I want us to look at the account of the crossing of the Red Sea in Ex. 14
You might call it the climax of Exodus.
I want to connect the Red Sea crossing wit salvation through Jesus?
In the RED sea crossing There are three things: I want you to see:
We learn what we're getting out of;
we learn how we're getting out of it; and
(3) we learn why we can get out of it.
This text is a illustration of our salvation.
What do we get out of?
Bondage.
How do we get out of it?
Crossing over by grace.
Why we can get out of it?
Because of The Mediator.
That's what the Exodus text points us to in the rest of the Bible.
Without the rest of the Bible, we wouldn't know this. But with the rest of the Bible, we know that this is what Exodus is pointing to.
What do we get out of?
Christ's salvation is all about getting us out of bondage. That's what the word "redemption" means. The very beginning of the text says that when the King of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds and wanted to get the Israelites back. They said, "What have we done? We have lost the Israelites' services." What a nice way of putting it—"their services." If the Egyptians just lost services, then why didn't they go hire other people?
What they really lost was there entire slave labor force. The Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians.
Pharaoh determined to get the Israelites back. He said, "We let them go, but we've changed our minds. We're going to bring them back, or we're going to kill them."
When the Israelites saw the Egyptians coming for them again, they were terrified and said to Moses,
"Why have you brought us out here?
Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone'?
Exodus 4:29: "And Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites and told them everything the Lord had said and performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down in worship."
The Israelites are a picture of us.
They were in bondage.
But this bondage has layers.
They got out of one layer of bondage—their slavery to the Egyptians—but as soon as the slave masters said, "No, we want you back," they revert back to their old ways.
Though they were free from their bondage, the Israelites were—in their own hearts—still slaves.
You can take the people out of slavery, but you can't take the slavery out of the people very easily.
And this is something we see all through the Bible. The redemption of Jesus, the redemption of God, is to redeem us from bondage, but there are layers to it.
Let me give you some layers. First of all, let's look at Paul. Christian salvation, our salvation, means We were once in bondage.
We were under guilt and condemnation, but through Jesus, we get out.
Because we have sinned, we are guilty. and we're in bondage to it..
But through Jesus we get out. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. we're under grace.
When I've watched people on their death bed—no matter who they are or how they've lived — I've seen them start to open up.
The one sentiment that seems to shine clearest is a sense of regret —the sense that they haven't lived life as they should have.
We all know deep down that we should be perfect. And just being told a few times, "If you believe in Jesus Christ, all your sins are forgiven; there's no condemnation for you; you are accepted," doesn't put out that knowledge. I haven’t live as I should.
If you love anything more than God—if there's anything more important to your own significance or security than God—
You're in a sort of covenant with that thing or idea, and it will continually say, "Serve me or die." Just like Pharaoh.
Pharaoh is no longer the Israelites' master. He said, "Go," and the Israelites left. But then Pharaoh comes back and says, "I want you back."
And this happens in all our lives.
"Serve me or you will die. You need me. You can't live without me."
And that's the point.
The point is that there's still slavishness in the Israelites' hearts. You still have the things you thought you were free from. And while you are free from them in one sense, in another sense they come back to you and rattle their sabers.
But Remember -- In
God's salvation we're freed—in past tense—from the penalty of sin;
we're getting free—present tense—from the power of sin;
and eventually we will be free—in the future—from the very presence of sin.
That's justification,
sanctification, and glorification.
So the first thing we learn about Jesus' salvation is that it's about getting out of bondage.
What does the Red Sea story account tell us about how to get out of bondage?
The answer is this: crossing over by grace.
In Ex. 14 verses 13 and 14, when Moses hears the Israelites crying out,
this is what Moses says:
"Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance of the Lord, the salvation of the Lord."
He says, "Be still. The Lord will fight for you." And actually, he says, "See, the deliverance of the Lord will bring you."
Now, on the one hand, the principle of grace could not be clearer: Stand still.
God's going to do your fighting.
Watch. You can't do it.
You can't perform it.
You can't contribute to it.
You're not going to do a dog-gone thing about this deliverance;
God is going to do the whole thing.
And when Moses says, "Be still and trust the God who will fight for you,"
Be still. Don't look at your works. Receive a complete salvation, done not by your works but by Christ's work.
So there's the principle of grace, but I like that we're not just given the principle; we're actually given a wonderful image.
How does that grace operate?
It operates by crossing over.
On one side of the Red Sea, the Israelites are within reach of their old masters. They are under sentence of death.
