Exodus 14 and the Lord spake
unto Moses saying speak unto the children of Israel that they
turn and camp before Paya Hira Between Migdal and the sea over
against Baal Zephon Before it shall you can't encamp by the
sea for Pharaoh will save 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 the
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
in camping by the sea beside Piahirath. before Baal Zephon. The Egyptians had a mighty trained
army. 600 chosen chariots and all the chariots
and captains over every one of them. No telling how strong this
army was in numbers. They had weapons. The Israelites,
they had gold and silver, but that doesn't help much in a war.
The Egyptians had the strategic advantage. There was no way of
retreat or escape for the Israelites. And the Israelites had nothing
except God on their side. Let's look at some key words
and phrases in this chapter tonight and pray that the Lord will teach
us. This is the salvation of God that we're gonna see tonight
by God's own definition. This is his salvation. If God
will be pleased to save, this is how he'll do it. Look at verses
1 through 3 again now, and look at these words. Pharaoh, verse
3 particularly, Pharaoh will say, they're entangled in the
land. The wilderness has shut them
in. Do you imagine Moses was thinking, yeah, that's probably
what he's going to say. I might be thinking that same
thing. I'm kind of thinking that too.
We're going to be trapped. We're going to be trapped. The
question, when God is speaking to you, and this is the lesson
here. And God speaks through his word.
He speaks through his word. He doesn't speak through dreams
and visions. People talk about, well, the
Lord is telling me to do this. Where did you get that from?
The Lord's been leading me to do something. Really? Are you
sure? The Lord has impressed upon me.
Have you heard people say things like that? It might be your own
wicked, depraved heart impressing those things upon you. If it
didn't come from God's Word, how do you know that God is saying
it? He speaks through His Word and
through preachers who are faithful, His chosen preachers who are
faithful to the Word. But by His Word, He speaks. But
here's the question when God speaks. Do I know what He said? Not do I understand it. I'm sure
Moses may have very little understood why God would say this, what
God's thinking was, what God's purpose was in this. And God
said, my thoughts are not your thoughts. There was no ambiguity
whatsoever, though, as to what God said do. You see, what God
says may not always make sense to us. We may not always understand
it. But it's pretty clear what God
said. Moses didn't have any doubt about that. Remember that in
life. I pray that God will help me
remember that. I may not understand why or how many of the questions
that we often have. But God's clear when he speaks.
And then notice verse four. These words. I will be honored. Know that about God. understand
that about God in all things. Whether it's something we call
good or something we call bad, God said, I will be honored.
I will be honored upon Pharaoh. Now God is honored and all of
his glorious attributes are magnified in the saving of a sinner. God
is glorified. His greatest glory is revealed
in Him having mercy on whom He will. That's clearly seen in
the Scripture. God's holiness is magnified nowhere
like at Calvary. We don't even understand what
holiness is, but if you see what happened, what the Lord Jesus
Christ did on the cross, we'll have some understanding if God
is pleased. That's where you'll see the Holy
God. He that spared not His own Son. where our Redeemer paid our sin
debt before Him. God, that's where His holiness
is revealed. His justice and wrath are nowhere exalted like
in the Savior's substitutionary death. God's love and mercy and
grace are defined by the sacrifice of the Son of God. Herein is
love that He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
That God loved us and sent His Son. That's the very definition
of love and mercy and grace. The sacrifice of the Son of God
in the stead of his elect. But understand this, God will
be honored upon you, whether you love him or hate him, whether
you honor him or dishonor him. And I would to God, and I wish
I weren't so cold and indifferent in saying this, But my heart's
desire and prayer to God is that he might save us, all of us,
our children, our loved ones, this church. We love one another,
don't we? And we desire God's best for one another. But he said,
I will be honored. Even upon this reprobate Pharaoh
who never had a good thought for God. Verse five, these words. And the heart of Pharaoh and
of his servants was turned. This is a truth that we know
to be true. But how often do we understand
this and acknowledge this practically in day to day life? That every
heart is in the hand of God. Proverbs 21 one, the King's heart
is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turns
it with or so ever he will. And it's no accident that he
says the King's heart there because a King is the one person in this
earth who can do what he wants to do, or at least he thinks
so. But that one, his heart is in God's hand and God will do
with him what he wants to do. Just a little while before, these
same people were saying something different. In Exodus 12, 33,
it says, the Egyptians were urgent upon the people of Israel that
they might send them out of the land in haste, for they said,
we'd be all dead men. They said, you get out of here. Now they're saying, why have
we done this? That we have let Israel go from
serving us. Well, they did it for two reasons.
Because God purposed it and caused it. And because they wanted to. They wanted to because God purposed
it and caused it. This is what happened at Calvary.
Acts 2.23, Him, the Lord Jesus, being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, this is
by God's determined, foredetermined, predestinated purpose, that the
Lord Jesus was delivered into the hands of wicked men. But
you took him, and by wicked hands you crucified and slew him. God purposed it and caused it.
And they nailed him to the cross because they wanted to. They
hated him. They didn't call a meeting together
and say, now God has prophesied that his son would be crucified,
so we better arrest him and try him and convict him and nail
him to a cross. No. They got together and said,
we got to get rid of this Nazarene. He's undermining our religious
authority. And we got to do away with him.
That's what they said. They had no idea why they were
doing what they were doing, except they wanted him dead. But they
did exactly what God had determined before to be done. And I'll tell you this, God doesn't
just turn hearts in matters of providence. He does a heart work
when he saves a sinner too. He opened Lydia's heart down
by the river in Philippi, as recorded in Acts 16, he opened
her heart. And she believed the gospel.
Peter preached at the gospel in Acts chapter two, and it says
that those who heard the gospel were pierced in their heart.
And they said, men and brethren, what in the world are we going
to do? Repentance is defined as a change
of heart. And Paul said to Timothy in 2nd
Timothy 2.25, Timothy, in meekness, instruct those who oppose themselves,
and peradventure God might give them repentance. He might give
them a change of heart. Because his heart's in the hand.
Their heart's in his hand. He'll change it if he wants to.
He'll turn it if he wants to. That's why the prophet said,
Oh Lord, turn us and we'll be turned. Because our hearts are
in His sovereign hand. God will cause you to fall in
love with His Son if He's pleased to do so. And you'll say, why
have I done this? That I've rejected His Son my
whole life. Why have I done that? That's
what they said. Why have we done this? Because God said you would,
that's why. Because God purposed that you would. Because God turned
your heart, that's why. And then when they changed their
mind, God had turned their heart back. Verses 10 through 12, let's skip
down to that. Look at this. 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? Is not this the word
that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we
may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us
to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness."
Now this is a brilliant, clear picture of us in our natural
sinful state. What miserable, whining, ungrateful,
unbelieving wretches we are by nature. We see in all of God's
people and in all of the reprobates revealed and recorded in the
scripture ourselves. It's like looking in a mirror.
They said, let us alone. And that's what we say. The fool
hath said in his heart, no God. I don't need God. I don't want
God. And for us to get exactly what
we deserve, this is all God has to do. Just leave us alone. When I was in religion years,
many years ago, someone preached a message once that talked about
how hard it is for a sinner to go to hell. He talked about all
the mountains that a sinner has to climb to get to hell. He said,
you've got to climb over the mountain of God's love to get
to hell. And you'll have to climb over the mountain of God's grace
to get to hell. And he went on and on about it.
You'll have to climb over Mount Calvary to get to hell. And even
then I knew and the reason I remember this at all is I remember thinking
what a load of malarkey that is. Do you know what you have
to do to get to hell? Absolutely nothing. You don't
have to climb anything. You don't have to say anything.
You don't have to do anything. Just nothing. Except you repent. You go in
there. And I am too. And if God Just
does what you want him to do, that's where you'll go, to hell. Saul of Tarsus was perfectly
happy, wasn't he, on the road to Damascus. He didn't need God.
He had no thought for God. But bless God, he will not leave
his people alone. They may say, let us alone. He's not going to do that. He's
not going to leave you alone. He's going to goad you until
until, as Paul himself said, when it pleased God, He revealed
His Son in me. But these here, they said, let
us alone. But if you're one of God's sheep, He's not going to
leave you alone, and you'll praise Him forever for it. Verses 13
and 14, let's look at that. And Moses said unto the people,
Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord,
which He will show to 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. Why like that? Isn't that clear? What's your
part in salvation? And that's what we're talking
about. We're talking about salvation here. Moses said you're fixing
to see God's salvation. What was their part in it? It
was a twofold role. Stand still, number one. And
number two, shut up. Stand still and see God's salvation.
He gonna fight for you and you'll hold your peace. You'll shut
up and just stand there. That's what you'll do. And that's
what I'll do. Did you know that's the hardest
two things in the world for a sinner to do? It takes great grace from
God for a sinner just to stand still and shut up. What are you going to do anyway
in this situation? Here come the Egyptians. There's
the Red Sea. You've got no way out and no
way to fight, no hope, no help, except the one that told you
to stand still and shut up. He said, I'll help you. I'll
save you. And here's what you do. Nothing. Don't do anything. Don't say anything. Instead,
preachers all around the country are trying to get sinners to
do something to be saved. Moses said if you want to see
God's salvation, don't you do a dadgum thing Just stand there
and watch him save you You remember what the Lord Jesus
said to his disciples in John 15 5 without me you can do nothing
It's always been true and it always will be true By standing
still and shutting up there's one more thing that's going to
happen here You're going to see God's salvation. What is God's salvation? What was it that they saw that
day as the Red Sea parted before their eye? You know what they
saw? A way. They saw a way. They saw the
way. In their situation, that was
the way out. away out of the mess that they
were in and away to the promised land of God's blessing and favor. Do you remember what the Lord
Jesus said to Thomas in John 14? He had said to Peter in chapter
13, where I'm going, you can't follow me now. Peter, of course, being Peter,
just like us, he said, why can't I follow you now? I'll follow
you. I'll die following you. Lord said, no, you can't follow
me now. And then in chapter 14, he said in verse two, in my father's
house or many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told
you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself
that where I am there, you may be also. I'm going there now.
You can't follow me now, but I'm going to come back and get
you. And then you're going to go with me. And where I'm going, you know
where I'm going. And you know the way. And Thomas said, Lord,
we don't know where you're going, and how can we know the way?
And Jesus saith unto him, I am the way. They looked, and behold, in the
most unlikely of places, a way was opened. And that's God's
salvation. A door of escape. access to the
promised blessing of God before their very eyes opened up where
they did not see it before. That's what happens when God
saves a sinner. How are we going to get to God?
He's holy and we're wretched and vile. He can't even look
at us, much less embrace us. Oh, but the Lord has opened the
way. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the door. Romans 5, 1, therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom also we have access. By faith into this grace
wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. That's God's salvation, a door,
a way, access. Escape from destruction and access
into this grace wherein we stand. If God ever brings you to the
place where you can, by his divine power, stand still and shut up
before him, you'll see God's salvation. Quit talking about
what you've done, your many wonderful works and all of that, and just
hush before God. What the law saith, it saith
to them that are guilty, that every mouth may be stopped, and
all the world stand guilty before God. It saith to them that are
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
be seen and found to be guilty before God. God will shut you
up, and He'll show His salvation to you. Christ the door, Christ the way,
Christ our access to God. Christ is God's salvation. Simeon
looked into the face of the baby, the infant, that holy thing that
was born of the Holy Spirit. He looked into that little baby's
face and said, I've seen God's salvation. And we look to Christ
and we see God's salvation. God's glory is seen in his face,
Paul said. He gives the light of the knowledge
of his glory in the face of his son. Rest is found by coming
to him. He said, whosoever believeth
in me shall not perish, but have everlasting life. You're not
going to perish. Stand still and see God's salvation. It looks hopeless. I know it
does to you. With men it's impossible, but with God. Now think about
this. I'm saying this, Christ is God's
salvation. He's not just, He doesn't just
show us the way, He does show us the way, but He shows us the
way in that He shows us Himself. He is God's salvation. Now think
about this. Everything that God requires
from me, And what does he require from me? Perfection, obedience,
honor, submission, everything. Service, glory. He's to be glorified
by his creatures. Everything that he expects of
me, requires from me, he looks to Christ for. Since the Lord
Jesus Christ became my surety, my surety, In eternity, God has
never looked to me for anything since then. In other words, he
never has, because in eternity, Christ has always been my surety. The perfect obedience to his
law that he deserves and demands from me, he looks to Christ for.
Payment for my sin that I must render. I must have a sacrifice,
an offering that God will accept for my sin. He doesn't look to
me for it, he looks to Christ. Christ crucified is my sin offering
before God. My righteousness, my sin offering. He looks to Christ for everything. And everything that I need and
expect from God. I look to Christ for it. I look to Christ for it. No man
cometh unto God but by him. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me, he said. God looks to Christ, and not
me, for what He requires of me. And for what I must have from
God, I look to Him also, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is
God's salvation. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. In verse 14, Moses said this,
we read it already, the Lord shall fight for you. I love those words in the scripture
for you. This is my body that is broken
for you. This is my blood that is shed
for you. I go to prepare a place for you. If God be for you. Us who can
be against us. The Lord Jesus Christ. shall
fight for you. Everything necessary for our
salvation, Christ has done for us. He's won the victory for
us. It's not our fight. It's his
fight. He just does it for us. He lived for me. He died for
me. Coming back for me. He won the
victory over all my enemies for me. The last enemy that he shall
be destroying for me is death. And it won't be long. Now also taught in the text here,
and clearly we see our inability and God's all sufficiency of
Christ in salvation, but also we see the act of faith here.
God gives faith when we can do nothing. When we're shut up to
his mercy. We got no hope, no way out, nothing
we can do, nothing we can say. God gives faith. It's the spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The fruit of the spirit
is faith. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering.
And you go down the list there, you'll find faith. The spirit
produces faith. Christ is the author and the
finisher of our faith. And he causes faith to spring
up in our hearts by his Holy Spirit, by the quickening power
of the Holy Spirit. He gives us faith. With men it's impossible, but
with God all things are possible. So God gives faith in his son. And then what do we do? Look
at verse 15. And the Lord said unto Moses, wherefore Christ
thou unto me, speak unto the children of Israel that they
go forward, but lift thou up thy rod and stretch out that
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 harps of the Egyptians, and they shall
follow them. And I will get 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 have gotten me honor upon
Pharaoh, upon his chariots and 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." God said, now you tell the people to go forward.
Go forward. That's a simple command. And
they did, they went. They went into the midst of the
sea, up on dry ground. By faith, we obey God in going
the way that he has commanded. And that way is to come to Christ,
believe on Christ, hear Christ, honor Christ. But in that act
of obedience, we don't boast in the flesh. Can you imagine
these Israelites going through these walls of water? The Red
Sea was raised up a wall on their left hand and a wall on their
right hand and they knew and you can imagine as they looked
at those walls of water and kept moving forward as the Lord had
commanded. Don't you imagine their one thought was there's
one thing keeping us from being destroyed and that's the will
of God. And that's how faith is. It doesn't
boast in itself. It just obeys God and says, look
what God's doing. Look what God did. Look what
he said he'll do. They knew that there was just
one thing, the gracious and almighty will of God. And if God saves
you, you'll know that too. Boasting is excluded. God-given
faith knows that there's one thing between the sinner and
hell, and that's the gracious will of God. James said, of his
own will begat he us with the word of truth. That leper said,
Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. There's one thing that's
going to keep me from dying a miserable, vile, stinking leper. Paul said, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. Faith looking unto Him. Don't you imagine they were praying
in their hearts to God as those waters were towering above them.
Lord, go through here with us. Don't leave us. Don't let those
waters fall on us. Faith looks to the one who gave
it. Notice in verses 19 and 20 that
the cloud of, the pillar of cloud and the pillar of light, it was
darkness to them that gave light to these. And that's how it is
when the gospel is preached, when God is saving sinners. This is a picture of what happens.
When God gives faith to some and withholds it from others,
He gives the light of the knowledge of His glory to His people in
the face of Jesus Christ. But His enemies are left in darkness.
He said, Blessed are your eyes, for they see. You have light
to see. And notice this, too. There's
so much here. The very thing that was life
access, salvation to the Israelites was death to the Egyptians. The
very thing. And that's what Paul said the
gospel is. To some it's the savor of life
unto life. And that same gospel preached
is to others the savor of death unto death. As it goes forth,
it has that effect by God's power and purpose. The same gospel
Now look at verse 26. 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. There remained not so much as
one of them." Notice those words particularly, there remained
not so much as one of them. God is able to save to the uttermost. those that come unto the Lord
Jesus Christ by Him. What is our problem? What do
these Egyptians really represent when it comes right down to it?
Why did Christ die? Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15
3, I deliver unto you first of all that which also I receive,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. The Bible says your sins have
separated between you and your God. And having drowned our enemy
in the red sea of his precious, sinatonic, soul-redeeming blood, it must be said of all of our
sins, there remaineth not so much as one of them. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. That verse, Romans 5, 20, where
it says grace did much more abound, do you know? There's one word
that's translated did much more abound. You know what it means?
Overflowed. He drowned all of our sins in
the sea of His love and grace. What a beautiful picture here
in Exodus chapter 14. Verses 29 through 31. 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 the Lord saved Israel that
day out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. Their one problem, there were
a whole bunch of them, but really one problem, and had been their
problem for 430 years. It was their problem, their parents'
problem, their grandparents' problem, their great-grandparents',
their great-great-great-great-grandparents' problem. And they sat there and
watched them wash up on the show dead. and said, look what God
did. They summarized it this way.
The Lord saved Israel that day. That's the summary of the whole
thing, isn't it? We look back upon our own story. All that God has done for us,
we must say with Jonah, salvations of the Lord. It says there that they feared
the Lord in verse 31. Israel saw that great work which
the Lord did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord
and believed the Lord and his servant Moses. They feared the Lord. In verse
10, it said they were sore afraid there, but not of God. They were
scared of the Egyptians there. Our Lord Jesus said to his disciples,
don't be afraid of them that kill the body. And then after
that, they don't have anything else they can do to you. Don't
be afraid of the Egyptians. Don't be afraid of this world.
Don't be afraid of my enemies and your enemies. King David said to the Lord in
Psalm 130 verse four, there is forgiveness with thee that thou
mayest be feared. They weren't afraid of the Egyptians
anymore. But they had a different kind of fear. A reverence and
awe. A trembling in their heart. A reverence for the God who delivered
them from their enemies. You and I both know there's not
much of that. in this world these days. There's
not much fear of God. Thank God for those few who've
seen their every problem washed up on the shore, dead. And they're going to sing a song
to the Lord. A song of praise for His redeeming love and grace,
for His power, exalting His name for His power and glory. May
God give us grace to do that while we're here in this world.
To reverence him in our hearts and to sing praises to his holy
name. Until that day when we'll see
him as he is and sing a whole lot better. Let's bow in prayer.