some
of them know they're doing it. Some of them are sincere. There
are those that are going to approach our Lord and say, Lord, Lord,
did we not preach in thy name, do many wonderful works in thy
name? And our Lord Christ, Jesus, is
going to look at them and say, depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. I never knew you. There's a total
separation from the people of God and the sea. They went through
on dry ground. They weren't even damp. You know? They weren't even damp. There's
a total separation. And this foundation stands sure. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. We go through their midst. And
I'll tell you this, they don't get it. They don't know. They might know
you're a little odd. They might think you're a little
different. All we can do is preach the word
and tell them why we're here. We're here because we have seen
the salvation of the Lord. And I hope they see it. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
again for this time in this place. Thank you, Lord, for your wonderful,
wonderful work of salvation through your son, your spirit, and your
gift to us. Thank you. In Christ's name we
ask. Amen.