Let's open our Bibles to Hebrews
chapter 11. And if you want to just stay,
hold your finger there, Exodus 14, we'll be going back to that
too. Hebrews chapter 11. The title
of the message is, Behold the Salvation of the Lord. The gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in the salvation of sinners through the Lord Jesus
Christ, God the Son incarnate, the Lord of glory, who by his
one offering for sin has the surety and the substitute of
his people, the people whom God the Father gave him before the
foundation of the world, by his one sacrifice for sin, brought
forth a complete, full, final payment for all their sins, to
free them from the bondage and condemnation of sin, that message
is clearly presented throughout the Old Testament as well as
the New. And in the Old Testament, it's
presented in doctrinal terms, it's stated out in the preaching
of the Gospel, of how God can be just and justify sinners. You see, that's the whole problem.
God is righteous and we're not. There's your problem. God is
righteous and we are not righteous. And in order to have a right
relationship with God, in order to be accepted with God in order
to have fellowship with God, we must be righteous. God is
righteous and we're not. That's the problem. So how in
the world can a righteous God bring a sinner like me, accept
me and bring me into his fellowship and still be true to himself?
How can he honor his justice, his holiness, his perfection,
his truth? and have anything to do with
a sinner like me. That's the problem, and that's
what this gospel sets forth. The answer is in the righteousness
of another, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was appointed by the Father
to be the Savior, to be the surety, to be the substitute, who voluntarily
because of his love for his father and his love for the people that
the father gave him, agreed to be my surety, to take my place
under the wrath of God and pay the sin debt for me in full.
And who was able to do that? That message is stated out in
doctrinal terms in the Old Testament, but it is also stated out symbolically
or illustrated, you might say, in pictures and types and shadows. And therefore, when we look at
the Old Testament through a Christ-centered view, we find out that what Brother
Randy just read there in Exodus 14 is not just physical miracles
that God did to impress people, certainly not just children's
stories, even though These are good things to use to teach children
the gospel. But what he just read is the
gospel. How God saves sinners. It's an
illustration. That's what Hebrews 11 is showing
us here in the life of Moses. Let's just read these passages.
Verse 24, Hebrews 11. By faith Moses, when he come
to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach
of Christ. I believe Moses, his faith, God-given
faith, was in the promised Messiah. Christ himself said that in John
5. He said, Moses wrote of me. So
he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, esteeming
the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of
Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of reward, that's
the reward of grace. Verse 27, by faith he forsook
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. He endured as seeing
him who is invisible. Moses had a revelation from God. Through faith, he kept the Passover.
Last week, that beautiful picture of the Passover, the blood of
the Lamb. God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you.
That's the blood of Christ for a believer. Christ is our Passover. And the sprinkling of blood,
lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. And then here's
our text today, verse 5. By faith, by revelation from
God, They passed through the Red Sea,
as by dry land, which the Egyptians, assain to do, they tried to do
it too, were drowned." Amazing. The exodus from Egypt. The parting
of the Red Sea. These are the final acts of God
in delivering the Hebrews from the bondage of Egypt. And in
this awesome physical miracle, We see illustrated how their
deliverance was all of God and absolutely nothing of themselves. I mean, God saved these people
in spite of themselves. Now you don't have to read much
through the book of Exodus to find that out. When we see the
Hebrew children, we don't see shining examples of religious
sincerity and obedience. We don't see shining examples
of undying faith. We see a bunch of murmurs and
complainers and unbelief. Well, doesn't that kind of remind
you of some people? Someone? How about me? What it shows us is that when
God saves any sinner, it's in spite of the sinner. Now that
doesn't mean that God saves us against our will, as some preachers
will argue because they believe in free will. But what it does
mean is that God changes our will. He's powerful enough to
do that. He's powerful enough to make
me want things that I, by nature, don't want. That's the God of
the Bible. You know how He says it? He says,
I'll give you a new heart. What is the heart? It's the desires. It's the mind, the affections,
the will, the conscience, the inner man, the spirit. I remember, I don't know the
exact day, and I don't care about the exact day, but I remember
that God gave me a new heart. Because I heard the gospel in
a different way. That's called the new birth by
the Spirit. I can remember hearing the gospel
in a different way than I began to hear it. When I began to hear
it, I was a murmurer, a complainer, an unbeliever. I hated it. I
wanted to prove it wrong. And then all of a sudden, I don't
know when, and it may have been over a little period of time,
I don't know that either. Somebody said, well, you've got
to know your spiritual birthday. No, you don't. But you have to
know that I was blind, now I see. I was dead, now I'm alive. I was deaf, now I hear. All of
that. Now, when the story of the Exodus,
you know, that was all physical and temporal as it pertained
to the nation Israel as a whole, the Hebrew children there with
Moses. And God purposed all of this
for them because He'd made a promise to Abraham 400 years before.
