We're going to start in verse
9 and read to verse 18, and then
stop there for a minute. Exodus chapter 14, and as I begin
to read, you'll know what's going on in the narrative. Exodus chapter 14. and starting
in verse 9, but the Egyptians pursued after them, that is,
Israel. They've left the land of Egypt
through Moses' hand, through the plagues, and Pharaoh let
them go. But now they're after them. All the horses and chariots of
Pharaoh and his horsemen, his army, overtook them in camping
by the sea. This is by the Red Sea. They
were camped there waiting to go across. And they turned behind
them and there's the Egyptian army. 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
to Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, have you
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. This is an inevitability. This
is what they think. This is inevitability. And we
as believers, in our daily struggles and trials, whether it's work,
whether it's home, whatever it may be, because of the flesh,
more internal struggles, we think, this is inevitable. I've got
no way out of this. I can't see my way out of this. I'm going to die. Verse 13, And Moses said unto
the people three things, Fear you 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. The Lord shall fight for you
and you shall hold your peace. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Wherefore Christ thou unto me speak unto the children of Israel
that they go forward. They go forward. We can't go
forward because there's water. Tell them to go forward. But
lift thou up thy rod, stretch out thy hand over the sea, and
divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground
through the midst of the sea. And I, behold, I will harden
the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. And
I will get me honor upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts, 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." And we'll stop there
and make some introductory comments. Child of God, sons and daughters
of our Lord and King, this is the charge. Every one of us who
call upon the name of the Lord, who have tasted that He is gracious,
This is the charge. This is the command. This is
the exhortation to us. Verse 13, Fear not, stand still,
and see the salvation of the Lord. Three things. Universal. You could use this when you wake
up tomorrow and you feel you've got something wrong. Something's
not right with me physically. You could use this. When you
go to work and your boss chews you out, you could use this.
When you go to work and you do a great job and everybody's praising
you and you're thinking, I've done well, you could use this. This is universal. Regardless
of your age, whether you're a boy or girl, a woman or man, this
is what we are to take heed to. This is what we are to take heed
how we hear. We're going to look at this first. Fear not. Stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. Fear not. Don't be afraid, says
the Word of the Terrible Night. I want us to look at this. Psalms
91. This helped Melinda and I immensely. Psalms 91. Concerned about disease, viruses,
sickness, health. This helped us tremendously. Fear not. Fear not. Psalms 91 verse 5. Thou shalt not be afraid for
the terror by night, nor the arrow that flies by day. War? Rumors of war? There's always going to be wars
and rumors of war. How does that affect the believer?
When we fear, it affects us a lot. Nor the pestilence that walks
in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes that noon day. A
thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right
hand, but it, it, all these things, shall not come nigh thee." These
are promises. These are promises. Fear not. Fear not. Do not be afraid to
terror by night. Do not be afraid or fear what
man can do unto you." We don't have to look there. That's Psalms
118 verse 6 and many other places. What, pastor? We're not going
to have any trials or difficulties? I just refer you back to the
text. What's going on here? This is very real to these Egyptians,
to these Israelites. Matter of fact, they were sore
afraid, it says in verse 10. They cried out. Why did you take us out of Egypt?
They preferred slavery, bondage, horrible bondage, compared to what they thought
was going to happen. So I'm not saying, just because you're a
believer, everything is fine. Everything is honky-dory. You're
not going to have any issues. We're going to get old like everybody
else does. We're going to die like everybody else does. But
we do not fear. Fear ye not. Under the heavy
burden of fear, God is for us. Therefore, who can really be
against us? Romans 8.31. If God is for us,
who can be against us? Every morning you wake up, something
hits you upside the head. Maybe you're having a great day.
