Well, it's good to see you all
out. I remember those who requested prayer. Fred had his second chemotherapy
today. So I remember him and that he
gets over that pretty quick. Debbie, remember her? She's going
to the retina doctor tomorrow in Asheville. We got to get her
left eye checked out because she's not seeing too well out
of it. And we've got some damage to the retina evidently is what
it looks like now. I remember hearing your prayers.
I remember the others who requested prayer. I also seek the Lord's
help for that. We'll just sing one song tonight
since it's just one, two, three, since we have an octet. We'll sing hymn number 242, Jesus
I Come. Out of my bonded sorrow at night
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come into thy freedom, gladness, and
light. Jesus, I come to thee out of
my sin. Out of my want and into thy wealth
Out of my sin and into thyself Jesus, I come to thee Out of
my shameful failure and loss Jesus I come, Jesus I come, into
the glorious gain of thy cross. Jesus I come to thee. Out of life's storms and into
thy calm. Out of distress to jubilant song. Jesus, I come to thee. Out of unrest to joyful song. Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. Into thy blessed will to abide. Jesus, I come to thee. Out of myself to dwell in thy
love. ? Upward for I on wings like a
dove ? Jesus I come to Thee ? Out of the fear and dread of the
tomb ? Jesus I come, Jesus I come and light of thy home. Jesus, I come to thee. Out of the depths of ruin untold,
into the peace of thy sheltering home. Exodus chapter 14, we'll begin
reading verse 19 and read through the end of the chapter. And the angel of God, verse 19,
which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind
them. And the pillar of 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
those, so that the one cannot come near the other all 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. 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 the right
hand and on the left. And the Egyptians pursued and
went after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's
horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. It came to pass that
in the morning, watch, the Lord looked into the host of the Egyptians
through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the
host of the Egyptians, and 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 for them
against the Egyptians. And the Lord said to Moses, Stretch
out thine hand over the sea, and the waters may come again.
upon the Egyptians and upon their chariots and upon their horsemen.
Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea. The sea returned
to his strength. When the morning appeared and
the Egyptians fled against it, the Lord overthrew the Egyptians
in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered
the chariots and the horsemen and all the hosts of Pharaoh
that came into the sea after them. There remained not so much
as one of them. 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. And Israel
saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians.
The people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and His servant
Moses. Let us pray. Father, we thank
you that we can again rehearse this great and glorious thing
that's taken place in the exodus of Israel from Egypt to the promised
land. We know that what awaits them
on this other side is 40 years in the wilderness because of
their disobedience. We know someday, some 40 years
away, your people will enter into the promised land. across
through another body of water on dry land, the River Jordan. We thank you, Father, that we
can read of your great victories over the enemies of God. We're
thankful that we know that you stand for us and fight for us.
We know that we're shut up to your grace, and our strength
is in thee and not in ourselves. Father, we pray for those who
are sick, going through trials. We pray you'd remember them be
close to them, comfort them in Jesus Christ. Be with us tonight
as we stand here to preach the gospel and enable me to say right
things concerning you. Give ears to hear and eyes to
see the great and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray in
His precious name, Amen. Now this chapter is possibly
one of the most familiar accounts in all of Scripture. Were it
not true, it would make for the stuff of legend. The Israelites
were on the shore of the Red Sea. The Egyptians were in hot
pursuit, filled with bloodlust. The Israelites trembled at the
sight of Pharaoh's army and even desired to return to slavery.
Their cry for deliverance and the consequence of being delivered
thus far has faded from their minds and their hearts that once
begged for salvation now beg for bondage. Physical deliverance
generally presents with an entirely new set of problems. Sometimes
the former state seems more desirable than the present state. Only
spiritual deliverance fits the person to the trials that ultimately
follow being born of God. In between the proverbial rock
and the hard place, the people falter, as people always will. In the case for those whom God
has brought to the end of themselves, find themselves without hope
except in God. Without natural hope they found
that they are shut up once again to mercy and the Lord never forsakes
his people for that we can be thankful. Moses tells the people
to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Admire what they
saw, what they saw that day. The Lord tells Moses to stretch
forth his rod toward the Red Sea. And when he does, the Lord
sends a mighty wind and divides the sea. Evidently, the language
seems to say it took all night to divide the sea. The wind blew
all night long and divided the sea, opening up a dry highway
for the children of God to walk through the midst of the sea.
The water stands up as if they were congealed. In fact, the
word divided does mean congealed. And the entire nation crosses
between these walls of water, and to do it on dry land. This
has always been a wonder to me, even though I watched Cecil B.
DeMille's movie. It was still a wonder to me how
this took place. I wondered how wind could cause
such a thing. Recently, Debbie showed me a
video on the Internet. Somewhere on the west coast,
a great wind had come up from the inland, and it pushed the
ocean about a half a mile back into the sea. It was amazing. The wind was so strong that the
ocean just kept receding and kept receding and kept receding
until you could see a half a mile out of beach. All done by the wind. And I thought
of that last hurricane that came down the Florida way and the
wind that brought those waves and the ocean water inland to
be 12 feet, 15 feet deep on the land. The Lord gave a mighty
wind from the east and somehow and wondrously divided that red
sea when the wind is from the hands
of him who holds the winds in his fists according to scripture
when the winds are in the hand who commands the ocean saying
hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thou
proud waves be stayed i was sure that though it was astounding
to me it was no great thing to the sovereign lord to do this
wondrous thing As the Israelites begin their trek across the bottom
of the sea, the Egyptians are, for a time, unable to follow
them. God has fully hardened their hearts against His people.
Being in control of every aspect of this historical account, the
Lord now halts their forward progress. The manner in which
He does this is a defining picture of the world as we know it. Everything
since creation has to do with two things. darkness and light. That's the title of my message.
In the beginning darkness covered the face of the deep and God
said let there be light and Christ was that light. Thereafter every
day save for the seventh day was described as evening and
morning not morning and evening but evening and morning which
suggested darkness to light. Isaiah 39 12 says yea the darkness
hideth not from thee But the night shineth as the day, the
darkness and the light are both alike to thee. This asserts that
both darkness and light are equally serve the sovereign purpose of
Almighty God. However, in the world they are
meant to be polar opposites to us, and the distinction is a
matter of life and death according to scripture. Isaiah 520 says,
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil. that put darkness for light and
light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for
bitter. And all you have to do is listen
to a TV show today, you know that's exactly where the world
is today. And the word woe means judgment without mercy. Judgment without mercy. In the words that preceded the
prophesied birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Isaiah chapter
9 and verse 6, Isaiah wrote, The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light, and they that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. In John
chapter 8 and verse 12, our Lord said, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but he shall have the light of life. And 1
John chapter 1 verse 5 through 7 says, Then is the message,
this is the message which we have heard and which we declare
unto you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. But if you walk in the light
as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and
the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
darkness and light that day and every day is employed to save
the Lord's people and to subdue his enemy until the time of their
disposal that's what it says in verses 19 and 20 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. 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. It was as if, it says in Luke,
there was a great gulf fixed that one cannot pass to the other. Darkness and light is employed
by God. The angel of the Lord was no
doubt the Lord Jesus Christ. And the record is that he went
from the front of the congregation to the back and took a pillar
of cloud with him. And he placed that cloud between
the pursuing horde and the children of Israel and that the Egyptians'
progress was halted right on the spot. They were stymied in
their pursuit. The side of the cloud facing the Egyptians was
darkness. That's a two-sided cloud. On
one side is light. The other side is darkness. The
side facing the Israelites was light. The Israelites were lightened
to see the way through the Red Sea. They could walk through
the Red Sea by the light of that cloud. You see, it was at night.
This was at nighttime when this took place. And they walked through
as if it was the day. The Egyptians were in darkness.
They couldn't see. They couldn't see the Israelites.
They couldn't see through the cloud. And it was nighttime,
and there was a cloud. So it was doubly dark to them. The cloud was darkness to them,
and the darkness was double in that it was night. They could
not see that the people they pursued with vengeance were walking
away from them. They could not see that they
were walking away safely in the midst of the Egyptians' own graves. They were walking through that
Red Sea, and that Red Sea was going to be the grave of the
whole entire Egyptian army, darkness and light. Both are like to God,
and both were employed in the saving of His people. That's
what it says here at the last part of this chapter. Thus the
Lord saved Israel that day. In verse 30, Out of the hand
of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the
seashore. The applications of this truth
are manifold. The world, the enemies of God,
cannot see the salvation of the elect. They can't see it. because it's invisible. Faith
is a gift of God and cannot be seen. The Egyptians are in darkness.
The world is in darkness. It can't see the child of God
come to know the Lord Jesus Christ because it takes a spiritual
understanding and that can only be had by the person who is actually
saved. The elect see the salvation of the Lord. They see it. just
as Israel saw, that sea divided that they could walk across on
dry land. But the natural man, according to scripture, receiveth
not the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness to him.
Neither can he know them, nor discern them, because they are
spiritually discerned. But the spiritual man discerneth all
things, yet he is discerned of none. In the light the elect
walk through the midst of sure death. That was the Red Sea now. I don't know how deep it was.
I haven't looked up the depth of the Red Sea, but they walked
through on land and on each side of them was a wall of water standing
up. The wind had stopped now. The
wind wasn't holding it back anymore. Some even said that it had congealed
or turned to ice. I don't know whether that's the
case. Some theologians said it was. But nonetheless, they were
walking through what would normally kill them They were walking through
death. Walking through death. How do
I know? Because that same water, when it came down, killed all
the Egyptians. That's a sure fact. A sure death. Clearly seen in the drowning
and demise of the Egyptian army. Christ here is seen as the protection
of His people. He goes behind the people, in
between the enemy and them, and He sets up this cloud of darkness
and light, and they can't pass. They can't see, and Christ is
the protection of all His people from all their enemies. Sin,
Satan, self, the world, all those things are against the child
of God. What's our protection? Our strength? No, we don't have
any. Christ has set up this cloud. The world's in darkness. Can't
see. We're in the light. and we see
and understand by God's grace. The world hates the people of
God. The Lord said that. Marvel not that the world hates
you, it hated me. Why does it hate you? Because
you're one of the elect of God. According to John 15, 19, you're
one of the elect of God. and because you're the if you're
of the world the world would love his own because you're not
of the world because I've chosen you out of the world therefore
the world hated you. How does the world know? How in the world
can this dark world know that you're chosen of God? It's not
written in the stars. It's not on some signpost. How
do they know? There's only one way they can
know that you're the elect of God. Only one way. You gotta tell them. They find
out from you. And when you tell them, they're
going to hate you. They're going to hate you because
they think you're special. But you know that election shows
that you're not special at all. God has not chosen the wise or
the noble, but he's chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound those that are wise. He's chosen the base things of
the world to confound those that are mighty. and the things that
are not, to confound the things that are. That's who He's chosen,
the nothings of this universe He's chosen to save. And the
world, when they hear the word elect, which they will hear from
you, it's the only way they'll know about it. And so you just
think you're special, they have no idea, they can't see. They're
in darkness. They're in darkness. Christ stands
between them and the world, and He's their shield and their buckler
and their high tower, as He's called in Scripture. And He guarantees
this in Isaiah 54, verse 14, No weapon formed against you
shall prosper, but in that day you shall judge them, and your
righteousness is of Me. That two-sided cloud was darkness
and light. This is the world we live in.
This is our world, darkness and light. The same cloud was darkness
to some and light to others. Christ is said to be for the
rising of some and the falling of others. His gospel is said
to be the savor of death to some and the savor of life unto others. Two sides of that cloud. The
gospel says the gospel is hidden from the wise and the prudent
and revealed unto babes, dark on one side and light on the
other, the very same gospel, the very same Christ. When the
Lord lifted the cloud and the Egyptians resumed their pursuit,
the Lord knocked the wheels off their chariots. Their chariots
were turned to sleds and they began to know once again who
they were dealing with. They thought they was going to
overtake the Israelites But here they come when the cloud is lifted
and they see them in dry land. Great day. That must have been
a frightening thing. Wait a minute. I'm in a chair without wheels
and a horse is dragging this thing along and I'm going in
between that water toward these people. I'm going where they are. And
they begin to wonder and think, wait a minute, maybe this is
bigger than we thought it was. Maybe someone is fighting for
them Because they're certainly not fighting for themselves,
they're just walking away from the fight. There ain't no fight
in them. Somebody else is fighting for them. That's what it said
in verse 25. It said, And he took off the chariot wheels,
that they drove them heavily. So that the Egyptians said, Let
us FLEE from the face of Israel, for the LORD fighteth for them,
and they used the word Jehovah. fighter for them against the
Egyptians. They finally come to see it. I remember one time
I was reading about this scientist who was a real scientist. And when you see the word scientist,
don't pay a whole lot of attention to it. Because generally speaking,
science is in the hands of those who will fund it. So, you know,
they have to come up with the right conclusion for those who
fund it. True science is not like that. But this guy was a
true scientist. He was a biologist. And he studied the human character,
or not character, but human makeup. And he was astonished with it.
He was just astonished at how the body is and how the human
being is made up. And he said, I got this funny
feeling. He said, I keep climbing this mountain of knowledge, learning
more and more. And he said, I feel like I'm
going to get to the hilltop and I feel like I'm going to run face to
face with God. That's what the Egyptians found
out. they pursued with hatred in their heart. Their hearts
had been hardened. They were full of vengeance and venom against
Israel and they were going to wipe them out. Halfway through
the trip they said we better turn back. God's in this. God's in this. One day this dark
world is going to say that. They're going to hide in the
rocks and pray for the rocks to kill them. They're going to
flee to the mountains. they're going to run for their
lives. Why? Because finally they're going to say, this is the Lord.
This is the Lord. The Lord caused the mighty wind
to cease and the Egyptians met their watery grave, sinking to
the bottom like stones. It says in verse 18, no, verse 28, and the waters
returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the
hosts of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. There remained
not so much as one of them. big slaughter that day, huge
drowning that day, a lot of choking going on that day. We can remember
the words of our Lord as He spoke to Moses and said the Egyptians
shall know that I am the Lord when I've gotten me honor upon
Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. Darkness and
light. That's our life. Father, bless
us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right.
Hi, Chris. Hi. How are you? What's she doing in Alabama? She's in Alabama now. I don't
know. She's heading to Louisiana. What? She's heading to Louisiana. Oh.
OK. You can hear Shreveport. She ought to go to Jim Weimer
or Virginia Woolf. Jim Weimer. You know about him.
OK.