What God has done, God will do - Exodus 15:1-21

[0:00] Well, good morning, everybody. Welcome to Calvary Chapel Charlotte. What a blessing. Today, we're going to look at whether the past, the present, or the future, what God has done, God will do. Whatever it is he has done, he will do, because, you know, Jesus said he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So, Israel has come out of Egypt. They've come by way of the wilderness across the Sinai Peninsula, which should not have been called the Sinai Peninsula, because Mount Sinai is not in that peninsula. But anyway, we'll talk about that later. We could always rename it the Gulf of Something. But they've come across the wilderness, and what should have been a short journey around the north end of the Bay of Aquaba, they instead are told by God to turn right. They make a hard right, and they come down, and they come to this beach, the Nuebe Beach, after coming through this no man's land, this kind of dead end, they come to this beach, the only beach that could hold a million plus people, and there they are as Pharaoh's army chases them, comes up behind them, they're caught between a rock and a hard place, and God opens a way forward. He opens a way forward, they go through the sea to the Saudi Arabian side, the water closes, they look back, and there's absolutely no record of them having come through, right? I mean, you'd think, you turn around, the sun's rising, and the sea is calm, you're like, we were just down, we were 10 miles across, we were on the other side, 10 miles away, and the only evidence is the debris that Scripture says is floating up on the shore. If you remember last week, and at the end of chapter 14, verse 31, and Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses. He said, we do not need to see, to believe, but we will only see what we believe. The world sees God's creation all around him every day, but they don't see it, because they don't believe it. And we see many things, I don't believe that, but we believe many things we don't see. We read them on our phones, well, we didn't see it, but we believe it. So it's not a matter of what we see, but of what we choose to believe.

[2:12] So, in our outline, we've kind of broken it up mainly into four main sections. Moses is now, Moses who's like spoken hardly anything over 14 chapters, is now going to have the longest amount of talking space he's had yet in Scripture, and he's going to begin to speak, and he's going to give the song of Moses. Moses actually sings multiple times. We have him here in Exodus 15, and then in Deuteronomy 32 and 33, Moses is another prayer or praise of Moses, as well as Psalm 90.

[2:44] If you're reading, you're going through Psalms, you get to Psalm 90. It's not David or Asaph or one of the other Psalm writers. That is Moses, the song of Moses. But here's the first time Moses really begins to just this long soliloquy, this long speech that he has. And it very much is recounting what God has done and what God will do and the deliverance that he's brought. So verses 1 through 10, kind of keeping that idea of what God has done he will do. Well, past the past battle, well, it means that they're in present victory. As Moses recounts that, he's going to recount what God has done and where it's brought his people now. 11 through 13 is past deliverance, present redemption. And that's looking at specifically the gods, the gods of Egypt that God has delivered, the one true God has delivered the people of Israel from and into a present redemption. They've been redeemed from that place. Verse 14 and 16, past defeat is future defeat. That's referring to Israel's enemies, God's enemies. Man, they've been defeated in the past. Well, they're going to be defeated in the future.

[3:48] Little did Israel know as we go through this, what that victory over Egypt meant in far reaching, the far reaching future that they had yet to live. And then verses 17 through 19, a present dwelling, eternal reward. Speaking of how God has brought his people now to dwell with him, not just now, but also into the future. And then lastly, it's where Miriam, she goes out, kind of comes back full circle, this idea of praise. She goes out and leads the women in praise, that it's an appropriate present praise. It's always appropriate to praise the Lord. Now, are we going to get through all those?

[4:23] No. And that's kind of why I wanted to break it up so you see where we are. And I don't know if we'll get through all that. It's one of those where it seemed like we could make our way through it, and you put it together, and it's like, I don't think so. But anyway, Hebrews 13, 8 says, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. We experience him now and today. We have experienced him in our past, and we have yet to experience him in our future. But that doesn't change him. It doesn't change who he is. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so Moses and Israel, as they stand on the shore, 10 miles across, having gone 800 feet down and back up, and they're 10 miles across now on the edge of the Red Sea, and they're looking back, Moses then sings this song in verse 1 of chapter 15 of Exodus. And then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord. I don't think it was just as spontaneous. They all just knew the song.

[5:14] I think the idea is Moses taught them this. Moses wrote them this song, and he taught them this as they're standing there on the edge of the sea, and they begin to sing this. And they spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously.

[5:28] The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. Moses begins to speak. We've seen him speak to Pharaoh. We said, Pharaoh, if you don't let Israel go, X, Y, Z is going to happen. He's gone back to Pharaoh, and he said, all right, tomorrow I'll go out and I'll pray, and God will lift the plague. That's meant like the extent of his speech since the burning bush, where he was in doubt, talking back to the Lord, questioning. And now we see this heart of this man as he begins to speak. Moses was a man of few words, but they were words of quality. Our quantity of our words does not matter, but our quality does. You say, well, we should all be like Moses. You know, scripture says, be slow to speak, and yeah, slow to speak, and quick to listen, right? But Jesus had a lot to say. Jesus spoke a lot.

