Let's begin our service of the
reading of a portion of John chapter 5. John, the fifth chapter. As you're turning, it's in the
bulletin, but I want to say it out loud, too, how much I would
like to thank our teachers and all of our volunteers for this
week of Bible school. It's just exceptional. I wish that everybody could see
in action our teachers. If you pass one of them this
afternoon on your way out, be sure to thank them. I mean, what
we saw this week is just the tip of the iceberg. The amount
of preparation and study that went into that, the amount of
energy they expend in making this a good week, I'm very, very
thankful. And I'm thankful for our young
people. They're so attentive, and I'm very thankful. They're
a good week. Now, we have a matter of prayer.
to tell you about. Sue Thacker's grandson, Johnson
Smith, was in a very bad car wreck Friday evening while we
were at the picnic. They had flown him to the, he's
in ICU at the UK Medical Center. What prognosis we have is somewhat
promising, but it's hard to tell for a few days. He's in a medically
induced coma. The only injuries he has to his
body are his head. They think these things will
correct themselves, but obviously, Sue is very worried and has requested
our prayers. So as the Lord brings him to
your mind, pray for him. All right, John chapter 5. We're
going to begin reading in verse 17. But Jesus answered them, My father
worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore, the Jews sought the
Moor to kill him because he not only had broken the Sabbath,
he healed a man on the Sabbath, but said also that God was his
father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus
and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the son can do
nothing of himself, but what he seeth the father do. For what
things soever he doeth, these also doeth the son likewise.
For the father loveth the son. and showeth him all things that
himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these,
that ye may marvel. For as the father raiseth up
the dead and quickeneth him, even so the son quickeneth whom
he will. For the father judgeth no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the son, that all men should honor the son, even
as they honor the father. He that honoreth not the son
honoreth not the father which has sent him. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. End our reading there. All right,
let's stand together as Mike leads us in singing our call
to worship. Holy Ghost, dispel our sadness. Hirsch the clouds of nature's
night. Come, great source of joy and
gladness. Breathe your life and spread
your light. From the heights which knows
no measure, As a gracious shower descend, Bringing down the richest
treasure, Men can wish, for God can send. Anchor of the new creation, come
with blessing and with power. Make our hearts your habitation,
on our souls your graces shower. O hear our supplication, Blessed
Spirit, God of peace, Rest upon this congregation With the fullness
of your grace. Turn now to 283, our great hymns
of faith, 283. Oh, how sweet the glorious mercy
simple faith may claim. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
is the same. He loves to save the sinful,
heal the sick and lame, cheer the mourner, calm the tempest,
glory to His name. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
is the same. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to His name! He who pardoned Mary, Peter,
He ever needs thou fear. He who came to make us Thomas,
All thy doubt will cheer. to let the love disciple on his
bosom rest. Bidst thee still with love as
tender lean upon his breast. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
is the same. All may change, but Jesus Glory
to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to His name. He who, amid the raging billows,
Walked upon the sea, Still can hush our wildest tempest As on
Galilee. He who wept and prayed in anguish
in Gethsemane, Drinks with us each cup of trembling in our
agony. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
is the same. All may change, but Jesus never,
glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to His name. As of old he walked to Mayes
with them to abide. So through all life's way he
walketh never near our side. Soon again shall we be He owed
him a son, Lord, the day, But will still be this same Jesus
as he went away. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
is the same. All may change, but Jesus never,
glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to His name. Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but Thou art mighty. Hold me with Thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more. Feed me till I want no more. no more. Open now the crystal fountain
whence the healing waters flow. Let the fiery, cloudy pillar
lead me all my journey through. Strong Deliverer, Strong Deliverer,
be Thou still my strength and shield. Be thou still my strength and
shield. When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Did my anxious fears subside? Bear me through the swelling
current, Let me sing on Canaan's side Songs of praises, songs
of praises I will ever give to thee I will ever give to thee Scripture reading this morning
will be taken from Exodus chapter 14. Exodus chapter 14. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and
encamp before Piahiroth, 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 has 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 600 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 and camping by the sea beside
Piahiroth before Beelzephon. 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, has 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 you today.
For the Egyptians whom you have seen this day, 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 cryest 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.
And I behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians. And
they shall follow them. And I will give 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've gotten me honor upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, 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 the night.