Nothing's going against you. If God be for you, who can be
against you? The second thing. Fear not. Stand still. Stand still. Don't look or don't act upon
your own worth. We are much too weak, we're much
too frail, we're much too sinful to do anything for God. We actually
are to quit working, fretting, worrying about our salvation,
our being guided, our being kept. We will be guided and we will
be kept. Just like they are here. Stand still. He and He alone,
through the substitutionary worth and achievements of Christ the
Anointed, has done everything for us. Stand still. We are to quit working. But since
the fall of Adam, We saw that this morning about Cain, Cain
and Abel. We want to work our way. We want to feel good about
ourselves. We want to try to commend ourselves
to God. Stand still. Stand still. What are the Israelites doing? What are they going to do to
get away from the Egyptians? They can't do anything. We can't
do anything for our own salvation. The point to this message is
when God brings you to that point where you're up against the wall.
You've tried money. You've tried your name. You've
tried people you are acquainted with. You know, I know all these
people. They haven't helped you. They can't help you. You've done
all these different things. And when God has you back against
the wall, stand still. Stand still. Stand still. In other places it says, stand
fast in Christ Jesus. Other places it says, stand firm
upon the sure foundation and upon the rock of ages, which
is Christ. Stand free in and because Christ has set us free
and in true liberty. And he says in Galatians, be
not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. That's the beautiful
thing. That's the beautiful thing. Everything
is working together for good. And so the past bondage that
you've been under When you're set free, you can really enjoy
it. You can really enjoy it. I go back to Bruce's statement
years and years and years ago. He walked outside and he says,
I can run my own household now. You may not have remembered to
say that, but I remember you saying it. I wasn't even there.
I was just rejoicing. When you see a brother who's
been under bondage and fearing And then they realize God's on
the throne, and they don't fear. And then they realize to stand
still. I've tried to do this, I've tried to do that, and I've
tried, I've done all these different, as the head of the home, or maybe
not, whatever, I've done all this to no avail. And then you
stand still, and you're like. He really is on the throne. He
really does care for me. He really does protect me. My
fear says, why did you bring me out here? I could have died
in Egypt and been well fed. And the third thing is, and we
see the salvation of the Lord. I looked this up because I remember
this years ago and I could remember all five of them. The five solaces
in the Reformation. sola fide, faith alone, sola
scriptura, scriptures alone, sola Christus, Christ alone,
sola gratia, grace alone, which leads to sola Deo gloria, to
God be the glory. To God be the glory. That's what
we say. And see the salvation of the
Lord. It's all by faith, it's all by scriptures, all by grace,
all by Christ, And it's all for His glory. Brethren, why do we
fear anything? For Jehovah is ever with us,
fighting our battles, bringing salvation full and free to us. Look at verse 14. The Lord shall
fight for you. Well, can I have a sword? Peter
says, let me have a sword. And we're going to do something
wrong with it. Let me have a pistol, let me have a whip, let me have
something, and you shall hold your peace." That is against
every worldly advice. God will fight your battles,
hold your peace. I'm going to get even. No, vengeance
is not ours. Vengeance is not ours. The Lord
shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace. Read on. Look at verses 19 and 20, which is kind of what
I wanted to get to. Let me read the Amplified here.
This is beautiful. Exodus 14, verses 19 and 20. And the angel of God, which we
know that's Christ, who went before the host of Israel, removed
and went behind them. And the pillar of the cloud,
which again is Christ, went from before them and stood behind
them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. It was a cloud and darkness to
the Egyptians, but it gave light by night to the Israelites. And
the one host came not near the other. all night. You get the
picture. Here's this cloud. It's leading
them. It's leading the people of God. Christ is our leader. Christ
is the captain of our salvation. Christ must have the preeminence.
He's leading us in the right way. He's leading us right to
the sea. And then, because of their fear,
because they're weak, because we're creatures, because we have
a tendency to see things and not look up, we look horizontal,
not upward, he moves and he lands right in between the two camps.
