Discover how the divine scales of judgment weigh human actions and intentions, as we unravel the enigma of God's justice in the shadow of evil. This episode carries you through the end of the biblical story of the Exodus. This ancient narrative provokes a deeper examination of the roles that personal and societal sin play in our contemporary lives.
As an unwavering virus of sin threatens to infect our moral compass, we scrutinize the delicate balance between our flawed nature and the almighty's capacity for justice and mercy. Picture standing on the precipice of the Red Sea, where the Israelites' quest for freedom echoes our own search for redemption amidst adversity. Through this lens, we perceive God's intricate attributes of justice and defense, offering a refreshing perspective on His multifaceted character and what it means for us as followers of Christ.
Discover how the divine scales of judgment weigh human actions and intentions, as we unravel the enigma of God's justice in the shadow of evil. This episode carries you through the end of the biblical story of the Exodus. This ancient narrative provokes a deeper examination of the roles that personal and societal sin play in our contemporary lives.
As an unwavering virus of sin threatens to infect our moral compass, we scrutinize the delicate balance between our flawed nature and the almighty's capacity for justice and mercy. Picture standing on the precipice of the Red Sea, where the Israelites' quest for freedom echoes our own search for redemption amidst adversity. Through this lens, we perceive God's intricate attributes of justice and defense, offering a refreshing perspective on His multifaceted character and what it means for us as followers of Christ.
Hey, what up? It's Mark Carter on, the Pastor of Fierce Church. Welcome to our podcast. I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today. I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1:One of the shows that my family watches from time to time. I don't really watch it, I just kind of I'm going past in the family room. I see my wife. She loves this show. The girls love this show.
Speaker 1:There's multiple kinds of them, but it's cooking shows. There's some kind of. There's some they're going to cook something or cook something and there's a panel of judges and they're looking at what they're making. And you guys have seen some of these folks before. To my surprise, the other week I even saw there's even kid versions and the kids have to make something.
Speaker 1:And what's incredible to me is, even though they're kids, or they're just not kids, the judges are. They're friendly, but they're also man, they're relentless, they're like, hey, that's not right, that's not good. And there's there's not like a shaming, but there's a little bit of shaming of like, oh, that's just not good. Is it satisfied? Yeah, I'm not satisfied either. And now you and I, we would taste some of that and be like this all tastes great to me. I don't know what the problem is, but these judges have such a palette that they can understand that doesn't look right, that's not the right texture, that's not the right amount of this in the recipe, and what they do is they're, they're leaning in in judgment, they're judging. We have a we have a difficult relationship with the word judgment in our time, but that's really what those judges are doing. They're just they're, they're calling it, they're just saying this is this close to right or it's. You know it's wrong entirely. They get to do that and we don't fault them for that. We're not like hey man, come on, because it's not the friend's cooking show, it's, it's. It's a contest where you're judged based on how you do.
Speaker 1:We're talking about the judgment of God today. I think you're going to like it more than you might think that you are, but as we get into this, we're also ending our first series of the book of Exodus, where, at the end of the road out series for those of you who don't know this we're looking at the book of Exodus. This is Moses leading the people of Israel, israel, out of bondage into their own land. And we're right at the end. We're right at where we're going to jump right into the middle of the action.
Speaker 1:Now I believe if you would never, if you never knew anything about Moses, if you never knew anything about the Exodus, if this is your first time ever reading anything about this, by now in the Bible this is the second book by now you'd start to ask some questions. You'd start to ask things like okay, I don't know like God did all these plagues and stuff, but even so, like is Egypt going to have to answer for what they've done? Because those plagues they were in the span of about a year, but the Israelites were slaves for 400 years. And not only that, but even as God commanded that they let the Israelites go, pharaoh just looked at them and spit in God's face Like he didn't give one rip what God bought about stuff, and he kept saying no, no, no, no. I mean, is there like? What is God like? Is he going to answer that? Or is that just like is there? What about his, his? I hear that he's gracious. So, yeah, he likes to let people off, but then he's also like this perfect judge which would make sense that he has to do good, and it's not good to just let evil off the hook, right? So what's up with this God? That might be one of the questions that you're asking.
