Moses: Faith to Pass Through the Sea (Hebrews 11:29)

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Hebrews chapter 11, we're gonna begin reading at verse 27. Read through verse 29, and then we'll open in prayer.

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Hebrews 11, verse 27. By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is unseen.

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By faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.

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By faith, they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land, and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.

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Let's pray together. Father, it is our desire that we may hear the voice of our God in the pages of your word.

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We pray that you would show us yourself and your righteousness, your holiness, your judgments, your deliverance, and your salvation that we would fear, that all your people would fear.

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We ask that you would show us these things so that we may walk in fearful, loving, and humble obedience before you.

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We ask that you would be our teacher this morning, Holy Spirit, and that we may see in Christ the glory of our triune

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God, so that we may honor and glorify you. We ask your blessing upon our time, our study, our meditation of our heart today to this end, in Christ's name, amen.

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Well, last week, we looked at the passing through the Red Sea, sorry, the final plague, the death of the firstborn, the

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Passover, I should say, and we saw what God's remedy for the nation of Israel was, the death of a lamb in their stead, in their place, so that God could show grace to his people, and the devastation that befell

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Egypt in that final plague is difficult for us even to envision or to imagine. Pharaoh lost his own firstborn son, and the entire land of Egypt was decimated by those 10 plagues, and while the death of the firstborn was the final plague to fall upon Egypt, it was not the final judgment that Egypt suffered.

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We still have yet to see and look at one final judgment that God brought upon the Egyptians. Pharaoh's pride and his obstinacy, his rebellion and his impenitence had not yet been fully expressed, and it had not yet been fully judged, and God's righteous nature and his judgments and his perfect indignation against sin had not yet been displayed either, and the people of Egypt may have reasoned after the

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Israelites left, they may have reasoned to themselves that the worst was behind them. They may have thought to themselves, okay, finally, those pesky

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Israelites are out of here, the people of God are gone, and now we can get back to life, to whatever sort of normalcy we can bring after all of these judgments.

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You can imagine a bunch of Egyptian businessmen gathered around the water cooler, and before they would criticize

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Pharaoh, of course, they would put their phone in airplane mode so that Syria wouldn't be listening, and then they would say to themselves, if Pharaoh had just listened the first time and let the people go, we could have avoided all of this, but here we are, 10 plagues later, and now they're finally out of here, so let's just return to life as normal, let's pick up the pieces and try and rebuild.

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Well, they would have been fools to think that the worst was yet behind them, because as John Calvin said, when God wants to judge a nation, he gives it wicked rulers.

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Nah, nah. He gave Pharaoh to them for this very purpose,

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Exodus 9, for this time I will send all my plagues on you and your servants, your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth, for if by now

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I had put forth my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would have been cut off from the earth. But listen, but indeed, for this reason,

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I have allowed you to remain in order to show you my power and in order to proclaim my name through all the earth.

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That was God's ultimate goal. He could have easily just have destroyed Pharaoh. Pharaoh was no speed bump to him.

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For God to crush Pharaoh would be like for you and I to crush an ant, and even that doesn't do the difference justice.

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It's not that Pharaoh was any real hindrance to God accomplishing his purposes, and it's not that Pharaoh really was an allied enemy of God in the sense that God was having a hard time in this contest with Pharaoh, but rather it was that God would raise up Pharaoh for this very purpose so that he might pour out his judgments upon Egypt and Pharaoh and demonstrate to all of the nations and to the people of God just what kind of a

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God Yahweh was, that they would fear him, that they would know him, and that Egypt would fear him and know him.

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So this final act is the last act of judgment upon Egypt under the hand and the leadership of Moses, and it is mentioned in verse 29, by faith they passed through the

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Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land, and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. Now of all the events associated with the life of Moses, this is probably the most well -known.

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If you have seen Cecil B. DeMille's docudrama featuring Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner, thank you,

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Yul Brynner, the bald guy, if you've seen that, then you probably already have the picture in your head. If you grew up on that movie, as I did, you have an image in your mind of what that might have looked like.

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I think that that's a movie that should be remade. I think they could do a better job of it. They can't have

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Charlton Heston play the part though, unfortunately. That is common in our understanding.

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This story is the most well -known. It is famous, we might even say infamous, of all the events that unfold in the life of Moses amongst believers and unbelievers alike.

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The parting of the Red Sea, the passing through it, the destruction of the Egyptians, is probably most clear in our mind as that thing that is associated with Moses.

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But I'm not going to trust upon our common knowledge of that event in going through this in Hebrews 11, verse 29, but instead, you know what we're gonna do?

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We're gonna go back to Exodus to look at the author's source material. Don't turn there just yet. I didn't say turn back to Exodus.

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I said we're going back to Exodus. I want you to notice three things from Hebrews 11 before we do. I want you to notice the author is still holding to this chronological order.

