A Sovereign Plan for Sanctification

Transcript

Good morning, church family. Turn with me, if you will, in your copy of God's Word to the Book of Exodus. We will continue in our sermon series in the Book of Exodus this morning by beginning in verse 17 of chapter 13, reading down through verse 14 of chapter 14. Exodus chapter 13, beginning now in verse 17, this is the Word of the Lord. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near.

For God said, lest the people change their minds when they see war in return to Egypt. But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt, equipped for battle. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here. And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Ethim on the edge of the wilderness.

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, tell the people of Israel to turn back and in camp in front of Pih HaHairoth, between Migdal and the sea, in front of Baal Zaphan. You shall in camp facing it by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, they are wandering in the land, the wilderness has shut them in.

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. And they did so. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people. And they said, what is this we have done that we have let Israel go from serving us?

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. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses, and chariots, and his horsemen, and his army. And he overtook them in camp at the sea by Pyahiroth in front of Baal Zaphan. When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly.

And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians.

For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. And Moses said to the people, fear not, stand firm, and 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. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. Let's pray together. Father, we love you, and we thank you for this Lord's day, and we thank you for the wonderful opportunity that we have now to come before your word. Lord, please build us up in your truth. Please spare this congregation from hearing any opinion of mine.

But, Lord, please use me to help them to clearly hear and understand your word and what you would have for your people this morning. Please bless us towards that end, and please build us up in the gospel now, and we ask all of this in Christ's holy name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, as we begin this morning, I've got some good news, and I've got some bad news.

The first piece of good news is this. We know how this story ends. And if you're like me and you're impatient, you stop here at verse 14 where we're stopping this morning, and you think, "Can't we just read the rest of it?" We know what's coming next. The walls of the Red Sea are getting ready to come crashing down on Pharaoh and his army, and it's going to be awesome. The good news is we know that's coming, and we'll get into that next week.

Here's another piece of good news. We don't have to wait until what we're going to cover next week to understand the true purpose of this narrative. As a matter of fact, that's actually going to come to us in the text of Scripture that we're going to look at this morning, so there's no need to wait. We can learn the lesson that we need to learn today as we look at this text. But here's the bad news.

The bad news is that this passage is going to force us to look squarely into the face of some truly terrible sin. In fact, the central command that we need to receive from this passage today comes to us in the midst of Israel's sin and complete failure. I wouldn't hesitate at all from telling you that you and I need to pay very, very careful attention to what Israel says and does in verses 10 through 12 of chapter 14, and then do everything that we can in our power to avoid doing that. It's unfortunate that after all Israel has heard and seen that we will see them sin in this terrible way, and this sin isn't fun to think about. And here's why it's not fun to think about.

It's not fun because when we pay attention to what's being communicated here and what they're actually doing, and we notice the root of where this sin comes from, we'll realize that every single person in this room is guilty of that same sin. So as we consider the weight of Israel's sin in this text, we must consider the weight of our own sin and see how we struggle in the exact same way. But even then, in that, there is still good news. The good news in that is this. To quote the Apostle Paul from 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 6, "These things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did.

This record here of Israel's failure in their sin was written for our benefit. It was written so that we would learn from their mistake and not repeat it." So even as we consider the weight of their sin, there is good news that we can consider it at all and learn from it and learn not to make the same mistake. So there is much that God would have us learn from this passage this morning even before we get to Israel's actually crossing of the Red Sea. And all of those lessons that we can learn from these verses are what I want us to discover this morning. I want us to see all the ways that these verses remind us of the mighty power of God to faithfully lead His people.

And then, in considering all of those things, I also want us to consider the weight of Israel's sin. And I want us to consider how everything that they knew about Yahweh up to this point unfortunately serves to make their sin even worse. And it's in that context, considering that terrible sin, that the primary command of the passage comes to us and it's exactly what they needed to hear in that moment. And I would argue that it's exactly what we need to hear this morning as a command from our great God and Savior. So we need to walk through this passage with carefully observant eyes.