Speaker 1:We are not dealing with the same kind of evil that the Israelites were when they were coming out of Egypt. Even so, you and I have evil in our lives. We we see it exterior to us. We're watching it happen in our world. Whether it's environmental neglect that is going to make some of us very angry, whether it's wonky business practices that leave people hurting, whether it's stuff that isn't cleaned up at work that causes people to get hurt. Maybe it's it's newer stuff, like cyber bullying, maybe it's identity theft, but there's things out in the world that we're like that is not right. There should be an answer for this, and you would probably say there should be an answer to that. Somebody should have to like make up for that going wrong.
Speaker 1:As we pay attention, though, we see that it's not just that. It's out there. See, if you begin to come to know Jesus Christ relationally not just to try to like follow what he did, but you actually get to know Him through His Word, you develop your relationship. It's going deeper. You begin to realize there are problems out there. But I noticed something else there's problems in here. See, when we begin to relationally follow Jesus, it's kind of like he takes a microchip and puts it in us and our conscience gets way more sensitive. We start to slowly be like, oh, that didn't used to bother me, but now like I don't think Jesus likes that anymore and we become aware the problem isn't just out there. The problem is it's not like I'm just responding to outside forces. They're tempting me and I'm doing wrong things. No, there's wrong things coming from within me, like that's the originating source.
Speaker 1:If you're a Christ follower, that can almost lead to despair, because not only do you have like the bad stuff happening out in the world, you have the bad stuff happening here. You're like is this ever going to be over? Am I doomed to disappointing my savior for the rest of my life, in the midst of also being in a tough world? Jesus talked about this fact that sin is inside of us. One day he was asked hey, jesus, it was kind of a practice Then you got to wash your hands before you eat anything Otherwise, your ceremonially unclean. This is Jesus. Is that real Like? Does it really matter, you know, whether we have dirt on our fingers a little bit when we put food in our mouth? This is how Jesus answers in Matthew 15, 18.
Speaker 1:He says the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, deaths, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man. But to eat with unwashed hands, that does not defile the man. Sin is operating within us and I know that it's tempting to be like oh, those aren't so serious. Well, some of them might not sound serious to you, but I mean, what did he list? It's not even just like. Those are not just murders, it's false testimony, it's just lying. Jesus says yeah, that's a sign of there's evil at work within you.
Speaker 1:One way to think about it is you and I have the hell virus. We've talked a lot about viruses over the past few years. This is the worst one. This was the first one. It's the virus that causes us, not. It's not just that we commit sins, it's that we have a sinful nature. We've been transformed into something that we weren't originally and we can't not and we're not as evil as we might be. But there's nothing that isn't touched by not only the world's evil, but our evil as well. We have the hell virus, and the hell virus really it's like the power of hell. It's the power of hell living through us so we can live in such a way that God's kingdom is coming through us, but then sometimes we're living in such a way that the kingdom of darkness is coming through us. The hell kingdom is living through us because we have the hell virus.
Speaker 1:Now, what you got to know, sin is so insidious, man. Two things go wrong with sin other than just the sin happening. One is we would tend to minimize sin. We'd be like ah, it's not that big a deal. Like even when I read that, any of you said ah, that's not that big a deal. The reason you thought that is because sin is at work within you. Sin causes you to think that way. Ah, that's that really big deal. Here's another way that it works against us. When I was talking about oh man, you know there's cyberbullying, you know there's sex trafficking, there's all these problems out in the world, you were like, yeah, let's get rid of that. That's bad. Let's entirely get that out of the planet. And yet, when I talk about my sin, I'm tempted to be like wow, I mean let's just reduce it maybe, like I don't know if I'm ready to just get rid of it. I mean, come on, let's have a conversation about this. So we're excited about evil leaving out there, but not necessarily all of the things that we love leaving us, and that is a result of sin.
