[0:00] And I'd ask you to turn to the book of Exodus. The book of Exodus and chapter 14. Well, we're going to begin reading in verse 15 and read through the rest of the chapter.
[0:11] And just to give you a little context, the people have come to the Red Sea. The Pharaoh's army is bearing down on them. Chapter 14, Exodus 14, verse 15.
[0:25] Then the Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.
[0:38] I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army through his chariots and his horsemen.
[0:51] The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen. And then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them.
[1:05] The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night, the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side, so that neither went near the other all night long.
[1:24] Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. And all that night, the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
[1:44] The Egyptians pursued them and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night, the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.
[2:04] He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, let's get away from the Israelites. The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.
[2:15] Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea.
[2:28] And at daybreak, the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it and the Lord swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea.
[2:47] Not one of them survived. But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
[2:57] And that day, the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the great power of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses, his servant.
[3:21] Let's hear the preaching of God's word. Brothers and sisters, it is a great delight to be with you again and in particular to open up this portion of God's word at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto.
[3:33] We are studying the book of Exodus and in light of circumstances that you are in and in light of the fact that this was so meaningful to us, it seemed like the perfect text to which to go.
[3:46] So please keep your Bible open there to Exodus chapter 14. About 25 years ago, I laid my hands on a little book called Nearer Heaven by John Baird.
[4:00] I, over the course of time since then, have never been able to discover who exactly this John Baird was. To my knowledge, it is the only book he published. It is a little daily devotional that has ministered to me for years.
[4:13] The first time I came upon this sentence, however, I was stopped in my tracks and I thought, oh no, this is not a good book. Because this is what it said. I waited for providence to open the door and I waited in vain.
[4:32] But, oh God, when I went forward in faith, your providence opened up the way as I required. I waited for providence to open the door and I waited in vain.
[4:46] I recall getting stopped in my tracks when I read that sentence. Well, that doesn't sound right. Waiting for providence was vanity.
[4:57] It was vain. It was foolishness to wait for providence. I was forced to consider what came next. But, oh God, when I went forward in faith, your providence opened up the way as I required.
[5:13] You see, it seemed wrong to me to think about waiting for providence being vain until I considered what faith really is.
[5:24] Faith is, if it's nothing else, is simply acting on what God has revealed. It's doing what God has said.
[5:34] It's taking God at his word in a fashion that demonstrates you truly believe it. So when we talk about God and when we talk about salvation in our churches, we can make it sound a little bit like everything is waiting on God.
[5:49] And that's true. And yet, when you live life forwards, you have to live like every next moment might be your last moment.
[6:04] You have to act, not just think. And that is the heart of what I'd like to preach today. Now, I'm preaching from the English Standard Version. You use the New International Version.
[6:15] And I apologize, but I'm going to stick with my English Standard Version because it uses a word that the New International Version doesn't use. And that would just ruin my sermon if I had to switch. And that word is forward.
[6:26] And you'll find that word in verse 15 in my text. It says this, To go forward.
[6:38] And that's the title to this sermon. Forward. Forward. If you are not a Christian yet, if you're not sure if you are a Christian, if you're hovering between God and the world, but you haven't come all the way to Jesus yet, then I am preaching to you this morning this one word.
[6:58] Forward. Forward. It is time to go forward. And we will look at that word in five different ways. The first one is this. Go forward. Don't pray.
[7:10] Yeah, you heard me right. That is meant to startle you. But I mean it. Remember what's going on with Israel here. Point number one. Go forward. Don't pray.
[7:20] These are freshly escaped slaves. 400 years of slavery. Verse 10. When Pharaoh drew near. This is Exodus 14 verse 10.
[7:31] When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold the Egyptians, their slave masters, are marching after them and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord.
[7:44] But look at how God responds to them in verse 15. The Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel, go forward.
[7:58] Now you put yourself in their sandals for a minute. You're facing the sea. God has sovereignly led you. Right? Pillar of fire and cloud that took you out of Egypt.
[8:09] And then in verse 1 of Exodus 14 says they did a U-turn and God led them to a dead end. The Red Sea. God is the one who's been leading you the whole way.
[8:21] And now you're trapped. God has led you to a place. He has made your circumstances look far worse. Than they were just a few hours ago. And now you're trapped.
[8:32] And so you pray. And you cry out. And you seek God. It seems like a good thing. And often prayer is an excellent thing. Please don't hear me suggest that prayer is a bad thing. But here Yahweh commands and says, go forward.
[8:48] To be quite clear, when God says, why do you cry to me? In verse 15. You must understand what he is saying is, why are you praying? The time for praying is over.
[9:01] It is the time to act. It is the time to move. It is the time to go forward. When God commands a person to give their life to him, it can sound a little bit like being there at the Red Sea.
[9:15] And God saying, walk into those waters. It might seem to you like it's better to hold a prayer meeting on the beach than to do what God says. But God never commands what he will not provide the grace to do.
[9:31] As Charles Spurgeon said when he was commenting on these verses, beware of substituting prayer for faith. Faith in God is a little like coming to Toronto and going up what used to be the world's tallest freestanding structure.
[9:47] It's now like number six on the list. But when they built it, it was the tallest thing in the world. And when you go up this Canadian National Tower, the CN Tower, some people call it the big needle. That's Seattle. This is Toronto.
[9:58] They've got the needle. We've got the tower. And you go up that tower, there is the glass floor. You're like 340 meters or something. You can figure out what that is. It's high.
[10:09] And you're very high up. And you stand on the floor. And because it's a tower with a pod, when you stand on the floor, you look straight down. Now, you can be there.
[10:20] And you're looking over at the floor, the glass floor there. And you see some other people walking on the floor. You see some crazy people jumping up and down on the floor. Okay, whatever. And it's very, very helpful when the little staff person with a little suit and hat begins to talk.
[10:34] They see you. And they see your fear. And they say, you know, you don't really need to worry. There's a three-eighth of an inch scuff plate. It's replaced annually. And then there's two half-inch layers of clear-tempered glass that have been laminated together.
[10:47] Then there's two quarter-inch layers of clear-tempered glass laminated together. Yes, I'm reading from the website. And it is strong enough. And this is truly Canadian. It is strong enough to hold 35 moose.
[10:58] Mooses or meese, whatever you say. So you're getting all that information, right? But you've still got to take the step.
[11:11] The information helps, but it doesn't change the fact that that's glass and I can see the ground below. So if you're like me, you're kind of, you know, a little test.
[11:21] Faith in God is a little bit like this. Now, faith in God is based on facts. But the proof that you believe the facts is that you act on the facts.
[11:39] Look at the faith facts that God has given to Israel here. God gives his people some information on how they're going to walk through the water. How this is all going to work. Verse 16.
[11:49] Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea, Moses. Divide it that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them.
[12:02] And I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, his horsemen.
[12:13] In other words, God says this is not going to be a swim meet for Israel against Egypt. God is going to move water. You've got to step back in time a little bit.
[12:27] Nothing like this has ever happened before. You're a rescued slave standing on the edge of an ocean. Edge of a sea. And God says to you, I'm going to move water.
[12:41] I'm going to take a liquid and I'm going to move it out of the way. Not just by making it disappear. I'm going to pull the water back to the left and to the right so that it forms a kind of grand canyon of water that you're going to walk through.
[12:54] I'm going to miraculously make the ground where the water was dry so you can just go through the sea. Now, when I was a junior higher, I had the privilege of flying from Toronto to Los Angeles.
[13:08] And when you go to Los Angeles as a tourist, you must go to Universal Studios. And the new thing at Universal Studios way back then was the parting of the waters on the tram tour.
[13:20] You sit in your little tram and they drive you around the studio lot. And then you're supposed to say something. I don't remember what. And these two metal walls kind of come up. They're about five feet tall.
[13:31] And all the water drains out and you drive through the water. It's a miracle. Only it's not a miracle because I can see the steel walls and I can see the drains.
[13:44] And it's five feet. It's not that impressive. There is all kinds of speculation through the years about exactly where Israel crossed through the Red Sea.
[13:57] Most of those attempts are usually saying that, you know, it was some local lake there to Egypt. It wasn't really the Red Sea. They didn't know where they were going. It just became the Red Sea to them. I like my Bible and I think it's usually true.
[14:11] That was meant to be. I mean, it's always true. Let me just give you, if the Gulf of Suez comes up from the top of the Red Sea, that would probably be the crossing point for Israel.
[14:21] Somewhere in the Gulf of Suez. You can probably find it on your Bible map in the back of your Bible. Now, water levels and coastlines change over centuries, right? But not that much. But if you go there today, at its closest point, the Gulf of Suez is 19 kilometers apart.
[14:38] Yeah, I asked Siri last night, how many miles is 19 kilometers? Because none of you would know. I didn't know either. It's 12 miles. 12 miles. That's the closest point.
[14:52] And above average walking speed to cover 12 miles would take you three to four hours. You figure people are nervous. There's an army behind them and a big pillar of fire and cloud. You're probably moving at a good clip, right?
[15:02] And so you've got 12 miles of water canyon to get through. And then the average depth of the Suez Canal, or not the canal, the Gulf, 80 to 130 feet.
[15:20] So let's take the minimum of that and say those walls of water were probably about 80 feet high. So picture Moses here. He's standing on the shoreline.
[15:32] His arms are raised with the staff of God in his hand. And the wind begins to blow. It's an unusual wind. It's God at work.
[15:43] And miraculously, water begins to separate. This is not tidal action. It's not the waters withdrawing. It's the waters separating the left and to the right. There's this incredible pulling back of two sides of water.
[15:57] And these water walls are probably about eight stories high. And remarkably, the ocean floor right in front of you, it all dries up. It becomes passable.
[16:09] But many, many people have doubted that this really happened. Even so-called Christians. There's a great old story. You read any good commentary today, it always has this story in it because it's so good.
[16:21] Because there's a story of this liberal minister who was preaching and talked about the crossing of the Red Sea, which so stirred. He was preaching in an African-American congregation.
[16:32] And so as he talked about this great passing through the waters, it so stirred an African-American man in the congregation that he cried out, Praise the Lord, taking all them children through the deep waters.
[16:43] What a mighty miracle. But this minister was a liberal. He didn't believe in the miracles. And he was far too educated for this uneducated man. And so he responded and said, Well, actually, this just took place in the marshlands there in Egypt.
[16:59] The tide was ebbing. The children of Israel picked their way across in about six inches of water. And undeterred, that same old man shouted back, Praise the Lord, drowning all them Egyptians in six inches of water.
[17:14] What a mighty miracle. And I said, Amen. I love that guy. Because you can't have it both ways, right? You can't have it both ways.
[17:24] If this miracle is difficult for you to conceive of, Well, yeah, it's a miracle. Miracles are difficult to conceive of. Miracles are not something that can be explained easily by science.
[17:39] That's not what defines miracle. Miracle is going against science. Miracle is doing things out of the so-called laws of nature. It is a miracle. It was a miracle when God separated the waters to make dry land back in Genesis chapter 1.
[17:52] It was a miracle when the Lord Jesus walked on top of stormy weather waves. And it was a miracle when God split the Red Sea in two and made a path for his people.
[18:03] Just like salvation is a miracle too. It always is. Israel was not saved by making a good choice. Israel was not saved by cleaning up their lives so that they impressed Yahweh.
[18:15] They were brought through the waters. They were saved by a miracle. God had to rescue them. And that's just as true today. God had to make a way to rescue us, which he did by sending his own son.
[18:32] That means it may very well be time for you to stop praying and start faithing, believing. Pondering this very thing, again, Charles Spurgeon said, Forward, sinner.
[18:49] Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Why? Some of you have been frittering away your time. Weeks and months and years. Thinking about it. Praying about it. Reading about it.
[19:00] Hoping about it. Fearing about it. But never coming to Jesus just as you are. It is wrong. It is all wrong. God's command is neither work nor feel nor fear. It is simple and plain.
[19:12] Believe. Forward. Trust a Savior's wounds. And in trusting, there is life in a look at him and you are saved. Maybe it's time for you to stop praying and believe.
[19:25] Go forward. Don't pray. Don't pray. Number two. And they'll be shorter. Don't worry. Go forward. Don't delay. Listen. Don't delay. Maybe God has been at work in your life.