430 years, they said. And the main
promise that was given to Abraham was the promise of sending Christ,
the Messiah, into the world to stand as surety and substitute
for his people and bring forth by his death an everlasting righteousness. whereby God could justify the
ungodly. Now that's the main promise that
God gave to Abraham. There were a lot of promises
God gave to him, but that's the main one. Now he chose sovereignly
to bring the Messiah through this nation according to the
flesh. And therefore he determined not
to keep them in Egypt under bondage, but to bring them out and deliver
them unto their own land, which, if you read on in Exodus and
Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, you will agree, it was still
in spite of themselves. Right? Well, that's how God saved me
and you. He saved you. He saves us, He
keeps us, and He'll bring us into glory in spite of ourselves. I'm not saying that to excuse
our sin and our lack of sincerity or our lack of diligence. But
nonetheless, it's just so, folks. All of this is a picture of how
the eternal salvation of spiritual Israel, God's elect Jew and Gentile
believers, it's all of the Lord. It's not of man. It's by God's
grace through the righteousness of God, not man. Look back at
Exodus 14. And that's why the writer of
Hebrews was inspired by the Spirit to write that. They crossed the
Red Sea, but they did it by faith. That was God-given faith. It
was by revelation from God. It was by the power of God, by
the work of God, It didn't have anything to do with the goodness,
the will, or the power of the Hebrew children. Am I right? You know how this whole story,
I could go through this whole chapter, I don't have time this
morning. But there's so much in here that relates, that was
said of the Hebrew children physically, that relates to us spiritually. For example, if you go back up
into verse 3, When this whole thing started, you remember,
the ten plagues are already passed now. The last plague has been
set down, that was the death of the firstborn, but God delivered
His people through the blood of the Lamb. What a beautiful
picture that is of the Gospel. That's how God delivered me,
through the blood of the Lamb of God. His blood washed me clean. That means He paid the debt for
my sins. But if you want to know about
what we are spiritually, look at verse 3. Pharaoh, that evil
tyrant, he say of the children of Israel, they are entangled
in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. That's a picture
of us in our natural state in sin. We're entangled in sin,
and we're shut up, we're shut in, and we've got no place to
go. We cannot find our way out. We have no protection. If there's
going to be any help for sinners like us in this entanglement
and in this predicament, it's going to have to come from above.
That's right. We can't get out of this mess.
As I said before, God's righteous. We're not. We can't do anything
to make ourselves righteous before God. Well, preachers, shouldn't
we be the best that we can be? Many of you are fathers. Shouldn't
you be the best father to your children that you can be? Absolutely
you should. In fact, you know what the Bible
says that a father who won't take care of his children is
worse than the heathen. You mothers, shouldn't you be
the best mothers to your children? Yes, you should. Husbands and
wives, your relationship, you should be the best to each other.
Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Think
about that one. And you wives, love your husbands. Submit to your husbands as unto
the Lord. And I'll tell you what, if you've
got a husband that loves you as Christ loved the church, you
won't have any problem there. As Christ loved the church. You
know the greater responsibility there is upon the husband? And
that's a picture of Christ and his church. He has the responsibility
of caring for his bride. The church. So yes, we should
be the best, the best workers, the best friends, all of that.
But none of that is going to make us righteous. We're still
entangled. and in the predicament. You understand
that? What a picture. Well, Moses led
them out. It says there they came out with
a high hand in verse 8. You know what that means? They
came out with confidence. Well, you say, why were they
so confident? Well, think about what all they
had seen in the land of Eden. Think about those plagues. And
from what we can determine, we know at least the last seven,
but probably all of them, the Hebrew children were protected
from all those plagues. I mean, that's amazing. Think
of the miracles they had seen. I've had people say, well, boy,
if I could just see what they saw, then I would believe. No,
you wouldn't. They saw what they saw, and they didn't believe.
Remember the rich man Lazarus? The rich man lifted his eyes
up in hell and he said, send Lazarus back to tell my brothers
because if they hear one who's risen from the dead, they'll
believe. Christ said, no they won't. You know what he said? They have Moses and the prophets.