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord caused
the sea to go back by a 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 off Pharaoh's
horses and his chariots and his horsemen. And it came to pass
that in the morning watch, the Lord looked under the host of
the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud and
troubled the host of the Egyptians and took their chariot, took
off their chariot wheels and they draved them heavily so that
the Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel. For
the Lord fighted 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 his 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. They 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 under 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 fear the Lord and believe the Lord and his
servant, Moses. Let's bow together in prayer. Our father, how thankful we are
that sinful men and women such as we are can come before your
throne of mercy, not a throne of justice, but a throne of grace
and call you our father. What a miracle of Your love and
mercy and grace to sinners that You would send Your Son to redeem
them, that You send Your Spirit to give them life, cause them
to be born again as Your children. Enable us, creatures of the dust,
to call You our Father. Oh, how thankful we are. Father,
we pray that this morning that You might give us an hour of
worship Father, speak to us through your
word, by your spirit. Speak to our hearts. Speak to
every heart here this morning that we might see the Lord Jesus
Christ by faith and lay hold upon him. Enable us to leave
here rejoicing in the life, the freedom, the deliverance that
your people have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we beg
of you that you not leave us alone. Don't leave us to our
own wisdom to our own understanding, don't leave us to our own speech
and thoughts. But Father, speak to us through
your word. Enable me this hour to rightly divide the word of
truth and to be enabled by thy spirit to preach Christ and get
out of the way so that your people are totally consumed with seeing
the Lord Jesus Christ and worshiping him. Let the name of Christ our
Savior be extolled and magnified. in our worship service this morning.
And what we ask for ourselves, Father, we ask for our brothers
and sisters, all of your people who are meeting together today
to worship. Bless your word where it's preached. Cause it to go
forth in the power of your spirit, to bring glory to your name,
to help your people, to comfort them and encourage them. Father,
we're thankful for this place that you've given us where we
can meet together and worship. We pray that you'd preserve it
and protect as a place where Christ is preached, where Christ
is preeminent. His gospel, everything about
Him would be preeminent in this place. A place where sinners
can come and feed on Him. Find their hope and their rest
and their peace and their comfort in Christ and Christ alone. Father,
I thank you for this week of Bible school that you've given
to us. I thank you that you've blessed
the teachers and their study and preparation and teaching
Father, I pray that you take the Word that was taught and
plant it in the hearts of our children. That you might make
it grow in your time to faith and life in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Grant them repentance and faith, we pray. This we know. They're just like their parents. Father, we must have thee. You've
got to do a work for us. and in us, we're totally dependent
upon your mercy. Lord, have mercy, we pray. And
for those, Father, who are sick and hurting, we pray for them.
We pray for Sue's grandson, Johnson, that you work in a mighty way,
that you give him, restore him back to health, and Father, use
this, if it could be your will, to bring him and his family to
their knees, that they might seek Thee, that You might use
this as a way to work mercy and grace in their hearts. Now, Father,
again, in this hour, bless us. Bless us with Your presence.
Enable us to leave here this morning rejoicing in Christ our
Savior. It is in His blessed name we pray and give thanks.
Amen. Find your old school hymnal there.
Turn to 441, would you please? It's a good song. I want you
to learn the chorus, the new chorus. When Moses and the Israelites
from Egypt land did flee, Behind them were proud Pharaoh's hosts,
in front of them the sea. God raised the waters like a
wall and opened up the way. And the God that lived in the
olden times is just the same. He's just the same today He's
just the same today And the God that lived in the olden times
Is just the same today When David and Goliath met The wrong against
the right The giant armed with human strength And David with
God's might God sent a stone by David's sling The giant load
did lay And the God that lived in the olden times is just the
same today. Sing it with me. He's just the
same today. He's just the same today. And the God that lived in the
olden times Is just the same today When Daniel, faithful to
his God, Would not bow down to men And by his enemies was hurled
into the lion's den. God shut the lion's mouth, we
read, and robbed them of their prey. And the God that lived
in the olden times is just the same today. He's just the same today. He's just the same today. And the God that lived in the
olden times is just the same today. When Pentecost, that holy come,
and fire from heaven did fall. The Savior with the Holy Ghost
baptized them one and all. Three thousand were converted
and were added right away. And the God that lived in the
olden times is just the same today. He's just the same today. He's just the same today. And the God that lived in the
olden times is just the same today. God that lived in olden
times is just the same today. We're going to preach the same
gospel, the same Savior that Moses preached all those years
ago. If you would, first, look in
your Bibles, hold your place in Exodus 14. Look at Hebrews
chapter 11. I titled the message this morning,
Faith's Crossing. I want us to see how that we
cross, how that we pass from death unto life. God's people
passed from death unto life, spiritual death to spiritual
life, by God-given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 11,
verse 29. By faith, they passed through
the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do,
were drowned. Now, let's look back at Exodus
chapter 14. Let's look at this story in some
detail and see if we can't learn what it means to pass from death
unto life by faith. First, I'm very interested in
passing from death unto life, aren't you? I want spiritual
life. I want to know the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's life eternal. Well, how
is it then that sinful men and women like you and me can pass
from death unto life? Well, number one, we won't pass
from death unto life until God makes us helpless. Verse 1 of
Exodus chapter 14. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before
Piahiroth, between Migdal and the sea, over against Belzephon,
before it shall ye encamp by the sea. Now, I almost never
use the maps at the back of my Bible, but I used them this week.
