Let's look first at verse 51
of chapter 12. And it came to pass the selfsame
day that the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the
land of Egypt by their armies. Now, can you imagine the experience
of this? They had been in Israel or they
had been in Egypt for 400 years in hard bondage, miserable lives,
and now the Lord is bringing them out. Try to put yourself
in their place. Can you imagine the electricity
that must have been in the air as they were marching out of
Egypt? How exciting. What anticipation they must have
felt for the future. What a miraculous deliverance
they had experienced. Now, I can't imagine how exciting,
truly exciting, this must have been. Chapter 14, verse 1, And
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel
that they turn not go in the direction which they thought
they were going, they were to turn and encamp before Pyhahiroth,
which means the place of the gorgeous, deep pits, between
Migdol, which means high tower, an inaccessible place, and the
sea, over against Baal Zephon, which means the place of winter,
the place of destruction. That doesn't sound like a very
good place to go, does it? And yet, that's where they're called
on to go. And it was a disastrous place
for them. There was no access to retreat. As a matter of fact, it was a
strategic nightmare. They were put in a place where
if the Egyptians came back after them, there was nothing they
could do. They were stuck there with nowhere
to go. Now, God speaks concerning what
Pharaoh will do. God has placed them in this terrible
place, so they would have thought. Verse three, for Pharaoh will
say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land. They are in a position where
they can't get themselves out. The wilderness has shut them
in. And God said, 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. This is what
I'm going to do to Pharaoh. So Pharaoh does exactly what
God determined for him to do. Verse five. 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? Now, you'd
think they would have learned their lesson from that. But their
heart was turned. Who turned it? The king's heart
is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. He turned Pharaoh's heart. Verse 6. And he made ready his
chariot and took his people with him. And he took six hundred
chosen chariots and all the chariots of Egypt and captains over every
one of them. And the Lord hardened the heart
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children
of Israel. And the children of Israel went
out with an high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after
them and all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and
his army. And he overtook them in camping by the sea, this impossible
place where God placed them beside Pihahiroth before Baal Zephon. Now, Pharaoh did exactly what
his wicked heart wanted to do. But it was nothing more or less
than what God determined before to be done. That's clear from
that passage of scripture, isn't it? Pharaoh is God's pawn. He just doesn't know it. But
he is God's pawn. Verse 10. When Pharaoh drew nigh, the children
of Israel in this place where there was no retreat, they lifted
up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. And they were sore afraid, and
the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. There was absolutely
no place for them to retreat or to escape. And they were terrified. Now, I got a question. Should they have been terrified? After all they had seen, after
all God had done for them, after all the miracles they had experienced,
should they have been terrified? Now, you know they shouldn't
have. With God, nothing shall be impossible. But they were looking at things
from a completely fleshly perspective. Have you ever been there? Looked
at things from a completely fleshly perspective. That's what they
were doing. And they were terrified. They saw no means of escape. So look what they said in verse
11. And they said unto Moses, because there were no graves
in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?
Wherefore has thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out
of Egypt? Now this is an expression of
their unbelief and their wickedness. Verse 12, look what they say.
Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying,
Let us alone. Don't bother us. Don't interfere
with us. Leave us alone. Leave us be. We're fine with things the way
they are. For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians
than that we should die in the wilderness. Now here is the essence
of human sin. Let us alone. The absolute worst thing that
could happen to me or you is for God to just leave us alone. He doesn't have to do anything.
All he has to do is withdraw his hand and leave us alone. As a matter of fact, you want
to know what reprobation is? You see that in Scripture. God
gave them over to a reprobate mind. You know what reprobation
is? It's God leaving somebody alone. That's all He's got to
do. Leave you alone. If He leaves
me alone, I will most assuredly wind up in hell. Don't you know
that's true concerning you? And yet, here they are saying,
isn't this what we told you? Leave us alone! Aren't you thankful the Lord
doesn't answer prayers like that? Merciful. The Lord is. Look in verse 13. And Moses said
unto the people, Fear ye not. They were scared
to death and it was a bad kind of fear. It was the fear of mistrust.
It was the fear of unbelief. Fear ye not. Stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you today.
For the Egyptians whom you've seen today, you shall see them
again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you
and you shall hold your peace. How merciful the Lord is. One
could see why he could have said, OK, have it your way. I'm going
to leave you alone. Have you ever been there with
somebody you just had it with them? Go your way. It's OK. Door's open. But God is so merciful. He would not leave them alone. In mercy, He refused to leave
them alone. And Moses gives them another
word from the Lord. He says, fear not. Fear not. Now, you know, there's a good
kind of fear. The fear of God, that's the beginning of wisdom.
That fear of God that makes a man afraid to look anywhere but Christ. The fear of God that makes a
man afraid There's a good kind of fear. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. This is maybe the best description
of a believer. A believer is somebody who fears
God. He truly fears God. There's a good kind of fear,
but there's a bad kind of fear. It's the fear of mistrust. It's the fear of unbelief. It's the fear of man. They were
afraid of men at this time, weren't they? At this time, they did
not trust the Lord to save them. So they were afraid. They were
afraid of Pharaoh's armies. They were being dominated by
the fear of man. At this time, they should have
known. They had no reason for fear, but they had it. How many
times through their history did they fall prey to unbelief? How
many times in your history have you fallen prey to unbelief? Here they are scared to death,
but God says, fear not. Now, if God says to you, fear
not, you really don't have any reason to fear, do you? He says
to these people, fear not. Look what he says next. Verse
12. Or verse 13, and Moses said unto
the people, fear ye not. And here's the next exhortation. Stand still. What are you doing when you're
standing still? Nothing. Nothing. What can I do to get out of this
mess? Nothing. What can I do to save myself?
Nothing. You know, the hardest thing in
the world to do is nothing. Isn't that so? But really, there's
no place they could move anyway. You know, we're in a situation
where the only way we can be delivered is by a miracle of
God. The only way we can be saved
is the divine intervention, the miraculous work of God, Him doing
something for me. Well, are you telling us to do
nothing? Wait a minute. What can you do? What can you
do? Come on. What can you do? What strength do you have? What
spiritual ability do you have? You want to do something? Tell
me what you can do. The fact of the matter is we can do nothing. You ever been brought to see
that? You know, it's only when you stand still and do nothing
that you see you can do nothing. Have you ever seen there's absolutely
nothing you can do to save yourself? There's nothing you can do to
contribute to your salvation. There's nothing you can do to
make yourself more savable or more likely to be saved. There's
not one thing you can do. There's no sight. There's no
spiritual light. There's no understanding until
we stand still and do nothing. Stand still. Don't move. Don't do anything. It's only when you stand still
that you can see. The salvation of the Lord. What he says. Stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. Now, that word, see, is the word
generally translated, look. It's quite often translated in
that scripture, look, look, look. Stand still, don't look, don't
do anything, simply look upon the salvation of the Lord. Now, please listen to me very
carefully. The salvation of the As I call his name Jesus, we've
already read that, for he shall save his people from their sins,
the salvation of the Lord. Jesus Christ himself is the salvation
of the Lord. Do you remember the words of
Simeon? Lord, now let us, thou thy servant, depart in peace,
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. When he saw the Lord Jesus Christ,
he saw God's salvation. Now, may God give us grace. The only way we can look upon
his salvation is for him to give his eyes to see and ears to hear.
But to look upon his salvation, Christ Jesus himself is salvation.
And the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about
that, think about Christ, my salvation being a person, is
I think about union with the Lord Jesus Christ. united to
Him, one with Him. He said, Before I formed thee
in the belly, that's before I had any physical existence. He said,
I knew thee. He said, Behold, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Now this blows my mind all together. I started thinking about this
today and it almost feels like my brain is going to cave in
trying to think about it. There's never a time when I didn't
have existence before the Lord Jesus Christ. There's never been
a time when I wasn't united to Him. There was never a time when
He didn't know me. I never began in His experience. Every believer has always been
one with the Lord Jesus Christ. Can I understand that? No way
I can understand that. Do I believe it? Yes, I do. And that's where all of our confidence
comes from. He is our salvation. Think of
Him as standing firm. Now, I don't know what took place
before time began. The Bible gives us some hints.
He's called the messenger of the covenant. We read of the
covenant of peace that was sealed with His blood. But somehow,
I don't know how this works, but somehow God the Father gave
God the Son of people, all of His elect, everybody who believes,
everybody who sees their need of Him. And He said, you agree
to bear their sin and to be their Savior. And He said, I'll do
it. And at that time, Everything
that God required of me. He looked to his blessed son
for everything. Everything. You see how he is
salvation. Think of his incarnation when
he became a man. And he kept God's holy law. That's my righteousness before
God. He is my salvation. You think of him being nailed
to the cross. You think of Him bleeding and
dying. There's my sin payment. My sin became His. He paid the
debt. You think of His resurrection.
What's His resurrection tell us? There's my justification.
You think of His intercession. Right now, there's a man representing
me in glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one reason why I'm preserved.
He keeps me. He prays for me. He's my Savior. He is Salvation! And I tell you,
when we finally have some glimpse of this, we can talk about it
now, but how much of what I said do you understand? We get a glimpse
of it. We get a glimpse, but with just
a little, it's so far above us. I like what David said, such
knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's high, I can't attain
to it. We can't grasp this, but I tell you, I tell you, one of
these days, when I'm perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus
Christ, and I'm just like Him, I'm going to have some little
glimpse of how he himself is my salvation. Stand still. And just look, behold the salvation
of the Lord. You know, this is what we're
considering right now. is the most glorious thing we
could possibly consider. The salvation of the Lord. Christ Jesus is the salvation
of the Lord. And we're called upon to do nothing. Don't just stand there and do
something. No, don't do something. Just stand there. And behold, the salvation of
the Lord, your complete salvation in Him. Now, look what he goes
on to say in verse 13, 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 are ones you're
so afraid of. All your fear is about these
Egyptians. You've got no way to get out
of this mess. You think you're in trouble. Stand still. See
the salvation of the Lord, which He'll show to you this day for
the Egyptians that you're so afraid of, whom you've seen today.
You shall see them again. No more. Forever. Verse 14, the Lord shall fight
for you. And you'll hold your peace, you'll
keep your mouth shut. No objections. The Lord will
fight for you. Isn't that wonderful? The Lord
will fight for you. As a matter of fact, we have
an example of what all that is in this very chapter. Look in
verse, the Lord shall fight for you. Look in verse 23. And the Egyptians pursued and
went in after them in the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's
horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass
that in the morning watch, the Lord looked unto the host of
the Egyptians through the pillar of fire into the cloud, and He
troubled the host of the Egyptians, and He took off their chariot
wheels, that they draved them heavily, so that the Egyptians
said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth
with them against the Egyptians, if God be for you." And that's
what it means to have the Lord fighting for you. If God be for
us, who can be against us? What confidence. There's no possibility of defeat.
There's no possibility of anything but complete success. Verse 15.
And the Lord said unto Moses, this is interesting. Of course,
it's interesting. It's the word of God. And the
Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore, priest thou unto me, speak unto
the children of Israel, that they go forward. And this almost
appears to be a contradiction, doesn't it? He says, stand still,
see the salvation of the Lord. And now he says, go forward.
Do you know what direction going forward was? The Red Sea. The water. Go forward into the
water. Now, their warrant for doing
this, it wouldn't have made sense to anybody to start marching
into the sea, but their warrant for doing this was the command
of God. This was the act of faith. Hebrews 11, 29 says, By faith
they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians
are saying to do. They tried to do it. And what
happened to them? They drowned. You see, when you
try to believe, you don't believe, do you? You don't try to believe,
you believe. When you try to believe, you're
not believing. The Egyptians were trying to believe. They
were trying to think that water was going to be held up. And
what happened to them? The scripture says they drowned. He said, go
forward. Now, there's a time for asking. And there's a time for receiving. There's a time for believing.
There's a time for trusting. There's a time for acting. Go
forward. Don't retreat. Don't regress.
Don't stay the same. Go forward. Go forward in faith. Go forward in love. Go forward
in zeal. Go forward in obedience. Go forward
in growth. Go forward in works of faith.
forward. That's an encouraging command,
isn't it? Now, if God commands me to go forward, and he enables
me to go forward, you know what I can do? Go forward. God says, tell them to go forward. And here's the reason why they
can go forward. Let's keep reading in verse 15. And the Lord said
unto Moses, Wherefore cryest thou unto me? Speak unto the
children of Israel, that they go forward. But lift out thy
rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it.
And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the
midst of the sea. And behold, I will harden the
hearts of the Egyptians. And they shall follow them, and
I will get me honor upon Pharaoh, and upon all his 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. He went from
before them to 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, the Egyptians. But it gave light
by night to these, the Israelites, 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 here's the act of faith.
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. Now, what must
this have been like? They're walking on dry ground
where the sea was. On either side there's a wall
of water. And this they were sure of. The
only thing keeping them from drowning was the will of God. You reckon he didn't question
that? They knew the only reason that they were preserved was
the will of God, a miracle of God. They knew the only thing
that kept them from being destroyed is the mighty power of God. Isn't that what faith is? You
believe that, don't you? You believe the only difference
between you and hell is what God does for you. You believe
that. They walked through that land. Did that really happen? Of course
it did. Of course it did. Well, that's hard to believe.
It's not hard to believe. With God, nothing shall be impossible.
There wouldn't be trouble for God. They walked through it on
dry land, which represents faith. Now, verse 23, I want you to
notice this. The Egyptians saw the same thing
and the Egyptians pursued and went in after them. They saw
the same thing Israel did. They saw the water standing up
in a heap. They saw the dry land before them. The Egyptians pursued,
went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's
horses, his chariots and his horsemen. They saw the same thing,
but they had no faith. They went in without being commanded
to. You see, God commanded the Israelites
to go. He never told the Egyptians to.
You see, faith begins with God's command, doesn't it? I love that
passage of Scripture. I've been thinking about this
a couple of weeks, trying to make up my mind whether I want to preach
on it. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our
faith. Where'd my faith come from? The
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the author of it. He's the
cause of it. He's the originator of it. Do
you need faith? Ask Him for it. Ask the Lord
to give you faith. The only way you're going to
get faith is for Him to give it to you. That's the only way
you're going to have it. Ask the Lord for it. He's the author
and He's the finisher. He's the perfecter of our faith. Now, 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. And there remained not so much
as one of them. Now obviously every one of them
were killed, but that means more than that. What's the name of
this city? It's the Red City. I don't have any doubt that that
represents the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what's
said regarding our sins? There remains not so much as
one of them. Complete, full, free justification. Irreversible, irrevocable, complete. Believer, before the thrice holy
God, you have no sin. That's the truth. There remain
not so much as one of them. 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. That's
the walk of faith. Verse 30, Thus the Lord saved
Israel. There's a brief summary of our
faith. The Lord saved Israel. Salvation is what? Of the Lord. The Lord saved Israel that day
out of the hand of the Egyptians. He did it that day. And Israel
saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. And this is a statement
regarding the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. We were saved in
that day. Verse 31. And Israel saw that
great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians. You know,
I feel quite sure not one of them thought this was a cooperative
effort. Not one of them thought they helped God out in this.
They knew this was the work of the Lord God Almighty. They believed
this. And Israel saw that great work
which the Lord did upon the Egyptians. Isn't that what we see when we
see God's salvation? We see the great work the Lord
did. And the people feared. But this was a good kind of fear.
They feared the Lord. And they believed the Lord and
they believed his servant, Moses. Now, when we see the salvation
of God that he's accomplished, here's what happens. We fear
God. We fear him. The reverence and awe and respect
of his majesty and his person. And we believe him. You know,
God can't lie. He can't lie. We believe him.
And notice it says they believe his servant Moses. You know,
they had a hard time believing Moses. They were all the time
questioning him. And they're going to be questioning him plenty
more after this. This will be evidenced by believing
God, the one who brings the word from the Lord. You'll believe
what he's saying. Now, if I'm telling the truth, You'll believe me. If I tell you the truth. If I
tell you the truth of God and you don't believe me. It's not
me you don't believe. It's God you don't believe. If
I'm telling the truth. They believe the Lord. And they
believed. His servant, Moses. Now, what a blessing What a blessing
to be saved by the salvation of the Lord. You might not have
much of what this world calls good and great. So what? Could you really care less? You
know, the salvation of the Lord. Let's pray together.