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In verse 27, Moses left Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king. That is, he walked out of Pharaoh after announcing his judgment.

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Verse 28, he kept the Passover. That was the next thing. And then verse 29, they passed through the Red Sea. These three events are in chronological order, an order that the author has been keeping since the beginning of the chapter.

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Second, I want you to notice the way in verse 29 that this crossing is described as though they were passing through dry land.

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That is the description that's used back in Exodus 15. It is used in Exodus 14.

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It's used a number of times back there, and the author is borrowing that language, and you'll see it when we get back there. And then third,

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I want you to notice the distinction that is made in the outcome of this event. Israel passed through the sea.

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The Egyptian were drowned. Now, it was the same sea. It's the same day. It's the same location.

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It's the same path. It's two different nations who do the exact same thing, namely to go down into the sea, and yet the outcome is drastically different.

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In the case of the one, there is judgment, and in the case of the other, there is salvation, and the distinction that is made there is intentional because what we end up seeing is that Pharaoh ignored that distinction and pretended that that distinction was not legitimate.

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Now, turn back to Exodus chapter 12, Exodus chapter 12. We're gonna look at the author's source material here,

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Exodus chapter 12. Last week, we ended with Israel being driven out, and they were hastily driven out.

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Exodus 12, verse 33, the Egyptians urged the people to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, we'll all be dead.

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That's the conclusion that you would have come to after going through 10 plagues and the death of the firstborn. If you don't get out of here, we're all gonna eventually die.

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Look at verse 37. Now, the sons of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth, about 600 ,000 men on foot, aside from children.

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The question is, is that men and women, which would put the estimate for the people going out of Egypt somewhere probably around 1 .5

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million, or is it 600 ,000 men, and then a similar commensurate number of women, which would put it up at 1 .2

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million, and then children on top of that, and others who might have joined them, which would put the number somewhere north of two million, maybe 2 .5

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million people who are leaving. A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock.

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They baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt and dipped into cakes of unleavened bread, for it had not become leavened, since they were driven out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.

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So they're going out with scant provision, unable to really gather anything together and make a preparation for a long journey.

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They're immediately, upon leaving Egypt, they're gonna have to cast themselves upon God's provision and his care, because the only thing they have with them is some bread that they crudely mixed together.

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It didn't even have time to rise, and then they're driven out of Egypt at the request of the Egyptians. Verse 40, now the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years.

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At the end of 430 years, to the very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. Now I mentioned before, a few weeks back, that there's some discrepancy amongst

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Bible students as to the dating of the Exodus. And that is due to the fact that, I said that not because I didn't know that verse 40 exists, but the question is, 430 years from what time?

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In other words, we're dating 430 years one direction, or 200 years another direction, and the question is, how do we date the

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Exodus, the dating of the Exodus, the children of Israel coming out of Egypt? Every resource that I had on my shelves,

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I looked at, and all of them said, we don't really know, could be this, could be that, we don't know, so we're just gonna kind of toss it up and say,

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God did it, even though we don't know when. Until somebody here, Simon Pernides, handed me a book, and the title of the book is

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Kingdom of Priests, a History of Old Testament Israel by Eugene Merrill. Now I didn't have any kind of resource on my shelf that laid out a good case for the dating of the

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Exodus, but this book does it. In fact, it lays the events of the nation of Israel, and the chronology given to us in scripture, alongside the rise and fall of various pharaohs, and little weird things that happened in the chronology of Egypt, like for instance, one pharaoh having a firstborn son, but that firstborn son never taking the throne, instead his secondborn son takes the throne.

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There's little quirky things like that that would make you think, what happened to the firstborn son of that particular pharaoh? And as it turns out, the reign of that particular pharaoh happens to fall really closely to one of these particular dates.

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So I would commend that book to you. I'm not gonna go and lay out the chronology for you, but I would commend the book, Kingdom of Priests, a

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History of Old Testament Israel by Eugene Merrill. There is one warning with the book though. It's a thick book, it's small print, there's not a lot of pictures.

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And there are no color pictures in it at all. You'll be disappointed by that. But it is worth the read, and it is very readable.

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Oh, the date, by the way, you say, well, what is the date? It's 1446 BC is the date that he gives. 1446

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BC. So then you could take 430 years back past that and have 1876 as being the date that Israel, the

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Jews went down into Egypt. Now, not all of that was spent in slavery because enough time was spent for a pharaoh to arise who knew not

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Joseph and for the children of Israel to get numerous enough for the pharaoh to decide he needed to enslave them.

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So not all 430 years is spent in slavery, but a couple of centuries of that at least is spent in slavery.

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In chapter 12, verses 42 to 51, we have the Passover that is ordained, the regulations there are explained, and the regulations that they are to observe.