There is a route that would go straight from Goshen right up
to Jerusalem from Goshen is where the children of Israel lived
in Egypt. There's a straight shot right there. Pretty, pretty
good route to take. And they were on that route.
And as they were on that route, the Lord told Moses, now turn,
you take a sharp right hand turn and you go down this way to camp
between these two cities, Piahiroth and Belzephon. Now look that
up on the maps. And that place where he told
them to camp is at the bottom of what looks like a peninsula.
The Red Sea comes up in two fingers and they are camping right down
here. And over here there's a big rugged mountain range and there's
just a narrow path between that mountain range and the Red Sea
to go back up into the open land. And the Lord told them to go
down there. Pharaoh and his armies come down. All they got to do
to trap Israel down there by that Red Sea is just close off
that little teeny tiny narrow pass. Easy to block them off. They'd be trapped down there
between the mountains and Pharaoh's army and in the sea. But the
Lord told them to go to that place, that particular place
on purpose. So that when they got there,
they would see themselves as helpless. It wasn't hard to figure
out we're in a place We cannot escape from this place. They
were totally dependent upon the Lord to deliver them. And here's
what that's a picture of. You and I will never be saved
until God makes us helpless, until we see that we can't do
anything spiritually. We are dead in trespasses and
sins. God's got to show us that. I
mean, dead means dead, helpless, can't do one thing. A dead man
can't get up and walk to safety. A dead man can't swim through
across the Red Sea, can't do anything, can't move, he's dead.
Dead man can't give themselves life because they're dead. A dead man can't do anything
for himself. He is totally dependent upon
God to give him life, to have mercy upon him and give him life.
You and I can't be saved. until we see that we can't do
something to help God save us. I mean, most people would agree
that they can't save themselves, you know, without a little bit
of help. We can't be saved if we think we can do something
to help God save us. We'll never be saved if we think
that I can do something that would get God to save me. I can
do something to make him a little bit happy with me. More happy
is with this fellow over here and he'd save me. We'll not be
saved as long as we think that. will not be saved until we see
there's not one reason found in me that God saved me. Now
that's helpless. I'm dependent on God to show
mercy on me. He's got to decide to show mercy
on me or I will be damned. That's helpless. And God will
never save us until he brings us to that point. If you're here
this morning still thinking that you can do something to make
God happy with you, You're not a candidate for mercy yet. We're
not going to be saved until God brings us to the place. We've
got one hope. We're not going to be saved until
the Lord brings us to this place. I must have Christ. I must look
to him. I must go to him because there's
no place else to look and there's no place else to go. I'm helpless.
All right. We won't pass from death unto
life until God makes us helpless. And we pass from death unto life
by the will of God. Look at verse three. For Pharaoh
will say of the children of Israel, they're entangled in the land.
The wilderness has shut them in and I will harden Pharaoh's
heart that he should follow after them. And I will be honored upon
Pharaoh and upon all his host that the Egyptians may know that
I am the Lord. And they did so. The Lord told
Moses exactly what's going to happen. He said, I'm going to
tell you to go down here, and it's going to look like the children
of Israel are trapped. It's going to look like they didn't know
where they were going, and the wilderness has trapped them in.
Pharaoh's going to think that, and he's going to think, now's
my chance to go get them and bring them back into slavery.
And God said, Moses, Pharaoh's going to think that, because
I'm going to put it in his heart to think it. I'm going to make
it and put it in his heart to do that. See, what's happening
here is the will of God's being done. The will of Pharaoh is
not being done. The will of Moses is not being
done. The will of God is being done. And God's going to do this
for the same reason he does everything, for his glory. The heathen are
going to know when this story is told, this story is going
to get out. When the children of Israel years later got to
Jericho, what did Rahab say? Oh, I heard about you. I heard
about what happened at the Red Sea. The heathen are going to
know I'm God. I'm God alone. That's why he's
going to do this. And Pharaoh did just exactly
what God said he'd do to accomplish God's will. Look at verse five.