But one of them, he's darkness to the other, he's light. Here we have another wonderful
type and picture of the Lord Jesus Christ interceding on behalf
of His chosen people. This He does for us every day. Let us apply the text to our
own situation and honor God in our sojourn, on our daily walk. Three things, this cloud, this
light, it's guided, it protected, and it kept. the Israelites. And that's what God is doing
for us every day. He guides us through His Word,
through His preaching, through His fellowship, through prayer,
through communion. He guides us. He protects us. The hinder part is not, you can't
always see what's going on. He's there to protect us just
like He did them. And He's going to keep us like
He did them. His guiding work, He went before. Our sweet, condescending Redeemer
is ever before us, showing us His way, keeping the path clear
and well lit for those who don't see very well and don't walk
very well. He'll carry us, like He did that
sheep, He'll carry us if need be, because He's purchased us
with His own blood. Thusly, He will see to it that
we make it to the other side. That is to glory. He'll make
sure that we're going to get through the other side. We cannot
miss it. That's what's so beautiful. I
know we've talked about this assurance. But if you're in Christ,
you can't miss heaven. Now I know we want to know every
step. We want to be sure every step
in old age, in middle age, we want to be sure every step is
correct. But we're going to sin. And we
still sin. But we're never out of the way.
These folks, they're looking ahead and it's blocked. Not for
long. And I've been reading a lot of
J.R. Miller. I really like his writings.
He made a comment. He said, we want to have grace
for 2023. 2023 is not here yet. Our grace
is given day by day. Give us our daily bread. That's what His grace sustains
us daily. We have to work. We have to go to work, we have
to pay bills. He gives us grace daily. But rest assured, when
we need help in time of need, we just go to the throne of grace.
We just go to the throne of grace. He's lit the way. It's revealed. So we're never going to fall
out of the way completely. We're never going to be lost
like those in Jude. Those horrible things said about
those. It's not going to happen to the believer. Why? Because
we're kept and fed and guided and protected by the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's not going to happen. I mean,
when I look at this, I got all jacked up. I got all stoked.
I'm thinking, there's no way. If I'm His, You know, I may crawl,
I may limp to the finish line, but I'm going to make it. And
so will you. Don't doubt it. To doubt it is
to doubt the Word, is to doubt His sufficiency, His accomplishments,
His achievements. No, we will make it. We will
make it by Holy Spirit guidance, communion with Him. He guides
us by fellowship, by the assembling of the saints together, by prayer,
by His Gospel, by His Word. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Romans 8.33. Nobody. They can't.
Can't. We are bought and paid for by
the precious, pure, powerful blood of the Great Martyr Lamb.
He's successful. Second thing, this is a protective
work. Verses, the latter part of verse
19, And went behind them, and the pillar of the cloud went
before their face, and stood behind them, and it came between
the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of the Israelites. And
it was a cloud of darkness to them, and it was a light to these,
to the Israelites, so that one camp came not near the other. Couldn't do it. Couldn't go through.
Our Lord is a high tower of defense to all who call upon His name. The Egyptians, ready to seize
upon the fearful host, and the weaponless crowd, the Israelites,
they didn't have any weapons. They came up from the rear. But
God, but God, Our merciful Redeemer and Protector now moves to the
hindermost part of and stays between the Israelites and the
camp of the Egyptians. Bless God is twofold aspect of
divine deliverance. To us, Word, He is light. He
illuminates our way. Walk this way, my children, He
says. To the others, it's all darkness,
terror, and final judgment. There's two sides to this sovereign
pillar. Come ye blessed of my Father,
or depart ye cursed. That's it. Like Bruce said this
morning, there's no in-between. There's no in-between. Is it
hard for thee to kick against the pricks? Well, I say submit
or be crushed under the load of sovereign omnipotence. He's
not going to change for your feelings or for my feelings.
He changes not. But He changes not, He continues
that, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. So that one who sought harm and
mischievousness and death came not near the other who sought
escape, deliverance, and help from God. One, the gospel was
received, it's a saver of life unto life. To the other, the
gospel was not believed, it was not received, it was rejected,
made fun of, made light of, the saver of death. One, salvation,
grace, divine illumination and peace. To the other, judgment,
damnation, torment, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. Turn with me to Job 34. Many,
many years ago, and it was many years that the Lord had revealed
Himself to me that I saw this, and I thought, okay, the Lord
He illuminates everybody. He illuminates this and that.
