SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: It is great to be here.
SPEAKER_00: I've been able to be here a few times, and I could go on and on about how much our church loves proclamation and how much of a blessing we have been to you guys, or you guys have been to us.
SPEAKER_00: But genuinely, it's I don't I don't like being away from our church.
SPEAKER_00: But it is good to be with you guys.
SPEAKER_00: So thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the blessing that you guys are to me and to our church.
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember the exact date that I was here last.
SPEAKER_00: Um but last year at some point I got an eye procedure done.
SPEAKER_00: Uh at LASIK done.
SPEAKER_00: Which it was a quick procedure, uh, but it was a nerve-wracking one.
SPEAKER_00: So basically, I I mean I remember driving there.
SPEAKER_00: My wife's driving me there because I'm not allowed to drive back afterward.
SPEAKER_00: And so she's driving me there, and I remember just endearingly looking out the window, just thinking, this might be the last time I get to see trees.
SPEAKER_00: Just looking at the sky in a very soft and sweet way, thinking, you know, if this goes wrong, this might be the last time I get to enjoy these images.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the procedure you lay down there and your eyelids are pried wide open, and this machine drops down, and you're just totally helpless.
SPEAKER_00: And if something goes poorly, something goes wrong, then your life is changed dramatically.
SPEAKER_00: Forever.
SPEAKER_00: But by God's grace, everything everything went alright.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder, when was the last time you had to rely entirely on someone else for something that could dramatically change your life forever?
SPEAKER_00: When was the last time you had to rely on someone else entirely for something that could change your life forever?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was a surgery.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was a proposal.
SPEAKER_00: Just relying on that person to say yes.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was college admission.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you may be thinking through that now, waiting to hear back from the college or the university.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was when you were on a flight and you experienced some turbulence and you had to rely entirely on the pilot to get you to safety.
SPEAKER_00: Friends relying on someone else can be an uncomfortable place to be.
SPEAKER_00: Especially in the individualistic and self-centered culture, the self-suh-sufficient culture that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: Relying on somebody else is not something that we like to do.
SPEAKER_00: But as we look at today's text, we're going to see that's exactly where God wanted his people to be.
SPEAKER_00: It's where it's exactly where he wanted Israel to be.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I recognize that you guys haven't been going through Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: We began Exodus last year.
SPEAKER_00: We took a break from it, and Lord willing, we'll be coming back to it as soon as we finish the current series that we're in.
SPEAKER_00: But Exodus, let me just give you some brief context because as we jump into Exodus 14, it's going to be helpful to know what happened in chapters 1 through 13.
SPEAKER_00: So, Exodus, friends, is a book that is all about God making himself known.
SPEAKER_00: It's all about God making himself known.
SPEAKER_00: Early in the book, he makes himself known to Moses in a burning bush.
SPEAKER_00: And then through Moses, he makes himself known to Aaron.
SPEAKER_00: And then through Moses and Aaron, he makes himself known to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And then through Moses and Aaron again, he makes himself known to Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Pharaoh was a wicked man.
SPEAKER_00: We see early on in the book that he's murdering innocent children.
SPEAKER_00: And it's Pharaoh, this is important to recognize about Exodus, it's Pharaoh who is going to represent the unfolding battle between the serpent and God.
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh is going to represent the unfolding battle between the serpent and God.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, on Pharaoh's crown, right in the middle, was a cobra.
SPEAKER_00: So it further emphasizes that Pharaoh is the representative of the serpent here, the serpent from early in Genesis, where we see the fall.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Moses and Aaron come to him and say, Thus says the Lord, thus says Yahweh, Pharaoh says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, this is Exodus chapter 5, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Who is the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?
SPEAKER_00: I do not know the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now Egypt was known for worshiping hundreds, potentially thousands of other gods.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, Pharaoh believed himself to be a God.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Moses and Aaron come and they say, hey, here's what Yahweh says, Pharaoh in his arrogance says, Who's Yahweh?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: I see all these other pantheons of gods.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who Yahweh is.
SPEAKER_00: And because I don't know him, I'm not going to obey what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Now, friends, that was a mistake.