It was told the king of Egypt that the people fled and heart
of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people.
And they said, why have we done this? That we've let Israel go
from serving us. And he made ready his chariot
and took his people with him. And he took 600 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 a high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after
them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and
his army and overtook them by encamping by the sea beside Piahiroth
before Belzephon. Now, Pharaoh did just exactly
what God purposed for him to do, didn't he? Because God's
will is being done here for God's glory. And here's how God's people
pass from death unto life. I can tell you when it happens
and how it happens. It happens when God's will concerning
them is done. That's when they pass from death
unto life. Thirdly, we don't pass from death unto life, thankfully,
by the strength of our faith. Look at verse 10. It's by faith,
but not the strength of our faith. 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? And I tell you, you
read that, and I don't see much evidence of faith, do you? The
writer of the Hebrews said, by faith, they crossed the Red Sea
on dry ground, but not seeing much evidence of strong faith
here. The Lord, I mean, you think about what had happened here.
After 400 years, the Lord delivered them, just like he promised he
would, in a mighty, great fashion. Those slaves left Israel wildly
wealthy. Here a few days later, they're
saying, did you bring us out here to kill us? We got no hope here. What a horrible question. And
I would say, can you believe they asked that question? But
of course we can. Because we're just like them. It's tar shame how often we say,
what am I going to wear? What am I going to eat? Weak
faith. We can identify with weak faith.
Well, here's the good news. God will never forsake his own. He's faithful and we're not.
He'll always remain faithful, even when his people are full
of fears and doubts that are completely unfounded. Thank God, salvation by faith,
but thank God it does not depend upon the strength of our faith. Salvation depends upon the faithfulness
of God to do just what he promised he would do. Now we're born in
unbelief, but the Lord is not going to leave his people in
that unbelief. He's not going to leave us in
our weak faith. He'll give faith and he'll strengthen faith. God
makes his people believe on him. He makes them believe on him.
By graciously making them believe on him. By giving them a new
nature that does believe. And God does that through the
preaching of Christ. And we'll see this in just a
moment. When Moses was faced with this unbelief, he was faced
with this rebellion. Oh, what an ungrateful people
that spent, I don't know, at least 300 years, I reckon, maybe
longer, every day begging God to deliver us from Egypt. Every
day they begged that, deliver us from Egypt. And God delivered
them from Egypt and they said, why did you do that? I'd rather
die a slave than live free. Why did you do that? When Moses
was faced with that, you know what Moses did? This is God's
faithful servant. He just kept telling them what
he'd always been telling them. You trust Christ. You trust the
Lord. You look to him, trust him. And
that's what God's faithful servants do. They just keep preaching
the gospel over and over and over again. And eventually God's
going to bless it. and give life to his people.
Eventually, God's going to take a message he preached many times
before, and suddenly somebody is going to hear it. It's going
to be a blessing to their hearts. It's going to be an encouragement
and a comfort to them. The Lord gives faith and he strengthens
faith through the preaching of Christ. Faith cometh by hearing. But thankfully, we don't pass
from death unto life by the strength of our faith. It's by the strength
and faithfulness of our Savior. All right, fourthly, we're not
going to pass from death unto life by our own will. Our will
is going to take us the wrong way, the opposite way every time.
Verse 12, 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. Here's what they're saying, Moses,
you first came back here, we told you to leave us alone. Don't
bother us, you know, just I like my religion. Just leave me alone.
I mean, I know it's a lot of work. I don't I know it makes
me feel like I'm under bondage. I know it don't make no sense,
but just I'm comfortable doing it's what I've always done. Just
just leave me alone. What are you talking about this sovereign
grace business? You're talking about God's electing
grace. I've never heard anything like that. And that messes up
my apple cart. So just leave me alone. I've
always heard like, you know, that I've always heard, so it
makes it so that I can be saved anytime I want. If I can just
decide to accept Jesus anytime I want, so I'm just waiting,
you know, for a better time, you know, just leave me alone
and don't confront me with facts from the Bible now. Just let
me stay comfortable. That's what they're telling Moses.
But you know, a big part of the job of God's preacher is to make
the flesh uncomfortable. We've not preached the gospel.
if we haven't made the flesh uncomfortable. Because our flesh,
not only has it got to be uncomfortable, it's got to be killed so that
we'll look to Christ. But this is what they want. This
is what our nature wants. Leave me alone. And if God will
give us what we want and leave us alone, we're going to go to
hell getting what we want. By nature, we will never want
to be saved on God's terms in Christ alone. God has got to
cross our will. He's got to give us a new nature.