[6:17] John, at the end of the book of John, says that, you know what? If everything was written down that Jesus said and did, the whole world couldn't contain all of those books. Paul had a lot to say. My, did he have a lot to say. Books and books. So it's not the quantity, more or less, but it's the quality of what we have to say. And Moses here begins to speak of God's deliverance, begin to praise the Lord. Deliverance and defeat, our deliverance and the defeat of the enemy will always lead to praise.

[6:46] That's the direction it should take us. Psalm 33 verse 1 says, rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, for praise is comely or appropriate or looks good on, is appropriate for the upright.

[6:59] Praise him. Yes, we're actually going to be talking about using our voices to worship the Lord. Now, the first time the word worship in scripture appears is with Abraham. It says, and he worshiped the Lord. It was he bowed in reverence before him. Worship has to do with reverence, but it also has to do with our voice. It is appropriate to use our voice to praise God.

[7:21] Psalm 98 1 says, O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm has gotten him the victory. It's appropriate to sing to the Lord when he's defeated our enemies, when he's led us into victory. That is appropriate. You notice it doesn't just say, and Moses praised the Lord, and Moses spake, because no one can worship for us. It wasn't just Moses worshiping and speaking. You know, we are blessed with a really good worship team here.

[7:50] It's such a blessing. I could just sit and listen to them forever. Sure has nothing to do with me being related to them. But no, I'm very blessed. We're extremely blessed. But they can't worship for us.

[8:01] We can't say, you know, I'm just going to listen. They can't worship for us. It has to be personal. It has to be something we do. Now, it's not always going to be vocal. We can, you know, scripture tells us that when we pray, even when we pray that the Holy Spirit interprets to the Father our groanings that cannot be uttered. That there are times when you go to pray and you just, you just sense the Lord impressing something upon you, but you don't know how to put that into words.

[8:24] But the Holy Spirit interprets that to the Father. So our worship is not always going to be vocal. But it might be a little strange if it never is. Scripture says to make a joyful noise. It's like, all right, then we're all just going to sing out. You know, I mean, why then do we have worship leaders? What's the point? Well, 1 Corinthians 14, 7, Paul is kind of speaking to this idea when he's talking about order within the church. He's talking about speaking in tongues. And he says in 1 Corinthians 14, 7, and even things without life-giving sound, whether pipe or harp or guitar or voice, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall be known what is piped or harp? So we could all bring our instruments next week. And we can just bang away on them and sing out and whatever and say, I am worshiping the Lord. Well, just like speaking in tongues is a gift from God, a spiritual language for me to worship God, if you have the gift of tongues. But if I taught to you in French, well, maybe a couple of you might know French. I got a linguist here. He might know French. But I mean,

[9:25] I may be saying truth. I may be saying doctrine. It may be impactful, but it'll have no effect on your life if you don't understand it, right? It's the same with worship. We want to worship the Lord in a way that is according to God's order. Paul also said, let all things be done in decency and order. God has an order. So them leading worship, having a worship leader, having someone teach a study does nothing for you unless it's personal, unless you yourself are personally worshiping the Lord, unless you yourself are personally studying. As we go through the scripture, just to hear me say it will have no effect upon your life unless you personalize it and internalize it, unless you are studying along. That's why we go through the Bible line by line, verse by verse. I don't come up with sermons because you don't want to know what I have to say. I don't even want to know what I have to say most of the time. My wife graciously listens to what I have to say. But they worshiped God personally.

[10:23] God's people were delivered when the Lord defeated the enemy, and he did so, as it says here in the scripture, as Moses sings out to the Lord, he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and rider has he thrown into the sea. It means to rise up, to rise up in glory. And we saw that before, how at the cross, Jesus did the same thing. He defeated the enemy when he rose up in glory. 1 Corinthians 15 55 says, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[10:59] God had closed the door upon an enemy that man could not open. Israel, if they had gone by way of the wilderness, if they had come around that north end of the sea, and they'd gone up through Philistia into the Philistine country, had to fight the Philistines in front of him, had to fight the Egyptians behind him. Imagine going forward with God, his presence leading you, but knowing all this time, are they going to come and get us? Is my past going to come and get me? Is it going to grab a hold of me? Is it going to come and haunt me? Is it going to turn around and look and be like, they're gone, and there is no way we can get back. I mean, what are you going to do? Start trying to open the sea back up?

[11:37] That was a door that was closed. God has closed the door on our past when Jesus arose in glory and defeated the enemy. Hebrews 10, 12 says, but this man, Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down in the right hand of God. His work was finished. You sit when there's no more work to do. That door was closed. Moses says in verse 2, the Lord is my strength and song. So he says, this is what God did to my enemies, and now this is what God has done for me. He is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation. My father's God, and I will exalt him. Look at how many times we see the indication of something that's personal here.