SPEAKER_00: Because what we are going to see is shortly after that, God said a few things and did a few things.
SPEAKER_00: So in chapter 6, God said, You, Israel, shall know that I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh says, I don't know the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Then God says to Israel, You, Israel, shall know that I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then in chapter 7, God said, The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Later in chapter 7, God said, Pharaoh shall know that I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then from chapters 7 through 11, God just reigns down wonder after wonder, or plague after plague, to reveal himself to Israel, to Pharaoh, and to the Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: And as he's doing that, he's showing the inferiority of all of their gods.
SPEAKER_00: Each of those plagues, each of those wonders was an attack on one or several of the gods of that time.
SPEAKER_00: So the turning the Nile to blood was an attack on their God of the Nile.
SPEAKER_00: And each of these plagues was an attack on one of their gods, showing the inferiority of them and the superiority of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: He's making himself known.
SPEAKER_00: And then in chapter 13, the one right before where we are today, God established traditions to help the Israelites remember his past faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Great is your faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: And he's trying to help them remember his past faithfulness through the consecration of the firstborn, through the feast of unleavened bread, and by remembering God's past faithfulness, that in turn should help the Israelites trust God to be faithful in the future.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: And so now that brings us to chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: Where we see that freedom from slavery is possible.
SPEAKER_00: Only when we rely entirely on God for it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the main thrust of this passage.
SPEAKER_00: There's one sentence to summarize what's going on in chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: It's this freedom from slavery is possible only when we rely entirely on God for it.
SPEAKER_00: So as I said, we're in Exodus chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're a note taker, there's three points.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just going to give them to you right now.
SPEAKER_00: The first is the salvation plan.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 1 through 14 is the salvation plan.
SPEAKER_00: And then verses 15 through 29, we see the salvation work.
SPEAKER_00: And then in the last two verses, we see the salvation response.
SPEAKER_00: See the salvation plan, the salvation work, and the salvation response.
SPEAKER_00: So if you would, let's go to Exodus chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: And I will read the first 14 verses, and then from there we'll just continue to work our way through the passage.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter 14, beginning in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's perfect and inerrant word.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to Moses, Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pihroth between Migdal and the sea, in front of Baal Zephon.
SPEAKER_00: You shall encamp facing it by the sea.
SPEAKER_00: For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, they are wandering in the land, the wilderness has shut them in.
SPEAKER_00: And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And they did so.
SPEAKER_00: When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, What is this we have done that we have let Israel go from serving us?
SPEAKER_00: So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, and took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel, while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.
SPEAKER_00: The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them, encamped by the sea, by Pihirath, in front of Baal Zephon.
SPEAKER_00: When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly.
SPEAKER_00: And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They said to Moses, Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?
SPEAKER_00: What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?
SPEAKER_00: Is not this what we said to you in Egypt?
SPEAKER_00: Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses said to the people, Fear not.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.
SPEAKER_00: For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord will fight for you, and you have only got to be silent.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we are grateful for your faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: We look back at the story and we see your great faithfulness on display.
SPEAKER_00: Help us as we look at this to be reminded and to grow in our trust and reliance on you.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that first section, the salvation plan that we just read.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this, to be frank, this is kind of an unexpected plan.
SPEAKER_00: So God told Israel to turn back, which is not exactly the kind of plan you'd expect after he dramatically freed them from Egypt after all these wonders and plagues.
SPEAKER_00: But then he tells them to turn back, to camp between some small villages and the sea.
SPEAKER_00: Not to Pharaoh, that plan is going to look like Israel's aimlessly wandering around the desert.
SPEAKER_00: And it's going to embolden him to then go after them.
SPEAKER_00: But God, friends, he has a reason for doing this.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that God does, there's a reason.
SPEAKER_00: He does not do anything just arbitrarily.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see the reason here.
SPEAKER_00: We see it in the beginning of verse 4, where we see that God is going to harden Pharaoh's heart.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you read through the book of Exodus, you're going to see several times God hardening Pharaoh's heart.
SPEAKER_00: We're also going to read several times that Pharaoh's heart was hardened, or Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have to take both of those.
