I want you to turn back in your
Bibles, if you will, to Exodus chapter 15. You can follow me in your pastor's
commentary as well. The title of our message today
is From Egypt to Canaan, the Song of Moses. Now, if my elder
had time to read that portion of Scripture a day or so earlier,
he would have been informed by the text that Exodus 15 is a
song. It's a song. You don't just read
a song. You sing a song. And it would
have given him a little liberty to work on his singing. Because you really can't grasp
the importance of Exodus 15, unless you understand that it
is a song, a song of Moses. Then Moses sang, and the children
of Israel, this song unto the Lord. So we are dealing with
a song. And so I can open with our first
point, a time for what? Singing, a time for Singing,
I think that you and I all together know that singing is a joyful
gift from God, isn't it? Even if you can't sing, it's
still a joyful gift. It's something that we do not
because we know how to sing, because we want to sing, and
we need to sing, and we desire to sing, and it's right to sing. And even if we don't have the
gift of singing now, we'll have that gift when we get to glory,
because God will be sung to by His people. Singing is, again,
as we looked at it in Psalm 100, a major component and the expression
of worship on the part of the people of God to God. You know,
our kids come out of the womb singing, don't they? They grow
up and lose that gift somewhere along the way like we did, but
they sing naturally from the time that they are born because
singing is an expression, it's an overflow It's an expostulation. It's an exposure of what's going
on internally in our lives. And it's a compulsory thing.
We sing usually resulting from some type of emotional experience
that we have. We sing as a consequence of a
broad range of feelings. We're not always singing because
we're happy. I sing because I'm happy. We don't always sing because
we're happy. But we are singing, aren't we?
So I do want you to understand if you're not a happy person,
you can sing too. We can sing when we're sad. I
told you what that is. It's called the blues. And we've
got plenty of that in the Psalms as well. I really do think that
David was a blues singer. Now, Moses, I am sure was a second
tenor, and his was more joyful, particularly in this context.
Now, saints of God, I want you to grasp this. I know I'm speaking
in a more humorous element right here as I'm drawing you in. I want you to understand something. Singing is spiritual. It's spiritual. It's spiritual. When we grow up in Christ, we
discover the necessity of learning how to sing, don't we? A lot
of times in our initial conversion and in our initial walk with
Christ, one of the things we are seeking to do is learn God's
word so that we can understand God's ways and relate to God's
providence and be assured of our salvation. And we'll come
to church and we'll hear what other people are doing in terms
of their robust, august singing but for us that's kind of like
a secondary thing that that doesn't necessarily have any relationship
to our personal salvation with Jesus but over time here's what
you learn that if God is growing you in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord and he's revealing his glory to you he's revealing
his glory to you and you're experiencing the glory of God in the redemptive
work of Christ as it's permeating your being There's something
intuitive that says I've got to learn to sing the songs of
the Lord to the Lord who has been so good to me. There's something
intuitive about that aspect of our growth and our maturity.
And to the degree that we are reticent, now follow me now,
to the degree that we are reticent to sing unto God, it's simply
because we have not understood That singing is a spiritual component
that is connected with our worship and our fellowship to the true
and the living God. So the New Testament is very
clear. Make melody from your heart, singing unto the Lord,
spiritual songs, hymns and praises. And it never requires the how. It always requires the why. And it always demands the who. Here's the reason why I sing.
Because God hath redeemed me from all iniquity. He has made
me a child of the living God. He has made me an heir and joint
heir with Jesus Christ over all things. God has delivered me
from death and destruction. And He is worthy of all the praise
and honor and glory and all of the beauty and splendor that
I can emanate from every aspect of my being. This is how glorious
God is. And this is the why of singing. And the who comes out of the
why. We sing unto the Lord. Sing unto the Lord. And so David
said in the Psalms, the Lord has given me a new song. He has
placed a new song in my heart. You know what that means, saints?
If you don't know how to sing, ask God to place a song in your
heart. And it will sound good to God because he will have been
the author that gave you that song. Don't pay no attention
to your brothers and your sisters who say you can't sing. Tell
them it's not about the how, it's about the why and the who.
Because there's a lot of people who know how to sing, but they
don't know why to sing and they don't know to whom to sing. Stay with me now. Stay with me
now. So singing is a consequence of
overflow. And ladies and gentlemen, most
frequently we are singing out of joy if we are grounded in
the truth of the immutable, unchangeable, impeccable work of God in Christ
for us. The vast majority of our singing
is going to be the joy of the Lord that is based upon an established
kingdom that can't be moved, that can't be changed, that can't
be altered. and my position in that kingdom.
That means I can sing a joyful song in the midst of trials,
in the midst of trouble, in the midst of suffering, in the midst
of difficulty. I can be oxymoronic in my situation. I can be contradictory in the
midst of my mess. I can do like Paul and Silas
in the jail in Philippi at midnight, rejoice in singing before the
Lord and shake the whole place up. knowing that I could be killed
the next day. Is that true? Is that true? Y'all pay attention to what I'm
saying. This is very important. I think sometimes in the midst
of our trials, we allow the external circumstances to dictate how
we feel and that's still our joy because we've lost our focus
on who we are and whose we are. Is that true? where the hymn,
the song before us is a full score with all of the complexity,
with all of the structure, with all of the beauty of a full-fledged
hymn. Moses is the orchestrator. He
wrote the song. He's leading it. And his sister
Miriam and the sisters, they are following chorus. If you
look at verse 20 and 21, they simply echo what Moses said in
verse one. Look at it. And Miriam, the prophetess,
the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand. Did she get busy
or what? And all the women went out after
her with timbrels. Did they get busy or what? And
they started singing and dancing. And here's what I mean. They
sang chorus. If you look at verse 21, And Miriam answered them,
saying, Sing to the Lord. For he had triumphed gloriously,
the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. Ladies
and gentlemen, they didn't say anything that Moses didn't say
in the opening of the song. They are repeating what Moses
said as a chorus. This is the chorus to the song.