[12:20] My, my strength. He's become my salvation. He's my God. I will prepare him a habitation. When we get down to verse 9, we're going to see how the enemy declares, I, I, I, I, I. Well, here in verse 2, we have Moses saying, hey, man, deliverance has led to a relationship. Deliverance always leads to a relationship. It has to be personal. Just as no one can worship for us, we're either going to be personally delivered or not at all. Just as Lillian Keller can't worship for you, I can't have a relationship for God for you. I can't study the scriptures for you. You have to have that personally on your own. Why do we come and do this corporately and together? Because this is how God grows and edifies the body together. There's a maturity that happens. When you meet someone who's not in fellowship, they may know the word, they may be filled with the spirit, but you can tell there's a lack of development in their life because God has designed us to be in a body and in fellowship.

[13:16] Second Corinthians 5, 17, Paul writes, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. But that man has to personally have experienced that himself. You cannot have someone else do it for you. For Moses, he says, the Lord is my strength. You see, the Lord must become my Lord for deliverance to be mine.

[13:43] Psalm 107, verse 2, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy. Can you say that? Can you say that the Lord has done that for you? Moses here in this verse, he says, the Lord is the one I depend on. The Lord is the one I worship. The Lord is the one I've been delivered by. The Lord is the one I dwell with. And the Lord is the one I honor and exalt.

[14:10] On the other side of deliverance, we worship God, we dwell with God, and we make much of God. It is appropriate for us to make much of our God because we've been delivered from this world.

[14:24] We've been delivered from an enemy where the door on that is closed. Sin and death, sorry, that door is closed. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Remember when we see the word therefore Lord, when it's in capital, it means, capitalized, it means Jehovah, the becoming one, the all-sufficient one. He says to Moses, hey, up until now, if you remember, your fathers have known me as El Shaddai, God Almighty, but you shall know me as Jehovah, the existing one, the all-sufficient one, the all-becoming one, the one that will meet all of your needs is who Jehovah is. So Moses says, the Lord Jehovah is a man of war because Jehovah is his name. He became what I needed him to be.

[15:06] When God leads us into deliverance, he leads us into new revelations of who he is. It's a new revelation for Moses. God, you're a man of war. You just whooped those Egyptians. That was different than I thought. As you lead me in deliverance, I realize more about you. We also get here our first of what we're going to see throughout this reference to God. We're going to see that God's a man of war.

[15:28] A lot of talk about God's nostrils, God's right arm, God's face. What's all that about? Well, that's an anthropomorphism. An anthropomorphism, it's attributing human traits and characteristics to God as a way to understand God. Okay. I know it sounds like some creature from maybe like Narnia or Lord of the Rings or something. It's an anthropomorphism, but no, it's just what we do.

[15:52] We attribute that, you know, Paul says in first Corinthians 2 11, for what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man, which is in him. Even so, the things of God knows no man, but the spirit of God, right? I don't know the spirit of my cat, right? I project onto that cat what I think from my spirit. To me, he looks like an arrogant, mean, self-righteous, full of himself creature.

[16:15] Maybe from his heart is coming forth love and affection. I don't know, but the scars say otherwise. So I project onto him. I can kind of know what's going on inside of you and you can me because we're all men. We all have the same spirit. And so there's a certain level of understanding we have.

[16:32] Now, no man knows God or the spirit of God. That's why the world and its religions are so off. They have no idea until we gain the spirit of God through a relationship with God. And then the scripture says we have the mind of Christ. So we use these, these anthropomorphisms to help us understand and describe God. You know, when we say, hey, God has rescued me with his right arm. Well, in scripture, the right arm is the arm of strength, is the arm of deliverance. And we recognize that God has rescued me. We know Jesus has a body, but God is a spirit, the father. They that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. We know that Jesus says in Matthew 11, that he came to reveal, the son came to reveal the father. He is the word made flesh. But here we see Moses saying, the Lord's a man of war.

[17:16] The Lord is his name. And you can just see him teaching Israel this, singing this and like, guys, this is what our God is. As we go forward, we're a bunch of slaves. We just left Egypt. We don't know how to do anything. And God's going to go before us. He is the man of war. What is a man of war?

[17:33] Well, it's one who's prepared for battle. A man who is a man of war, he's prepared. He's ready. He understands what he has to do. He's never, it's not the first time he's ever picked up those implements or gone into battle. He's effective in battle. It's not just for show. It's not just he looks good in his armor. And he's unafraid and deterred by battle. He's not going to run at the first sign of battle or the noise. And then he's a victor in battle. Remember, scripture says that David was a man of war as well. Think of David as he runs towards Goliath, a man of war. Had nothing to do with his size, who he was, but had to do with who he knew his God was. So he was able as well to be a man of war. Moses is declaring this, saying, this is who our God is. Pharaoh's chariots and his host, he has cast them into the sea. He just threw them in the sea. His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. God made a very distinct division between his people and the enemy. God overthrew the strength of Pharaoh, his captains, his chariots. That was the might of the nation that God overthrew.

[18:34] You see, when God has done a work, there's no doubting it, there's no denying it, and there's no disputing it. There's nobody who was going to stand there that morning and look and go, you know, I don't know. I don't know how we really delivered from Egypt. I don't know. You think maybe? You couldn't deny it. You couldn't doubt it. Pharaoh was thrown into the sea. Pharaoh, if you remember, he thought he was a God. He thought he was the son of Ra, that he was a God, the God of life.