He's got to give us a new want to, or else we'll never want
to be saved by Christ alone. And you who believe, aren't you
thankful God didn't give you your way? Aren't you thankful? that God
kept His promise. Aren't you thankful God kept
His covenant mercies and insisted on giving them to you even though
you didn't want them? Aren't you thankful that He crossed
your will and gave you a new will so that you did want them?
I tell you, the only time we're going to be delivered and passed
from death unto life is by God's will, not ours. All right, fifthly,
we pass from death unto life. when God makes us stand still
and see Christ by faith, verse 13. And Moses said unto the people,
fear ye not. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord, which he will show 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. This is why I said a minute ago,
Moses, is God's faithful servant. He just was faithful to keep
preaching that same message over and over and over again. Look
to Christ. Look to Christ. Trust the Lord.
Don't trust what you understand. Don't trust what you think you
see in this situation. Don't trust your plan to get
out of this mess. You trust the Lord. You look
to Him. Moses kept preaching that message over and over and
over again, didn't he? So here's the message of the
gospel. Fear not. Fear not. You've got nothing
to fear. If you trust Christ is all your
salvation. You have nothing to fear. Christ
the Savior has taken your sin away from you and he stood condemned
for it. He suffered and died for it.
Then what are you praying your sin for? Huh? They can't condemn
you. Now, if Christ died for you,
it can. And Christ your Savior, the One who suffered, the One
who died for you, He loved His people enough to suffer and die
for them. And that same One rose again.
Went back to glory where He sits on the throne. Christ your Savior
rules. What can harm you? He rules. What can harm you? And I know
we're very, very, very, very tied to these bodies. And we
think, well, the worst thing that could happen, this is the
way we think. This is how tied we are to these bodies. The worst
thing that could happen is that the Lord will let something kill
this body. We think that's the worst thing that could happen.
And then I'll go be with the Lord. Brethren, the worst thing
is the best thing that could ever happen to us. that the Lord
deliver us from this clay prison and take us to be with Him. If
you believe Him, that's going to happen. Because your Savior
rules. What we think would be the worst
thing that could happen to us, Scripture says is great gain.
Great gain to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
So our message is fear not. And our message is stand still.
Just quit. trying to work to please God.
Quit trying to find some way that you think God will be happy
with you by what you do. I know we see, at least I hope
we see, that we're in a mess because of our sin. Well, quit
trying to get yourself out of the mess that you made. Just
quit. Stand still. Be still. That's what the Lord did to Israel.
He brought them to a place where they were trapped. They had to
stand still, didn't they? There was no place to run. They
had to stand still. They couldn't run. They couldn't
hide. They couldn't escape. Moses told them, be still. But
what else could they do? They had to be still. And if
we would be saved, I'm telling you, we've got to quit doing
everything we think we can do. We've got to quit and we've got
to be still. We've got to rely on the Lord.
We've got to rely on Christ, not just to do everything that
we need. We've got to rely on Him to be
everything we need. Our message is be still, put
your work in, and look. Look to Christ. Look and live.
And I tell you, the moment you look to Him, the moment you look
to Christ, The moment you look to him in faith, believing that
he is all my salvation, the moment you look to him, believing he's
all that you need, you don't understand how he does all that.
But the moment you look to him in faith, believing he's all
you need, the moment you look to him. You're going to see. And I tell you what you'll see,
you'll see he really is all my salvation. The moment we look
to Christ by faith, we're gonna see, I don't have any goodness
of my own, but Christ is all my goodness. He's all my righteousness. The moment we look to Christ,
we're gonna see, I have no hope in myself, but I see that Christ
is all of my hope. If Christ is all you have, if
he's the only thing you have, you've got a good hope. When
we look to Christ, we're going to see there's no reason for
God to save me, found in me, but it's all in Christ. Now,
be still. What can you do? I mean, I tell
you to be still, but what can you do? Where can you run? What work can you do? Be still
and look to Christ. Where else can you look? All
right, sixthly. We'll pass from death unto life
when the Lord commands it. Verse 15, Lord said unto Moses,
wherefore cryest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel
that they may go forward. I'm sure some smart aleck heard
Moses say, okay, we're going to go forward. And they said,
where? We can't go forward. The sea's
in front of us. God commanded them to do the
impossible, didn't He? Go forward. But there's the C. God commands His people to do
what they cannot do. To go where they cannot go. But
with the command comes the ability. With the command comes the open
door. Now, the only way we can go forward
spiritually is by faith in Christ. See, by nature, We can't come
to Christ. Our Lord said we can't and we
won't. But with the command comes the ability. Christ the Savior
said, come unto me and find rest. Come unto me and have the living
water for your soul. And coming to Christ is simply
believing him. And with the command comes the
ability. We believe. By nature, we can't
believe. But God says, believe and be
saved. And with the command comes the ability to believe. Now,
the Lord commands us to come to Christ. This is not a suggestion. It's not a good idea. It's not
like, well, you might be able to find another way, but this
is the best way. No, the Lord commands us to come to Christ
because there's no other Savior. He commands us to believe Christ
because there's no other hope. That's God's commandment. I want
to ask you a question. What are you waiting on? Huh?