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In chapter 13, verses one through 16, we have the instructions for the consecration of the firstborn, and again, the reasons for that are given and the regulations are explained.

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Now look at chapter 13, verse 17. Now, when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the

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Philistines, even though it was near, for God said the people might change their mind when they see war and return to Egypt.

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So God intentionally leads them away from a shorter route through a longer route, and the reason that is given here is lest the people see war.

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It's been suggested that there may have been warfare along that route, or because it was the shortest route up into Canaan, that that's the route that the

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Egyptian military would have taken, and so if the children of Israel had left according to that route, they would have come, bumped right into an

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Egyptian military, or at least had to go past various Egyptian military outposts. Verse 18, hence,

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God led the people around by way of the wilderness to the Red Sea, and the sons of Israel went up in martial array from the land of Egypt, just meaning, not that they had weapons, but that they were marching in some sort of an order.

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Verse 19, Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones from here with you.

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Then they set out from Succoth and camped in Etham on the edge of the wilderness. The Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.

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He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people. This was the visible representation of God's presence with them, and the visible sign of his leading.

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God, in a very visible way, led the nation as they marched out of Egypt, and took them right to where he wanted them to go.

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Now, here's the setup for the judgment, chapter 14, verse one. Now, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, tell the sons of Israel to turn back and camp before Pi -hahiroth, between Migdal and the sea.

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You shall camp in front of Baal -zephron, opposite it by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, they're wandering aimlessly in the land, the wilderness has shut them in.

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Thus, I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will chase after them, and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the

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Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. And they did so. I want you to notice there, that God led them to the sea, he gave them specific instructions of exactly where to camp, so that they were between a certain city and the sea, the whole nation was to gather them there.

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God put them in a corner, this was God's instruction. It's not like they were wandering aimlessly through the desert, trying to find their way around this sea, and then

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Pharaoh showed up. No, God put them exactly where he wanted them, he henned them in, so that Pharaoh would see where the people were at, and say, they're shut in.

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And then God says, I will harden Pharaoh's heart, so that he will chase after them. God baited

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Pharaoh out of Egypt, so that he might judge Pharaoh and Egypt. He baited him out.

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He put Israel in that vulnerable position for the very purpose of hardening Pharaoh's heart, which itself was an act of judgment for Pharaoh's sin and rebellion, and that he might then lure

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Pharaoh out of Egypt, out toward the people of Israel, and Pharaoh would think that he could come out and dispossess them, that he could come out and get them again.

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God led them to that place, and he hardened Pharaoh's heart. This judgment ends the very way that it begins.

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The beginning of Exodus, God announces four times, I will harden Pharaoh's heart, I will harden Pharaoh's heart,

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I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart. We get that four times before it ever says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

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And we might say that Pharaoh's hardening of his own heart, his impenitence, his unrepentance, is itself an expression of God hardening

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Pharaoh's heart for this purpose. And now this judgment ends the same way. God could have left

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Pharaoh in Egypt, do you understand that? He could have brought the children of Israel right to the edge of that sea, opened it up, allowed them to walk through and to see his power, closed the sea back over it, and then had

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Pharaoh realize where they were at, so that Pharaoh would say, well, I can't go through the sea, it's really not worth me going out and getting all those people.

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But the Lord didn't do that. He had already judged Egypt, he had already poured out all of the plagues, and you might say, when is enough enough?

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Enough is enough when God's judgment, which is without mercy finally upon sin, is finally poured out on Egypt, and all of God's majesty and glory for his righteous judgments is made known to all the people.

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That is when enough is enough. You might think that the point had been made that Egypt had already been judged and that Israel was now free, but instead

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God brought them out for this very purpose. And listen, here's the lesson from Pharaoh. If you make yourself God's enemy and you refuse to repent and you spurn his grace, his justice will be thorough, and when

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God judges, it will be without any mercy. This is what Pharaoh had done. He had made himself

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God's enemy. This judgment, this hardening of Pharaoh's heart was not undeserved. It is not over the top.

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In fact, it demonstrates God's perfect justice on Pharaoh. Verse five. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled,

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Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart. What caused that? God hardened his heart.

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He had a change of heart toward the people, and they said, what is this we've done? We've let Israel go from serving us.

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So he made his chariot ready and took the people with him, and he took 600 select chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over them.

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The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel as the sons of Israel were going out boldly.

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Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them by camping by the sea beside Pi -hahiroth in front of Bel -Zephon.

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Now, hardening the heart of Pharaoh was a judgment that God brought upon Pharaoh for his sin, and this hardening of his heart was the precursor to a further and greater judgment.

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All of this is an act of judgment. God bringing Israel there, God hardening Pharaoh's heart, Pharaoh having that change of heart, going out, pursuing them, and the judgment of the

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Red Sea. All of this is leading up to that great judgment at the Red Sea. Verse 10, and Pharaoh drew near.