And literally this is what it means. The Lord has been glorious
in his glory. The Lord has been glorious in
his glory. So what's taking place here as
we get ready to look at what has been a marked event in Jewish
history is the Lord producing and provoking and evoking in
the hearts of all the people complete anthem to God in song
because of the grace that they have experienced at that moment
and the power of God to deliver them from the great kingdom of
Pharaoh so here's here's the thing that I want you to grasp
when you and I are are found singing unto the Lord authentically
and genuinely from the heart. Whether we are singing to the
Lord in the midst of our troubles, like I said, the spectrum is
broad. We can be singing about joy.
We can be singing from our pain. Can you sing from your pain?
We can be singing in our victory. We can be singing in our loss.
Can you sing from your loss? Can you see the glory of God
when he takes things away from you and shows you what he left
for you and how he did not leave you when he took things from
you and caused you to sing anyway? Can you sing from your despair?
Can you sing out of hope? Can you sing in vengeance? The
Psalms are filled with what we call imprecatory prayers, where
the people of God saying, vengeance belongs unto God, vengeance belongs
unto God. I will sing unto the God who
will vindicate me one day. Can you sing from that place?
When you know God, you can. When you know God, you can. And
you can sing also from the place of triumph. You can sing from
the place of love. You can sing from the place of
hate. You can hate evil. You can hate sin. You can hate
iniquity. You can hate everything that
does not comport with the glory of God. The scripture says in
Psalm 45 that Christ loved righteousness and hated iniquity. You can sing
against everything that does not conform itself to the image
of God. Are you guys following what I'm
saying? There's a song for everything. It is simply the eloquent expression
of the soul and communion and fellowship with God. God sings,
does he sing? Is that what the Bible says?
God sings. And right before our Lord went
out to be crucified, he sang a hymn. Now you're talking about
a powerful, fixed frame of mind on his father as he is headed
to Calvary, he was able to sing. We're learning some lessons here,
right? And you and I know this as I get ready to go into what
I hope will be for you a revelation of God's glory. You and I know
that singing is powerful. This is why even in the world
of our adversary, he utilizes singing to get people together,
to gather people together, to give them their marching orders.
Isn't that so? It ought to be as a gift from God in the life
of the people of God, an apparatus by which we fight the battle
as well. When you get in trouble, rather than opine and spiral
down into the darkness of despair and woe is me, and pity. Sing. Sing. And watch the Spirit of
God come into that for you. Point number two. The text before
us, which is a full score of music that was inspired by the
Spirit of God in the life of Moses and in the life of his
sisters and in the life of the children of Israel, this is a
complete song and it's repeated over and over in the hymns, comes
out of an experience of grace. I don't think that you can sing
the Lord songs or sing unto the Lord unless the Lord's done something
for you. Unless the Lord has done something
for you. Point number two, emerging out of an experience of grace.
Listen to what Moses says in chapter 15, verse 1.8, then saying
Moses, and the children of Israel, this song unto the Lord, and
he spake saying, I will sing unto the Lord, watch this, for
he hath triumphed gloriously. For he hath triumphed gloriously. In other words, we sing because
of something, right? We sing because of an experience
of grace. And I want you to see what prompted
Moses To as it were sing to the Lord a song of triumph backing
up at chapter 14 Will you start at verse 29 through 31 with me?
this will lay the foundation for what I want to Draw out in
this song for you in in way in the way of redemption and salvation
for our souls verse 29 but the children of Israel I'm sorry
verse 28 Let me start back. Yeah, I'll start back at verse.
Let me do a verse 29 But the children of Israel walked upon
dry land in the midst of the sea and the waters were a wall
unto them on their right hand and on their left Thus are in
this manner the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the
Egyptians now Saints watch this because this is going to be the
foundation from which we build our thoughts today and Israel
saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. And Israel saw that
great work which Jehovah did upon the Egyptians. And the people
feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses. Do you see that? The songs of
the Lord then grow out of an experience of grace. They grow
out of, listen to me, a personal Revelation of the work of God
in the delivering of our souls. This was not only true for Moses
This wasn't only true for Miriam and her sisters. It was true
for the whole congregation This is called the revelation of God
in the person of Christ in the redemption of their souls in
that typical picture of them being delivered out of Egyptian
bondage of which they saw They saw it they saw God's word they
saw God's Power. They saw God's deliverance and
it made such an enormous impact upon them and particularly Moses. Have you seen God's salvation? Have you seen God's redemption
of your soul? Has God given you a vision of
his mighty power in the deliverance of your soul in the person of
Jesus Christ? Did that revelation do something
to your heart and your mind with regards to who God was and who
you were in God? I want you to get it because
this is where the whole of the song comes from. It comes from
a revelation of the glory of God. It comes from the people
being able to turn around and look back and see God's hand
in the destruction of their foes. and the deliverance of their
soul. And it led them to say, I'm going to sing unto the Lord.