What are you waiting on? What are you afraid of? Are you
afraid that God will turn you away? Are you afraid of that?
Are you afraid that if you come to Christ in obedience to His
commandment, are you afraid God's going to turn you away? Of course
He won't. Then come to Him right now. Right where you sit in your heart. Come to Him. You cast all of
your soul upon him. Now we are to wait on the Lord. I'm not saying we just go out
here and charge willy nilly and go. No, we're to wait on the
Lord in all things. We're to wait on the Lord to
give direction. If we don't know what to do, we'll wait on the
Lord to give direction. If we think there's something
we'd like to do, the door's not open, well, we'll wait on the
Lord to open it. But don't ever use this excuse waiting on the
Lord to do nothing. When the Lord gives the commandment,
you quit waiting on the Lord. He's already given the commandment.
You go forward and go forward without retreat. The Lord commands
us to repent and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, brethren,
let's go forward with no retreat. Let's believe Him. Let's turn.
Repenting is turning. Let's turn away from everything
we used to trust in and don't turn back. Let's believe Christ
and keep believing on Him. Don't go back. Don't retreat.
The Lord commands us to go into all the world and preach the
gospel. Well, I don't think any of us
are great big world travelers, but I'll tell you what let's
do. Let's start right here. Let's start with our family.
Let's start right there. And let's preach the gospel.
Let's preach Christ to them. Every opportunity we get. And
let's go forward with no retreat. I don't have to wait on the Lord
to know what message I'm supposed to preach Wednesday. I haven't
got the text or the outline yet, but I already know the message.
It's the same message I'm preaching right now. It's Christ in Him
crucified. that there's life in Him, there's forgiveness of
sins in Him, now go to Him. Cast your soul upon Him. Come to Him. Let's preach the
gospel with no compromise. Let's not think, well, you know,
we're not kind of getting the results that we could get. If we could
start trying to use some psychology and trick people and kind of
pull people down the aisle, we'd get some more results. No. Let's
not compromise. Let's not compromise the truth.
And let's preach the gospel without apology. I'm not sorry these
things are so. I'm not sorry that God is God
and you're just kind of get used to it. I'm not sorry that you're
dead and you don't have any hope. No. I'm glad that's the gospel. I'm glad those things are so
because there's hope in Christ. There's only hope in Christ.
Now go to him. I'm not sorry about those things.
Let's preach it without apology. Let's preach it in love and compassion
for poor sinners that can't see, that can't hear. Let's not be
mad at a blind man for being blind. How can he know that some
man guide him? How are we going to do that?
How are we going to go forward like that with no retreat? By faith. By faith. And trust God to bless
it. All right, seventh, we pass from
death to life miraculously. Verse 16, lift out up thy rod
and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it. And the
children of Israel should go on dry ground through the midst
of the sea. Now this really happened. This
really happened. I saw a, uh, some documentary
somewhere or this fella, he's going around trying to find all
these biblical places and things that happened, you know, no Testament
in the, He's trying to find the place where Israel crossed the
Red Sea. Tradition has it they crossed
it on this certain place. Oddly enough, right where Scripture
says they're supposed to camp. At any rate, he's trying to explain
that away, saying, well, they can't cross the depths of this
ocean. But over here, some other place, the sea kind of comes
down to this little muddy place, you know. And he said, what they
did is they crossed in this muddy place and God caused this wind
to blow and the tide went out and and they could, you know,
it wasn't dry land, but they could, you know, cross on it.
And then God caused the wind to quit blowing. The tide came
in and the gypsies chariots got stuck in the mud. Children, listen
to me. Don't you believe it for a second?