[19:37] This last little while, you can see ways that he has been working and you've been thinking a lot about your life and contemplating taking that risk of following him.
[19:48] And if so, it might be that God has been graciously protecting you and leading you to this point, just like he was taking care of Israel before they actually crossed the sea. Look at verse 19. The angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel.
[20:09] And there was the cloud and the darkness and it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night. So remember, God has been leading them all the way along and he led them to this dead end.
[20:23] And now this visible manifestation of God's presence, the pillar, the angel in the cloud moves from the front of the line to the back of the line because he's going to stand guard so the Egyptians cannot get them.
[20:37] Now, in all likelihood, the angel of the Lord in that pillar of cloud and fire was none other than the pre-incarnate Christ, the true good shepherd who will spend the night watching over his sheep.
[20:53] And when this angel of the Lord is described later in the Exodus, Exodus 23, verse 20, it says, Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.
[21:04] Pay careful attention to him. Obey his voice. Do not rebel against him for he will not pardon your transgression for my name is in him. That's the angel of the Lord.
[21:17] Now, it may sound strange to our ears to think of Christ being described as an angel, but that's only because we've made the term into more than it is. The word simply means a messenger, a sent one, an emissary.
[21:31] And in this case, it's the pardoning and powerful pre-incarnate Christ who stands there in the cloud, the cloud of fire that represents his holiness and his omnipotence, his power.
[21:44] This is a very, very sweet picture. For here is the Savior leading his people to exactly the right spot and then standing all night between them and their enemy so that they can move safely into their salvation.
[21:57] Some people like to sit at the back of the bus. Some people like to stand at the back of the line. Some people even like to sit at the back of church.
[22:11] That's fine. But are you hesitating? Are you delaying at the back while God is commanding you to go forward?
[22:25] Are you looking back at your former slave master and wondering if maybe you should return? Does the way forward appear to you to be too unpredictable? I don't know what's going to happen when I walk into those waters.
[22:37] Are you trembling at the ocean's edge? Are you worried about what you might lose if you come to Christ? Are you anxious over what he might call you to do once you reach the other side?
[22:48] You see, delay, delay, delay, delay. Friend, put your hope in who God is. Put your hope in his character. Put your hope in who he has revealed himself to be.
[22:59] He's not Pharaoh. He's not some cruel taskmaster. He's God. He's full of love and mercy and kindness and power. Come to him.
[23:10] He's there right now in your life holding back Satan. Holding back his accusations. But only for a time. Can't you picture some poor Israelite former slave looking over at that Egyptian army only to see his old master there with all of his swords and spears and armor on.
[23:34] And maybe the master spots him through the cloud and he begins to call out his name and say, Get back here, slave. Get back where you belong. You see, when you're coming to God through Christ, it may be similar that you see your sins and you see what your sins have done and you feel your guilt and you don't want to go back to that old way of living but the way forward appears rather frightening, rather scary and your angry master Satan is over there and he's calling your name.
[24:04] He's telling you to get back to your slavery and you feel still like a slave and you wonder if you should go back and you're caught between an army and a sea. You're caught between your guilt and an unclear future.
[24:17] In older days, the church used to describe this state of soul as being awakened. You've been awakened. To have this very real spiritual awareness but being awakened is not the same thing as being saved.
[24:34] Friend, at some point, you have to go forward. Forward in faith. In our church, we sing an old hymn that says, Ye sinners, come. Tis mercy's voice.
[24:46] The gracious call obey. Mercy invites to heavenly joys. And can you yet delay? Are you delaying God? Go forward.
[24:57] Don't delay. Those slaves were awakened on one side of the sea but they needed to cross to the other side of the sea to be truly saved. Now what about you?
[25:09] Are you hesitating on the shore? Friend, don't pray. Don't delay. Go forward. Trust Christ. Number three, go forward. Don't be swayed.
[25:20] Don't pray. Don't delay. Don't be swayed. That is, don't be thwarted from coming all the way to God through Christ. Verse 21, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land.
[25:34] And the waters were divided. 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 hand and on their left.
[25:46] And I read parts of my Bible like that and I am full of questions. I don't know about you. How long did Moses pray? How long did it take for the waters to separate?
[25:59] What did it look like? What did the wind sound like? How did the ground get dry so quickly? Could fish inadvertently swim out of the wall of water into the divided part?
[26:10] And if they did, would you throw them back again? Would you want to go anywhere near that wall of water? I'm thinking I'd stay really close to the middle. Remember, it was night.
[26:23] And it was likely a night of a terrible storm too. Psalm 77 describing this time says, When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid. Indeed, the deep trembled.
[26:36] The clouds poured out water. The skies gave forth thunder. Your arrows flashed on every side. The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind. Your lightnings lighted up the world. The earth trembled and shook. Now, it's poetry.
[26:48] It may not be exactly how it was, but it appears that this wind and this parting of the waters was all part of this great conglomeration of God's work with nature.
[26:59] And there's the pillar of light, and it's casting some light for you. But everything outside of that light is dark and strange. I doubt you could even see the other side. It's 19 kilometers away, 13 miles away.
[27:15] And unless water formations were totally different in this day, you're about to walk into a tunnel of water. You ever stood on a railway track that's just straight for as far as you can see?
[27:29] And what happens to the two rails? Eventually, they converge. To our eyes, that's how it appears. It's called the vanishing point. What was it like to stand?
[27:41] This is just assuming that the swath of... that God cut through that water was straight all the way across. Maybe it wound around. Who knows? Let's just assume it's just a straight path right across to the other side.
[27:53] I'm thinking, you're standing there. There's water on your right hand, water on your left hand, an army behind you, and you can't see the other side. It all converges into water. But they were not swayed to turn back into their slavery.
[28:10] They went forward. No one said faith was without risk. No one said faith was without fear. Faith is not a blind leap.
[28:22] It's based on facts. Think of the glass floor again. It's based on facts, but still, even though the facts are there, you have to act. You have to entrust your soul to the faithful creator.
[28:36] In fact, faith by its very nature is a form of risk. It is acting on an unseen reality. Of course, it is threatening to step forward in faith.
[28:50] But if all you've got is an enemy behind you and a promise in front of you, take the promise. Go forward. Trust God. Which will you choose? You may be big and strong on the outside.
[29:06] You may have a great fear of the unknown on the inside. Don't let that fear of the unknown keep you from God. God has given you enough data about himself that you can trust him.
[29:19] So even if you don't understand how it's all going to work out, run into that watery tunnel and get to the other side and get in there before your enemies pounce. Go forward. Don't pray. Go forward.
[29:29] Don't delay. Go forward. Don't be swayed. Number four, go forward. Don't stray. Think about everything that happens in this salvation.
[29:41] Not only will the path lead them to safety, it will once and for all defeat their mortal enemies, the Egyptians. Verse 23. The Egyptians went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen.
[29:57] And in the morning, in the morning watch, the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic and clogging their chariot wheels or their wheels fell off.
[30:10] They drove heavily. The Egyptians said, let us flee from before Israel for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. Sin is a terrible taskmaster.
[30:24] Sin blinds and it deafens. It kills and it hardens. Think of Pharaoh and his army. Think of who these people are. They have just witnessed the ten plagues. Less than, probably about 24 hours before this, they're saying to Israel, get out, get out, get out.
[30:43] You can't handle your Yahweh. Get out. You've just seen the great power of God, the eighth plague, the plague of the locust. What does God do when the plague is over?
[30:55] He says, Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, you want the locust gone? Pharaoh says, yeah, I want the locust gone. He says, okay, tomorrow the locust will be gone and God will send them into the Red Sea. Prefiguring another army that's about to be cast into the Red Sea.
[31:11] Sin blinds you. Sin ruins your ability to think. They have seen God's power on display ten times over. And now they think suddenly, even when they're standing on the other side of the pillar of cloud and fire, they think that somehow they're going to capture these Hebrew slaves.
[31:30] And yet, the only difference between Pharaoh's army and the Hebrew people is the mediator who stands between them.
[31:42] As the sun dawns, that mediator looks down on the Egyptians. God has many, many looks. And not all of them are full of love.
[31:56] Do you remember when our Lord Jesus was being beaten and spat upon? The rooster crowed a third time. Peter was there watching it all and he had denied him three times.
[32:08] And Luke says, the Lord looked at him. And in that look of the Lord to Peter, suddenly, cut to the heart with guilt.
[32:18] And he went out, the text says, and wept bitterly for his denials, for his sin. Well, here is another look of God. And here the Savior of Israel looks down on that massive Egyptian army with that one look.
[32:34] Panic ensues. Remember, this is the superpower. This is the superpower of the day. They have the war machine. They are there. They're fighting slaves.
[32:46] These people don't know how to fight. And all God does is look. The wheels fall off.
[32:58] Maybe that's where we get that expression. Chariots are no good without wheels. And now you're trapped. Within minutes, you can just see the Egyptian army. Within minutes, they begin to realize, oh no, this is supernatural warfare.
[33:12] Well, yeah, you're standing in the middle of a watery tunnel. What did you think it was? Sometimes, because sin is blinding, sometimes, it's too late when we finally come to our senses about our sins.
[33:27] We've been telling ourselves, you know what, this sin is fun. I'm having a great time. I'm really, really living. Only to end up in a jail cell with a hangover and charges against you. And now it's too late.
[33:43] I've spoken to enough men behind bars who have finally come to their senses. But it's too late. Pharaoh's heart is hard, but it is too late.
[33:54] The Egyptian hearts are hard, but it is too late. And hard hearts do really foolish things. So they chase a giant pillar of fire into what is going to become their watery grave.
[34:08] Moses and Israel have already reached the other side. Verse 26, the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, upon their horsemen.
[34:18] So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians. It's the idea in the next chapter too, in verse 15, of God being actively tossing them, shaking them off, like you shake a bug off your hand, shaking them off into the waters.
[34:42] The Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea. Not one of them remained.
[34:53] But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. What that means is that the means of their salvation was also the means of their enemy's destruction.
[35:10] I'll summarize very nicely for you in verse 30. Thus Yahweh, the Lord, saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
[35:22] dead on the beach. Dead. That nation who worshipped life. Let's embalm our dead.
[35:34] Let's build pyramids to our dead. Let's always believe in the fact we're never going to stop living. Just like he promised, Egypt came to know Yahweh.
[35:50] Oh, they knew his name. They knew about him. They heard those Hebrew slaves worshipping him. But they came to know him. Just as he said they would. Verse 18, The Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.
[36:06] They came to know him and God was glorified. Not only did the Egyptians come to know Yahweh, but the Hebrew slaves came to know him as well. Verse 31, Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord.
[36:20] And they believed in the Lord and in his servant, Moses. Just as God had told them through Moses, back in verse 13, Moses said to the people, Fear not.
[36:33] Stand firm. See the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent.
[36:43] God is getting glory in salvation and God is getting glory in the destruction of his enemy. This is all through your Bible, repeated again and again.
[36:57] Psalm 106, verse 8, Yet he saved them for his name's sake. It does not say that God saved you so you could have a very comfortable life.
[37:09] He saved you for his glory. Yet he saved them for his name's sake that he might make known his mighty power. He rebuked the Red Sea and it became dry. He led them through the deep as through a desert.
[37:21] So he saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy. And the waters covered their adversaries. Not one of them was left. Then they believed his words. They sang his praise. Isn't that what you do, Christian, when God saves you?
[37:33] You believe his words. You sing his praise. But sometimes we forget that our salvation involves another's destruction. When Jesus died on the cross, yes, he saved his people, but he also defeated our enemy, Satan.
[37:47] Paul wrote to the Colossians, verse 13 of chapter 2, you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven all of our trespasses.
[38:01] By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.
[38:17] Yes, he saved us, but he also destroyed our enemy. The cross brought us life, but it also destroyed our enemy. Two things happening in one thing, which leads to something, which is number five.
[38:30] Go forward. Don't pray. Go forward. Don't delay. Go forward. Don't be swayed. Go forward. Don't stray. Go forward. God, today. Today. Would it surprise you to know that this exodus was all pointing forward to another exodus, a far greater deliverance, a greater salvation?
[38:51] We know this clearly from the New Testament. There's a connection between the exodus, for instance, and the transfiguration. Remember when the transfiguration, the mountain, Jesus ascends the mountain with a few of his disciples, the glory, the cloud, Moses.
[39:10] And then these words from Luke. This is Luke 9, 28. Now about eight days after these sayings, he took with him Peter, John, and James, went up the mountain to pray, and as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.
[39:27] Glory. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah. who appeared in glory and spoke of his, you ready for this?
[39:40] His exodus. That's the word Luke chooses to use. Sometimes our English Bibles translate it something like departure. But the word is exodus.
[39:52] They appeared to him in glory and spoke of his exodus, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. So Luke says that Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah about his exodus, his death and resurrection that awaited him in Jerusalem, which means the greater exodus was accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ when he passed through the waters of God's wrath on our behalf.
[40:21] Do you remember how Matthew, when describing the early years of Jesus, quotes this kind of obscure verse from Hosea 11. This is what Matthew says.
[40:32] Talking about the family of Jesus going down into Egypt. So Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.
[40:44] This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Here's the quote from Hosea. Out of Egypt I called my son. Now when Hosea said that he was speaking about how Israel as a whole was called God's son.
[41:04] Moses was told go to Pharaoh and say on behalf of Yahweh I'm here to claim my son. The entire nation of Israel. But when Matthew reads that he says wait that's pointing forward to Jesus the ultimate firstborn son.
[41:21] Matthew understood that connection and so just as that slave nation prefigured Christ our Lord Jesus too came up out of Egypt and went down into the waters of judgment and he did this for us.
[41:35] Our great substitute went in our place to that great judgment and in his death and resurrection his exodus he rescued his people salvation and he conquered sin destruction and just as he was physically there between Israel and the armies of Egypt on the floor of the Red Sea leading his people to life so he is spiritually present between God and his wrath taking our just desserts so that we could follow in his train to our gracious reward.
[42:06] The destruction of the Egyptian army was only pointing forward to a death far worse and totally undeserved the death of Jesus Christ on a Roman cross.
[42:18] Tim Chester wrote this Imagine the walls of waters collapsing in on one another with people and horses being tossed about and dragged down into the depths.
[42:29] This is what Jesus stepped into at the cross. Jesus plunged into the chaos of the waters of judgment so that we can walk through on dry ground. Imagine the people of God standing safe on the shore watching God's judgment unfold before their eyes.
[42:46] This is what we are doing as we watch with the eyes of faith God's son hanging on the cross. When the Israelites saw God deliver them they put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.
[42:59] How much more should we when we see our deliverance in the cross and resurrection put our trust in God by putting our trust in Jesus his servant. That's what you need to do today.
[43:11] Not tomorrow not next week not once you get things figured out not once you get a few more sins under your belt but to do it today. Go forward to him forward to him he is the world's only savior there's not another one coming there is only one and it is Jesus Christ.
[43:28] He is the Lord who made a way in the sea a path in the mighty waters Isaiah 43 he is the one who with his own presence in his love and pity redeemed them and lifted them and carried them all their days Isaiah 63 he is the one who dried up the sea the waters of the great deep and made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over Isaiah 51 he is the one who is holy who works wonders and makes his might known the God who with his own arm redeemed his people before whom the waters fled before whom the great deep was dried up to make a path for the redeemed to pass over whose way was through the sea even though his footprints were unseen Psalm 77 he is the God who divided the Red Sea and made Israel pass through the midst of it but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea whose steadfast love endures forever Psalm 136 friend it is time it is time to go forward it is time to believe it is time to exercise faith it is time to trust in him the time for praying the time for delaying the time for swaying the time for straying it is done with it is today and today is the day of salvation today is the day to go forward no more delay no more sway but today the action of faith moving forward trusting God through Christ to be forever with the Lord set free and headed to the true promised land do not wait for providence or you will wait in vain go forward in faith and providence will open the way as you require let us pray oh God by your
[45:14] Holy Spirit come and move and call all of your people to yourself for those of us who are Christians remind us of our great salvation in Jesus for those of us who are hovering waiting at the edge knowing the way forward but for whatever reason not moving make it today by your Spirit's power and grace this we ask in the name of Christ Amen