SPEAKER_00: We can't neglect either one.
SPEAKER_00: But what we see is that God is doing this thing to motivate Pharaoh to do what he wants him to do to fulfill his plan.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to also provide a caveat in that that word harden, it's used three times here in chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: And it's also used all throughout the rest of the book.
SPEAKER_00: But that word means to strengthen or fortify what's already there.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: God is strengthening Pharaoh's heart, or he's fortifying Pharaoh's heart, and he's doing that to what's already there.
SPEAKER_00: He's not changing Pharaoh's heart.
SPEAKER_00: God is simply hardening what's already there, a heart that has rejected God.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not that Pharaoh wanted to follow Yahweh, and God changed his heart so that he wouldn't.
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh had already rejected Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: He'd already rejected the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord was hardening that rejection so that Pharaoh would continue to do what God had planned for him to do for the good of his people.
SPEAKER_00: And that is going to lead Pharaoh to changing his mind and pursuing Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So initially he was rejecting Yahweh, but he wasn't going to pursue Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's changed his mind.
SPEAKER_00: He's still rejecting Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: That's been hardened, but now he's going to pursue Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like they're wandering, and it feels like he can take advantage of that and bring them back.
SPEAKER_00: Now the reason God's doing that is so that, we see this in verse 4, God will get glory over Pharaoh and his army.
SPEAKER_00: There was no stronger kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: There was no stronger nation at the time than Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: As we sang earlier, nations rise and fall.
SPEAKER_00: But our God, the ancient of days, he remains king and lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: God will make himself known to these Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verses five through nine, here's what we see: we see Egypt responding to God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: So the first four verses, we see God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: He lays it out.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verses five through nine, we see how Egypt responds to God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: Now, after realizing their entire workforce is departed, they decide, we're going to go after them.
SPEAKER_00: We want to get them back.
SPEAKER_00: And they did that just as God said they would.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the second half of verse 5 with me.
SPEAKER_00: We see that the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, What is this we have done?
SPEAKER_00: That we have let Israel go from serving us.
SPEAKER_00: So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, and took 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh and the Egyptians decided that they were going to go after the Israelites and catch up to them.
SPEAKER_00: And once the Egyptians did catch up to them, we see Israel's response.
SPEAKER_00: So follow me.
SPEAKER_00: We see God's plan, and we see Egypt's response to God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to go get Israel now.
SPEAKER_00: And now we see Israel's response to God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: And they, like Egypt, also changed their mind.
SPEAKER_00: In that now, instead of going toward freedom, they see this Egyptian army and they're like, let's go back to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we said that was the best thing for us.
SPEAKER_00: So you can say in verse 12 to Moses, essentially, I told you so.
SPEAKER_00: We read in verse 12, is not this what we've said to you in Egypt?
SPEAKER_00: Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?
SPEAKER_00: And friends, it's easy for us to sit here and say, oh, those foolish Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: How ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: Don't they see that it's so much better to be free than to live under bondage?
SPEAKER_00: And we shouldn't gloss over verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Because what the Egyptians, or excuse me, what the Israelites are arguing for, actually seems reasonable.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually reasonable.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Option one is be dead.
SPEAKER_00: Be dead in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Option two is be slaves, but alive in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And so it seems reasonable to say, you know what, the the option where we're alive is more appealing.
SPEAKER_00: But friends, I would actually submit to you that it's it's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: It would actually be better to die serving the true God than to live serving a false God.
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh, remember, Pharaoh believed himself to be a God.
SPEAKER_00: And so it would be better for them to die in the wilderness serving Yahweh than to go back to Egypt and serve Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the good news Moses tells them that they don't even have to make that choice.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 13-14.
SPEAKER_00: Moses tells them, fear not, stand firm.
SPEAKER_00: See the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.
SPEAKER_00: For the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord will fight for you.
SPEAKER_00: And you have only to be silent.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: They were freaking out.
SPEAKER_00: They see this massive army, the strongest army, with chosen chariots, their best warriors coming at them.
SPEAKER_00: And they were freaking out.
SPEAKER_00: They'd lost confidence in Moses, they'd lost confidence in the Lord again.
SPEAKER_00: And they knew there was no way that they could defeat this army.
SPEAKER_00: Oh friends.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly the point.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't.
SPEAKER_00: They could not defeat this army.
SPEAKER_00: They had no chance.
SPEAKER_00: And God wanted to make that abundantly clear to them.
SPEAKER_00: If God doesn't fight for them, they either die or they're carried back to slavery.
SPEAKER_00: God had put them in a position where they had to rely entirely on Him.
SPEAKER_00: And God put them there.
SPEAKER_00: So they'd give up relying on themselves and see that God is actually worthy to be relied upon.
SPEAKER_00: Even, friends, when we don't understand, God's plan is the best plan.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know all the details.
SPEAKER_00: Israel didn't know all the details, but God's plan was to provide freedom for them.
SPEAKER_00: They thought it would look a little bit different, but what God was doing was greater than what they had imagined.
SPEAKER_00: God was not only delivering them to freedom, but as we'll continue on in this chapter, God was destroying any threat to freedom as well.
SPEAKER_00: And so he drew the Egyptian army out into the wilderness so that he could not only free God's people, but he could destroy those who threaten his people.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, from where we stand, God's plan may seem confusing and it may seem frightening.
SPEAKER_00: And like the Israelites, your present circumstance, it may seem absolutely insurmountable.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know everything that you're going through.
SPEAKER_00: But if you trust God to deliver you, I can promise you that He will in life or in death.
SPEAKER_00: Because for the Christian, even if death is what God has for us, we still ultimately are delivered for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: If you are a Christian, then like the Israelites, you may be tempted to return to your former life whenever this one gets hard.
SPEAKER_00: It may be tempting to go back.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you aren't planning to walk away from the Lord, but you've taken a compromised position.
SPEAKER_00: I'll follow Christ everywhere else, but when it comes to this thing, this fill-in-blank, I'm going to do what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's finances or maybe the way that you use your words, or whether maybe it's a job or your dating life or what you do with your Sunday mornings, whatever it is, I would encourage you to consider the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel's friends from Daniel 3.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what in the world do they have to do with this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, they were confronted with the option to either serve the true and living God or die.
SPEAKER_00: When they were confronted with that option by Nebuchadnezzar, they said it would be better for them to die being faithful to God than to live being unfaithful to him.
SPEAKER_00: So they were thrown into the furnace and they were relying entirely on God to deliver them.
SPEAKER_00: They said essentially that if God were trusting God and he'll either deliver us through our death and bring us to him, or he'll deliver us in this life.
SPEAKER_00: And by God's grace, he delivered them in this life.
SPEAKER_00: And even if you're not sure how it's going to work out, I would encourage you to follow the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: God's plan is the best plan.
SPEAKER_00: Because the story always ends with his people being safely delivered from their enemies.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, we're all in a position of needing to rely entirely, entirely on God for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: If you're trusting Christ, if you're trusting God in the flesh to deliver you, then you don't have to fear.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites were freaking out.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to fear like the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: You can stand firm, you can focus on the freedom that God has secured for you through Jesus Christ, who stood in your place, who fought your enemy, who rose victorious from battle, and you had only to be silent.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not a Christian, thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about this church, then you can ask Rick or Jimmy or anybody else here.
SPEAKER_00: But would ask you the question: do you recognize the position that you're in?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see your need for someone else to do what you cannot do?
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites realized that, which is why they were freaking out.
SPEAKER_00: But after crying out to the Lord, you see, that's what they did.
SPEAKER_00: They cried out to the Lord, they were able to witness the salvation work.
SPEAKER_00: So look with me in verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: We see this.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me?
SPEAKER_00: Tell the people of Israel to go forward.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.
SPEAKER_00: And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen.
SPEAKER_00: And the Egyptians shall know, they shall know that I am the Lord, when I've gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.
SPEAKER_00: Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them.
SPEAKER_00: And the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And there was the cloud and the darkness, and it lit up the night, without one coming near the other all night.
SPEAKER_00: Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
SPEAKER_00: And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right and on their left.
SPEAKER_00: The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
SPEAKER_00: And in the morning, in the morning watch, the Lord in the pillar of fire and the of cloud looked down on the Egyptians' forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels, so that they drove heavily.
SPEAKER_00: And the Egyptians said, Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea turned to its normal course when the morning appeared.
SPEAKER_00: And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.
SPEAKER_00: The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.
SPEAKER_00: But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right and on their left.
SPEAKER_00: So in verse 15, and despite them being terrified, God tells Israel to go forward.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't tell them to go blindly.
SPEAKER_00: He gives them the plan, but he does expect them to hear his instruction and move forward in obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, God calls us to do the same thing today.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know all the details.
SPEAKER_00: God has given us his plan.
SPEAKER_00: We know how it ends, and he gives us instruction, but we don't know all the details along the way.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're called to move forward in obedience and in trust.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have all the answers.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life, as nice as it would be, the Christian life is not a turn-by-turn GPS with the Holy Spirit whispering to us every detail along the way which way to go.
SPEAKER_00: If any of you have hiked, it's a little bit more like a compass and a trail map.
SPEAKER_00: Where we see a line on a map, we know generally where to go.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't see all the details.
SPEAKER_00: We don't see every tree and every rock along the way.
SPEAKER_00: It's funny using a map like that.
SPEAKER_00: You may think that you have a general idea of where you are, and then you might come across a landmark and realize, oh, I'm further back than I thought I was.
SPEAKER_00: And so I need to readjust a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is like that to us.
SPEAKER_00: It reveals to us that we're not as far along as we thought we were.
SPEAKER_00: But we know the adjustments that we need to make, and then from there we need to walk faithfully in light of those adjustments.
SPEAKER_00: But we're not given every turn-by-turn detail as we go about our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So, like the Israelites, we're told the big picture.
SPEAKER_00: But we're not given every detail.
SPEAKER_00: As nice as that would be.
SPEAKER_00: And so in verses 1 through 4, God told Moses and Israel, he told them the plan.
SPEAKER_00: Not every detail, but generally speaking.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verses 5 through 14, we saw Egypt's response and Israel's response to that plan.
SPEAKER_00: Now in verses 17 through 18, we see that plan reiterated.
SPEAKER_00: So God said the plan in verses 1 through 4, now he says the plan again in verses 7 through 18.
SPEAKER_00: And there's very similar language here.
SPEAKER_00: So in verse 4, we see three elements that we see in these verses as well.
SPEAKER_00: God will harden the heart of Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: God will get glory over Pharaoh and the Egyptian army, and the Egyptians will know that he is the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the whole book of Exodus is about God making himself known.
SPEAKER_00: And so he is doing this to make himself known to Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: But now, instead of reading about Egypt and Israel's actions, we actually see God's actions here.
SPEAKER_00: And we see him do three things.
SPEAKER_00: The first is that God defends.
SPEAKER_00: See this in verses 19 through 20.
SPEAKER_00: We see that his presence, the pillar of cloud, goes from leading them to moving behind them.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why does the cloud go from leading them to moving behind them?
SPEAKER_00: It's because their enemy was behind them.
SPEAKER_00: And notice the effectiveness of God's defense in verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: The cloud came between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel, and there was a cloud in the darkness, and it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
SPEAKER_00: The Egyptians could not get near the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God stood in the gap.
SPEAKER_00: God stood in between his people and their enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, God is guiding them to freedom.
SPEAKER_00: But he's also defending them from the enemy's attacks.
SPEAKER_00: He's protecting them along the way.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're in Christ, friends, you can take heart because you have the same God standing in the gap for you today, to defend you today.
SPEAKER_00: One commentary, put it this way.
SPEAKER_00: Said God's special presence in the cloud.
SPEAKER_00: So him showing up in the cloud, God's special presence in the cloud prefigures his presence in Christ, who is our protection and refuge against all the attacks of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: And so, yes, we live in a fallen world and we will experience the fallenness of that.
SPEAKER_00: We'll experience the pain of living in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to Satan's attempts to destroy us, here's what's great.
SPEAKER_00: They will never work.
SPEAKER_00: They cannot work.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is standing in the gap.
SPEAKER_00: He shields us from Satan's arrows.