And in fact, the way that the song is written by Moses is just
absolutely powerful. Well, you notice what it says
in verse two, I'm going to actually develop this a little bit more
when we go to Psalm 136. Verse two says, Moses says because
the Lord has done gloriously and the horse and his rider has
been thrown into the sea the Lord Has become my strength and
song. Do you see that? The Lord has
become my salvation He is my God and I will prepare him in
habitation. Do you know what Moses just said?
When I look back at the God who called me from the backside of
the mountain Horeb, and revealed his glory to me enigmatically
in the burning bush, and told me that his name was I Am That
I Am, and gave me a mission to go back to Pharaoh and tell Pharaoh
to let my people go. When I think about how God led
me through my mission to lead the children of Israel out, and
I saw how God destroyed every one of the false gods of Egypt. When I saw the outstretched hand
of God, the mighty arm of God. When I saw God destroy every
foe. When I saw God shut us up as
a whole nation between a rock and a hard place. So that we
look back and we saw Pharaoh and his horsemen coming after
us. And we look forward and all we saw was an ocean. And in our
own minds there was no way out. Then I think about how God Separated
the waters and made them a wall on every side and then he led
us through on dry ground When I think about how God did that
for me now watch this now. I want you to hear it immediately
God became unto me my strength That's the literal language God
became unto me my might he became unto me my salvation. He became
unto me my deliverance You don't get it What Moses is saying is
everything that happened in the event of the destruction of my
foes It was summed up in the person of God So that Moses is
now owning God as his actual salvation as his actual strength
as his actual power Follow this ladies and gentlemen you and
I can see God act in Providence and We can attribute it to one
of his attributes his sovereignty We can say God providentially
brought about these events in a mysterious way by which now
things have occurred that might bring Him glory. But that's a
far cry from seeing God personally do it, do it within the framework
of your mind. It's a far cry from seeing, as
it were, earthly activities take place, shape and form, where
God opens doors and God shuts doors and God brings about an
event that allows you to move forward in your life. But you
don't see it in terms of its personification. Moses saw God. And for Moses, it was God's actual
hand, God's actual might, God's actual power, God's actual intervention
in the deliverance of him and the people, which drove him to
say, my God is actually my personal salvation. My God is my actual
strength. My God has been the one who has
actually brought me. And therefore, watch this, I
am going to make a habitation for my God. Where? In my heart. the whole of my being. God gets
to reign in every part of my being because he has revealed
himself to me in the midst of this. Himself he has revealed
in the midst of this. Now the song that you and I are
contemplating fully corresponds with the experience of grace
that every true believer experiences in salvation. Salvation is not
in total a mere mystery. Salvation is not in total some
type of ethereal thing that we hope that God did and that kind
of one day I'll be able to experience the benefits of it. There are
some very clear and explicit things that our God has revealed
that constitutes our salvation. And they are summed up in a person. God is a person. And God reveals
his acts in a person. And the thing that you and I
have to come to know is that this salvation is personal. Moses is singing to a person
about that person and about that person's work, not merely about
his acts. God is not revealed to us until
we see him in his person. This is what's going on in the
hymn. Moses says, he has become to me strength. He has become
to me my song. David said in the song, you are
my song. You are my salvation. I will
sing unto God. He's become to me my salvation.
This becomes powerfully personal in terms of the experience of
grace in our lives. Some of you may have gone to
church for years and you may have even heard really good theology,
but you know, that you had not truly come into a real revelation
of the glory of God. You were window shopping, as
I say all the time, and it's one thing to go looking at clothes
from the window. It's another thing to buy those
clothes and put them on. It's one thing to go through
the Internet and look at all the restaurants with all the
different food that you may want to eat. It's another thing to
go to that restaurant and have a meal. And this is what we mean
by salvation. See, Moses is excited about what
he sees because what he sees is the personal revelation of
God mediating on the behalf of him and the people, delivering
them in such a way that he could never ever imagine. And the hymn,
the song pours out for us six more gospel truths worthy of
our notice. Point number three in our outline,
a definite atonement of lasting implication. Let me make this
very clear to you. When the children of Israel were
delivered through the Red Sea, the Red Sea became that way in
which God delivers sinners through Jesus Christ and his death on
Calvary Street. The Red Sea is an emblem and
type of the sufferings of Jesus Christ on Calvary Street. It
is the way that most people will never go. It is a way that requires
faith in Christ. It is a process and methodology
by which men and women are shut up to the power of God. When you find yourself between
Pharaoh and Pharaoh represents the house of bondage, it represents
sin. It represents bondage to sin.
It represents slavery to the system of sin. And you find yourself
at the Red Sea, you are finding yourself in the middle of judgment. because behind you is death and
in front of you is death also. And you have to ask the question,
can God deliver the dead through death so that through death he
comes out on the other side into life? Now, in order for you to
answer that in the affirmative, you've got to believe the gospel. You've got to believe in the
death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now where did
this deliverance start? It started the night before when
God told the whole nation to take a lamb, to slay it, and
put the blood on the doorposts of every house. It was the blood
that began to deliver the whole of the nation of Israel out of
Egyptian bondage. Did you hear what I just said?