You know what that is? That's the word of God. If the
word of God is not power to give life to you, then seeing the
Red Sea Park would do you no good. The Word of God, the Gospel is
the power of God unto salvation. Do you realize the salvation
of a sinner by the grace of God through the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ imputed is a greater miracle than what
you read here in Exodus 14? I mean, it's a great, you say,
well, I'd love to have seen that. Well, go get the movie, The Ten
Commandments. Old DeMille put it on the screen for you. And
I'm not belittling the miracle here because it was a powerful
miracle of God's wisdom and goodness towards these people. At all. But I'm just simply trying to
make the point. They came out with confidence.
But the Egyptians pursued. God hardened Pharaoh's heart
and the Egyptians pursued. Well, you'd think that Pharaoh
would have learned his lesson by now, wouldn't you? all those
plagues, especially that last one, you'd figure, this guy's,
you know, what's it take? Well, God hardened his heart.
God had a purpose. You say, well, that wasn't fair
for God to harden his heart. Well, you take that up with God
when you meet him at judgment. Because your arms are too short
to box with him. Mine too. I know he had a purpose. Do you know the very reason that
the Hebrew children were down in Egypt was for God's purpose
back during Joseph's days? That's how he kept them alive.
I know they fell into bondage, slavery, but God had a purpose
for all that. Isn't that right? And so Pharaoh pursued. So what
happens? Well, God sent down a pillar
of cloud. And it became at night a pillar
of fire. Now this is another miracle.
And it kept the Egyptians, the Egyptian army, from getting to
the Hebrew children for a while. The presence of God. The protecting
presence of God. And here they were up against
the sea, the Red Sea. And what happens? Well, look
at verse 10 of Exodus 14. It says, Pharaoh drew nigh. The
children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians
marched after them. They were so afraid. Well, any
reasonable person would be, wouldn't they? And the children of Israel
cried out unto the Lord, and they said unto Moses." You know
the way it's put that way? They're talking to Moses here,
but they're arguments with God. That's the reason it's set that
way. They cried out unto the Lord,
and they said to Moses, "'Because there were no graves in Egypt,
hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?' What staunch
faith!" No. He says, wherefore hast thou
dealt with us thus to carry us forth out of Egypt? Verse 12,
it says, 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. Now, when they said that, you
remember they said that to Moses, basically, when Pharaoh's heart
was hardened and he made it harder for them to make their bricks.
And then later on, he said, you're going to make it without straw.
At first, I think he doubled their quota of bricks, and then
he said, you're going to make them without straw, and that's
when they complained. Well, listen to what Moses says.
I love this passage. This is one of my favorite Old
Testament passages right here. Verse 13. Moses said unto the
people, fear ye not. Don't fear the Egyptians. And
I love this, two words, stand still. Boy, that's what happened to
me. I was working hard in religion, trying to cleanse myself from
my sins, trying to find, as I said last time when we were talking
about the pure in heart, that catharsis. I was trying to find
that relief that soothed the guilty conscience, trying to
get right with God, trying to make myself righteous enough
to approach God. And somebody stood in a pulpit
and preached the gospel of a finished work which said, stand still,
stop it, and just behold the salvation. Look at it. See the
salvation of the Lord. That word salvation there in
the Old Testament, It's a form of the word Yeshua, Joshua, Jesus. Second time in the Old Testament
that word's used. It was used first back in Genesis
49 when Jacob was blessing his children. It's not the first or second
time that the truth of salvation is revealed. That's revealed
back in Genesis 3. But isn't that something? That's
what salvation is. Salvation is Christ Jesus. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord, which He will show you today. He's got to show it
to you. He's got to reveal it to you,
doesn't He? Because if He doesn't, we won't know it. 1 Corinthians
2 says, it hasn't even entered into the heart of man. These
things that God has prepared for those that love Him. The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
This sets forth the depravity of man. If God doesn't show me,
I won't know it. The Gospel is a revelation. It's
a mystery. Got to be revealed. And He will show you, He says
today. And he says, for the Egyptians whom you've seen today, you shall
see them again no more forever. That bondage will never come
again. Now that's interesting, isn't
it? Because you know in the history of the Hebrew nation, Israel,
they were in bondage again later on to the Babylonians. But he's talking about this generation
and it's an illustration of how in the Lord Jesus Christ, There
is no condemnation for His people. God will not charge us with our
sins. We have a righteousness. His
righteousness accounted, imputed to us, which we stand before
God, and that Egyptian spiritual bondage of sin that we were in