Speaker 1:So what we're going to do, we're going to dive right in to the middle of the action scene. We were in an action scene at the end of last week. The Israelites they're about to walk through the Red Sea. It hasn't happened yet. The Egyptian army is chasing them. Let's drop right into the action. Verse 15,.
Speaker 1:Then the Lord said to Moses why you crown out to me. Tell the people to get moving. Now you have to understand. This reads like it happens, like within 10 minutes. This takes all night long for them to actually do this. So he's telling Moses this is what you're going to do. It takes several hours to get this. This is like a million and a half people, man. They don't just like start going. Okay, you got to get everybody ready. You got to get the livestock ready. Somebody's got to carry Gam Gam on their shoulders. This is a big deal. Trying to move, okay. So because of that, the column of fire it comes and it's between the Egyptian army and the Israelites while they all get ready and they're going to start making their way over to the Red Sea.
Speaker 1:And God says Moses, this is what you're going to do Verse 16, pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea. Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground. Good to know, god, what are you going to do? I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians and they will charge in after the Israelites. My great glory will be displayed through Pharaoh and his troops, his chariots and his charioteers. When my glory is displayed through them all, egypt will see my glory and know that I am the Lord.
Speaker 1:Couple of things there. First, know that Lord. Often you might see that Lord in all caps in your Bible. What that really means is Yahweh. That's the name of God. That's the name God makes Moses to know. I'm Yahweh. Okay, I am the God who is different than all the other Egyptian gods. He said I'm not some rando God. I'm not a God or wingman. I am Yahweh, which means I stand up against evil, I eventually defend, I eventually rescue. I'm the God of all justice.
Speaker 1:And when he says he, it's like why is he talking so much about glory? Is God just arrogant and he wants everyone to just you know, like, wave to him and be like you're the man. Is that what he's doing? Is that what glory is about? It's really not. God is saying I need to show people a piece of me, I need to amplify it, I need to augment your understanding of it, because you're gonna need to know this about me later. So let's look at a crossword puzzle real quick. This crossword puzzle that you'll see on your screen is, if you paid attention to that for a couple minutes, you would start to see there are different attributes of God in that crossword puzzle. Okay, if you're just paying attention now.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we think about God kind of like that, like we know that he's powerful and good and yet it's kind of vague in our head Like hey, he's all these things. But then he begins to highlight his justice. That's what he's gonna highlight today among the Israelites, in the Egyptians, he's saying no, no, let me get this right in front of you so you see for the rest of forever, this is who I am. I'm not just vague God, I'm the God of justice. Let's see some more. He's the God who's a defender. Okay, he's the one who's gonna step in and help them today. And these are all different ways that God might, at different points in our walks, say okay, the curriculum you're in right now is I've gotta make you more aware of the fact that I am this, that I am holy, that I am God with you.
Speaker 1:God's always trying to show us more of himself. That's what he means. Why does he glorify himself, then For us, like? He's doing this? So we know him, so that we can respond to life as though he is that God and not some different God. Somebody say amen, verse 21,. Then okay, so that all happens? They're moving all this stuff overnight.
Speaker 1:Then Moses it's dawn's about to break. Then Moses raised his hand over the sea and the Lord opened up a path through the water with strong east wind. The wind blew all night, turning the seedbed into dry land. So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, lost water on each side and the Egyptians all pharaohs, horses, chariots and charioteers chased them into the middle of the sea. And we're like, are they insane? They've got chariots, man. Okay, they know, do chariots and mud don't mix? Okay, this has been the bottom of the sea. Okay, it's at least very silty, and if there's any puddles or anything, these chariots are gonna get stuck. But they do it anyway.