[19:02] And God showed him. No matter how great a man is, they all die like the lowest of dogs. It doesn't matter how great you are. Death is the great equalizer. We all will face that death. And at that moment, it didn't matter. It didn't matter for Pharaoh that he was king over this nation.

[19:21] Psalm 22, beginning in verse 28, says, For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship, and all that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul. Not one. Nobody. No matter how great they are. No matter how many cryogenics or whatever they think they get into. You know, it kind of makes me laugh at people that are trying to extend, you know, the longevity of life. It's like, man, we got to 150 years. Who cares?

[19:49] Adam lived like 900 years. He got a long way to go to even equal the oldest man in the Bible, Methuselah. Who cares? Death will still be the equalizer. The depths have covered them, God's enemies. They sank into the bottom as a stone. In other words, the enemy could not escape judgment.

[20:08] No amount of self-effort, no amount of swimming skills, no amount of running out of the Red Sea. The depths covered them. They sank as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power.

[20:19] Thy right hand, O Lord, has dashed in pieces the enemy. Just as they could not escape judgment, they could not recover from judgment. To be dashed in pieces. The idea here is a pot, a piece of like clay pot or pottery. You know, if a window shatters, then that's, there's no recovering that. You're going to piece it back together one at a time.

[20:38] Through the defeat of the enemy, God's power and nature were displayed to his people. As they declare, Lord, your glorious power, your right hand has done this, God. And I like how, I know it's, like we said, the right hand is describing like God's hand of power, right? That was what the right hand was. You know, we know in scripture it says, your right hand holds me fast. There's also other scriptures that says, you hold me by my right hand.

[21:02] You know, so it's like, oh, God's hand of power is the one doing the work. My hand's bound up. I'm not the one doing the work. But I also like this idea. It's almost like he's saying, hey, Pharaoh, God was able to whoop you with one hand tied behind your back. I mean, he only took one arm, just his right arm. God needed no help. He defeated Pharaoh, essentially with an arm tied behind his back.

[21:24] And in the greatness of your excellency, you have overthrown them that rose up against you. You sent forth your wrath, which consumed them as stubble. Thank God your enemies came against you and you took them out. But in that moment, in the moment when Israel's on the side of the Red Sea, on the beach there, and there's the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, the water of the Red Sea stretching out in front of them. And all of a sudden, Pharaoh's army starts coming out of that canyon and arraying themselves on that shore. Do you think Israel is standing there going, God, look at your enemies coming against you? No, they're coming against me. God, your enemies are coming against me. They want to wipe me out. They want to take me into possession. They want to take me into captivity. But those that rise up against God's people, God looks at as if they're rising up against him and understand that when the enemy comes against us, he's not coming against us.

[22:18] He's coming against what we represent and who we represent. In Psalm 46, verses 9 through 11, we read, He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in sunder.

[22:35] He burns the chariot in the fire. What's our part? Be still. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. I don't need your help, guys. I got one arm tied behind my back doing this. This is no problem. Be still and know that I'm capable. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. So when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Lord will raise up a standard. Those that rise up against God's people, they are also rising up against the Lord. It's not our place. We don't have to defend ourselves.

[23:06] And God is able to bring down the self-exalted. And the greatness of thine excellency that was overthrown them, overthrown them that rose up against thee. Those that would self-exalt themselves, God is able to bring them down.

[23:21] You know, in the New Testament, Paul talks about those things that would exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. He says that though we walk in the flesh, we don't war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare, they aren't carnal, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And that's all talking about in our mind, imaginations, things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God.

[23:45] God is able to bring those down. There are things in our lives and in our hearts and minds that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And listen, we've said this before. Anytime your ideology, your belief system, or your ideals come up against the truth of God's word, and one of them's got to give, man, you better let it be your belief system, ideology, and views. They got to give.

[24:07] It is sad to watch when people try and maintain what God's word is clearly saying, hey, that's an area that needs to give. No, no, no, no, we can work with this. And you see them kind of go off.

[24:17] They turn from God's word to essentially hold the teaching of man. God is able to bring down the self-exalted. God's wrath will overthrow and consume those who stand against deliverance.

[24:29] As Egypt and as Pharaoh are standing here, and Moses says they've been consumed as with stubble, or as stubble, essentially the leftover parts from reaping a harvest. You want the ear, right, of grain, and then you just got the leftovers, and that's just burned up. It's consumed.

[24:46] God's wrath will overthrow and consume those who would dare to stand against deliverance. And with the blast of thy nostrils, the waters were gathered together. Again, is this saying God just like leaned down blue with his nose? No, I think he's just saying that essentially this is how easy it was to God. God was able to just, essentially he sneezed like, oh my, I parted the Red Sea. You know, that's how easy it is for the Lord. The waters were gathered together.

[25:13] That word means to heap or to pile, like to stack something. The floods stood upright as a heap. That means to mound. And in my mind, I was thinking, you know, like when you shovel or snow blow snow.