We need to notice all the ways that God proves Himself to be a wise and faithful and present and sovereign shepherd for Israel. And we need to feel the weight of Israel's sin. And furthermore, we need to see how the commands that God gives in verses 13 and 14 is the antidote. It's what we need. It's what we need to hear this morning and I think an argument can be made.

It's what we need to hear every single day of our lives. And my hope and prayers, the Lord, will make that clear as we work through the passage. Now as we begin to look at this text and walk through all of these verses, and we know it's a big passage, but as we begin to actually do that and work through them, I want us to notice four details. Four details in this narrative that highlight for us the character of God. Just working through the outline of the text that we see here in the ESV translation in verses 17 through 22, we're going to see how Israel, or excuse me, how God is leading Israel.

In verses 1 through 4, beginning in chapter 14, we're going to see God's sovereign plan. In verses 5 through 9, we're going to begin to see the outflow of that sovereign plan. And then in verses 10 through 14, we're going to see Israel's sinful response and how God responds to them. But even before we get to that critical point in the passage where Israel responds poorly and God tells them what they need to hear, even before we get there, there are four important details in the narrative that we need to see. And these details remind us of who God is.

It reminds us of who he is in his character and it should give us great joy that the God of Israel is the same God that leads us today. So as we begin to work through the passage, follow along with me and let's pay attention to these details that we see. The first detail that we see in this narrative comes to us in verses 17 and 18. There the word of the Lord reads this way. "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near.

For God said, 'Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.' But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea, and the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle." Brothers and sisters, the first detail of the narrative that we see here as it relates to who God is and what he's doing is that we see here the wisdom of God put on display, the wisdom of Almighty God and leading his people. Note verse 17 again, "God is not going to lead them towards the easiest path or the nearest path." And to understand this point, it's helpful now for us to have a general understanding of the geography and the lay of the land. With where Israel is at right now in Succoth, the most direct route for them to get to the Promised Land will be for them to go north. And that northern route at the time, what was called the way of the king, that northern route would have taken them up along the Mediterranean Sea and straight into the Promised Land. And that would have taken them far, far less time than the route that God directs them to take.

Instead of directing them north, in what seems initially a bit confusing, God actually directs them to go south and to go east. And to even give some extra biblical information that helps us to understand why exactly this is happening, Philip Reichen is very helpful in his commentary on this text to mention that the land just north of Goshen, where they would have gone through, if they had gone north, was well known as a heavily militarized land at the time. Most of that region was occupied by an extension of Egyptian military forces, and even mixed in there were some military forces of the Philistines. And the Egyptians and the Philistines constantly were fighting over this territory, and neither the Egyptians or the Philistines would have been okay with Israel just walking through this territory. This explains why the text quotes God as saying, "lest the people change their minds when they see war," because the Lord knew that if they went that way, they were going to quickly see war.

You see, church, the Lord knew that Israel at this time was not ready for battle. They weren't ready for that yet. They may have gone up out of Egypt, "equipped for battle," as the ESV says, or to quote other translations, that phrase can be translated as, "they're going up in formation." We see that in the text, but they're not ready yet to fight. God knows that, and even how they're going to respond soon later in our passage this morning proves that. They're not ready for war yet.

And to be clear here, the issue is not that it would have been impossible for Israel to win. That's not the issue. Again, we'll see by the end of the passage that one of the great lessons of this is that God, Yahweh, is the one who is fighting for them. So what army they may or may not face is not the problem. Whether or not the Lord could have led them through this militarized zone in facing only the Egyptian army, or only the Philistine army, or perhaps even them both, that is not the problem.

The issue is this. The issue is that God knows the hearts of his people. And even now, after all that they've seen and witnessed in the plagues of Egypt and the experience in the Passover meal, even now in this initial part of them leading out, he knows that their first reaction to seeing conflict will be to return back to Egypt. And as crazy as that sounds, that's literally what the text says. Verse 17, "Lest the people change their minds and they return to Egypt." Again, this seems utterly ridiculous that they would ever consider this.

But just remember, church family, if you will, remember all the times that we see in coming chapters and even in the other books of the Torah, where Israel vocalizes this idea of potentially going back to Egypt. This unfortunately proves to be a pattern. Later in our very passage this morning, we see in Exodus 14, 11 and 12, "What have you done in bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?" The Lord knows what he's talking about.

He knows the hearts of his people. He knows this is where they will first run to think. Just two chapters later, in Exodus 16, we read in verse 2, "Oh, that we would have died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger." We see it again in just two chapters. Or perhaps you remember this. Do you remember the well-known story of the spies going into the land and coming back in Numbers 13 and 14?

Do you remember that story? Do you remember that Joshua and Caleb come back with a favorable report saying, "God is with us. Let's go into the land and conquer." But ten spies come back unfaithful and say, "There's no way we can do this." Remember these words from Numbers 14, verse 1, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt." And by the way, in the chronological timeline, this passage here in Numbers 14 is only about a year after what we're reading in our passage today. It's not that far off into the future. Then just a few verses later, Numbers 14, verse 4, listen to this language.

This is from the people of Israel. "Let us choose a leader and go back." Let's go back to Egypt. That's what they're saying. Church family, we know this is ridiculous, but as ridiculous as it is, we know this was their sinful tendency. And God, as the ever-wise and discerning shepherd of their souls, He knows this.

He knows this is going to be their reaction. Again, the Egyptian forces are not the issue. The Philistine forces are not the issue. The issue is the fickle and unbelieving hearts of His people. That's the problem.

And this is the problem that God is now going to address in the route that He chooses to send them on. You see, as we'll see in just a few moments, this route is going to lead Israel to a point where they are trapped. When they get trapped, the Red Sea will be to the east, and they will be overtaken by the armies of Pharaoh to the west. Going north will not be an option, and going south will not be an option. They will feel completely hopeless, and they will feel like they are going to die, and all of this was a waste of time, and that is exactly where God wants them to be at.

Because He still has something to show them, and it's going to be for the sake of their sanctification, that they might not place their faith and trust in things that they see, but rather in promises that are unseen things that God has already promised He will do. Brothers and sisters, let me say this. You and I need to rejoice on this Lord's Day, and really, every day of our lives, that our lives are being sovereignly directed by a wise shepherd who knows what we need. May the Lord spare us from ever thinking that when we go through hard seasons of life, or find ourselves in situations perhaps, even where we feel trapped, that God is not sovereign over that, and that He hasn't led us into that place because He is wise in how He leads His people. The same wise God that is leading Israel here is the same wise God that leads His church today.

We should rejoice in that, and this is a reason to praise the Lord. Now, a second aspect of God's character that we see in the details of this narrative comes to us in the very next verse, verse 19. And here we find the faithfulness of God. Verse 19 reads, "Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. For Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, 'God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.'" This should immediately make us go back in our minds to what we read in our Sunday school series many months ago in chapter 50 of the book of Genesis, right at the very end of the book.

Joseph reassured all the sons of Israel there in that chapter that God later was going to visit them in Egypt, and that when He came to visit them, He was going to take them to the Promised Land. And Joseph was so confident that this was going to happen, he passes down the instruction for future generations to hear when God comes to visit you. Not if, when He comes to visit you, please be sure to take my bones with you. Take my bones back up to the Promised Land that I can be buried in the land of my fathers. You see church family, imagine for just a moment that you're a young child walking as Israel journeys, and you've heard this.

Perhaps even you see the container that Joseph's bones are being carried in, and this seems strange. Imagine as a young Hebrew child you ask one of your parents, "Why are we bringing that dead man's bones with us as we go?" And though it looks admittedly a bit weird, and it seems odd, these bones preach a sermon. They communicate a message. These bones serve as a theological symbol, and the symbol is that God always keeps His promises. Even if it took 400 years to fulfill, God's Word never fails.

Church family, we need to remember that. We need to give ear to the sermon that Joseph's bones preach in this narrative. So as they go, we see that Yahweh is leading them in wisdom, and He is leading them in an abiding, covenantal faithfulness. Now look to the next two verses, 21 and 22. Here we see a third element, a third detail that tells us something about the character of God.

And that character of God that we see put on display here is His abiding presence. We've seen His wisdom and His faithfulness. Now we see His presence. Verse 21 and 22 read this way, "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light that they might travel by day and by night." The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. And here's what we need to pay attention to in these verses.

We often forget this. We heard this story many times growing up in the life of the church, so we picture in our mind this tall, powerful pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night. And we think about how awesome that would have been to see. But we often forget this, the opening words of verse 21, "And the Lord Yahweh went before them by day in the pillar." Brothers and sisters, this is not just some supernatural appearance that God causes to show up and then leads them as if He's distant from His people. This is what theologians will often refer to as a theophany.

This is a supernatural appearance of God's own presence in the pillar leading them. He's not leading them from a distance at all. He's actually dwelling there among them. This is how He's leading them. Look at the last phrase of verse 22, "And the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people." This is God's faithful and abiding presence.

And Israel is experiencing all of this as they go. They likely know that God has a specific plan for them in the route that He's leading them. They hear the sermon of Joseph's bones. They see this massive pillar of cloud, this massive pillar of fire, the pillar of cloud giving them guidance and shade during the day, the pillar of fire giving them light at night. They see this and are reminded that their God is with them.

He's present with them, leading them every step of the way. Church family, this is marvelous leadership. Israel could not have asked for a better leader. He is wise, faithful, present, and directing them every step of the way. That's how chapter 13 ends.

Everything is good. Everything is smooth sailing so far until we transition into chapter 14. As I mentioned earlier, chapter 14, 1 through 4, introduces this sovereign plan of God that He has for why He sent them on the route to begin with. And verses 5 through 9 begins to show us the unfolding of this sovereign plan. And this is the fourth detail in the narrative that we see.

Not just that God is wise, not just that He's faithful, not just that He's present, but He's sovereign. He's sovereign over every detail that's taking place. He says to Moses, "Tell the people of Israel," and we don't even have to read all the places that are going to come next. You just have to read these first couple of words. "Tell the people of Israel, turn back, turn back." In other words, stop walking in the direction that you're going and turn around and go the other direction.

Turn back towards Egypt. Turn back towards Pharaoh. Turn back towards the place that you just got delivered from, from slavery. Feel the weight of that. And then when you actually take the time to pay attention to where these places are located, and again, Pihahiroth, I'm sure I'm pronouncing that wrong, but they're to encamp in front of that between Migdal and the sea.

Migdal, that word literally means "tower," so this is likely a military fortification. They're encamped in front of Pihahiroth, between Migdal and the sea, in front of Baal-Ziphon, which could have also been a military encampment of the Canaanite people to the north, right? They're encamped of all of this by the Red Sea, so they are completely and totally trapped. They can't go north, they can't go south, and they can't go west when they will soon see the armies of Pharaoh coming. And as it stands now, they can't go east.

This doesn't make any sense. If you and I were among the people of Israel that day, and we just hear Moses communicating this message, "Hey guys, God's given me a new word. We're going to turn back." At that point, we don't even have to know where we're going. Why? Why are we turning back?

That doesn't make any sense at all. But notice this also. Verse 3, "For Pharaoh will save the people of Israel. They are wandering in the land. The wilderness has shut them in, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord." And they did so.

Brothers and sisters, let me just say this. This is not explicitly drawn out of the text, but I don't think there's any reason to not believe this. I think any critically thinking Israelite man at this time who's paying attention to this hears this message, and he asks the question, "Why are we turning back?" And Moses has actually heard now from the Lord why they're turning back. We're going to go back because this is a part of God's plan for his to get glory over Pharaoh. And there's nothing in the text that says that Moses was prohibited from telling the people of Israel that.

As a leader, that would have been the easiest thing in the world for him to do. Moses, why in the world are we doing this? Don't worry, guys. God's got a plan. He's going to get glory over Pharaoh.

So I think it's certainly safe to assume that the people of Israel knew this was the plan. And then in verses 5 through 9 that follow, we see that Pharaoh's heart is still truly unrepentant. He mounts up all his 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt. And they start marching after the people of Israel to verse 9. The Egyptians pursued them.

All Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and the army, they overtook them. And then we get to verse 10. Church family, knowing that God to this point has been perfectly wise, has been perfectly faithful, has been perfectly present, has been perfectly sovereign, even to the point to where he's told them what he's doing and why he's doing it. Then you read verse 10. The people are living greatly in fear.

Verse 11. Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Don't you love that condescending sarcasm? Is that what you thought? There wasn't enough territory there in Goshen to bury us?

Is that why you brought us out? Why didn't you just listen to us from the very beginning? Just leave us alone so that we can stay in Egypt and stay slaves and serve the Egyptian. That would have been far better. Now that we see and know the wisdom of God and the faithfulness of God and the presence of God and the sovereignty of God, all of that gives us reason to praise the Lord and celebrate the great and awesome God that we have.

That's also what makes this sin so terrible. Because they know this. Just think about that for a moment. It's not exactly like the people of Israel are trying to learn something right now that they don't already know. They've seen the plagues.

They saw Moses go to them and give them the message of salvation and then God did all of it. They put the blood on the door. They made it through the night. And not only did they triumphantly and defiantly go out of Egypt, God did something else. He filled their pockets with wealth.

They've seen all of that. And they've seen the wisdom of God and they've seen the faithfulness of God and they've seen the presence of God and they know the sovereign plan of God. They know this. And then they look up and they see the first chariot coming on the horizon and it's like all of that goes away. One commentator wrote, it's almost as if Israel suffers from a sort of spiritual amnesia.

They see something worldly in front of their face that shocks them and everything that they've been taught and everything that they know goes out the door. And we look at this in our copy of God's Word and we say how on earth? How? Why would they do this? Let me put it to you this way.

So far we've looked at the script for Israel doing this. Let me ask this question. What do you know? What do I know? What do we as God's covenant people in the life of the church know?

Let me ask you some simple questions. And you can feel free to actually respond and say yes if you believe this is true. Do you believe that God is perfectly wise in how he leads you? Do you believe that God is perfectly faithful in how he leads you? Do you believe that God is always with you and never leaves or forsakes you?

Do you believe that God is sovereign over every detail of your life? Here's the next question. Do you suffer with spiritual amnesia too? 100%. What makes considering this sin so terrible is not that Israel is committing it but that you and I are guilty of the same thing.

This is a part of our fallen condition. This is what this spiritual amnesia does. Though the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 that we are to look to the things that are unseen, not the things that are seen. In situations like this, through all manner of hardship and trial and suffering that comes in life, we see something earthly and physical and it's like our minds and our hearts are so quick to forget everything that we know. This is a cancerous sin that we all struggle with.

It's terrible. I just asked you this question rhetorically. How many times in your life have you heard a sermon on prayer only to wake up the next day and realize that you started your day without praying? How many times have you heard a Sunday school lesson reminding you that you need to be more faithful in evangelism and then the week goes by and you don't evangelize? How many times does that happen?

This is a common experience for us in the Christian life. We are so quick to forget. We're so earthly minded. What we need is we need for our minds to be transformed. We need them to be sharpened.

We need them to be sanctified. We need to be able to be in a place where we can be in a situation like this and have the right response. And you say, "Pastor Dylan, when in the world am I ever going to be in a situation like this?" You and I are not Israelites. We're not Jews and we're not trapped between the desert and the sea and we're not overcome by the armies of Pharaoh. That's absolutely true.

But in principle, what's happening in this text is the covenant people of God are being led sovereignly in a situation that doesn't fully make sense to them and they're being attacked by the forces of Satan because Satan's angry that he didn't get his way. We experience that all the time. That happens all the time in the life of the church. That's going to continue to happen in our own lives. So in principle, we do know what this is like.

And this is the good news we get from this passage. Verses 13 and 14. "After seeing the wisdom, the faithfulness, the presence, and the sovereignty of God," and yes, even considering Israel's terrible sin and our own sin where we do the same things, listen to these words from Moses in 13. "And Moses said to the people, 'Fear not.'" Let me stop there. Commentators and Hebrew grammarians will note that this particular phrase, "Fear not" in the Hebrew grammar, is in the most extreme negative that it can possibly be given in the Hebrew language.

Here's what that means. What in the world does that mean? Here's what it means. When you and I read this faithfully, we shouldn't read it as this. "And Moses said to the people," calm down, guys.

Don't be fearful. That's not a faithful reading of this phrase. Here's how we should read it. "And Moses said to the people, 'Fear not.'" Stop being afraid. You have no valid reason to be afraid at all.

None. This is a rebuke. It's a rebuke from Moses. "Fear not." Stand firm. I know that everyone likes to talk about whether or not we have a fight or flight response.

You know, sometimes you get into a great conflict and you wonder whether or not your gut reaction is going to be to fight or to run away. Isn't it interesting here that God doesn't tell them to do either one? He doesn't tell them to fight and he doesn't tell them to run away. He says, "Stand firm." God telling his people through Moses, "Stop being fearful and don't walk away. Plant your feet in the ground like a man." And then look at the very next phrase and watch.

See the salvation of the Lord. Don't just plant your feet in the ground and look at what's coming. Pay careful attention to what's coming. Stop being fearful. Plant your feet in the ground.

Open your eyes. And then the final command in verse 14, "Be silent." You don't even have to say a word. As a matter of fact, you don't have to do anything at all. Yahweh is going to fight for you and these Egyptians that you see today, you will never see them again. Isn't that amazing?

And say, "Pastor Dylan, what's the good news of that?" Because that's commands given to a specific people thousands of years ago. That's not us. Brothers and sisters, this is God's command to his covenant people that when they seem trapped and they seem completely hopeless, it's not so much that they're supposed to do nothing. It's that they're supposed to not be fearful and stand firm and open their eyes and be silent because they remember that God is wise. And he is faithful.

And he is present. And he is sovereign. And he's the one who's fighting for them so that they don't have to do anything. The command does not do anything. The command is remember who God is and believe his promises.

That's the idea. In church family, that's the gospel. That's what they're supposed to believe. That God will keep his word so that they quite literally can be trapped, see Pharaoh coming, hear the sound of the chariots and not be fearful. And instead, actually be perfectly joyful knowing that God is getting ready to communicate an even louder message than he communicated with the plagues that came before.

That he's going to get complete glory over Pharaoh in Egypt and all the watching world will know that he is the Lord. Church family, the great lesson that you and I need to learn from this story, even before we get to the crossing of the Red Sea next week, is this. God and God alone provide salvation for his people. You and I can contribute absolutely nothing to it. And what this wise plan of God forced Israel to do was it forced them to be in a position where they were entirely dependent upon God in his word.

Despite the fact that they're trapped, despite the fact that everything that they see around them looks so bad and looks so bleak. Now here, all they have is the presence of God, his promises and their faith. And church family, that's all we need. In the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's all we have and that's all we need. And the good news of the gospel is that because God has given us new hearts by his pure grace, because he has justified us, because he is leading us, we know that his Holy Spirit indwells us, that he is always present with us.

We know that he's wise in how he leads us. We know that he's faithful. We know that he's sovereign. And we know that at the end of the day in this life when we have absolutely nothing else, we have God, we have his promises, and we have his word that we believe. And that is all we need.

That's all we need. The salvation that God is going to work for Israel in the next scene that we'll get to next week is going to be absolutely amazing. But we can learn the lesson of that right now. Right now. If you're here this morning and you are a born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, as I trust, the vast majority of our members here in the life of this church are, then know this.

There are going to be seasons in your life when God sovereignly leads you into situations that are massively difficult. That is going to happen. But our God is faithful. He is wise. He never leaves or forsakes us.

He sovereignly ordains all of our steps. And even when it seems that we are being attacked by the very forces of Satan, we have his word. We have his promises and God will never break his promises. That's all we need. And so in those situations, even now as his church, we can fear not stand firm, open our eyes and pay attention to what God is going to do and be silent because we know that God will finish in us what he has started.

We can trust that. And if you're here this morning and you're not in Christ, please know this. Please know that all the benefits of this glorious salvation that comes to us in the finished work of Jesus Christ can be yours. If you will turn away from your sins and place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, then you can have this faith. You can have this joy.

You can fear not and stand firm and open your eyes and be still. You can have that in Christ Jesus. And there's no reason whatsoever that you should reasonably reject that at all. The other alternative is to spend eternity in hell. Why on earth would you reject the gospel?

If you're here this morning, a young child, a teenager, a visitor this morning, and you're not in Christ, know this. The purpose of this passage, like every other passage in the Old Testament, is that it would point us to the gospel. You see, what we're going to get into next week is God's bringing this salvation. Moses is going to split the Red Sea. The walls are going to rise.

They're going to cross faithfully. They're going to be delivered. The walls are going to come crashing down on Pharaoh and his soldiers. And despite the fact that everything seemed lost and that only death was going to come, life came. And God delivered salvation.

And all of that in the text points us forward to the great salvation that God works in Jesus Christ our Lord. Because when Jesus Christ hung on that cross, it seemed like all hope was lost. All of it was lost. There's only death. There's no way that life and salvation can come from that, but we know three days later, Christ rose again from the grave.

That's what all of this points towards. So how ridiculous would it be for you and I to come to this text and see it and think, "Wow, God's sovereign. He led Israel. That's great. Let's go home." That's good, but we need something more.

The more that we need is that all of this points to the great salvation that God has already given us in Christ. This is what we know. We know this. And we know going into this next week that we will continue to struggle with this sin of spiritual amnesia where we see earthly things and seemingly forget all that we know. So what do we do?

How do we deal with this sin struggle that we all have? I would suggest that we fear not. Stand firm. Open our eyes and be silent. And what that means is to remember who God is and believe His gospel.

The gospel is sufficient for us. It is sufficient under salvation. It is sufficient under sanctification. So may God bless us as we continually meditate on these verses in the days to come leading into this next Sunday and may God use them to build us up in the truth of the gospel. Let's pray.

Father, we love you and we thank you for this passage. We thank you, Lord, for how this passage reminds us that you are wise and faithful and present and sovereign and that you fight for your people and that all we need to do is remember who you are and believe your promises. Father, thank you that all of your promises find their yes in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Thank you, Father, that you have promised you will always be with us and never leave or forsake us. Thank you, Father, that you have promised us in your word that you will always sovereignly direct our steps and that you will always lead us in a way that is for the benefit of our sanctification and for your glory.

And Father, thank you, Lord, that you have taught us in your word that we can trust your promises to the very end knowing that your word will never fail. Please build us up in that truth and allow us to worship now in light of that truth. And, Father, as we have opportunity now to continue in worship through giving, Lord, help us to give joyfully. Help us to give knowing that everything that we own already belongs to you and that the great benefit of our joyfully giving is that it allows us to worship you and to be molded and shaped in our giving to be more like Christ and that you will use these funds to fulfill the budgetary and ministry needs in the life of this church. So, Father, as we give, help us to be joyful about the opportunity to do so.

And please bless this time of giving as we continue now in worship. And we ask all of this in Christ's holy name. Amen.