Speaker 1:Why? Because, remember, god said I'm gonna harden their hearts, I'm gonna help them. I'm going to help them give over to their own stubbornness. All this time they fought me and now I'm going to temporarily, they're gonna forget about self-preservation. They're gonna be so angry at these Israelites they're just gonna chase them into their own demise. Another way to say it is God says I'm gonna use their stubbornness to depict my decision. I'm gonna use their stubbornness to depict my decision. Sometimes we're like gosh, god, I wish you would have kept me away from that thing. And God says well, I want to use that to teach you. I'm letting you experience the consequences of it to teach you. Don't do that. That's a bad idea. He's showing his decision, he's showing what he thinks by allowing them to do this. Verse 24,.
Speaker 1:But just as just before dawn, the Lord looked down on the Egyptian army from the pillar of fire and cloud and threw their forces into total confusion. He twisted their chariot wheels, making the chariots difficult to drive. Let's get out of here, away from the Israelites, these Egyptians. The Egyptians shouted the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt. Now that's just what Moses told the Israelites last week. He said the Lord, your God, will fight for you. And now the enemies are saying the Lord is fighting us. When all the Israelites had reached the other side, the Lord said to Moses now raise your hand over the sea again, then the waters will rush back, cover the Egyptians and their chariots and charioteers. So as the sun began to rise, moses raised his hand over the sea and the water rushed back into its usual place. The Egyptians tried to escape, but the Lord swept them into the sea. Then the waters returned and covered all the chariots and charioteers, the entire army of Pharaoh. Of all the Egyptians who had chased the Israelites into the sea, not a single one survived.
Speaker 1:If you've ever been scuba diving, you might begin to wonder what is actually happening here as they go underwater, as someone who's done that, I'm aware you might be aware humans can't really go deeper than about 100 feet without specialized equipment when they're underwater. You just can't go that far down. The pressure is going to get to you. All kinds of stuff is going to begin to go wrong. So let's just imagine, so the Red Sea. Right now, the deepest point in the Red Sea is 1.37 miles down. It's deep, it's pretty doggone deep, and now that's probably not everywhere, and to be sure it's been 3,500 years, so maybe tectonic plates have moved and different things are, but it's probably close. It's something like that.
Speaker 1:Now they go from. They've just got a clear path, they've got a road right through the bottom. They're going through the bottom of the Red Sea Within the span of like two minutes. If all that water comes back crashing on them, okay, if you're a mile and a quarter down, the pressure itself it won't necessarily splat you, but it'll wound a lot of your internal organs. It'll like, oh my gosh, that'll hurt. Not to mention, okay, dude, a mile and a quarter down is freezing just about. Even as they're walking by the walls of water, they probably I mean you can touch that thing like doggone. That's cold. So right away, if they survive more than 10 seconds, there's hypothermia kicking in, okay, not to mention just the weight of the. Forget the pressure for a second, just the weight of the wall of the water coming back down to you. The point is, this is a horrific ending, right? They're not like trying to swim away. They are crushed and destroyed. God just wipes them out entirely.
Speaker 1:Verse 30,. That is how the Lord rescued Israel from the hand of the Egyptians that day, and the Israelites saw the bodies of the Egyptians washed up on the seashore. When people of Israel saw the mighty power that the Lord had unleashed against the Egyptians, they were filled with awe. Before him, they put their faith in the Lord and His servant, moses. This word filled with awe that's really the. That's a translation in the NLT. It's a thought for thought. It's not really accurate. The word is fear. Okay, the problem with the word awe like.
Speaker 1:I know there's a version of awe that is fear, but we hear the word awesome, like, like. I think it's awesome. I had a coupon for Wendy's, but that's not the kind of awesome that they're talking about. Right, it is a fear. It's a good, godly kind of a fear. It's a fear that feels safe in God's arms but also recognizes you're dealing with something that you didn't understand. Previously, like the moment before this happened, they had not experienced God in this way. And as soon as it happens, they step back in the fear of God. They're like oh, I guess I didn't know what we were dealing with either Like he's done a lot, but I ain't never seen him do that.