[25:26] I thought, no, you don't. Never mind. Maybe a few of you. And just the mound gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, and it just kind of sits there. And the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. I'm reading from the King James. I don't know what yours says, but congealed, the word literally means to curdle or become dense. So in my mind, I've always pictured like the Red Sea's parted, and like the spray and foam everywhere as the wind's blowing and like you could stick your arm in it.

[25:53] Well, where we've read in the past that it was a wall on their left and a wall on their right, Moses is saying it was literally dense. It was congealed. It was God heaped it up and it was a solid wall. This was no natural phenomenon. And God does this how? He just sneezed. Just sneezed.

[26:11] God can alter nature with just a sneeze, but it took every drop of his blood and every bit of his life to alter my heart. God, just by blowing part of the Red Sea, but it took his very life for my heart to be altered. He couldn't do that. It was just blowing on it. The enemy said, and here we get to verse nine now, where, you know, we saw how Moses said, oh, I will praise the Lord. He's become my God.

[26:37] Now look what the enemy said. The enemy said, I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon them. I will draw my sword. My hand shall destroy them.

[26:50] In Isaiah 14, we have the five I wills of Satan. Oh, Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou fallen from heaven? For thou has said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit upon the mount of the congregation. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, and I will be like the most high. And then the Lord replies and says, yet you should be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. Self-exaltation is the fastest route to hell.

[27:21] When we lift ourselves up, it is the quickest way to go down. But I like where verse nine, it says, the enemy said, well, you know, the enemy says much, but he does so very little. Look at all the things he said he would do. The six things he essentially said he would do. He said, I will pursue.

[27:37] If you remember that word meant to persecute, I'm going to persecute. I'm going to get them. I will overtake them. I will divide them. I'll have my desire satisfied upon them. I will draw my sword. I will possess with my hand. And not one of those things did he do. Not one of them. Do you know there's not one thing the enemy said he's going to do to you that he's gonna? Not one. He says a whole lot, but he doesn't do very much. And even the things that he does do, they're completely, as we read, God is governor. He's the one who's like, you know what? I need them to keep moving in faith right there. And they're kind of lolling back some. So I need to send the enemy. No, no, not to overwhelm them. No, no, no, no. But keep them moving forward to show them my deliverance and to encourage their faith. Yet you shall be brought down to the sides of the pit. You see, if my will says, I will, God says, no, you won't. When my will says, I will, God says, you won't.

[28:36] Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that does the will of my Father, which is in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, have I not prophesied in thy name? Then I inserted, I have not I. And in thy name have I not cast out devils. And in thy name have I not done many wonderful works. I've done many things.

[29:00] Yes, according to my will. And when I say, I will, when God says no. But when I say, I will, well, God says, okay. After this manner, therefore, pray you, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Those are the ones who say, our Father. Those are the ones who personalize that relationship of deliverance.

[29:24] When we say, thy will, God says, yes, you will. You will enter into the joy of the Lord. The enemy said, oh, I'm going to do all this. And Moses says, oh, Lord, you did blow with the wind.

[29:37] In verse 10, the sea covered them. They sank as lead in the mighty waters. The enemy's schemes and plans were all blown apart and blown away. The Lord just blew with the wind and the sea covered them.

[29:52] The enemy cannot walk the path that God's people take. God's people take a path that's one that's miraculous. God's people take a path of deliverance, and that is destruction to the enemy. Isaiah 43, verses 1 and 2 says, but now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name, and thou art mine.

[30:16] When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon you.

[30:26] But we have that promise as we walk in the path God puts before us. What we don't realize, that path we walk, which is our deliverance and our victory and our hope, is defeat and destruction and death to the enemy. The enemy that had cast children into the river back in Egypt, had thrown the baby boys into the river. God now said, I'm going to cast men into the sea. I can handle this. I can take care of this. Matthew 18, 6 says, but who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me? Or better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, that he were drowned in the depths of the sea. God is able to take care of his enemies. You know, there's something else that's been cast into the sea. We're told in Micah, this little verse tucked away in Micah chapter 7, verse 19, tells us God will have compassion on us. He'll subdue our iniquities and he will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. That's where our sins are. Now, sin here for Pharaoh and for those who would offend one of these little ones like a millstone, they just sunk like lead. So sin's going to sin, it's going to sink you. Sin, it stinks and sin sinks. That one took a little while to figure out how to make something. You know, a skunk stinks and he's underwater. All right. Sin will either sink us or it will sink without us. It's one or the other. Either we're going to sink with it and be cast in the depths of the sea or it's going to sink without us and it'll be thrown into the sea.

[31:52] Romans 6, 23 says, the wages of sin is death. It will sink us. It stinks and it sinks. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. How we can escape that. Verse 11, Moses now says, who is like unto thee, O Lord, who is like the glory among the gods, who is like the glorious and holiness, fearful and praise doing wonders. And that's where we get now to past deliverance, present redemption, where God has delivered them, has defeated these gods of the past and has led them into this place of a present redemption. Glorious and holiness, Lord, you are glorious and holiness means sacred and set apart. Fearful and praises means he's revered. He's worthy to be praised. Doing wonders means one who accomplishes extraordinary things. That is very appropriate of our God. He is one who's accomplished extraordinary. You're here. That's pretty extraordinary. Look back over your life. Should you be here? God has accomplished something very extraordinary.