that condemned us in Adam can never touch us. The wrath of
God can never touch us, because Christ took our wrath. And he
says in verse 14, he said, here's how it's happened, the Lord shall
fight for you, God does the work, Christ did all the work, and
you'll hold your peace. You see that? Well, you know
what happened. They're standing there, and the
Lord told Moses, raise up your hand, And he split that Red Sea. Dry land. In fact, it says they
went over dry shod. And as they went over, the Egyptians
pursued. They got up on the shore. God
closed the sea. The Egyptians were killed. Every
one of them. The wrath of God. Now, the Red Sea. is also a symbol. Just like the Passover lamb was
a symbol of redemption by blood, the Red Sea is a symbol of redemption
by blood. That scarlet thread that runs
through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It shows how God
delivers His elect, spiritual Israel, Jew and Gentile, eternally
by the blood of Jesus Christ. It shows how that same blood
of Christ brings about death to spiritual Egyptians who are
in bondage and have no Savior. Well, you know, it's interesting
how in this word salvation, we see all of salvation by the Lord
in Jesus Christ. And I always think about, you
know, when I think about the Exodus, the children of Israel
going out of Egypt crossing the Red Sea. I always think about
Luke chapter 9 and verse 31. You remember that's where Christ
gave Peter and James and John a vision on the Mount of Transfiguration. And he spoke with Moses and with
Elijah. Moses representing the law. Elijah
representing the prophets. And Luke 9.31 says that Christ
appeared in glory and spoke of his decease. Now we think of
decease as death, but the Greek word there is exodus. His exodus,
which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. What is the exodus
that he accomplished? Christ on the cross as the surety
and substitute of his people led his people out of bondage,
the bondage of sin and Satan and the law, out of condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ. What does this show us? It shows
us that salvation is holy of God in its origin with the Father.
Salvation is holy of God in its execution by the Son. Salvation
is holy of God in its application by the Spirit. It shows the sovereignty
of God in salvation. Who chose the Hebrew children
through whom He would work? God did. And you know, these
people who were led out of Egypt, when God made the promise to
lead them out, to preserve them, to use them for His purpose,
they weren't even born. It was an unconditional promise
made to Abraham. You know when God made a promise
to save His people eternally? Before the foundation of the
world in Christ. We weren't even born. It shows the faithfulness in
God's salvation. God made the promise and God
kept the promise. All the promises of God are in
Christ, yea and amen. How could God justify Abraham
in his day? It was based upon the promise
to send Christ to establish righteousness for Abraham. And it was always
sure and certain. This shows the power and the
grace and the justice of God in salvation. His power in grace
to deliver the Hebrew children out of the land of Egypt. His
power and justice to condemn the Egyptians. God is faithful
and powerful to save His people. So this exodus from Egypt, though
a real historical event, prefigures the saving work of Christ for
his people. What God did through Moses was to provide physical
salvation from physical slavery for the Hebrew children. But
what God does through Christ is provide spiritual salvation
from spiritual slavery to his people. And just as the Israelites
were slaves in Egypt, we're all by nature slaves to sin. But
God sets us free. He liberates us. Let me close
with Romans 6, turn to Romans chapter 6. He speaks of our unity with Christ,
our oneness with Christ, verse 3. Know you not, verse 3 of Romans
6, know you not that so many of us as we're baptized, placed
into, united with Jesus Christ, were baptized, placed into his
death. That's not talking about water
baptism. That's our representative union with Christ. He's my substitute. He's my surety. Therefore, we're buried with
him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life, not as forced slaves, but as
free people. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. We'll have life, knowing this,
that our old man is crucified with him. That the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, for
he that is dead is freed. That means justified from sin.
We're not charged with our sin. We're charged with righteousness.
We're right with God through Christ. Freed from the bondage
of condemnation. Look down at verse 17. But God
be thanked that you were the servants of sin. That's an unregenerate
unbeliever. Like the Hebrew children in Egypt.
But you've obeyed from the heart. That's the new heart. The regenerate
heart. New birth. That form of doctrine
which was delivered you. What was that? The gospel. Being
then made free from sin. The word free there is liberated. You became the servants of righteousness.
That is a child of God. A free child of God. Free from
the darkness of deception. that kept you and me from looking
to Christ for all salvation. That's our liberation. We've
been brought out of Egypt by the blood of the Lamb, and we've
crossed the Red Sea by the power of God, and we stand on the other
side in Christ by faith in Him, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith.