What's her name? Nancy? I'll
write her down anyway, just in case she ain't. She diabetic? Is it time? Oh, OK. Nancy Rice, is that right? I
remember hearing your prayers. And the others also. Dee Parks is doing about the
same. They've done, I didn't realize
this, but people who have terminal cancer, there's a lot of organizations
that do things for them. And they sent the whole family
to Boston for a Celtics game and put them up. They had their
own butler in the hotel and everything. This is all free. And they went
to a an ice hockey game last night. And they put Dee's picture
up on the Megatron because he's a soldier. He was a soldier and
they put it in. They just done some wonderful
things for him. He's building a lot of memories for the family
and I'm thankful for that. But continue to remember him
in your prayers. Let's see if the Lord's helped for them. Julie's going to 30th. Where,
Asheville? Going to mission, okay. She's
going to mission to have, they're sure they're gonna do a hip replacement,
right? Okay. Well, she's got, her bones ain't
that great, but I've seen them do that operation. It ain't fun
to watch, I'll tell you that, because they put that thing over
the bone and drive it with a lame hammer. The body just shakes.
Gladly they're asleep, but you know, it's something to see. I think she'll do well if it
doesn't cause any problems. She'll do well with it. Be out
of that kind of pain, that'd be great. No service Sunday. Everybody
knows that, but I gotta text the people that weren't here,
so I'll text everybody that wasn't here. Y'all have a Happy holiday
with your families and enjoy your family. Me and Debbie and
the cat will have a good time too. Maybe Josh will come over,
I don't know. I never can tell. That's all the announcements
I can think of. We will resume service. Next Wednesday night
we'll have service and the following Sunday we'll resume services.
We just read the weather report today is supposed to be down
to one on Sunday. So wrap up, make sure your pipes
are wrapped up. Make sure your heat's working.
It's gonna be something. We ain't seen that since the
80s, I don't think, that low a temperature. Because Larry
was living with us last time it was that low, so. Long time
ago. Let's begin our worship service
tonight with hymn number 46, Old for a Thousand Tongues to
Sing. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of His grace. my gracious master and my god
assist me to proclaim to spread through all the earth abroad
? The honors of thy name ? Jesus a name that charms our fears
? That beats our sorrows cease ? Tis music in the sinner's ears
? Tis life and health and peace ? He breaks the power of canceled
sins His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood availed for
me. Him ye deft, his praise ye dumb,
your lucent tongues employ. Ye blind, behold your Saviour
come, and leap ye lame for joy. Glory to God and praise and love
be ever, ever given by saints below and saints above the church
in earth and heaven. When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died My richest gain I count
but loss And pour contempt on all my pride. ? Forbid it, Lord, that I should
boast ? Save in the death of Christ my God ? All the vain
things that charm me most ? I sacrifice them blood. See from his head, his
hands, his feet. Sorrow and love flow mingle now. Did e'er such love and sorrow
meet? O'er thorns composed so rich
a crown Were the whole realm of nature mine That were a present
far too small If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to Exodus chapter 13. I'm going to read verses 17 through
22. The title of my message tonight is, Out of Egypt. And when it came to pass that
Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through
the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near, for God
said, Lest there occur adventure, the people repent when they see
war, and they return to Egypt. But God led the people through
the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and the children
of Israel went up harnessed, or girded, out of the land of
Egypt. And Moses took the bones of Joseph
with him, for he had straightly sworn the children of Israel,
saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my
bones away hence with you. And they took their journey from
Succoth and encamped at Etham in the edge of the wilderness.
And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar, a pillar
of a cloud to lead them the way, and by night a pillar of fire
to give them light to go by day and night. He took not away the
pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from
before the people. Let us pray. Our Father, we are
thankful that we are privileged as your children to whom you
have given faith to believe the scriptures, that we can see and
get a glimpse of the wondrous providence of your divine sovereignty
as you bring things to their appointed end. This day marks
the fulfillment of that prophecy you gave to Abraham on that night
that you put him in a trance. Father, we thank you that we
can see these things. Oh, how many years we looked
into your word as lost men and women and could not understand.
And now we grasp and rejoice. We thank you, Father, that you
have taken your power to yourself and you have reigned. You ruled
this world and do so with absolute sway, controlling all things
and all people, all for the benefit of your people and for the glory
of your name's sake. It is a great comfort to your
children to know that though everything seems outside our
control, that our God is in control of all things. We bless you and
thank you. We thank you for the shed blood
of Jesus Christ that put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself. We thank you that by that blood
he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. So much
so that you'll remember their sins no more and there will be
never a need of another sacrifice. We pray for those who are sick,
continue to pray for Fred to help him in his recovery from
this lymphoma. I'm thankful for the good word on Melvin and he's
doing so much better. I pray for this Nancy Rice. It should be with her and comfort
her in this time. I pray for this family, this
lost, this loved one, Ployr's family. It should be with them,
comfort them in Jesus Christ. Help us tonight, Father, as we
look at your word. Cause us to glean from it that
which you would have us to have and understand and appreciate.
Help us, Lord, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. As we have seen in the history
of this people, beginning with the prophecy of the captivity
of Abraham's seed and their subsequent delivery from Egypt, way back
in Genesis 15, on the same night when he believed God and it was
accounted to him for righteousness, all through that it has been
a wondrous discovery of the mysteries of divine predestinated
providence. Had we been there while this
was going on, we wouldn't have known what was going on. We wouldn't
have known from one second to the next. But God has given us
his book and explained to us what he did and who he did it
to and how he did it and how he moved people and manipulated
them. God's manipulation of the minds
and wills and emotions and consciences of men, his control and movement
of the elements of beasts, even to the microscopic bacterium,
causes the believer to pause and stop and ponder and worship
in awe of the greatness of our God. Each plague sent upon Egypt
was accompanied with God hardening Pharaoh's heart until the final
blow that destroyed every firstborn in the land, and Pharaoh temporarily
relented and ushered the people of God out of his land gladly.
and they left with the spoils of Egypt. There is but one more
time that God will harden the cruel despot's heart and that
will be for their utter destruction before the eyes of Israel as
he drowns the army in the Red Sea. Pharaoh's demise is set
in stone. It always has been. Before a
few more sunsets he will know something. He will know what
this is all intended to prove to God God says, I am going to
make him know that I am God in Israel. I am going to make him
know that he thinks he has power, but all his power is derived,
that I am the Lord and the Lord over all. He's doing this, all
of this, to show that forth, to show that he is the God who
softens some people's hearts and even gives them new hearts.
and of the hearts He hardens, and it is totally according to
His good pleasure and His will. He does not ask anybody's permission.
He does not give account of His matters. He does as He pleases
in heaven and earth and all the deep places. Now in this passage
of Scripture we see the beginning of what this book is called,
the Exodus. That means the leaving, the going
out from. The people laden with the wealth
and spoils of Egypt begin their journey to the promised land.
It is but a few miles away, 11 days journey actually, a journey
that would take less than two weeks, but it will eventuate
in a 40 year sojourn in the wilderness because the people are rebellious
and stiff-necked. At the end of that journey, only
two of those who leave at this time, who are above the age of
20 years old, only two of those, and they said there was upwards
of a million people who left Egypt. Only two of the original,
who were 20 years old, 20 years or younger, will leave this day. Only two, Joshua and Caleb, will cross
over Jordan with the remainder of the people of Israel, while
those that were over 20, their carcasses remain as the dust
of the desert and the wilderness even to this day. there's some proving to be done
for this people. And it takes God 40 years to
prove them in different ways. God says that. He did things
to prove them. And they will be proved. And
what they will be proved to be, even as they enter into Canaan,
they will be proved to be a gang saying and a stiff-necked people.
But there's proving going to be done. Look over at Deuteronomy
chapter 8. Moses recalling God having these
people in the wilderness and feeding them forty years with
the manna to prove something. In Deuteronomy chapter 8, verses
2 and 3, it says, Thou shalt remember all the way which the
Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness to humble
thee and to prove thee to know what is in thine heart whether
thou would keep his commandments or no. And he humbled thee, and
suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manner which thou
knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make
thee know, that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Now he says that
after they said this in Numbers chapter 21. In Numbers chapter
21 verse one it says in King Arad
the Canaanite which dwelt in the land heard tale of Israel
came by the way of the spies and he fought against Israel
and Israel vowed a vow to the Lord said if thou would deliver
this people into my hand I will utterly destroy their cities
and the Lord hearkened unto the voice of the people. Have I got
numbers 21? I've got the wrong verse here. Well, it's not Numbers 21. Anyway,
what I wanted to bring your attention to, oh, here it is, beginning
with verse 4. And they journeyed from Mount
Horeb by the way of the Red Sea to encompass the land of Edom.
And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the
way. And the people spake against
God and against Moses and said, Wherefore have you brought us
out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread except
all the manna that was there every day of the week. Neither is there any water except
for the rock that followed them wherever they went and gushed
forth with pure water. And our soul hates this manna. Our soul loatheth this light
bread. He said the Lord brought you there and get fed you manna
to prove you. to humble you, and it did not
humble them, did it? Our soul loatheth this light
bread. Well, we know Christ is the manna from heaven, and what
that simply means is, are you going to be satisfied with what
God has provided for you or not? And they were not. They were
proved to be a rebellious and a stiff-necked people. Back in
our text, in verse 17, the Lord reveals His knowledge of the
mind of natural men. He says this in verse 17, And it came to pass, when Pharaoh
had let the people go, that God let them NOT go forth the way
of the land of the Philistines, although that was near, that
was a shorter passage. For God said, Lest peradventure
the people repent, or change their mind when they see war. And they returned to Egypt. Now
you would think, well is God worried about them doing that?
No, God is revealing something to us. The shortest way to the
promised land is through the land occupied by the Philistines,
but the Lord directs them to avoid that course. And He says
because the Philistines were a warring nation and the people
might change their mind and return to Egypt. He knew they would.
He knew they would. The Lord is speaking after the
way of men. He knows all things. He is omniscient.
He knows what is going on because He has purpose for what is going
on. He knows what He has planned for His people. He speaks thusly
because if He did not control the entire scenario, the people
would falter. And that is the case of every
creature. This is the accounting that the
natural man and even the spiritual man is in danger of returning
to bondage if he has suffered to do so. put at the right circumstances,
he may return to the bondage. Those who have tasted freedom,
in which Christ has made them free, are but a thought away
from returning to the bondage, if God but lift his controlling
hand from them. We have but to consider that
David, the apple of God's eye, a man after God's own heart,
turned from God, committed adultery with Bathsheba, had her husband
murdered on the battlefield, and say well that's the way war
goes. Wasn't nothing but a thought. Went outside on his roof and
there was Bathsheba bathing on her roof and she must have been
pretty. He said I gotta have that woman. Now he was the king.
He could have had any woman in Israel he wanted. But he wanted
another man's wife. Don't take much. He had a thought
in his head and it followed through. Look at Peter at Antioch. Peter
at Barnabas. They were there at Antioch with
the people who had heard the gospel from Paul, the Gentiles,
who were saved by grace and knew nothing of the law. And they
were having fun with them. They were rejoicing with them.
They were rejoicing in the freedom that was theirs. And here came
the Judaizers in privately, seeking out to destroy their liberty. And Peter and Barnabas left the
fellowship of those saved by grace and went with those who
believe you must be circumcised to be saved. You must keep the
law. Just a thought. That's all it took. Didn't take
long. They came in. They said, well,
you know you're a Jew, Peter. You know you were circumcised
the eighth day. These people had to be circumcised. That's
the law of God. They've got to keep the law. They'd never heard
of the law. Gentiles didn't know the law. That law wasn't given
to the Gentiles. It was given to the Jews on Sinai. They said, you know they've got
to be circumcised. And Peter caved. And so did Barnabas. And
Paul always stood him face to face, eyeball to eyeball, and
said, you despise the grace of God. You despise the grace of
God. And all it took was a thought.
Same way in Colossae. Same thing happened there. All we have to do is look at
these things to see that we are entirely dependent upon the Lord's
restrictions of our feeble thoughts. The Lord must restrict our thoughts
or we'll end up like them. Look over at Galatians chapter
1. Here Paul is not talking to a bunch of pagans. He's talking to a church, a church
of the living God. In Galatians chapter 1 verse
6 he says, I marvel, I'm amazed that ye are so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel. Another gospel and that gospel of course was the gospel
of Judaism which was the law, grace plus the law. Then in chapter
3 in verses 1 through 3 he says, O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you, and that word is pharmakon, who has drugged
you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes
Jesus Christ is evidently set forth, crucified among you. This only would I learn, receive
you the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of
faith. Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, that you
now are made perfect in the flesh? Chapter 5 and verse 1, says stand fast therefore in
the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage because I Paul said to you that
if you be circumcised is that he say if you go back under the
law Christ shall profit you nothing nothing for I testify again let
me say that again he says to every one man that is circumcised
that he's a debtor to do the whole law if you're going to
do one point of the law you are indebted to keep every bit of
the law perfectly, because God's not accepting anything less than
perfection, so you've got to keep the law perfectly, or you're
going to go under the law. That's all of them. That's all
the laws that have been handed down from Sinai. He said, Christ
has become no effect to you, whosoever is justified by the
law. You've fallen from grace. You've fallen away from grace.
You've fallen away from the message of grace. What was it? It was
just a thought. Just a thought. If God did not
lead them away from the Philistines, they would have returned to slavery
and done so gladly, and that was the language they used throughout
their journey in the wilderness. Look over at chapter 14 here,
the next chapter in Exodus, verses 11-12. They said to Moses, because
there are no graves in Egypt, he said, ain't there enough graves
in Egypt? Because there are no graves in Egypt, thou hast 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? Didn't we tell you this was going
to happen? 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. You don't think they wouldn't
go back? course they'd go back over in Numbers. Same kind of
language is used in Numbers chapter 14 verses 1 through 4. It says,
And the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the
people wept all night. And all the children of Israel
murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation
said, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Would God
we had died in the wilderness! Wherefore, as the Lord brought
us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our
children should be prey, were it not better for us to return
to Egypt? And they said one to another,
Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt. That's the natural man. It's
also a warning to the spiritual man. But you see, in all of this,
a greater thing is afoot. Now, sure, He brings them around
the Philistines and gives the answer because they would change
their mind and go back, but He's got a greater plan. They just
don't know what it is. A greater thing is afoot, back
in our text, in verse 18. It says, But God led the people
about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And
the children of Israel went up and harnessed, that is girded
up for travel, out of the land of Egypt. You see, at the Red
Sea is where everything is going to happen, where the whole culmination
of all that has been prophesied to this point, this is where
it is all going to take place. This is where Providence will
land them. This is where the prophecy to
Abraham, spoken to Abraham, this is where that prophecy ends,
right at the banks of the Red Sea. That is why He took them
here. That's providence. At the Red
Sea, Pharaoh's predestinated petulance will arrive at its
acme. There he will be cast down because
the Lord will make his power known. Once again, after the
children of Israel have led in a camp by the Red Sea, Pharaoh
will say, well, we got them boxed in. Let's take our army. and kill them. Why did he do
that? Scripture says God hardened his heart again. He hardened
it again. So he says let's go kill them
all. Well that's the way it's got to end. It's got to end right
there because God has a plan. You see over in Romans chapter
9 quoting Exodus chapter 9 and
verse 16 but Romans chapter 9 and verse 17 says for the scripture
saith to Pharaoh even for this same purpose have I raised thee
up that I might show my power in thee and that my name might
be declared throughout all the earth therefore hath he mercy
on whom he will have mercy and whom he will He hardened them. This is the God of Scripture.
This is the God of Scripture. This is why He brought His people
to the Red Sea. Because He's going to harden
Pharaoh's heart. Pharaoh's going to fill himself up with pride.
Think he's got the battle finally won. Think he's going to outdo
this God of Israel and all these slaves that he's turned loose
and all the spoils they've taken. He's going to get it all back.
He's going out there and what he's going to find is that God
is in charge and in absolute control. God led them away from
the Philistines to reveal the people's frailty and the people's
timidity. He led them to the Red Sea to
make His power known. What a wondrous providence this
is! On this final journey, on this exodus from the land of
slavery, no man was left behind. Back in our text it says, And
Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had straightly
sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit
you, and you shall carry up my bones away, hence with you."
The bones of Jacob's same favorite son lies entombed in Egypt. In Genesis chapter 50 is where
this quote is from. Joseph speaking. In Genesis 50, verse 24, and Joseph said unto
the brethren, I die, and God will surely visit you and bring
you out of this land into the land which he swore to Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob. And Joseph took an oath to the
children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and you
shall carry up my bones from hence. And Joseph died being
a hundred and ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he
was put in a coffin in Egypt. No man left behind. his bones
were entombed in hope you see as is stated in the only time
that word coffin is used in the whole bible the meaning of it
is hope chest that's what that word means don't leave my bones
down here they can bury me in the promised land and we have
before us in this chapter the first manifestation of GPS. The Lord went before them and
led them by day with the covering and a moving cloud and by night
with a pillar of fire. And it says the Lord was in those
things. The Lord was in the fire. The Lord was in the cloud. Often
times the word cloud is used when God talks about the atonement
of sin. I've covered thy transgressions
like a great cloud, he says in Isaiah. And the thing about this
cloud, it was a pillar too. It got right in front of the
sun. And it was big enough to give shade to the whole people,
to all the people. And they only moved if the cloud
moved. They were in the desert, and
they were there for 10 days, They didn't have nothing to do.
They just sat there and waited. For what? For the cloud to move.
Because it was the Lord was in that cloud. He was the one that
was moving them. This was their heavenly map for
the 40-year journey. And it is spoken of throughout
scripture. Look over at Psalm 105. Psalm
105. Verse 39, He spread a cloud for
a covering and a fire to give light in the night. The psalmist
remembers this time Isaiah chapter 4. Isaiah chapter 4 verse 5 and
6 says this, And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place
in Mount Zion. So here we are talking about
the church, aren't we? Well, those who were believers in Israel
were the church in the wilderness. dwelling place of Mount Zion,
and upon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day, the shining
of a flaming fire by night. For upon all the glory shall
be a defense for the people. There shall be a tabernacle for
a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of
refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain. This was God's protection of
His people and leading them. The cloud and the fiery pillar
according to our text in verse 22 never abandoned them. Forty
years it was there. Forty years every day there was
a cloud covering those people. It never got too hot for them.
Forty years there was a light at night so they were never in
the darkness. We'll find later on that cloud that was shadow
and a covering for Israel became very much darkness for Pharaoh. God used it to stop his army
on their way to the Red Sea. He never took that away. What
did he say to his people? He said, I will never leave you,
nor forsake you, in Hebrews 13. And in Matthew 28, 20, he said,
Go into all the world, preach the gospel to all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And I will be with you always, even to the end of the earth.
This is God's glorious and wondrous providence. We get to see, in
hindsight, what he has done. And we know he's promised to
do the same for all his people. Father, bless us to understand
you. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.