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The sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened. So the sons of Israel cried out to the

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Lord, and they said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you've taken us away to die in the wilderness?

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Why have you dealt with us this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is it not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt saying leave us alone that we may serve the

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Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. That doesn't sound like faith, does it?

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Did you notice that too? That doesn't sound like faith at all. And yet doesn't Hebrews 11 say by faith they pass through the

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Red Sea? Does this sound like a statement of faith? You brought us out of here. We would have preferred slavery and security over freedom and danger.

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We would prefer to be back in Egypt where at least we could be buried on good ground. This doesn't sound like a statement of faith at all.

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In fact, it's not. And we're gonna return to that in just a moment when we get back to Hebrews 11, verse 13. But Moses said to the people, do not fear, stand by and see the salvation of the

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Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you've seen today, you'll never see them again, forever.

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The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent. I wonder if that phrase while you keep silent is a description or a command.

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You see the difference between those two things? Right, the Lord's gonna fight for you and you're not gonna say anything. Or listen, the

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Lord's gonna fight for you, stop saying anything. Those are two different things. Verse 15, then the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me?

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Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land.

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As for me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.

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Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I am honored through Pharaoh and through his chariots and his horsemen.

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The result of this judgment is that God himself would be honored because through his judgment on sin and on sinners,

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God's righteous, holy nature is made and his justice is made manifest before the eyes of his creation.

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Both angels and creatures see God's attributes and when God's attributes are clearly displayed, whether it is in salvation or whether it is in judgment, when people fear him, he is honored.

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And that's the point here. His justice is displayed. Look at the end of verse 18. The Egyptians will know that I am the

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Lord. That doesn't mean that they will know savingly that he is God. It's not that the Egyptians suddenly then bowed down and cast off all their other idols and began to worship

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Yahweh, but rather the Egyptians would understand that there is no God like Yahweh and they would understand that they had been destroyed by Yahweh and that his judgment was just.

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This is the same kind of knowing, I think, that Paul describes in Philippians chapter two when he says that someday, on that day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. That doesn't mean that all people are gonna be saved, but it does mean that at that judgment, every unbeliever,

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Hitler and all the worst of sinners and all the lightest of sinners will all stand before him. They will all hit the knee and they will all confess with their mouth, he is

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Lord and my judgment is just. That happens before the final damnation. So this is not a they know him savingly, but they have come face to face with who he is and by that,

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God is honored. Psalm 119, verse 137, righteous are you, O Lord, and upright in all your judgments.

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Psalm 33, verse five, he loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of loving kindness of the Lord. Psalm 89, 14, righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.

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Loving kindness and truth go before you. Psalm nine, verse eight, he will judge the world in righteousness and he will execute judgment for the peoples with equity.

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We have been warned from Psalm two, verse 12, do homage to the son that he not become angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath may soon be kindled.

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How blessed are all those who take refuge in him. The execution of God's justice is honoring to God. When he judges sinners, he is honored.

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His righteous judgments are made known and sinners are warned and they should fear because God's grace in the midst of judgment is revealed in that through judgment and by judgment, he delivers salvation to those who find their refuge in him.

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Now the critic who is listening to this who are sitting here today say no, I'm sorry but I would never worship a God like that.

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I can never worship a God who is glorified in his judgment upon sin. I will never bow the knee to a God who would pour out his wrath upon sinners endlessly like that.

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That's true, you won't. But keep in mind that's exactly what Pharaoh said. He would never do this.

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This is our God and listen, every one of us believer, you gotta come face to face with the reality of who our

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God is so that we may fear him, that we may honor him. He is a just and righteous

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God and his judgments are always just. Exodus 14 verse 19, the angel of God who had been going before the camp of Israel and I don't think this is

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Gabriel or Michael or any one of the archangels. I think this is the messenger of God that we talked about last week, the angel of God, the destroyer, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.

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So it came up between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel and there was the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night.

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Thus the one did not come near the other. All night there was a separation. The angel of the Lord, the messenger of Yahweh, who was

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Yahweh himself, stood between Israel and Egypt so that Egypt could not come against Israel and was that way all night long.

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Then Moses stretched out his hand, verse 21, over the sea and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land so the waters were divided.

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The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

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This passing took all night long, somewhere between 1 .5 and 2 .5 million people passing through the midst of that Red Sea.

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There's a theory out there that says that the Red Sea could also be translated as Reed Sea. Maybe you've heard this and skeptics will say it really wasn't a deep, deep sea.

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It was more like a marsh with a bunch of reeds coming up and the children of Israel were able to get through that but Egypt, when they got their chariots in the middle of the swamp, they got all bogged down in there and so then a few of them fell over and kind of drowned because you can drown in a bathtub as easy as you can drown anywhere else.