Don't you believe it for a second? Israel went down into the midst
of the Red Sea. That seabed was dry land. And on either side of them, on
their left and on their right, was a gigantic wall of water. That's what happened. I know
that's what happened because God's Word said it. Have you
ever had a shovel and you're going to dig a ditch and you
mound up dirt? You just shovel it up and we
can mound up dirt, can't we? Just a big ole heap of dirt.
God made the water a heap of water. And there it stood. and Israel crossed right through
the midst of it. That happened because only God
can do that. What a miracle that that happened.
Wouldn't you have loved to have seen that? I mean, I would have.
I would have loved to have seen that. Do you know we've all seen
a bigger miracle than that? We have. We've seen a bigger
miracle than that. God has given life to a dead
rebellious sinner. He's given life and faith. And we can't exactly explain
that. We can't exactly explain this.
There's life where there wasn't there before. There's faith where
there wasn't there before. The only thing we know is it's
there and God did it. And it's a miracle. Salvation
is a miracle. I hate it when false prophets
bring salvation down into the gutter where we are and make
it dependent upon some decision that we made. That's not a miracle. That's just, my brother says,
that's just salesmanship. That's all it is. It's just being
a used car salesman. It's convincing somebody to do
something they don't want to do. That's not a miracle. Salvation
of a sinner. God gives life and faith. Oh, that's a miracle. Oh, it's a miracle to pass from
death unto life. Only God can do it. Eighth, we
pass from death unto life by faith. Verse 21, Moses stretched
out his hand over the sea and the Lord caused the sea to go
back by a 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 dry ground and the waters were
a wall under them. On the right hand, and on their
left. Now can you imagine walking down
into the floor of that sea with walls of water on either side
of you? You see no visible force holding
that water up. There it is. We went to this
aquarium one time and they got like this, you know, a glass
tunnel, you know, through the water. Jane looked at that and
said, Do I want to go in there, really? I mean, is that really
going to hold back all that water? But at least you can see a tunnel.
I mean, you can see the glass and the tunnel and the metal
holding it all up, you know. To the naked eye, it looked like
air was holding that water up. Now, what's going to make you
walk down between those? You believe God. You believe that's
the only way. John Gill says, a very adventurous
action it was. Very adventurous action to walk
down between those walls of water. But that's what faith does. Faith
acts. If you believe the Lord, you
went down into that water, between those walls of water. The only
reason you'd possibly step down between that is you believed
that God would hold that water up just like He said He would.
You didn't have to understand. How did God heap up that water?
You didn't have to understand that. You just had to believe
that God would do it. And that salvation, a sinner
is saved by faith in Christ. And we know a lot of the, I don't
know what the right word is, the ABCs, you know, of the gospel. But can you really explain those
things? I mean, can you really explain, can you really understand
how Christ was made sin for me? How he took my sin away? I can't
explain it. Faith believes it, though. I
can't explain everything there is to know about the blood of
Christ removing all of my sin, paying for my sin and cleansing
me from all of my sin, even though when I look at myself, the only
thing I see is sin. I don't have any tangible, nothing
I can touch, nothing I can see. I don't have any tangible reason
to think that the Son of God would die for a sinner like me.
But by God's grace, I believe it. Faith acts on it. Faith follows Him. Faith walks,
it follows Christ because it believes God. Faith does not
walk because we see the trail all laid out for us from here
to the end. That's not why faith walks. When
the Israelites stepped down into that ocean, that sea, they didn't
see the other shore. They couldn't see from shore
to shore. So they say, okay, I see the path, I see how I'm
going to be delivered, how I'm going to get from here to there.
They couldn't see how I'm going to get from here to there. All they
could see was this next step in front of me, the dry ground.
Now I'm going to walk on it. I'm going to take that step because
God commanded me to. That's how faith walks. Faith
just walks one step at a time. It's not because we can see the
whole course laid out in front of us. I'll tell you when we
know when we finished the course. There's a day coming, we're going
to be able to say, I finished my course. You know when that day
is? When we finish it. but not before. We're not going
to know we've reached the finish line till we get there and not
a moment sooner. And while we're on this walk,
I'm telling you, don't worry about the course. Don't worry
about the finish line. Just take the next step God's
given you. What are you supposed to do tomorrow? I don't know. Do what God's given
you to do today. Take the step that God's giving
you today, but tomorrow, worry about tomorrow. Just walk in
the light God's given you. Think, well, now I believe Him,
but I just don't see all this. Don't worry about that. Walk
in the light God's given you, and He'll give you more. Use
the faith God's given you, and He'll give you more. Come to
Christ in obedience to His commandment, and He'll give you more faith.