Speaker 1:God is glorifying his power and his power to defend his people. To them. Anybody think this is good so far. I think God's word is always good, so we're just gonna keep on going. And God is telling them, like he's telling us hey, remember, I delivered you from slavery. I brought you out of all that hopelessness, just like I did. Then I will continue to bring you out of darkness and evil. I will suck evil out of your life and out, ultimately, of the world, and I will be faithful to always do that, because that's the kind of God I am. Another way to say it is God delivered them, so he will deliver you. Are you going through something really tough, where evil is breaking in? It's hard to get away from something. Hey, as God delivered them, this is his way. If you stick with Jesus, he will deliver you. That's the God that he is. So here's a sentence. We're gonna do the sentence half and half, one half at a time.
Speaker 1:Number one just as God judged Egypt and removed the Israelites from evil, he will judge and remove evil from the world. Let's deal with the first part first. He judged Egypt, but you gotta remember he's judging Egypt and rescuing the Israelites out of love. It's not because they're the best looking, they don't have the prettiest girls, they don't have the hands on his guys. It's not because they have a particular set of skills, it's not because they've done anything right. In fact, he goes out of his way to remind them of this again and again in Deuteronomy, before the Israelites go into the promised land.
Speaker 1:Wait one more reminder. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were numerous, more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to his ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, the power of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. When God cleanses us, when God rescues us, he does it not because we did anything right, not because you got on this good side, because he loves you. That's it. That's just why he does it. That's enough for him. Just his love for you will get him to it. So you don't have hey, hey, you don't need to talk God into anything. You don't need to like try to twist his arm. Maybe I got to do this for me, dude, he already loves you. That's why he does anything, because he loves you and he loves you in Christ.
Speaker 1:The point is, the whole thing is grace by faith, from start to finish. God is the perfect judge. Let's talk about this word judge for a second a judge. Well, one thing the judge does. If you're a perfect judge, the judge is the decider. The judge decides. The judge weighs in and says well, this is really how it is. The judge is the one who comes in and says you know, we've had enough chaos and you've caused enough pain. Now I'm just stepping into the room and I'm removing that which hurts and hurts my people. I'm the decider. That's what the judge is, and you know this.
Speaker 1:What is an umpire at a baseball game? He's the one that just calls it man. He just decides it. It's not personal. It was either safe or he was out. What about the referee? You're gonna see. Well, he's hey man, look, ref, we need to know, was it pass interference or was it not? Well, it's one or the other, and the ref's gonna call it. He's just gonna decide. He's not mad at you, he's just gonna tell you which one. It was. These judges at the kids' banking show. Okay, they're not mad at the kids, but they're telling him look, I'm telling you exactly what it is. It is this, it is not this, it is this.
Speaker 1:And God is the judge who tells us you either missed the mark or you hit the mark. That's all I'm saying. That's all God is saying to us. I am the judge. God is a God of judgment. Now, judgment. Here's the thing, man we hear. God is a God of judgment. We're like, oh man, that means he's kind of like angry and emotional, like he might just like throw a fit in my direction. I don't want that. But if someone tells you, hey, wow, you really have good judgment, they're not saying that you're emotionally out of control. They're saying, oh, you tend to choose the right thing. God chooses the right thing all the time, because he sees the right thing all the time. He has clarity on the right thing all the time. Here's a picture of Liam Neeson as Oscar Schindler. I was going to put a picture of real Oscar Schindler, but I was like no one's going to know who that is. So there's Liam Neeson. No diss to Oscar.
Speaker 1:Oscar Schindler, as many of you know, he was a German businessman. During World War II he stood to gain a lot financially because of the war, but his conscience was bothering him and even though everyone around him was they bought in man. Hey look, dude, we're just going to have this Holocaust. He saved over a thousand Jews from the Holocaust because in that moment he had moral clarity, when everybody else didn't. God always has moral clarity. It doesn't matter what generation we're in, it doesn't matter what time or what season, it doesn't matter what we reason ourselves into. God says this is just what it is always I'm right, I see how it is. I'm the decider, I'm the judge. I have moral clarity when you humans don't. That's why you go to my word. So you're like what is right? Oh, that's right. God is telling us what is right.
Speaker 1:The perfect judge is an order bringer. You know this, dude. If there's a fire, okay, you don't want the neighbor's opinion, you don't want somebody else's opinion, you can't wait for the fire department to show up because they're going to bring order. This place is insane. They come and they bring order. What about? Okay, people might have a different opinion about what to do with bombs, but when there's a bomb, you want the bomb squad there. You want them to show people why? Because they're going to make the right decision and they're going to bring the right order.
Speaker 1:My friends, that's what God is. He's the bomb squad, all right, he's the one who can put out the fire. He's the one. He's like dude, look, I'm the one who's qualified to put this thing back together and we help him. We're his helpers. On some level we can do justice, but God wants us to understand hey, you guys help, but you cannot fix what the hell virus has done to this planet, because you can't fix humans. And as long as they're here, the hell virus is here. So you can help. But God says I'm going to have to be the one who fixed it, just like God was the one who had to get rid of the Egyptians. He says you guys can't follow them into the promised land. I've got to get rid of that. I've got to bring justice with regard to that. And so that's what he does.
Speaker 1:Now, the thing about God is one of the things I love about him he's super patient. He gives lots of chances to turn around. I mean, that's what we did for the whole series, right? He kept telling Pharaoh hey, you can still avoid this, turn around, you don't have to go this way, there's always the option. He keeps telling him he's long suffering. Guys, just turn back, don't do this, don't keep hurting my people, don't keep opposing me, don't keep jacking up my planet.
Speaker 1:So, just to encourage everybody, there's a moment when, just like God defended the Israelites dude, I don't know what it's gonna be. I wish I did, I wish it was now, I wish it would defend you right now. But if you're not defended, if there's something that went wrong, maybe at work, maybe somebody got ahead of you and they kind of plotted against you and now you've been behind for years, I don't know. I don't know what's gonna happen, but I can tell you this in Jesus' name God is your defender and as he defended them, he will defend you. Whatever that thing is, I don't know how it's gonna work, but now is the time to believe.
Speaker 1:Now is the time to put our faith in it at the right time, and God has a message for Pharaoh and all the Egyptians. He says Pharaoh, look, man, this Israelite community, I'm doing a new thing, I'm doing a whole new thing. It's not your thing, there's one God. And they begin to obey my commands, and they begin to be holy and set apart from me, so that someday, through them, the Messiah may come to earth. But Pharaoh, it ain't the Pharaoh way. You can't come, you guys can't come, you Egyptians, you can't. No, now you could have defected Israel. Maybe I would have let you come then. But you can't come now. I'm not just gonna let you be warriors against my people in the land of the people, because you'll screw up the land.
Speaker 1:Here's number two he will judge and remove evil from the world. Just as God judged Egypt and removed Israelites from evil, he will judge and remove evil from the world. The Lord will judge mankind's opposition. See, he's building a different thing Through Christ. It's not just that. He's saving people from their sin, he's redoing the world. He's recreating the entire system.
Speaker 1:The old system's gonna go away and God says I'm creating a new space, a place where everyone recognizes my kingship. Everybody always does what I want. And if you cling to the world. If you love the world's ways, god's like, you're just not gonna be at home there. It won't make any sense to you. You see, in the kingdom of darkness you can lust all day long. But in the kingdom of light, in the kingdom of heaven, in the new earth, the recreated heaven and earth, when they're together everybody treats everybody like the most coveted treasure, their sister. They would never lust against anybody. They just wouldn't do that because they're a new thing and that old thing isn't in the new system. They would never want to hurt anybody or hate anybody, because in the new kingdom you want the best for everybody, even if it's against you. That's how it works in the new kingdom. And so he says Pharaoh, you and your world ways, you just don't get to come. You can't come to heaven.
Speaker 1:Revelation 21.1,. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning, or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Someday, my friends, for everyone who has trusted Jesus Christ, you're gonna remember this time, this era of the world of Satan's dominion. You're gonna remember this, but it's gonna be like, wow, yeah, that's right, that was here once, but now that's all gone, because the new way has come and the King Jesus is visible and now faith is sight and now everybody loves everybody perfectly and there's no more hell virus. The hell virus has been cured. Now here's just a little asterisk that we should know about.
Speaker 1:If we're going to face God without Jesus, we are doing it very stupidly and very much on our own. Why? Because Jesus says stuff like this Matthew 12, 36,. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for in the day of judgment. I've said a lot of stupid, careless stuff that I do not particularly want to give an account for. Paul echoed it this way Romans 2.16.
Speaker 1:This is the message I proclaim that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone's secret life. It ain't even just the stuff people knew about, it's all the stuff that nobody knew about. God says, yeah, we're gonna judge that. Just like, the judges come to the little kids and they're pastries and they say this is this, this is this. God's gonna say let's look at each one of these things and it's a really bad idea to go into that alone, because Jesus Christ will just give you his record and then you'll get his audit and there will be no sin in it. That's his plan, that's his way, and so the right response for us is believe it or not. It's fear. The right response is fear of God.
Speaker 1:That's what the Israelites did that day, remember. They were filled with awe before him or they were filled with fear before him. They said, oh, now I understand. God is way bigger deal. I didn't know what I was dealing with. But now I'm not just gonna fight for my hell virus. I don't wanna keep that. I wanna do everything I can because God makes the decision, because God's doing the accountability roll call, because he's the one. I wanna do everything I can to present Jesus' righteousness to him on that day.
Speaker 1:See, my friends, this hell virus. God is going to remove the hell virus from the earth. But the earth is still gonna be here and heaven's gonna be here, and there's only one place for that hell virus to go. It's gonna go to a place called hell. It's the refuse bin, it's the trash can. It's like I've got no use for this on planet earth. This has to go somewhere. I'm gonna scrape it off into the incinerator.
Speaker 1:Some of you may know the CDC when they retire laboratory equipment after they've been doing experiments on all these pathogens. After they retire lab equipment, they incinerate it Because they don't just throw it away, they have to incinerate it because they can't take the risk that one of these deadly pathogens would make it to the outside and hurt the people. And God says it's just like that. I'm not letting the hell virus get out anymore, we're going to incinerate it. And that's supposed to be scary. I know it almost blows your mind. Our sensibilities today. We're like I don't even wanna think about that. And I get that. I feel that way too. And yet think about it this way.
Speaker 1:It is Jesus' love and mercy that he talks about it so much. Because, why? Because he's doing it out of kindness, because he doesn't want anybody to go there. He's the one he says I least want anyone to ever have to cling to their hell virus so that they fall into the incinerator. I mean, wouldn't you be that way If you knew that someone was gonna leave your house and get in a car accident? Wouldn't you do anything that you could to try to be like just don't go, don't go.
Speaker 1:That's what Jesus is doing here. He's saying fear God and don't go. Take me, take my righteousness, you are in danger here. And Jesus says it's too important to me. I'm not gonna let the hell virus screw up my people and my world anymore. And the Bible teaches guys hell is largely self-chosen. Like nobody has to go to hell, you can just cry out to Jesus and he'll. He's the enemy that makes peace. He says just take my righteousness, take my blood, take my blood sacrifice, but stop, stop. Stop clinging to the hell virus, stop it.
Speaker 1:Now for us to say you know, here's the thing, jesus, I like my lusts, I like being first, I like being the one, I like making life about me. He's going to say I wish you didn't, but there's only one place for that hell virus to go. And because you're clinging to it, you still got time. You still got time, pharaoh, there's still time. There's still time.
Speaker 1:Instead of clinging to it, how about this? Receive the gift the God gives through Jesus Christ. Dude, it's just forgiveness. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to go to a special class, you don't have to do anything. All you have to do is say I trust you, I give you all my sin and my hell virus and I take your mercy and your love. It's mercy. The Lord removes evil from the people. This is what's going to happen in heaven.