SPEAKER_00: The only arrows that he does allow past are the ones that he knows are going to be good for us in the long run.
SPEAKER_00: It's like verse 2 of, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer, that we just sang before this.
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, my rock and my redeemer, my strong defender of my weary heart, my sword to fight the cruel deceiver, and my shield against his hateful darts.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, we have a God who is our shield.
SPEAKER_00: Just as he shielded Israel here from their enemies, so too he shields us today from our great enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Which is what we see in verses 21 through 25, where anyone who relies on God as their defense will ultimately be delivered.
SPEAKER_00: And so the second thing that God does, not only does he defend, the second thing is he delivers.
SPEAKER_00: He delivers his people from slavery and from death.
SPEAKER_00: He delivers them through an obedient mediator.
SPEAKER_00: One who hears his word and does it.
SPEAKER_00: Moses' obedience led to all of Israel being delivered.
SPEAKER_00: He obeyed God when God told him to go to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: He obeyed God when he told him to inform Israel of his plan.
SPEAKER_00: Moses obeyed God when he told him to confront Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: He obeyed God during each cycle of the plagues.
SPEAKER_00: And he obeys God now when he's commanded to stretch his hand over the sea and part it.
SPEAKER_00: And we alluded to this earlier, where we see Israel, after they make it through the Red Sea, God had Moses stretch out his hand again.
SPEAKER_00: But this time, it wasn't to provide freedom.
SPEAKER_00: This time, it was to destroy the threat to freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Moses' obedience led to Israel's deliverance, yes, but it also led to Egypt's demise, their destruction.
SPEAKER_00: We see in verse 28 that no, not one Egyptian soldier, not one, survived.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know how to get Egypt's attention?
SPEAKER_00: To let them know who the true God is?
SPEAKER_00: Destroy their entire army.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't partially destroy his enemies, he destroys them entirely.
SPEAKER_00: God's people, friends, are saved because of his actions, not theirs.
SPEAKER_00: When Israel approached the Red Sea, they were seeking freedom.
SPEAKER_00: And they came out of the Red Sea truly free.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's through God's work.
SPEAKER_00: God's work defending them, God's work delivering them, and God's work destroying their enemies.
SPEAKER_00: And what God does here at the Red Sea is a small taste of what will take place when Christ returns.
SPEAKER_00: When those who call on Christ will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: They'll be saved from the judgment that comes.
SPEAKER_00: They'll be delivered through the sea.
SPEAKER_00: And all of God's enemies will be utterly destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: There will not be a single one remaining.
SPEAKER_00: And God will create for himself a new kingdom where there is no sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so, friends, if you have sinned today, then you need somebody to remove that sin for you.
SPEAKER_00: And God has provided an obedient mediator, Jesus Christ, to do that very thing, to remove your sin.
SPEAKER_00: And if you follow him, if you call on him to remove your sin, and if you follow him through to freedom, he will deliver you safely to freedom, sure.
SPEAKER_00: Are you trusting God to deliver you?
SPEAKER_00: Have you placed your trust in Christ for that deliverance?
SPEAKER_00: When Satan's schemes and attacks seem to be closing in, when you're wronged, when others misrepresent you, are you still trusting God to protect you?
SPEAKER_00: To defend you?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you find yourself feeling hopeless, like the Israelites were?
SPEAKER_00: If you do feel hopeless today, then I would just encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: At some point today, maybe when you go home, just open up your Bible and read Psalm 42.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 42.
SPEAKER_00: Read that slowly when you get home.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're here and you're a Christian with some besetting sin.
SPEAKER_00: A sin that you just can't seem to shake.
SPEAKER_00: It consistently comes up.
SPEAKER_00: You've been fighting it for years.
SPEAKER_00: Are you trusting God to destroy that sin?
SPEAKER_00: He utterly destroys the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Are you trusting in God to destroy it or are you trusting in your own abilities?
SPEAKER_00: Because if you continue to trust in your own abilities, you're going to continue to wrestle and fight, and you're not going to have victory over that thing.
SPEAKER_00: But if you trust God, then suddenly you have the ability.
SPEAKER_00: He provides his spirit to help you in that battle.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not guaranteeing that that'll suddenly go away overnight.
SPEAKER_00: But don't rely on your own abilities to overcome that.
SPEAKER_00: True freedom is only found by relying entirely on God, which leads us to the salvation response.
SPEAKER_00: See it in the last two verses, and this this verse is quicker, or this passage is quicker than the other two points, I assure you.
SPEAKER_00: So look at verse 30.
SPEAKER_00: Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
SPEAKER_00: Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And they see the result of the Lord fighting for them.
SPEAKER_00: Their enemy is dead.
SPEAKER_00: There's no more threat.
SPEAKER_00: And they respond appropriately.
SPEAKER_00: We see at the second part of verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: So the people feared the Lord, and they believed the Lord, and in his servant Moses.
SPEAKER_00: When it says they feared him, it means they have a have a healthy respect for him.
SPEAKER_00: They do have a fear of him, but it's a healthy respect for Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: And they trusted God's mediator.
SPEAKER_00: They believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
SPEAKER_00: True salvation believes God and His mediator.
SPEAKER_00: Moses was God's mediator who brought God's people out of physical slavery to physical freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, God in the flesh, the Son of God, is God's mediator who brings God's people from spiritual slavery to spiritual freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is leading them to a temporal promised land.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is leading his people to an eternal promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And that inheritance is for all who stop relying on themselves, who stop relying on other things and rely entirely on God.
SPEAKER_00: And look, we we we cannot overlook, can't I we can't overlook the structure of this passage.
SPEAKER_00: So in the first part of the chapter, we saw God's plan, we saw how that impacts Egypt, and how that impacts Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And then the second part, we saw God's plan, how that impacts Egypt, and how that impacts Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And then right in the middle of these two passages, we see verses 13 through 15, where we read, Fear not, stand firm, see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord will fight for you.
SPEAKER_00: You have only to be silent.
SPEAKER_00: Tell the people of Israel to go forward.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, this right here, this is the diamond that the rest of the chapter is holding up for us to see.
SPEAKER_00: Namely, that freedom is available.
SPEAKER_00: It's there.
SPEAKER_00: But only to those who humbly accept it, to those who trust that they bring nothing to the table, that they can't fight the army, they can't fight their enemy, that sin is too much for them.
SPEAKER_00: Those who call on the name of God to deliver them.
SPEAKER_00: To those who believe that Christ's perfect life, his death on the cross for sin, and his resurrection on the third day, that those things are sufficient to satisfy God's wrath against their sin.
SPEAKER_00: To those who realize that they have only to be silent.
SPEAKER_00: They don't bring their resume because their resume falls short.
SPEAKER_00: And so they have to silently look to Christ and trust that He is sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: And for those who do, we are promised that we will be delivered.
SPEAKER_00: They're saved by faith alone in Christ alone, and their works provide nothing.
SPEAKER_00: To those who believe that the enemy has been defeated and that that freedom is secured through the obedience of God's mediator, Jesus Christ, they will enjoy freedom's sure.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, freedom from slavery is possible.
SPEAKER_00: We, apart from Christ, are dead in our sin.
SPEAKER_00: We're in bondage to our sin.
SPEAKER_00: But freedom is possible only when we rely entirely on God for it.
SPEAKER_00: So, Christian, don't think that being right with God has anything to do with what you've done.
SPEAKER_00: We don't earn our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Israel didn't earn their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We offer nothing.
SPEAKER_00: We're simply observers and beneficiaries.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, consider Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They prayed for hundreds and hundreds of years.
SPEAKER_00: They could not free themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted freedom, but they couldn't free themselves.
SPEAKER_00: God heard them.
SPEAKER_00: Friend, if you call out on God today, if you throw yourself on his mercy, God will hear you and he will deliver you.
SPEAKER_00: We're only observers and beneficiaries, just as we sang in verse one of the solid rock, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: I dare not trust the sweetest frame.
SPEAKER_00: The sweetest frame.
SPEAKER_00: Not ugly frames.
SPEAKER_00: I don't trust the sweetest frame.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, wholly lean on Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.