He's a kind God. He's a loving God. He's this
and that. And that's true to the believer. But to the unbeliever,
Job 34 and verse 29, this is speaking of God. Job 34, 29,
when God gives quietness, who can make trouble? I don't understand why that believer,
he doesn't have enough money to pay his bills, but he has
quietness, he has peace. I don't understand how that widow,
who didn't have anything, her son was dying, she was dying,
they had one more cake, and the prophet comes and says, give
me that cake. I don't understand how she had peace and how she
had quietness, because when God gives quietness, who then can
make trouble? And when He hides His face, who
then can behold Him, whether it be done against a nation or
against a man only? To one, He's light. To the other, they had to stop
because they didn't know where they were going. They knew the
sea was there, but they couldn't go, they couldn't see anything.
Proverbs 25. Proverbs 25 and verse 2. Look at this. Proverbs 25 verse
2. Look at this here. It is the
glory of God to conceal a thing. You mean He doesn't reveal it?
That's exactly what He's saying. It's His glory To conceal a thing. But the honor of kings is to
search out a matter. It's the glory of God to conceal. All of us here, boys, girls,
dads, moms, we need to ask God to reveal Himself to us. so we
can be found in Him. The scariest thing is to sit
here and read this Bible and say, I don't know, what's he
talking about? What is he even talking about?
And this lesson, this lesson in Exodus, Melinda was doing
some reading on this and there's these knuckleheads, these intellectuals. One guy said, well this is, I
think I know where they crossed the Red Sea. He had it all down
and everything, and the only thing that bothered him is he
couldn't find any debris, you know, like chariots and things
that were, and then there's another guy that said, it wasn't true,
it was all a mirage. What? It was all a mirage. It's the glory of God to conceal
a matter. He may just be withholding them
light. So they go on believing a lie. So children, parents,
me, you, elders, deacons, let us pray that God would reveal
Himself to us day by day. And therefore, fear not. Stand still. and see the salvation. Maybe the first salvation. Maybe somebody comes to know
the gospel. Maybe the second salvation. Maybe
the third salvation. And what I mean by that is we
are saved, we're being saved, and we shall be saved. The three
tenses of salvation. Maybe you've never heard, maybe
the Lord hasn't revealed this to you, and then you see Him,
and you confess Him, and you want to be baptized. Maybe He's
revealed Himself to you again. And you have more communion. That's what I mean by salvation. It's not just the first calling. It could be the latter. Ask God
to reveal Himself to us so we can be found in Him. And the
third thing is He keeps. He guides, He protects, He keeps.
Look at verses 21 and 22. 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 it made the sea
dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of
Israel went in the midst of the sea upon dry ground, and the
waters were a wall unto them on their right side and on their
left, and they walked to the other side." So he kept them. He kept them. He did what Moses
said he was going to do. See the salvation of the Lord.
Our deliverance. If God, our blessed Father, sent
His only begotten Son to rescue us, save us, protect us while
we're sojourning here, He will keep us until we are ever with
Him in heaven. He cannot fail. He cannot fail. To the one He saved, He kept,
He protected. To the other, the Egyptians,
verse 30, Thus the Lord saved Israel that
day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians
dead upon the sea shore." They saw their carcasses. Not a pretty
sight. That's what happens to the others. Such is our God. To some, He's
a rock of defense. He's a shield. He's a buckler.
To others, a terror, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense. May He be our only hope of everlasting
life. To close, Deuteronomy chapter
10. And may we see this, and in seeing
what He's done for us, may this be said of us. Deuteronomy chapter
10. And verse 21, Verse 20, Thou
shalt fear the Lord thy God, and to Him shalt thou serve,
to Him shalt thou cleave, and swear by His name. And verse
21, May this be said of us. May this cause us to speak these
things. He is thy peace. And He is thy
God. that have done for thee these
great and terrible things which our eyes have seen." Which our
eyes have seen. You can't see these great things
for your children. You can pray that they would
see them. You can't see these great things for your parents, for
your neighbors, for your friends, but you can pray that they would
see these great things. But it's great things our own
eyes have seen. It's personal. And may we say
this, He's our praise, He's our God, He's done great and terrible
things, which we've seen, and we know, and we can talk about,
and we can tell. To God be the glory. Nathan,
would you close us?