Speaker 1:So once your body dies, once you come to Christ by grace, through faith, your spirit sounds weird gets renewed, it becomes a new creature. Now you have all Jesus' righteousness and His standing with God, but your body's still a problem, isn't it? It was a problem for Paul. He said, oh God, who will deliver me from this body of death? Because sin has still got the disease. Still, that does stuff. But now inside we don't have the disease, but in our body we do. When the body dies, so does the virus, and so you get a new body, a new spiritual body in heaven, and then you're set for the rest of forever. But you have to go through that process and the Lord brings us to this thing called glorification. That's when you get this new body, and this is God saying to all of us right now.
Speaker 1:Why this should be comforting to you is because if you're discouraged about your sin or how much you've gotten beaten or what he's saying, I will not leave you in that body of death. I will not leave you in that world of death. I will pull you out, I will remake the whole thing. Then me and my armies are coming back and we're coming to take over to stay, and it's going to be a whole new thing, and Pharaoh doesn't get to come with. That's why it says in Psalm 3710, this kind of scripture makes so much more sense when you hear it this way. Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more, you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. You will look around this earth and you will not see any further Egyptian hell, virus things. It'll all be gone because Jesus is going to do for the entire world what he just did for these rites.
Speaker 1:Let's close with this. In the story of Exodus, in chapter 15, which is the chapter right after this, Miriam is writing a song about this event, about this Red Sea parting, and she says God is a warrior. And it's the first time God is referred to as a warrior in scripture. But one of the last things we see about Jesus in Revelation is he's a warrior, he's the great rescuer. In 1911, it says Then I saw heaven open up and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named faithful and true, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war against the hell virus. That's what Jesus does.
Speaker 1:Now. Here's what we can do. Everyone around here, everyone watching online, whatever you do, I want to encourage you. It's awesome, right where Jesus loves you just where you are, just how you are, and yet he says If you're still clinging to Egypt, let go. It doesn't mean you're never going to do anything wrong again. But if you're saying, no, I can't let this go, no, let it go, it's okay, let it go. It's destined for the incinerator anyway. Just let it go, because you're more than that thing. You're more than that set of things. You're so valuable to Jesus that he'd give his blood for you, because that is the case for you. Can I just plead with you? Just amen, just leave Egypt Now.
Speaker 1:If you were already left Egypt and you're still fighting some battles, this is the time to take comfort. This is the time to believe by faith. My God is not done here. Whatever situation you're dealing with, god's not done. God maybe has not stood up and said what he's going to say, and so you want to trust Him now that he's going to deliver you, just the same way that he delivered the Israelites. I'm going to pray and during this next song, I want to invite you.
Speaker 1:It's totally cool to just kind of do business with God in your chair or where you're watching from online, but if you're here, sometimes it's powerful to come down front and just maybe kneel on these steps. It's not that it doesn't need anything for us, but it's sometimes a physical action can do something for you, where you're demonstrating God. I want to do something. That's a marker to say we needed to do business today. You should come whenever you want, you leave whenever you want, but let's close in prayer right now. God, thank you for the good news, thank you that you wrote all this down, thank you that you're the God who's our defender, you're the God who brings the justice, and thank you that the justice that we deserve was actually done to Jesus and we now get what he deserves. As we've trusted Him, father, we pray that as we walk out of the Red Sea, as we walk into the new life that you have for us, where we pray that the praises of God will be on our lips and confidence in God's mastery over evil would be sure. In Christ's name, amen. Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1:If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching community that has its heart set on passionately knowing Jesus and being His witness in our generation, check out FearsChurch. We'd love for you to join us, either digitally or in person. Also, if you're looking for leadership development related content, don't forget to check out the Fears Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts from. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry. It's because of you that this is possible. You can click on the link in the description to give now, or visit Fears Church for more information. If you enjoy this podcast, why not subscribe? Share it with your friends, click on the share button, take a screenshot and share it on social media or wherever you would share such things. Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it. Don't give up. Hang on to Jesus. He won't let go of you. Jesus loves you so much and we love you. I hope someday we get to meet in person. Thanks again for listening.