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So it was really the Reed Sea. That's one theory out there. I will give that theory as much credence as that theory gives scripture, which is to say none because it doesn't fit at all the description that we have here.

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Verse 23, then the Egyptians took up the pursuit and all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea.

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At the morning watch, the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of cloud and fire and brought the army of the

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Egyptians into confusion. He caused their chariot wheels to swerve and he made them drive with difficulty. So the

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Egyptians said, let us flee from Israel for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians. Now can you rationally explain

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Pharaoh's actions in this passage? Is there any reasonable way that you can explain?

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Is it logically consistent at all? Is it reasonable at all? Is it in any way rational what

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Pharaoh does in sending his people into the midst of the sea? He had seen Yahweh's power on display in all of the plagues and the judgments.

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He had lost every single time he went up against Yahweh. He has lost his own firstborn son through all of that.

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And yet what you see here is the most imprudent, irrational, foolish decision that anybody could make in light of all of the wisdom, or sorry, in light of all of the light that has been poured out upon Pharaoh and all that he has seen.

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He has seen enough to know that this is the most foolhardy choice that anybody could make to rush down into the sea like this.

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And yet such is the nature of sin and pride and rebellion that it makes us irrational to the point where we pursue our own self -destruction.

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This is what sin does. Sin destroys our relationships. It destroys our marriages. It destroys churches.

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It destroys people's lives. It destroys countries and nations. It destroys businesses. It ruins everything.

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And yet when our heart is hardened and we desire wickedness and we refuse to repent, what God does in judgment is harden us in that sin so that we pursue just this kind of self -destruction.

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Sin leads us down a path to self -annihilation and will not turn back and refuses to hear any appeal to turn back from that way of wickedness.

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Pharaoh's hatred for God and his people is the most blinding of lusts. And you can see it here. The command was obviously given for the

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Egyptians to rush down into that sea. And God said he hardened the Egyptians so that they would do it.

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So they, Pharaoh and the Egyptians, are doing exactly what they want to do. And this is the problem, that they want to do this.

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This is the problem with sin. Not that we do it against our will, but this is actually something that we desire to do.

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The problem is that we are corrupt in our heart and the heart has been hardened. And so it pursues a path of self -destruction.

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But the Egyptians realized this far too late. Verse 26, the Lord said to Moses, "'Stretch out your hand over the sea that the waters may come back over the

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Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.' So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak while the

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Egyptians were fleeing right into it. Then the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even

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Pharaoh's entire army that had gone into the sea after them. Not even one of them remained. The destruction was complete."

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But now the question comes, was Pharaoh destroyed along with his army? You'll notice the text doesn't say that Pharaoh was destroyed.

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For that reason, I tend to think that he was not destroyed. And Ewell Brenner's docudrama would back me up on this because after the waters closed down over the sea, do you remember the bald man standing up there in his chariot looking out over the floating bodies of all of his army after everything had been buried beneath the sea?

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It would not have been likely that Pharaoh would have led his army into that situation and gone ahead of the army.

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He probably would have pursued them into it. My guess is that because it doesn't say that Pharaoh himself lost his life here, that Pharaoh, after the waters closed in, found himself a very lonely man.

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Pharaoh's pride in his rebellion was the hottest right when he was nearest to his destruction. You notice that?

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He hates God. He hates God's people. He is kicking against the light. And he is most foolish.

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He has thrown off all truth, all wisdom, all prudence, all discernment, all rationality.

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He has become in his sin completely irrational and unreasonable. You could not talk sense into this man if your life depended on it.

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And it is right at that moment that he is nearest to his own destruction and to the final judgment. And this is the case always with sinners.

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Do not be surprised, by the way, if God hardened Pharaoh's heart to judge him. Do not be surprised if you see rulers in our own day whose hearts are hardened.

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I think this is one of the judgments that God is pouring out upon our entire world and rulers all over the world is a hardening of hearts.

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A hardening of hearts and a complete irrationality, almost an insanity in sin. You're seeing it on the world stage.

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And we may think this is weird, that it's curious, that it's odd. No, I think we're seeing the hardening of hearts.

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Why? Because this is the way that God judges rulers. He hardens their hearts. This is the way that God judges all sinners, by the way.

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He hardens their hearts and he hardens their hearts right as he is preparing them for judgment. And neither the judgment nor the hardening of the heart is unjust.

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It's completely just. It's completely good for God to do this. But he does it always right before he destroys those whom he has made right for judgment.

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Verse 29, but the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

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Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

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When Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and they believed in the

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Lord and in his servant Moses. That's the good outcome. When God judges sin, the righteous whom he has saved, fear him, respect him, adore him and worship him and honor him and those who are judged get exactly what it is that they deserve.

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So God, in judging Egypt, demonstrated his justice in showing grace to Israel and redeeming them and delivering them, he demonstrated his loving kindness and his salvation.