All right, ninthly, we pass from death unto life. this kind of
a repeat by faith and not by works. Verse 23 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 under 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 and they drave them heavily so that the Egyptian
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 his strength when the morning appeared and
the Egyptians fled against it. And the Lord over 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. Now Israel walked through the
Red Sea on dry land. Every last one of them was delivered.
There wasn't one Israelite died in that sea. And the Egyptians
tried to do the exact same thing, didn't they? And they were drowned,
every last one of them. What's the difference? One did
it by faith. One did it obeying God's command.
The other tried to do it by their works. Remember the writer to
the Hebrews said this is what they assayed to do. This is what
they tried to do by their own power, by their own works. They
thought, well, I can do that too. One had faith, the other
had works. Who made the difference? God
did, didn't he? God put that pillar behind the
Israelites and separated his people and the Egyptians. He
gave light to one, left the other in darkness. God made the difference. Salvation and righteousness will
never come by our works of the law. In Romans 9, Paul said that
was the problem with his countrymen. They sought it by works, not
by faith. We pass from death unto life
by faith in Christ. by relying on Him and Him alone
with none of our works being added to it. Right tenth, we
pass from death unto life because our sin has been put away under
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then in verse 28 says, they remain
not so much as one of them. Every soldier was drowned. And
that Egyptian army is a good picture of our sin. That army
came there determined to capture all those escaped slaves, to
put them back under bondage and kill a bunch of them while they
were at it because they blamed all their troubles on those Jews.
And every last one of those soldiers died in the Red Sea. Here, the
Red Sea is a picture of the red blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ shed his blood before
the Father for the sin of his people, all of the sin of all
of his elect was cleansed away. They're all washed white as snow. Not one of those sins remains. Not one. Now I ask you again,
what do you have to fear? If you believe Christ, nothing.
He already took away everything that would destroy His people.
We pass from death unto life because of the blood of Christ.
And lastly, we pass from death unto life when we see that salvation
is the work of God alone. Verse 29. And 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 they
believed his servant, Moses. At the end of this day, I promise
you this. There's not one Israelite that
had the slightest notion that deliverance from that army was
a cooperative effort between them and Jesus. Not one of them. This was a work the Lord had
done. The Lord had done alone. And
they saw that and they believed. They believed God. They believed
the Lord. And everybody who believes the
Lord will believe God's servant when he preaches Christ. I'm
going to close with this question. I want everybody in this room
to answer this question in your heart. Do you believe this gospel? This Christ that we preach, do
you believe him? Do you see that he's your only
hope? Do you see that salvation is of the Lord? It's a work that
God does for you and in you. Do you see that? Do you believe
that? Do you know what? That's the evidence that God
chose you. The Father chose you. The only evidence we have the
Father chose us is faith in Christ because he gives faith to everybody
he chooses. The evidence that the Father chose you is you believe
this gospel. The evidence that God the Son
died for you is you believe this gospel because everyone for whom
Christ died is going to receive faith in Christ. And this is
the evidence the Spirit has given you life. The evidence that the
Spirit has given you life is not you can look at yourself
and see something different. The evidence that the Spirit
has given you life. He moved just like the wind.
You can't tell where He would come from, where He was going.
You just know He's been there. Because now you have faith in
Christ. Do you believe God? That's the evidence you've passed
from death and to life. Because salvation is otherwise.
I hope the Lord will bless that to you. Let's bow together. Our
Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your miraculous,
mighty work of giving life, spiritual life to your people and causing
us to pass from death into life, causing us to pass from death
in Adam to life in Christ. Father, how we thank you. And
Father, I pray you bless your gospel as it's been preached
this morning. to your glory and use it to reach
the hearts of your people, to give life and faith, to call
us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Use the gospels that's been preached
to comfort the hearts of your people, to give us assurance
of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ alone and to cause us
to with no retreat, keep looking to him and him alone, to keep
trusting Christ and Christ alone. It's in his blessed name for
his glory. We pray and give thanks. Amen. Let's turn to 268. Stand as we
sing. How firm a foundation, ye Saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can He say than to
you He has said, To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled, Fear
not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, For I am thy God, I
will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand, upheld by my gracious, omnipotent hand. When through the deep waters
I call thee to The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow,
For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless, my deepest distress. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, my grace all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee,
I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine. The soul that on Jesus hath cleaned
for repose, I will not, I will not desert to I'll never, no
never, no never forsake. you