Pharaoh said, "We're going to go get 'em. We're going to get 'em or we're going to kill 'em."
So when they were on that side of the sea, they were reachable, still under sentence of death.
But as soon as they crossed over, they crossed over from death to life.
They crossed over from being under condemnation, and they were no longer under the sentence of death.
Do you know the power of this crossing over?
The Aps. Paul says, in Romans 8,
"There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
How could he say such a thing like that? He crossed over.
Paul says, "Now there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
He says, "I was the chief of sinners. And yet God is using me. Paul's able to be that realistic. Paul has astounding boldness and humility at the same time.
Why? He crossed over.
He knew where he stood with God.
It's astonishing.
So, what is Jesus' salvation according to the Red Sea?
It's freedom from bondage.
How does this salvation come?
It comes obviously by grace, and it comes by crossing over.
Why is it possible for us to get out of bondage?
The Egyptians went through the water and were devastated, right? They were killed. But when the Israelites went through the water, they were fine.
Just before this incident, God visited Egypt with plagues Those plagues are the same thing.
See, as Pharaoh decided to resist the Creator, what came down into Egypt was what you can call de-creation, disintegration. There was darkness upon the face of the land. The darkness might actually be called the eleventh plague, because what is happening here?
Egypt's sin has unleashed the forces of chaos, and they have experienced de-creation, and they are being judged.
The flood waters represent what happens to you when you turn away from God.
Verse 14 says that everyone cried out. They said, "Didn't we say to you, 'Leave us alone. Let us serve the Egyptians," and so on.
Then you get down to verse 15, and the Lord says to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me?"
Earlier, we see the Israelites crying out in rebellion, "We wish we were back in Egypt," and God shows up and rebukes Moses.
Later on, by the way, in verse 21, we're told Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,
but before the verse is over, it says and all that night the Lord drove the sea back.
Here's what you've got:
You've got one man who is so identified with the Israelites that their guilt is upon him, and a man so identified with God that God's power is coming through him.
Moses is the man in the middle. He's so identified with the people that he gets rebuked for their sin. And he's so identified with God that he's a vehicle for God's saving power.
But I know a better mediator.
We don't have in Jesus Christ just a mediator who was fully man and close to God.
We have a mediator who is fully God and fully man. Not only that, we don't have a mediator who's rebuked for one sin in one verse.
And Jesus had the audacity to say, "Someone greater than Jonah is here," talking about himself.
What does that mean?
It means that Jesus Christ on the Cross was thrown into that ocean of God's wrath.
When Jesus Christ said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" he was being put under a notion of God's wrath.
In fact, all the plagues came down on Jesus: darkness came down on Jesus. What was going on?
Jesus Christ was being de-created so you and I could be re-created.
Jesus Christ received the reality that all these flood waters and all this flood stuff points to.
He received the reality of it in his life.
And that's the reason why all the other things we're talking about are possible.
It's the reason why we can be brought out and the reason why we can keep going back to the well of Jesus' salvation to deal with layer after layer of bondage.
At one point Moses as the mediator went to God when God said, "I've had it with these people."
And Moses said, "Save them and blot my name out of the book."
And God didn't do it.
But when our mediator Jesus Christ offered himself, God did save them.
Jesus is the ultimate mediator, and that's the reason why you and I can cross over.
The more you meditate on what Jesus has done,
the more you see what he's done, the more holy you will be.
The more you deal with the free grace of God, the more you work it into your heart,,
the more radically that's going to change your behavior.
When God says, "I brought you out of Egypt so you can be holy,"
It's amazing; it's just the gospel. It’s The Good News of Jesus, like the Exodus, enables us to walk into a brand new life.
“Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”
(Psalm 103:2, NIV)
Forget Not His Benefits
God has given us many benefits today!
He’s given us so much to be thankful for.
When you meditate on His goodness, faithfulness and blessings in your life, it will change you on the inside.
When you focus on the fact that He saved you, and set you free, the obstacles in your life will begin to fade away.
Psalm 103 goes on to say that “He crowns you with love and compassion and satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed.”
No matter what you may be facing today, forget not His benefits!
God wants to satisfy you with good things.
If you’ve made mistakes in your life, forgiveness is a benefit.
If you feel tired and overwhelmed, strength is a benefit.
As you turn your thoughts toward the Father today, He will strengthen and empower you to live as an overcomer in every area of your life!
A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You for Your blessings and benefits in my life. I choose to focus on Your goodness and believe You have so much more in store for me. I honor You today in all that I do in Jesus’ name. Amen.”