[32:53] Ephesians 3, 20 says, Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us. Not according to our power, but the one that's at work in us. You see, Egypt's gods, they proved to be powerless. They proved to be lifeless.

[33:12] They were dispossessed. The realms that supposedly they had authority over, over the earth, over the sky, over light, over dark, over death, they were dispossessed. And Egyptians' gods, they led their followers to death. But God leads them to life.

[33:31] Verse 12, You stretch out your right hand. The earth swallowed them. Only one God has control of this world. All of these Egyptian gods, they did not. God was the one who caused the world to swallow them up.

[33:43] Essentially, what they thought they had dominion over, God proved, no, I have dominion over you. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. God's the one in control. And God has proved that with these gods. Thou in thy mercy has led forth the people, verse 13, which you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength, under your holy habitation.

[34:12] In your mercy, you've led forth your people, which you've redeemed. You see, the enemy went down and stayed down while God's people were led forth. The enemy went down like lead into the water. The gods of the Egyptians went down, but God's people were led forth. They were led out. They were redeemed. What does the word redeemed mean? It means to ransom, to buy back, but more specifically, the word in the Hebrew is goel, which is the kinsman redeemer, to buy back, be bought back by the one able and responsible to do so. It's not just like someone came along and said, yeah, I'll buy that. But this is the one who's able to buy, who has the means to buy, and is also responsible to do that. God has redeemed. God is responsible to care for what he has taken such pains to possess.

[34:58] He has gone to such great lengths to possess this people of Israel, led them out of Egypt, destroyed this nation through the Red Sea. Well, he's going to care for them. He's redeemed them. They belong to him. God will go to great lengths to care for us, just as he's gone to such great lengths to redeem us. Philippians 1, 6, being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. What God has done in the past, he's going to continue to do in the future. If God has delivered in the past, he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. That means he delivers yesterday, he delivers today, and he delivers forever.

[35:36] God will complete that which he has begun in us. Moses here says that God's mercy is displayed through redemption. God's mercy is displayed through redemption. God's direction is displayed through redemption. You have led the people forth. His strength is displayed through redemption.

[35:55] You have led them forth. You have guided them in strength. You've led them to your holy habitation. Redemption displays God's mercy, God's direction, God's strength, God's dwelling, and God's holiness.

[36:07] Redemption has done that in our lives. We've received God's mercy. We have direction. God has displayed his strength in our lives. He keeps us, and he's bringing us to a place we will dwell with him in holiness. In redemption, God has rescued his redeemed. God has led his redeemed.

[36:24] God has set apart his redeemed, and God is bringing his redeemed home. God has led his redeemed home. This is where Israel's at, and this is where we're at today in Christ. And then it shifts here. Moses kind of ends this section, and he kind of shifts the focus a little. He's been talking about the defeated enemy. He's been talking about the redeemed people. And then he says in verse 14, Now, if you're reading the King James like I am, it's going to say, Palestina. Palestine? Wait a minute.

[37:01] Am I just getting political? The Romans named the land of Israel, the land of Canaan, Palestine in the second century AD, to minimize the Jewish ties to the land. The Jews were so stubborn and belligerent about that being their land that God had given them, and then fighting for the death over it, they wanted to get rid of the Jews, and so they wanted to scatter them throughout the Roman Empire. And they said, we're going to change the name of their homeland to Philistia.

[37:26] Now, the Philistines, the Philistines were the perennial enemy of the Jews who said, hey, they'll hate this. We're going to call them the land of the Philistines. That's what Palestine means. It just means Philistia, land of the Philistines. Philistines are long gone, and the Jews were there long before, they were called Palestinians long before today's version of what Palestinians are. Anyway, what he's saying here is the people in Philistia shall hear, and sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants. Remember that he said, hey, I'm not going to lead you by the way of the Philistines, lest you see war and you get discouraged and you run away. So now what he's done, he's led them through the Red Sea, through a place of impossibility, defeated Egypt, and now that enemy, who was at one time going to be a threat to them, now he's saying, hey, fear has taken hold on them, trembling. Past victory, little did they know, their past victory over Egypt is a promise of future victory over enemies they haven't even seen yet.

[38:22] Little did Israel ever realize the strategy that was in the mind of God when God defeated their enemies. We didn't either. We know that God saved and redeemed us. My past is in those sins or in the bottom of the sea. Fantastic. I'm saved. I'm born again. Well, I don't know. What about my future?

[38:41] You know, I hope it turns out. Well, I know I'm going to be in heaven eventually, and my past is gone. Praise God. Well, Romans 8 32 says, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? He that spared not his own son, delivered him up for us all in the past. Well, how is he not going to also freely give him, give us all things in the future? You see, our redemption is not just a redemption of our past.