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Egypt came to know God by his justice, Israel came to know God by his salvation and Israel also learned of God's justice through that salvation.

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Exodus 15, which we read earlier, God is praised for his just judgments and for his salvation and for his deliverance and the point of Exodus 15 is that all the nations had learned to fear

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God because of that great judgment. In fact, in Exodus 15, look at verse 14, the peoples have heard, they tremble, anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia.

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Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed, the leaders of Moab trembling grips them. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away, terror and dread fall upon them.

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By the greatness of your arm, they are motionless as stone until your people pass over, O Lord, until the people pass over whom you have purchased.

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Notice the trembling of the nations. 40 years after this, when the children of Israel were about ready to go into the land under Joshua, do you remember what

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Rahab said to the spies? She said, I know that the Lord has given you the land and that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you.

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For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the

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Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sion and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. We have heard of it. Our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you.

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For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. That is a great declaration of Rahab's faith.

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What had caused Rahab to come to that understanding and believe? We heard of what the

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Lord did when he brought you out of the land of Egypt, how he dried up the sea before you and destroyed Pharaoh and all your enemies.

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And Rahab came to understand there's only one God and Yahweh is that God and he is mighty and we must obey him.

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Rahab learned the lesson. In fact, God saved her and she ends up in the faith Hebrews Hall of Fame chapter,

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Hebrews chapter 11. Now turn back there. That was just kind of the introduction of the message. Turn back to Hebrews chapter 11.

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Now we can get to our text. Let's try and tie all of this together as the author does.

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First of all, verse 29, he says it is by faith that they pass through the Red Sea, but we kind of acknowledge there's a bit of a dilemma here in that their expression didn't sound like faith, did it?

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Is this why you brought us up here? There's no good land to bury us in Egypt? You had to bring us out into the desert where there's more land just so we can be buried here?

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That was not an expression of faith or at least it didn't sound like a statement of faith. In fact, that generation was noted for their lack of faith earlier in the book of Hebrews in the second warning passage, that long warning passage in chapter three and chapter four.

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The author uses that generation that came out of Egypt as a negative object lesson of what unbelief and lack of faith is like and the results of it.

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Hebrews three, verse 12. You don't have to turn to all these places, but just listen to these descriptions of how this very generation that came through the

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Red Sea is described earlier in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews three, verse 12, an evil and unbelieving heart that falls away from the living

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God. In Hebrews three, 18 and 19, they're described as being disobedient and perishing and not being able to enter because of their unbelief.

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Hebrews four, two, they heard the word, but it did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

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Hebrews four, verse six, they failed to enter because of disobedience. Hebrews four, verse 11, do not let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience.

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So hard heart, unbelief, disobedience, not united, the word of God not united by faith, that's how that generation is described.

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So if the author earlier in the book of Hebrews describes that entire generation that came through the Red Sea as unbelieving, hard hearted and receiving the word but not being united by faith, how is it then that the author of Hebrews can say it is by faith that they pass through the

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Red Sea? Is he not talking about the same group of people? He is talking about the same group of people. How do we resolve this?

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Read verse 29 again, by faith they pass through the Red Sea. Let me ask you a question, whose faith?

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Whose faith? Their faith? Who have we been talking about in the context? It's Moses.

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By Moses' faith, they pass through the Red Sea. Now Moses is not the only believing person amongst all the children of Israel.

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You have Caleb, you have Aaron, you have Miriam, you have other righteous and pious persons in the nation of Israel.

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But it is not their faith that did this. They were following Moses. In fact, I think that it is something like this that is meant by Paul in 1

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Corinthians 10, verses one and two, when he says, I don't want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, he's describing this event, and all were immersed, or baptized is the word, but it means immersed, all were immersed into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

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And yet, verse five of that same passage, Paul says, nevertheless, with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were all laid low in the wilderness.

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So whose faith is being described? I think it's Moses' faith that's being described. And what the author is saying is,

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Moses, acting on behalf, really, of the entire nation, the entire nation is immersed or baptized into Moses in the sense that they are identified with him, and God dealt with the entire nation of people according to Moses' faith.

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It's Moses' faith that they passed through the Red Sea. It's his faith and not their obedience.

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The way I envision it is, after the sea parted and Moses began walking down on the dry land, he probably had a couple million

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Israelites up there on the shore, watching him go out into the middle of this, and then finally saying, it's either follow him or be destroyed, and they went after Moses.

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But it was by Moses' faith, because that entire nation was dealt with according to Moses' faith.

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He acts as their ambassador, as their representative, as the one who is acting on behalf of the whole nation, and by faith, he walked through, and because he walked through, they followed him, and the entire nation was therefore saved.

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There is an element of faith here, obviously, that as they walked down into the sea, they would have had to have seen the heap of waters on both sides, and they would have had to have been trusting that God would not change his mind, that God would not deal with them according to their sin, that God would not forget his promises to the nation.

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They had to have considered all of those things as well as they walked down in there, but Moses is the representative.

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It is by Moses' faith that they passed through the Red Sea. Here's a lesson, there's nothing too difficult for God.

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When God's promise, when God's word promises something, he always delivers, and he always will, every single time.

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God did this in order to demonstrate his power. Now, the nation of Israel did not learn anything because as soon as they came out the other side and sang the song in Exodus 15, remember what the next thing they did was?

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They began to complain. Hey, hey, we need some water, we need some quail, we need some bread, here's all of our needs, and they began to complain.

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That's why I don't think that it's their faith that's being described here. It's Moses' faith that's being described here.

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The same God who delivers them also sustained them. This is the other thing they would have learned. The God who delivers us from and out of the place of sin and takes us out of that into freedom in Jesus Christ will also then sustain us and protect us from every foe.

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The God who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. The God who saves out of Egypt also protects us from Egypt so that we don't go back, so that we don't fall back.

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He keeps us in his hand. He will not allow the enemy to snatch you from his hand. He will not allow you to jump out of it.

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The God who saves you, sanctifies you, and secures you, the God who has given his son for you to redeem you and take you out of the marketplace of sin will also preserve you all the way through and bring you all the way through to the end.

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God did not save his people out of Egypt just to put them out into the middle of the desert and then allow them to perish. He saved them out of Egypt so that he might fulfill his word and bring them all the way through to the promised land.

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And the Egyptians were drowned. Look at verse 29. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through on dry land.

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And the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. Now, this is something a little bit curious.

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Weren't the Egyptians really just doing the same thing that the Israelites were doing? The waters parted.

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Israel walked down and passed through the water. Egypt just walked down and passed into the water. They did the exact same thing that the

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Israelites did, didn't they? They did. One was saved and one was drowned.

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Wouldn't we say that, couldn't we say that Pharaoh was acting by faith? Standing on the edge of that and seeing the waters part like that?

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Wouldn't we suggest maybe that Pharaoh was, he also had faith that the waters would not come in on him, that the path that God had provided for Israel, they would also provide for Pharaoh?

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Was that not an act of faith? It's the same sea, the same path, the same day, the same route, the same land, and the same action.

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Israel went down in and Egypt went down in. Why do we not read that Pharaoh, by faith, also passed through the

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Red Sea? The answer is because Pharaoh's act was not an act of faith. It was, in fact, an act of presumption.

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In fact, John Owen says, quote, this is the greatest height that ever obdurate infidels could rise unto in this world, close quote.

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You have to read something from the 1600s to read the word obdurate. This is the greatest height that ever an incalcitrant, unrepentant, hard -hearted infidel could ever aspire unto.

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In other words, Owen says, this Pharaoh's act is the greatest act of pride. How is it faith for Israel to do that, but it is pride for Pharaoh to do that?

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How is it that Israel taking that action, passing into the Red Sea, results in their salvation, but Pharaoh doing it is not an act of faith, but instead, it is an act of obdurate pride.

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I'll use that word, because I like that word. It's an act of obdurate pride that results in his destruction.

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And the answer is because Pharaoh's act was not an act of faith. It was an act of presumption. It's presumption.

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It's important that we know the difference. Faith is believing God's word and trusting him. You see,

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God told Pharaoh, I will destroy you. And Pharaoh said, no, you won't. And he went down into the sea.

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For one, it was an act of faith, Israel. For the other, it was an act of pride, Pharaoh. Pharaoh presumed a whole bunch of things that were not true.

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First, Pharaoh presumed that God would not judge him, but instead, that he would preserve him, and God had made no such promise to Pharaoh.

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See, this is the difference. God had promised Israel, I will bring you out, I will bring you through. He made no such promise to Pharaoh.

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So when Israel goes down into the sea, it's an act of faith. They're believing the bare word of God. There was no reason at all that the water should have stayed there.

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There's no reason at all that that ground should stay dry. But because God had promised, he worked it, and Israel going down into the

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Red Sea is trusting in that bare promise of God, Moses is, we should say, trusting in that bare promise to deliver that nation, and yet when

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Pharaoh tries to do the exact same thing, he is presuming upon something, because God has made Pharaoh no such promise.

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Faith is when you trust God and act accordingly. You trust God's word, something that he has promised you, and you act accordingly.

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Presumption is when you presume that God has promised you something that he has not promised, and then you act arrogantly.

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There's two different things there. When somebody says, I'm just gonna trust God, God's gonna heal me, I'm claiming my promise, that's not faith, that's presumption.

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When someone says, I'm just gonna trust that my own righteousness will avail for me on the day of judgment, I'll stand before God, I'll let him sort it out, that's not faith, that's presumption.

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You're presuming upon something that God has not promised you. Second, Pharaoh is presuming that there was no distinction between Egypt and Israel, even though God had clearly demonstrated that there was a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

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Pharaoh could not presume that he could receive the same grace as those people just because he was mighty or he was powerful.

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He was presuming upon something that God had not promised him, and he was presuming that there would be, in terms of the water and in terms of that judgment in that moment, no distinction between Israel and Egypt, even though in every prior plague,

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God had judged Egypt and preserved Israel for the very sake of demonstrating that there was a distinction between God's people and the

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Egyptians. And third, Pharaoh was presuming that he could keep God from delivering his people.

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It's an act of presumption. It's irrational, it's unwise, it's foolish, ignorant, however it is that you wanna describe

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Pharaoh's action, it is anything but an act of faith. Faith is believing what God has promised and acting accordingly. The final destruction of Pharaoh in Egypt is a warning to us and to all impenitent and rebellious sinners, that if you die without God, you will be crushed to powder, he will grind you to powder, and you will be judged without mercy.

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And you ought to be warned, you ought to be warned that if you will not sin and avail yourself of God's path of salvation, his way of salvation in Jesus Christ, that when he pours out his judgment upon you, it will be just, it will be deserved, you will bow the knee and you will confess he is

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Lord. You'll acknowledge it there, but by then it will be too late for salvation. Egypt is a picture of the judgment that is to come.

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Nations will be destroyed and rebels will be judged. And all who right now are without the Son and outside of Jesus Christ are under the wrath of God.

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Right now, you're under the wrath of God. You're not waiting to be under the wrath of God. If you're outside Jesus Christ, you are at this minute under his wrath, and if you think the judgment on Egypt was brutal, it's just a trailer of coming attractions, it's just a preview of what is to come, it's just a pregame show.

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God is just getting warmed up. You can read Revelation chapter 19 and understand what the judgment of God is gonna look like when he finally pours it forth upon this world, and it will be just and it will be righteous and his holiness will be demonstrated.

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And the truth of the matter is that every person sitting here deserves the same judgment that Pharaoh got.

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Have you come to the point where you've confessed that yet? That because of your lying and your stealing and your blasphemy and the lust of your heart, the deeds that you've done in darkness, the thoughts in your mind, every act of wickedness and dishonoring your parents and not worshiping the one true

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God, all of those acts of sin heaped up one upon another for the entire life that you have lived. All of that warrants this kind of judgment and so much more.

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But also understand that though that is the bad news, the good news is that God sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into this world to live the life that you and I were required by the law of God to live, but we failed to live, and then he died the death that you and I were due to die because of our sin.

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He died it in our stead so that we can have eternal life. Why is it that God is merciful towards Israel and pours judgment upon Egypt?

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It is because Israel had a substitute. What was Israel's substitute? It was the lamb that was slain on Passover night.

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Therefore, because the blood of the lamb was slain in their stead and they trusted in that, God could be gracious to Israel while pouring out justice upon Egypt.

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In both cases, God's justice was met. God's justice was poured out on the lamb, the innocent lamb who died in their stead, and it was poured out upon Egypt.

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In that case, everybody's sin was paid for. Israel got what they did not deserve because something else died in their stead and Egypt got what they deserved in the judgment that befell them, and so it is with you and I.

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You and I can have God credit our sin to the account of another and credit the righteousness of another, that is

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Jesus Christ, to our account, and God can be gracious to the sinner while meeting the just demands of his righteousness because somebody who did not deserve to die but was infinitely righteous died in our place, and because wrath has already been poured out on that substitute,

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God can be gracious to you, and if you're outside of Jesus Christ, you deserve all of the wrath that fell on Pharaoh and so much more for all of eternity, but if you are in Jesus Christ, then all of the wrath that was due to you was poured out upon him, and God commands you this day to repent and to believe.

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That is the precious news of the gospel. Turn from sin and believe in and trust in the divine son.

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He is the Passover lamb who was slain in your stead. God commands you this day to repent and believe and be reconciled to him through his son because the day of his grace is not forever, and the day of his judgment is coming soon.

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Let's pray. Our father, we praise you for your righteousness and your goodness.

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You are a just God, and you have demonstrated your justice. You have made yourself known in events past, and you are making yourself known even today through your word, and we thank you that we can trust in you that your justice for us is good news because you will never punish those for their sin whose sin has been laid upon another and punished in your son, and because the just demands of your wrath have been satisfied in Christ, we can have eternal life and forgiveness, and we can have his righteousness, so we rejoice in that.

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We rejoice in this good news, and we pray that you would teach our hearts to fear you, to love you, to adore you, and to embrace you as you have revealed yourself to us in the pages of scripture.

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You are holy, righteous, just, and we thank you that you are also loving and good and kind.