In other words, the opening of the Red Sea is a grand emblem
of God's covenant purpose to deliver us through the blood. Through the blood. It's a clear emblem of the triumph
of Christ on Calvary's tree to bring life out of death. Now, point number two or three
in our outline says a definite atonement of lasting implications. Let me read the verses and then
I want you to go to Psalm 136, 15, where the rendition of it
is given. Verse one says, Moses, then saying
Moses and the children of Israel, this song unto the Lord and spake
saying, now watch this, I will sing unto the Lord for he hath
triumphed gloriously, past tense. Now here is how he triumphed
gloriously. The horse and his rider has he
thrown into the sea. For Moses, this act was definite. This act was final. This act
was conclusive. In fact, it was grounds for utter
rejoicing. Now you weren't there. You weren't
the Hebrew people. who were in bondage to Pharaoh
and Egypt for 400 years. So you don't have that immediate
impact in your heart and mind of the jubilation in their soul
of being delivered from their enemy. You weren't there in chapter
one of Exodus where that Pharaoh that did not know Joseph put
an indictment out to kill all the firstborn, all the males
of Egypt. You weren't there. You weren't
there when the nation that was ruling over you had set you up
to destroy you. But you and I were there in spirit
because you and I were dead in trespasses and sins and you and
I were slaves of Satan. And Satan ruled over us like
Pharaoh ruled over the people of Israel. Am I making some sense?
And we were dead, and we were slaves, and we were governed
and controlled by a power greater than ourselves. And watch this.
And you and I had no wisdom, no might, no power, no knowledge
to deliver ourselves. And if it wasn't for the mercy
of God to come along because he loved you in Christ and brought
you out of Egyptian bondage into the liberty where with Christ
has made you free, you'd still be a slave in Egypt. Am I telling
the truth? it was this attitude, it was
this frame of reference that had the people of God along with
Moses utterly rejoicing. And here's what he says over
in verse 4. Now that he has stated in verse 1 the triumph of God
and the overthrow of the horse and his horsemen, verse 4 he
says, Pharaoh's chariots and his host has he cast into the
sea. Do you see? His chosen captains
are also drowned in the Red Sea. Do you understand that Moses
is describing the complete destruction of the enemies of Israel when
it comes to their deliverance out of Egypt? Do you understand
the comfort that comes into the mind of that whole group of slaves
who all they ever thought about while they were in Egyptian bondage
was Pharaoh and his laws and his rules and his regulations
governing their life? And today they hear that he is
dead. that his princes are dead, that
his rulers are dead, that his power, that's what the chariot
of horses means, is dead, dead, dead, dead. Now you can't even enter into
that until you sense that you have a real enemy that needs
to be killed. See, when you have a real enemy,
a real foe that can destroy your soul, And you come to understand
that he is certainly and truly and finally dead. The soul goes. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. You have gotten
rid of my enemy, the enemy of my soul. I'm here to tell you
the word here is a word of comfort because it is a word of definite,
complete and final and total victory. And that's what the
atonement of Jesus Christ did for our souls. The atonement
of Christ was not a partial work by which God did some things
and left some things up to you. What Christ did on Calvary's
tree was not merely wound your enemy. bind your enemy, limit
your enemy so that the enemy can still wreak havoc in your
life. If you understand anything about the atonement, the atonement
killed your enemy, slew your enemy, destroyed your enemy,
vanquished your foes. That's what the atonement did.
If you understand anything about the atonement, when you understand
the atonement correctly, you understand that the place where
you and I live is out of the cross work of Jesus Christ, because
it's there that I am constantly reminded that my enemy is dead,
dead, dead, dead, dead, dead. Now, if you listen now, this
is the mistake we make when we get away from Calvary. You don't
have power in your own personal constitution. You don't have
strength in your own human makeup. Your mind is not... You and I
don't have stable minds. I know you may not have known
that, but let me help you now. Your mind is not stable. You
and I can be troubled by ghosts. They don't even have to be there,
but they can still trouble you. Am I making some sense? Have
you ever had a situation where you were told the good news of
the vanquishing of your foe, but out of fear, you still kept
them alive in your mind? so long as you kept him alive
in your mind you had to deal with the fear and phobia that
came with the what if Now when you understand the gospel are
right the gospel demolishes what if? For the gospel says very
plainly Christ has put away our sins Christ has vanquished our
foes Christ has destroyed our enemies Christ has destroyed
our foes forever when you understand that now This is what Moses is
doing in the hymn look at it in verse 5 Not only has God triumphed
gloriously, not only has he cast into the sea the captains, he
has covered them so that they sink to the bottom as a stone.
Now, let me share something with you. I don't want you to go in
a hurry. I want you to understand that Moses took his time to understand
fully and totally the redemptive work of Christ. He wasn't slow
to go to Calvary. and look at Calvary and see a
man hanging on Calvary, bleeding on Calvary, dying on Calvary,
and not draw out every implication of what happened. Moses stood
there, watched how God opened up the sea. That was a miracle of grace.
Are you hearing me? And how God allowed his enemies
to pursue him into the sea. That was a miracle of providence.
and how that God then turned the sea back over them so that
it destroyed them, it drowned them, and they sank to the bottom. See, when you sink to the bottom,
you dead. You're not swimming. You're not
floating on rafts or wood or chariots. You are dead. What
Moses is doing is staying there to give a definite report of
the triumph of God over the foes of God's people so that when
they move from the shores of the Red Sea into the wilderness,
they can be sure that God has completely triumphed over their
foes. Now this is a sad, sad story
in our present generation where the gospel is not fully preached.
Because while as you think that the atonement of Jesus Christ
was a partial work that Christ does and the other part you have
to do, you can have no peace. You can have no peace while as
you think that Christ, as it were, wrote the check, but you
have to sign it. You can have no peace. You can
have no peace so long as you think that Christ, as it were,
bound the enemy in a hat, Nelson, our fool Nelson, but somehow
you got to come along and pierce him through with a sword. You
can have no peace so long as you think that somehow something
you do will have to finally destroy your enemy. Until you and I understand
that the death of Jesus Christ on Calvary Street certainly and
finally and conclusively put away all your enemies. you can have no lasting peace.