[39:06] Our redemption is not just an act that took place at Calvary. Our redemption is a state of being. We are either in that state or not, and that is a continual, eternal, present state that will continue forward with us. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed, or the governors of Edom.

[39:24] The mighty men of Moab, trembling, shall take hold upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. And there, if you look on the map, you can see, I didn't underline it, but the Philistines are up there where Gaza is today, is where the Philistines are, along the Mediterranean. And then you can see there's the Nwabe beach down there. They would cross over, and as they head up through the wilderness to Canaan, they're going to go through Edom, which is where, remember, Esau settled, and then into Moab, and then on up into the land of Canaan. And here God is saying, through Moses, that the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Canaanites, and the Philistines, all of these enemies, because of what God did to Egypt, well, now trembling has taken hold of them. Fear has come upon them.

[40:07] Little did Israel realize God's plan when he defeated the Egyptians, also defeated their future enemies. The defeat and victory of Israel's future enemies had nothing to do with who Israel was, but simply who their God was, and the plans that God had for them.

[40:24] Our past and present deliverance is also all part of God's plan for our future deliverance. Whatever God has delivered you from, whatever he is currently delivering you from, is part of his plan to deliver you in the future. It'll all tie together.

[40:39] And only when we get there will we realize the wonder of what God has done. Fear and dread shall fall upon them, and by the greatness of thy arm shall they be still as a stone, till the Lord pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over which thou hast purchased.

[40:56] Because judgment had first passed over God's people, remember in Egypt? Well, then God's people would now be able to pass over in victory. Judgment passed over God's people, came upon their enemies, but God's people now are able to pass over into victory.

[41:12] The effect of deliverance upon Israel and our enemies. The effect of deliverance upon our enemies. The past has been swallowed up. It's no more. It doesn't exist. That's a door that's been closed. We're never going back there.

[41:23] The future? Well, those enemies have already been defeated. They cannot stand. And according to God, they're easily dispersed. We will never realize how far-reaching the effect of redemption has had in our lives.

[41:38] And we won't for all of eternity. It'll just be one moment after another of discovering, this too, Lord? Wow, this is amazing. I mean, it was enough to be born again, to be saved, but then to have a family, and then to have a family of God, and then to know that, Lord, you want to use my life, having nothing to do with me, but all because of you, Lord.

[42:00] Lord, you shall bring them in, verse 17, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which you have made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, Lord, which thy hands have established.

[42:11] God will bring them in, because he first brought them out. All that God does in the life of his redeemed is always moving them in one direction. All that God does in our lives is to continually move us in that one direction.

[42:23] Everything will move us in that direction. No matter what turns we take, what dead ends there are, they always move us in that direction. Are you moving backwards? Any of you moving towards hell? No? Okay.

[42:34] No, we're all moving in that direction. God is bringing us in. God will bring us out to bring us in. God saves from to save for. God sets apart from to set apart for.

[42:48] God judges that he might redeem. He's brought us out. He set us apart from this world. He calls us out from it. Why? Is it because he doesn't want us to have all those fun things?

[42:58] No, to protect us. And because he's called us into something else, he set us aside for something else. Jeremiah 29, 11, for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

[43:13] And that means progressing with the Lord into those things. To come into the place that God would have us to dwell in, well, we're going to have to leave somewhere else. We saw that in the book of Acts so many times, where it says, and they stood up and went.

[43:28] And before you can go, you have to get up. Before you can get there, you have to go. And before you come in, you have to come out of. God had brought his purchased people in.

[43:40] He had planted them. He had secured them. They were dwelling with God in a sacred place, and they were firmly established. The Lord shall reign forever and ever. The Lord is king forever, says Psalm 10, 16.

[43:54] The heathen are perished out of his land. He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there shall be no end. Spoken of Jesus in Luke 1, 33.

[44:05] This is not a temporary possession. This is not something just for a little while. This is unending victory that they're being led into. For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots, with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them.

[44:19] But the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. As Moses kind of brings it full circle and just reiterates all the truths that he had just spoken. God overcame the strongest.

[44:29] God took Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen, and threw him in the sea. And who did he deliver? Well, the very weakest. The children of Israel. They were just a bunch of slaves who had left Egypt.

[44:40] What did they have? What did they know? But they'd gone in faith. God overcame the strongest to deliver the weakest. I like this verse in Psalm 84. Speaking of the sparrows, there's a few places in scripture that are spoken of sparrows.

[44:54] It says, Yea, the sparrow has found a house, and swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God, that the weakest can come and find a place with the Lord.

[45:07] Matthew 10 31 says, Fear you not, therefore. You are of more value than many sparrows. If the sparrows can find a place with the Lord, then certainly we can. We've made it, guys.

[45:18] We're going to do these last two verses. And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, she took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing you to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously.

[45:33] The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. So now Miriam, in response, she's taking her cue for Moses. She gets up and she runs out and celebrates. Listen, it is always appropriate to celebrate victory.

[45:47] We do it with our sports teams. When your team wins, you're not like, well, that was interesting. Time to go back to work. No, you're excited. You want to talk about it. You celebrate. You know, when your kid wins and he's playing some whatever league soccer, nobody else knows even what it is.

