impossible commands, and we'll
get to these in just a little bit. Our text verse here in Exodus
14 is verse 13, wherein are three commands from God given through
Moses to the people of Israel. These three commands are impossible
for the natural man to obey. Impossible. 1 Corinthians 2.14,
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. The natural man, Paul
refers to, is the natural man in all of us. This flesh, that
that is not regenerated, that that's going to die and go back
to the dust. It's that so-called free will. It is shut out from
any spiritual discernment or understanding or will or desire. Romans 8, 7, because the carnal
mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. Apart from the overwhelming influence
of the Spirit of God, these three commands are impossible. So here they are. The first one
is in the words, or is the words, fear ye not. We're in verse 13. That's the first one. Fear ye
not. The second is the words, stand still. And the third is
the words, see the salvation of the Lord. So we look at these
three things for a little bit this morning. The first command,
fear ye not. And I say command because it's
not a suggestion, it's a command. Someone has said about the Ten
Commandments, they're not ten suggestions, they're ten commandments. So these are not suggestions,
they're commands. And the first one is Fear ye
not. The setting here is just after
the Israelites have left Egypt, and they were clearly instructed
of the Lord to come this way. In verse 2, they were instructed
to take this route and encamp beside the sea. There was an
easier path. Left to themselves, they wouldn't
have been here. But the Lord instructed them deliberately
to come here. So the Israelites are here encamped
by the sea. And they're exactly where they're
supposed to be, difficult as the situation is. They're hemmed
in. Difficulties on every side. Mountains. the Red Sea in front of them,
Pharaoh's army in hot pursuit behind them. They're in trouble. Where did they mess up? God couldn't
possibly be in this, but he was. He's right in the middle of it.
He arranged it. He arranged it. And that's a
lesson we all need to learn, and we have learned. But we're
awful forgetful. When the devil comes to you and
says, if you were the person you ought to be, you wouldn't
be having all the trouble you're having. But we know the devil's a liar.
God's children are appointed trouble in this life. Not because
he don't love us, but because he does love us. It's to humble
us. It's to bring us to depend upon
him, to lean on him, to cry to him for deliverance, as any child
cries when it's hurting. That's God's desire. That's God's
purpose. So excuse me from anybody's idea
of trouble-free Christianity. It don't exist. If it's trouble-free,
Christ is not in it. It's not following Christ if
it's trouble-free. Excuse me from those who say,
if you're having difficulty in the Christian life, you must
be out of God's will. They're liars. All of them are
liars. These folk were exactly where they were supposed to be,
where God had instructed them to be, and they're in big trouble. Christ our Lord said clearly,
In the world ye shall have tribulation. That's plain, isn't it? You'd
rather listen to that TV smiling jerk that says, something good
is going to happen to you today. Well, no, all hell might break
loose. We don't need to listen to that
garbage. We need to listen to what the Lord said. In the world
ye shall. And I really emphasize that word
shall lots of times. I've told you I love the shalls
in the Bible. What it does, it removes all
doubt. It's not maybe so, might be,
wish it was. When God says shall, you can
mark it down. That's how it's going to be.
Christ said in the world you shall have tribulation. No question about it. He meant
what he said. And I promise you this morning,
all of God's children can say amen to that. There's a lot of
good religious folks that can't say amen, but I promise you every
single one of God's sheep, God's sinful, shameful, sorrowing little
sheep can say amen to the words of our Lord, in the world you
shall have tribulation. We've experienced a little of
it. So these Israelites are exactly where they're supposed to be.
The Lord instructed Moses to lead them exactly this way. It
was a crisis created by God. And they're scared half to death
with the circumstance they're in. And then they hear this impossible
command, fear ye not. God is saying, I know you're
staring death right in the face, but fear ye not. Don't be afraid. I thought of the several options
here, which really were no options at all. Mountains they can't
climb, a sea they can't cross, A pursuing army they can't fight. There are no options. They're
helpless. Helpless. And as I meditated
on this for the message today, I'll confess to you, I have been
overwhelmed this week. I have spoken with more people
with problems. People I know, people I love,
people I care about, family, friends, brothers and sisters
in the Lord. I've spoken with more this week
with troubles than any week in my entire life. And the Lord
has made me conscious of the heavy, heavy load that so many
are under. And I am so thankful, I feel
almost guilty that I have it as well as I do. But so many are facing things. You hear the job is going to
end next week, and you're unemployed, and you're not so young anymore,
and a good job's hard to come by. And while you're very fearful
over that, you learn that your child is taking drugs. And while you're tore up over
that, the doctor calls, and yes, It is cancer. And on and on the
list goes. The heartache, the trouble. And
then you come to church and put on a nice face and act like everything's
all right. You've had a wonderful week.
And the preacher gets up and opens God's word and says to
you, with all your facing, that God says, even in your situation,
don't be afraid. Fear ye not. And your mind says,
that's easy for you to say. But you're not in my shoes. You're
not facing what I'm facing. But I'll tell you something,
these people were. There's no relief on any side. A lot of people say to you, look
on the bright side. And I know you've done already
looked on every side and there is no bright side. And still
God says, fear ye not. There is no way the natural man
can not be afraid. There is no way the flesh can
not be afraid. Many different times, in many
different situations, The Lord says to his people, fear ye not. He never says it when you have
no reason to fear. He always says it when you feel
you have every reason to fear. Fear ye not. Somebody said there are 365 fear
nots in the Bible, one for every day of the year. I don't know
about that. I know there's a bunch of them.
But one of my favorite verses for many years, many, many years,
Isaiah 4110 says, Fear thou not, for I am with you. Why is it
so hard for us to believe God is with us? Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. I'm not interested in being upheld
in my righteousness. And you'd better junk that idea
as well. You hadn't lived good enough.
You hadn't done good enough. You're not good enough for God
to give you the time of day. But he said, I will uphold thee
in my righteousness. His righteousness, the right
hand of my righteousness. Well, the right hand of His righteousness
is His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is saying to His people, I
will uphold thee in my Son. And that's really good news for
sinful characters like you and I. This morning before daylight,
I was sitting at a certain place, drinking coffee and reading a
little bit and studying, meditating. And a waitress came over and
spoke to me and said, will you be going to church today? I said,
I sure will. And she said, would you pray
for me? And I said, I sure would. Her name is Wendy, spelled strange,
W-I-N-D-E, Wendy. And I tore off a little corner
of the sheet of paper I was looking at, and I wrote this down, Isaiah
41.10, the verse I just quoted you. And I said to her, you read
that one verse, no more. Just read that one verse. Close your eyes and meditate
on what it says, one statement at a time. Fear thou not, for
I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my Righteousness. Oh my, how blessed, how blessed. Fear ye not. Now let's look at
the second impossible command in the same verse, verse 13.
First is fear ye not. Secondly, it says stand still. That is shut up. Be quiet. Don't move. Don't run. Don't whine. Stand still. I'm sure these Israelites
felt like, and so often we feel like, I've got to do something,
even if it's wrong. Well, it will be most of the
time. The hardest thing The impossible
thing. Even though you know you can
do nothing about the trouble, the hardest thing is to do nothing
and wait on the Lord. He said stand still. Be still. But this flesh of ours just won't
do it and can't do it. There's something in us that
brings us into action, puts us in gear. And there's something
in us that says you really can't afford to trust God with this. This is too big. You can't afford
to listen to God now. You've got to handle this yourself.
God's only good when you're not in trouble. But you've got to
take action. You can't trust him with something
this big. You've got to handle it. Does that sound familiar? Well, he has spoken two things
impossible for you to do in the natural man. Fear ye not and
stand still. Then there's a third one in this
same verse. See the salvation. of the Lord. If you could have
asked those Israelites at that moment, well, what do you see
as the outcome here? Is there any salvation to be
seen? They would have said, no, absolutely
none. This is it for us. We're sure
to be destroyed right here and right now. We cannot survive
this. No way. They could not make themselves,
fear not. They could not make themselves
stand still. They could not make themselves
see any salvation, and neither can you and I, in the energy
of sinful flesh. But the secret is, these commands,
it was a powerful word. It was an effectual word. from
God through Moses. I thank God this morning. I can
say I've experienced this powerful word, this effectual word, a
few times in life. And looking back now, I promise
you it's nothing short of a miracle. And many of you have had crisis
hours and can testify the same thing. full of fear, helpless,
and feeling hopeless. And the grace of God carried
me through. It's like, Joe, it's like I was
in a coma almost. Knowing I ought to be full of
fear, but I wasn't. Knowing I ought to be doing something,
But it didn't. Sure, there was no salvation
to be had. I would never survive it. But we did. Look at verse 21. It continues
in this story. 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. 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. He makes a way when there is
no way. The old song said, he turns the
night to brightest day. But I'll tell you this, he won't
do it without changing you. He won't do it and let you come
out with still a rebellious heart and a proud heart saying, boy,
I made it through that. No, no. Here's how he does it. He'll crush you. He'll bring
you to acknowledge if it were just you, you wouldn't make it. And he'll bring you to testify
that it's him who made the difference, not you. The last verse in this chapter
14 says, and the people feared the Lord. They reverenced the
Lord. They honored the Lord in this
that He'd done. Would that be you this morning?
It says they believed the Lord. Not believed in Him, but believed
Him. Would that be you? Going into chapter 15, they sing,
the Lord is my strength and my song. and He has become my salvation. Would that be your song? He is
my God, and I will prepare Him a habitation, a place for Him
to live in my heart. Would that be you? They used to sing an old song
around this country. I thought of it the other day, long before
many of you were born. If anyone makes it, surely I
will. That's a fool's religion. That's a fool's religion. Deception, self-deception. I want to say the demands are
too great. The commands are too hard. If anyone makes it, surely I
will, but nobody's going to make it. There's never been but one
made it, the Lord Jesus Christ. the righteousness required to
live in the presence of God, none of us have in ourselves.
These commands are impossible. You cannot, on your own, keep
from being full of fear. You cannot stand still and you
cannot see the salvation of the Lord except as the Spirit of
God speaks effectually to your heart, points you to His Son,
you embrace Him, and fear vanishes. He's taken your place on the
cross. You stand still. You don't try and work your way
to God. You stand still. And you sing,
Jesus paid it all. We sing, it is enough that Jesus
died and that he died for me. The work is finished. And in
Christ our Redeemer this morning, we do see the salvation of the
Lord. I'm not interested in seeing
anybody else's version of salvation. I want to see, believe, and rest
in the salvation of the Lord. Psalm 3 and 8, salvation belongeth
unto the Lord. Jonah 2 and 9, salvation is of
the Lord. Acts 11 and 17, salvation is
the gift of God. Let me conclude and say this. Maybe you this morning are one
of those who hadn't had a lot of trouble in this life. You've done most things right, but you need to know this. If you don't think the storms
of life somewhere along the way will be more than you can handle,
you're wrong. You're wrong. Troubles, cares,
burdens, sorrows will all close in on you one day. The pressures of life and the
forces of hell will bring you to despair. And without Christ,
you'll say, what's the use? And you'll quit. You'll give
it up. Old preacher Joe Parson used
to say, don't matter what you're going through, don't matter what
you're facing, don't matter what the situation is. He said, if
you just won't quit, God will work something out. That's helped
me through the years. I've said a whole lot of things
that don't make any sense. I know that. But my prayer is
that somewhere along the way, God will put some little thought
just a word or two, just a sentence, just a thought in your heart
that will carry you, may not be for anybody else, may just
be for you, and that you won't be able to let go of it while
you live and breathe. Such was that statement of that
old man to my heart in the early 70s. If you just won't quit,
God will work something out. I've needed that somewhere around
a million times since then. God knows what He's doing. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
only way through here. So I want to say to you, dear
friends, men, women, boys and girls, hear this. You'll only
be able to bluff your way so far in this world. If you're God's child, He'll
crush your heart. and bring you weeping to Bally's
feet. And if you're not God's child,
your life may be wonderful and successful without a care, only
to drop off into hell forever. And I want to say this morning,
I'd rather walk the valley and feel his touch. I'd rather hear
the wolves howl and hell accuse if I can hear my shepherd's voice
in the midst of it all. I'd rather be on the cross beside
Him and represented in Him than to be part of the multitude of
spectators mocking Him. And though these three commands
are impossible, to the natural man, even to the religious man,
I'm glad. Look into Christ this morning.
I can fear not. I can stand still. And I can
see the salvation of the Lord. He's doing a good job. I'm making
a mess of things, but he's doing a good job. Stand with me.