Am I making some sense? See, you and I are just too fickle.
You and I are getting ready to do 12 weeks of the wilderness
sojourn. Okay? We're getting ready to
do 12 weeks. Some of you have done this with us a few years
back where we had to learn what it means to walk with God in
the wilderness. Remember that? Remember how we learned that
in the wilderness God brought us to that place where we worship
him and are taught by him His ways his character his nature
his his gospel so that when he moves us into the promised land
We'll know how to act remember that where we getting ready to
go back to boot camp for 12 more weeks Because I think some of
us have not quite learned how to walk with God in the wilderness
Am I telling the truth and even if you have learned don't you
think another boot camp will do you good? I? So we're going
to go through boot camp for another 12 weeks so we can learn the
ways and character and nature of God in his dealings with his
covenant people so you and I can be ready for deployment a second
time around. I think that's going to be necessary.
I think the year 2013 has been really difficult for a lot of
people. I think we have been shaken up and distracted and
moved out of our dignified position with God so that we aren't enjoying
Him as we ought to. I think we are missing our assignment.
I think we have forgotten what it means to depend upon God totally
and rejoice in the finished work of Jesus Christ. See, the way
the song goes, if you watch it carefully, the song actually
declares and prophesies the totality of God's victory based upon the
work that was taking place at the Red Sea. Listen to the language
of a definite atonement and its lasting implications. Verse nine,
listen to what it says in verse nine. The enemy said, I will
pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil and my lust
shall be satisfied upon them. Isn't that the way the enemy
thinks about us? I will draw out my sword and my hand shall
destroy them. Look at verse 10. But you did
blow with your wind. The sea covered them and they
sank as lead in the mighty waters. Do you see what Moses said? Dead,
done, gone. finished Let me build this Psalm
136 Psalm 136 I remember a question was raised to me maybe about
three or four years ago by a Beautiful sister who who was asking a very
innocent question and the question was Did God destroy Pharaoh in
the Red Sea or did he just destroy his captains? I Now, I understood
the implications of that question right away. Did not know the
source of the question, but I understood the implications of the question
right away. And I want you to get this today, because that
sister said, you know, when you go back to the Exodus account,
it doesn't quite show or describe Pharaoh actually being destroyed. And then I got to thinking, she
was watching Cecil B. DeMille's Ten Commandments. Stay with me
for a moment. And you know how you got Pharaoh
standing in the palace? Uriel Brenner standing in the
palace, sitting on his throne, bemoaning himself because of
the destruction of his enemies? Let me tell you, that is not
the gospel. That's not even close to the
gospel. It doesn't come nowhere near the gospel. The gospel isn't
that the devil's angels were killed, the devil's emissaries
were killed, the devil's mere works were killed, for that would
imply that the devil could rise up with another army and start
it all over again. Who wants a gospel like that?
Are you hearing what I'm saying? We believe by the death of Jesus
Christ on Calvary's tree, He put an end to four enemies. It was the devil himself. God
destroyed the devil himself. He put an end to the devil himself.
He put an end to our sin. He put an end to our sin. He
put an end to hell for us. Hell is forever and non-issue
for God's elect. He put an end to self, an end
to self. Let me make this clear. When
Christ died on Calvary's tree, he destroyed forever the devil. He said it before he went to
Calvary in Luke chapter 11, when the disciples were coming back
from preaching the gospel and doing miracles and healing. And
the Lord Jesus said this, I see Satan falling from heaven like
lightning. Do you know why? Because the
power of the gospel was already going forth in the salvation
of sinners. That couldn't happen unless Satan was defeated. See,
the great foe, our devil, he's the one that deceives the whole
world. He's the one that blinds the whole world. People give
him allegiance all the way to hell. in the salvation of sinners,
any sinner, every sinner, all of them who are saved, when you
come to know Christ in salvation, it means that you can already
view the devil in hell with the false prophet and with the antichrist.
That's what John said in Revelation chapter 20, I see that rider
on the white horse, his name is Jesus Christ, and he has thrown
the dragon and the beast and the false prophet into the lake
of fire. Destroyed, but I want you to
see it in the language of Scripture Psalm 136. Do you see it? start with me at verse 11 and
God brought out Israel from among them for his mercy endures forever
and with a strong hand without with a stretched out arm for
his mercy endures forever now watch this to him which what
divided the Red Sea into parts for his mercy endures forever
watch this and made Israel to pass through the midst of it
for his mercy endures forever this here's your antiphony Somebody's
singing what the Lord did and everybody else is going and his
mercy endures forever Here it is in verse 15 watch this but
overthrew who? But overthrew who? Thank you. Holy ghost I Watch those movies, too And they always fail to preach
the gospel They never tell the truth about Christ. They never
tell the truth about the finality of the cross work of Jesus Christ.
For Jesus Christ by himself, by one sacrifice forever put
away all of our sins and has perfected those that are sanctified.
The man or the woman that is able to look to Calvary can be
sure that his foes are dead and especially his greatest foe.
which is the devil himself. So I want you to be very clear
on this. The song that's being sung in Moses is a song of Moses
reflecting upon the totality and finality of God's work of
redemption. This is our gospel. There is
no gospel if the devil still can somehow get a hold of you
and send you to hell. What kind of gospel is that?
And what would it imply if God sent his son to die on Calvary's
tree to redeem us from all iniquity and we still end up in hell because
the devil was more powerful than the wisdom of God and the person
and work of Jesus Christ. What kind of gospel is that,
ladies and gentlemen? That'd be no gospel at all. For it would
be a salvation that ultimately could be lost based upon somebody
in the universe having a greater wisdom than God. Look at the
text again with me. Can I do a little bit of development
on this text? This is why I know Moses. Moses was lauding, he
was enthralled, he was just enamored, he was overwhelmed with the revelation
of the person of God and the deliverance of Israel through
the Red Sea. The language here is descriptive,
going back to verse 13, to him which divided the Red Sea. Do
you see that? A literal term divided there
is a covenant term. It's the language that's used
when a man makes a covenant with another man, of which that covenant
requires, now you follow me now, two people to pass between the
divided parts. Do you remember how God made
a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15? We talked about this in biblical
theology. And he told Abraham, your seed is going to possess
the land. And Abraham said, Lord, how shall I know? What assurance
will you give me that my seed will possess the land? And God
told Abraham to get all the sacrifices, all the animals, all the doves,
and to divide them in half. This is a covenant of division
that is made between two parties. Now watch this. And when the
parts are cut in half, there's a way made between the two, a
division between the two, where the two walk through the parts
in covenant agreement. And that covenant agreement is
established upon two things, the blood and the division. The
blood and the division divide them in half. And when God divided
the Red Sea, he made a covenant with his people that was already
established on the blood of Christ laid over the doorposts. He said,
come out. You walk through with me through
these divided. He divided the sea. Stay there for a moment. see
this it takes two hours but I'm gonna try to do it in 20 minutes
he divided the sea because the sea represents hell it represents
eternal separation when you read in your Bible about the ocean
the land masses back in the day crossing the sea is crossing
over from death to life it's crossing over from one dimension
to another To make it through the sea is for you to go from
the old world to the new world. For Israel, their passing through
the sea was passing from death to life. Their passing through
the sea was passing from hell's judgment into eternal life. For Israel, their passing through
the sea was passing through the death of Christ on Calvary's
tree. When you see the God-man hanging,
when you see him bleeding, When you see him suffering, he is
the division between heaven and hell. He's the separation between
death and life. He is the way that God makes
for sinners to come to God. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? He separated the sea. He divided the sea. Pharaoh was
sure that he had the people of Israel at the sea. He was sure. I got them now. And God Divided
the sea I like the way Moses said he said and God Congealed
the sea in the heart of the sea and made a wall on either side
for the people of God now watch this there is a path of righteousness
for the people of God and That same path of righteousness for
the people of God is the very destruction of their foes in
the same place God shows mercy to deliver us through death is
the same place where God shows judgment to destroy our foes
in death. And all of this is accomplished
at Calvary Street. For at Calvary Street, not only
did he, as it were, save me from hell, but he destroyed my foes. At Calvary Street, not only did
he make a way that I might enter into resurrection life, but he
destroyed sin. Are you hearing me? Now watch
this now. This is the beauty of the language. It says, and
he divided the Red Sea into parts for his mercy endures forever.
And he made Israel to pass through the midst thereof for his what? Mercy endures forever. I want
you to hear it now. This is the way one author put
it. He not only divided the sea, but he gave his people courage
to go through it. Do you understand that the same
power that was required to divide the oceans was necessary to implant
in the heart of God's people faith to walk through that seat? Do you understand that it was
the power of the gospel that gave them grace to enter into
that death? Because in their minds the only
thing they were doing was entering into death. Do you know you got
to believe the God that held those walls up to keep those
walls up, to keep them up until you get through the other side?
You got to believe God for that? Do you understand that's what
that means to believe the gospel? You got to believe that the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ actually swallowed up hell for
your soul? How can one man endure an eternity
in hell or of hell in order to deliver you into a permanent
and everlasting righteousness? How can he? He has to be God. He has to be the God-man. The
man that's able to stretch from heaven and hell in himself and
make a way for us to cross over without hell even touching us.
The same power that raised the waves on either side gave those
folks grace to take us. You know, you walking through,
you walking through the Lord, keep that wall up. Keep that wall up. Keep that wall up. And today
by grace, every day we're saying, keep that wall up. Keep that
wall up. Lord, I need you to keep the
wall up. You said you would. You said you did. Keep that wall
up. Am I making some sense? Lord, keep the wall up on a brother.
Now I want you to understand why we're saying keep the wall
up because I need to get through to the other side. Because I
understand the story. There's a whole bunch of people
on the inside of this mystery of redemption and some of them
are friends and some of them are foes. Now the way of righteousness
for the people of God is the same way of destruction for God's
foes. Do you know while Israel is going
out on the other side, the waters are crashing down on the head
of their enemies who entered into that same water, not by
faith, not trusting Christ, not loving God, not bowing the knee
to the true and the living God, daring to enter into the redemption
of God in Christ without bowing the knee to Christ, without needing
to be saved? The same place where God saved
us is where God judged our enemies. How glorious he is. How glorious
he is. How glorious he is. This is what
Moses is saying. And I want you to see the language
because the language is very Hebraic and very good. It says
over in verse 15, but he overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red
Sea. Now our word there, our verb
there for overthrow has four connotations. I want you to see
them all. And back in the account given in Exodus 15, to cast into
the sea, which is verse three, is a verb that means to shoot
as an arrow. You know what God did with his
strong arm and his bow? He took Pharaoh like an arrow
and shot him into oblivion. That's how much he hates Pharaoh.
Shot him into oblivion. The other way that verb is used
is to take and throw as a stone. The word is translated to hurl. And the idea is that his enemy
is so obnoxious that he takes him and throws him. Now, brother, when I throw the
rock, it might get outside the building. But when God throws
the rock, it leaves the universe never to come back again. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? Now, stay here with me. This
is what I meant by Moses actually seeing God act. For Moses, he
saw God as a person coming down, taking his foes and hurling his
foes away. Now, isn't that good? Isn't that good? Isn't that good
to see your God stand in the gap for you, mediate for you
and take your foe that's breathing down your neck, down your neck,
grab him and hurl him into oblivion. The Lord has become my salvation.
He's become my strength. He's become my victory. He's
become my soul I'm gonna sing about God all the days of my
life, but I'm not through The language says he overthrew Pharaoh
and the verb here that's used also means to shake off The devil
in pursuit of God's people Represented by Pharaoh was hard fast upon
them I want you to grasp this in your mind because the battle
is in your mind. We'll see this in point number
three. If I get there today, I might make this two messages.
The battle is in your mind. Here you are moving in obedience
to God in a way that you've never been before. All you know is
slavery and bondage to a previous taskmaster with whom you have
been all your life. You are more used to his instructions
than your new God's instruction. Plus, your God comes along and
does stuff that just blows your mind. He'd run frogs up all through
the land. He brings lice everywhere. He
makes it dark over there and light where you are He's trying
to let you know he's Lord of Lords and King of Kings and you
can trust him But you're tripping out because you've never met
this God before then he tells you to walk through the Red Sea
Which is going to take you a good 10 15 20 30 minutes a million
and a half people with children You know how slow children are
you understand the struggle? I? Come on, boy, you better pick
it up. We got to get through this now.
We will be safe when we're on the other side. And your enemy
is saying, I'm going to get you. You will not make it through.
You will not get on the other side. I'm breathing down your
neck. The metaphor is that. Watch this, ladies and gentlemen,
of a snake having bitten the heel of the people of God. Are you hearing me? And laxing
hold on you and hoping that the poison runs through your body
and disillusions you and affects you and gets you sick and mentally
ill so that you stop believing God. Are you with me for a moment?
Here you are making your way through the sea and you got the
snake on your heel and God comes alone and takes the snake and
shakes him off your feet so that you come all the way through
unharmed. The verb there means to shake off as if you have a
vile beast on you. How many of you remember in Acts
chapter 28, verses 1 through 4, when Paul and the rest of
those brothers made it through Heraclodome, that storm, and
they came to the island Miletus, and all those pagan religionists
saw Paul sitting around the fire, worming himself, and a snake
latched hold to him? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
See, Paul is just like the Israelites. They've just made it through
a harrowing event, and now they're settling down, and the enemy
still has one last strike against you. He latches hold of Paul,
and everybody says, oh, vengeance has got him now. That's how our
enemy talks, because he does not want you to believe in the
definite atonement of Jesus Christ. and all of the implications which
are designed to give you comfort. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
He doesn't want you to live out of Calvary. He doesn't want you
to live out of the finality of the one who loved you and gave
himself for you. He wants you to believe that he can rise up
and bite you at any time. But the text says God shook him
off. He picks up the serpent and shook him off. He bit a hold
of God's adopted son. All Israel was God's adopted
son. Am I making sense? We talked
about that Adam one, the adopted son, Israel, the adopted son,
Israel coming out of the womb of Egypt, passing through the
Red Sea, the snake biting on him. Jehovah comes down, grabs
him and takes him out and throws the snake into the fire. That's
exactly what Paul did. Do you see that? Paul took him,
listen, Paul took the snake out, dropped it in the fire, and continued
warming his hand, eating his sandwich. Why? Because he believed
the gospel. He believed the definite, final,
complete atonement of Jesus Christ, all of his foes. And so guess
what? You can bite me all you want. Ain't no poison in your
fangs no more. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
You can bite me all you want. There is no poison in your fangs.
Your bite is a delusion. In fact, I already see you dead.
I see you destroyed. So bite, bite, bite. All it's
going to do is cause me to run to Jesus Christ for healing.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? Shake him off. Shake him off. That's what God did for us in
the person of Christ. I want you to see it. Point number
four. We must take delight in the man of war. Do you see it? We must take delight in the man
of war. I'm going to stop here. We must take delight in the man
of war. Listen to what Moses says in verses two and three
of our text. Watch this. The Lord is my strength.
He's my song. He has become my salvation. He's
my God. And I will prepare him a habitation. My father's God. And I will what?
Exalt him. See, this is how you know you
believe the gospel. You're going to exalt him at all times. Verse
3, here it is. The Lord is a what? Man of war. You must believe that Jehovah
is a man of war. Why, pastor, must I believe that?
Because you are in a warfare. You are in the midst of a battle
that you cannot win of yourself. You must know that there are
political wars going on. There are social wars going on.
There are domestic wars going on. There are wars in our family.
There are wars in our churches. There are wars in our cities.
There are wars in our nation. There are wars in the world,
political, social, domestic. The warfare is spiritual in nature. Do you believe that? It is a
cosmic battle that we are waged against. A constant cosmic battle
of epic proportion for those who do not trust Christ. And
there are many casualties to be had. And everyone who is not
fixed upon the finished work of Jesus Christ will suffer those
casualties. Moses says the Lord is a man
of war. And that word war is in what
we call the plural forms. That means God has been fighting
battles since the beginning of time. Whose battles has he been
fighting? He's been fighting the battles
of his own glory and the battle of the salvation of his people.
We are learning this in biblical theology. And we are loving the
fact that God is a covenant God. He's a covenant-keeping God.
And if it wasn't for the fact that he was a covenant God, every
time I sinned against God, I would have been his enemy and he would
have had to do to me what he did to Pharaoh. Shake me off. Hurl me into oblivion. Destroy
me at the bottom of the sea. But because he loved me and gave
himself for me, and Christ is my mediator, God is a man of
war, watch this, for me. He's a man of war for us. He's
a man of war for his people He's a man of war for his glory and
you and I must believe he is a man of wars Do you know what
that mean? He enters into every one of our
battles This is what Israel must learn as they go through the
Red Sea He's a man of wars number 11 talks about the book of the
wars of the Lord Revelation chapter 19 11 says that he who sits on
the white horse with a great sword protruding from his mouth
whose name is called the Word of God and on his thigh a name
written King of Kings and Lord of Lords and he makes war against
the enemies of his foes you and I have to believe that the war
that God ultimately made was in his son Jesus Christ on Calvary
Street was that a war Was that a battle? That was a battle for
the eternal destiny of all God's elect. It was a battle that Christ
had to win. It's a battle that he did win. And it's the battle that you
and I are to rejoice in and boast in all the time. My final point,
I'm just going to make sure you see this when going back to Exodus
chapter 15. This is remarkable. This is remarkable. This is remarkable. From Egypt
to Canaan by Calvary, an established fact. From Egypt to Canaan by
Calvary and established that. Listen to how Moses sings the
song of the victory of what took place at the Red Sea. Watch this,
ladies and gentlemen, having its effect on all the nations
who are gonna hear about it. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Calvary is the triumph that we proclaim that certainly allows
us to know that where God has purposed us to go, He will get
us there. And it is the ultimate victory
that you and I are to rest in that's designed to remove all
of our foes out of the way. Moses is triumphing in the fact
of Israel already being in the land before they even get there. Listen to what the language says,
verse 13, are you there? You in your mercy have led forth
the people which you have what? I tell you we are talking about
redemption because redemption requires what? Blood. The blood
is signified in the Red Sea and the blood on the doorpost. You
have guided them in your strength unto your what? Now Moses is
talking like the people of God are already in Jerusalem. Why? Because when you and I see what
Christ did on Calvary's tree, you and I see that it is totally
finished. That Calvary is the security
and the assurance that you and I are as certainly fixed in glory
as if we are already there. Are you hearing me? that the
grounds upon which I can be confident that I am seated in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, ruling with Christ, reigning with Christ,
already glorified together with Christ is because of what happened
on Calvary Street. Do you believe that? Now that's
a joyful assurance for my own soul. But you know what God is
telling me? That insignia called the crosswork
of Christ is the sign that lets all your enemies know Your attempt
to destroy this man, this woman, this people is futile. Did you get that? Your attempt
to destroy the people of God is futile. You might as well
give up because my people whom I have delivered by my son shall
end up in glory because I can't lie, change or what? Fail. And
so now listen to the way he puts it in verse 13. And in verse
17 and in verse 19, verse 17, he says, thou shall bring them
in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the
place, O Lord, which you have made for thee to dwell in, in
the sanctuary, O Lord, with which your hands have established.
Look over at verse 14, the people shall hear, do you see it? be
what afraid sorrow shall take hold of the inhabitants of Palestine
the Dukes of Edom shall be amazed the mighty men of Moab trembling
shall take hold of them all the inhabitants of Canaan shall what
melt away verse 16 fear and dread shall fall upon them by the greatness
of your arm shall they be as still as a stone 40 years from now, from this act,
40 years. Here's what Moses said. If you
don't get it, I'm stopping right here, because I don't think you
get it. Moses said, because of this act right here at the Red
Sea, which typifies the cross work of Jesus Christ, which will
be the message that will be preached and echoed all the way through
the wilderness, into the land of Canaan, will shake up all
the foes. They will tremble. They will
fear. And they will stand still. Do
you understand what that means? When the people of God show up
at Canaan, they gonna walk in and just like the Red Sea divided,
their foes gonna just step aside and let the people of God come
in and take over just like they supposed to. This is the perspective
that Moses saw because Moses believed the definite atonement
that was accomplished symbolically at the Red Sea. This is the message
of faith that should fill the heart of every believer. I know
that glory is mine with certainty because of what Christ has did
at Calvary Street. Moreover, here's what Jesus said,
believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house,
there are many matches. This is for you folks that's
been living in small little quarters. You get to get to a man It doesn't
mean that but let's leave it if it were not so I wouldn't
have told you so and I am going in front of you to prepare a
place for you So that where I am you may be also all you have
to do is believe it All you have to do is believe it and take
what was done at Calvary is as the certification and prove certain
that everything that God promised you, he will bring to pass simply
because of him who loved us and gave himself for us. Here, let
me stop right there because I'm through. See, I can go ahead
on and sing on my own right now. I don't care if I can't sing.
I will sing. I will sing the song of Moses
and I will sing the song of the Lamb. Because I know Moses saw
Christ. And I know Moses just preached
Christ to us. And I know Moses just pointed
us to the cross work of Christ. And I know Moses has just let
us know that our victory and our triumph is in Jesus Christ.
And I know Moses is calling you and I to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And trust Him that He will get
us to glory. Just like He got the people of
Israel through the Red Sea. Do you believe that? Amen. Amen. Amen.