[46:02] You don't care. You want to tell them, hey, they won. Oh, okay. It's appropriate to celebrate victory. Remember David, when he was bringing the ark up into Jerusalem. He was so excited. This is a victory that the presence of God was coming in to dwell with him.

[46:17] And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was girded with a linen ephod. David came. He said, I don't have any pretense. I'm not. It's not about what I look like. It's about this heart. I want to dance before the Lord.

[46:29] Worship is never excess. Excess means more than necessary. Worship is never excess. Well, you know what? Church starts at 1030. But yeah, it's like 20 minutes of worship.

[46:39] We'll get there for the main part. Worship's extra. It's never excess. But as we said, Paul says, let all things be done decently in order. What did Miriam not do?

[46:51] Well, as Moses and Israel singing this, she didn't just get up and start doing her own thing and dancing around and running around, right? There was an order to this. She took her cue from Moses. It was part of their culture and how they worshiped. But let all things be done decently in an order.

[47:03] Again, we're not all going to bring instruments next week and just start banging on them and hope something good comes out of it, no matter what our hearts are. Now, just because someone's standing up here and worshiping, leading worship, your heart may be in a better place of worship than the people leading, right?

[47:17] Jesus, we're told in John 4.23 says, but the hour comes as now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to worship him. You can't remove those.

[47:28] Oh, yeah, but they got such a heart of worship, but there's no truth to what they're saying. It's just a bunch of emotional nothing or vice versa. You know, they're saying the right thing, but they're not actually worshiping, right?

[47:39] That's why we can't rely on someone else to do it for us. We have to be the ones to do it. Worship is not excess, but it is meant to be personal. So it says, Miriam here was a prophetess.

[47:51] We have no instance of her speaking foretelling, foretelling divine revelation, but what do we see her doing? She's foretelling divine revelation. She was a prophetess because she did exactly what Jesus said.

[48:04] She spoke forth in spirit and in truth. For us, God's redeemed, sing to the Lord because the enemy was defeated when the Lord arose in glory.

[48:15] Our Lord arose in glory. He defeated the enemy and he led us into redemption. It is appropriate to voice our praise to God. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter four, he says, we, speaking of him and those with him, because the church in Corinth was always questioning Paul's leadership.

[48:33] He's like, listen, we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken. And that's Psalm 116 verse 10 he's quoting. He's saying to the Corinthians, listen, we have the same spirit of faith as you do.

[48:46] We believed, therefore we spoke. We also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you.

[48:58] Praise is always appropriate and praise should always be present in our lives. We sing and speak unto God because God has brought us unto himself through deliverance.

[49:09] But just as no one can worship for us, we are either going to be personally a part of that relationship with God or we're not. We're either personally delivered or we're not. Our relationship to God must be personal and our interaction with God must be personal as well.

[49:26] No one can do this for you. No one can do it for me. It has to be personal. So it is appropriate, yes, to raise our voices in song. It is appropriate to sing to the Lord and to praise him.

[49:38] Does that mean we're just going to do that in a crazy noise? No, we're so blessed by the order that God gives us to be able to sing forth praise to God. Yes, the spirit makes, interprets our groanings, which cannot be uttered, but praise God, it's not always that.

[49:52] There's words I can speak. I can pray and I can praise and use my voice. So as we stand in worship, it is not about how effective you are or how good your voice is or any of that.

[50:04] It's that it is appropriate for us to use our voices to declare the victory that God has brought us. Just as Moses, he didn't speak much, but boy, when he did, he had a lot to say.

[50:16] Father, thank you that, oh Lord, we have traded in a past for this wonderful present we're experiencing now, Lord.

[50:29] Past failures for future hope and present joy. Lord, I pray that you would inhabit our praises, Lord, that we would by faith open our mouths and declare forth the praise of God, just as Moses did and Miriam did.

[50:42] Lord, we would not be ashamed, Lord, to speak forth the truth. We are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, Lord. But Lord, how shall they hear unless one go?

[50:53] And how shall one go unless he be sent? And Lord, how are they gonna be sent if we don't pray? Pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest that he sent forth labors into the harvest. The harvest is white and the labors are few.

[51:05] Lord, here we are. We don't have anything to offer. You are the one with the strong right hand, Lord. You're the one who's led us by a path that nobody else could. And you're the one that's closed the door upon our enemies. Lord, that is a path that we never have to go back to.

[51:19] And little did we know, when you delivered us, Lord, you delivered us from a future, Lord, a future that would be without you. And now we have you forever. And Lord, we are always moving in one direction, always moving towards you.

[51:33] No matter which way we turn, no matter what impossibility is before us, no matter what enemy is behind us, no matter what one's before, we have this promise of victory. And Lord, that is worth singing and shouting and speaking of.

[51:46] Loose our tongues, Lord. Lord, may our hearts and our words be one as we worship you. In Jesus' name, amen. Man, don't be afraid to let your voice proclaim what your heart is screaming out.

[51:59] You know, let your voice and the spirit match up together in that. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. The Lord be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace.