Sermon Transcript

Open your Bibles to the second book in your Bible! Anybody know what that is? Exodus! And so, we have been in this study through the most epic stories of the Old Testament, and we’re finding that in those stories we find the story of Jesus, and we also find our story!

So, we’ve been looking at the life of Abraham. We found out that God made a promise to Abraham, and we have watched that promise be killed off by God as He asked Isaac to be sacrificed—Abraham’s son to be sacrificed—and yet God resurrected the promise by substituting that ram for Isaac’s life. And so, we’re tracing this promise through the Scripture.

Now, let me ask you to be patient with me a little bit here, because I have to summarize about five-hundred years of ancient history in about three minutes. Are you going to listen fast through this? Because what I’m going to tell you is the story of Independence Day; not American history, but ancient Christian-Hebrew history. We are going to look at how God created a path for the promise, and He brought freedom to an enslaved people. So, let me try to do that very quickly as we walk through this.

Anybody going to blow anything up this week? Any pyromaniacs out there? Some of you are making it very hard for me to sleep, because the sun goes down at ten around here. I go down around ten around here, and some of you pyromaniacs come out—and you’re keeping me awake!  But why are we doing that? It’s because we value freedom. We like to celebrate freedom; we never want to forget from which we came. That’s the story of the Christian, and we’re looking at “from where we came.”

So, when we last left off the story, we realized that Abraham had a son—his name was Isaac. Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob had twelve sons; one of those sons was named Joseph. The other eleven brothers were jealous of Joseph and created a plan to sell off their brother Joseph. How many of you have considered selling off a little brother at some point in your life? Like, “Hey! That. . .that sounds like a great plan!”

Well, that’s what these rascals did. And so, they sold Joseph into the hands of the Ishmaelites, which, interestingly, was a distant cousin over here from the line of Abraham when he sinned and had a child through Hagar. That was Ishmael—so there’s a whole band of other rogue family members over here. And so, Joseph ends up in the Ishmaelites’ hands; the Ishmaelites decide to sell him off to a bunch of Egyptians. The Egyptians take Joseph to Egypt – and turns out, Joseph ends up rescuing all of his family, because God had blessed him. And so, that is the way the book of Genesis ends. The last eleven chapters of Genesis is that story of Joseph.

So, we open up to the book of Exodus, and we read kind of a summary of where this promise currently is. Now, remember what the promise was: God promised to bless Abraham—even though he deserved nothing but a curse. So, He reversed the curse. He promised that this blessing would include that he would become a great nation and his descendants would outnumber the sand on the seashore. That’s the promise!

Let’s check in a little bit on how the promise is doing in Exodus 1, beginning in verse 5. “All the descendants of Jacob…” Now, remember, Jacob got his name changed. Does anybody remember the new name of Jacob? “Israel.” “All the descendants of Jacob [all the children of Israel] were seventy persons…” [ESV] Think about that. What was the promise to Abraham? “Your descendants will outnumber the sand on the seashore!” Question: Does that sound like seventy people to you? No. So, how’s the promise doing? The promise is, is not great at this point. Let’s go on.

“Joseph was already in Egypt.” Where was he? Um, what was the promise God gave to Abraham? That he would have a land, a promised land. Where is the promise located now? It’s not even in the land that Abraham was promised! It’s in Egypt. Verse 6 (let’s see if it gets any better.]: “Then Joseph died [um, not great] and all [of] his brothers and all that generation.” Can I be honest with you? The Bible should have ended at the end of verse 6! It’s just not – the promise is, like, on life support at this time. What’s the first word of verse 7? “But. . .” That’s a great word in the Bible. “But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; [and] they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.”

            So we got seventy people in verse 5. By the time we get to chapter 12 of Exodus, the Bible tells us there are over 600,000 men—besides women (because men usually like to hang out with women, and when they hang out with women they have babies), and so it says, “600,000 men besides women and children.” A conservative estimate: by the time we get to chapter 12, there’s over two million descendants of Abraham! How’s the promise doing now?

So, what happens between verse 5 of chapter 1 and chapter 12? Well, let me kind of summarize for you again. They’ve greatly increased, but they’re living in the land of Egypt. And, verse 8 says, “Now there arose a new king [in] Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” He didn’t know the promise, he didn’t know how awesome Joseph was and how God had used him, and so he felt threatened by all of these people that were multiplying in his land, and he says, “We better do something, or these people are going to take over!”

So, down in verse 13, here’s the plan: “So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves…”—and year after year, decade after decade, century after century, the Israelites multiplied, but there every one of those children was born into slavery, and they had to work for this new king. His title was “Pharaoh.” And so, God has to go to work to create a path for the promise to come out of Egypt.

We know the story; if you kind of accelerate to the next page, you’re introduced to this guy named Moses that God calls out. He uses Moses to go have a conversation with Pharaoh, and the message for Pharaoh is, “Let my people go, that they may worship Me.” Did Pharaoh let them go? No! He hardened his heart, and so God had to convince Pharaoh that it would be in his best interest to let them go. And so He starts to send plagues.

Now, before we get to that, look down at the end of chapter 2, at verse 23: “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and [they] cried out for help. [They cried] for rescue…” Underline the word “rescue.” The Bible is a story of rescue, and every page of the Bible is the unfolding plan and path of the rescue. So, “[They cried] for rescue from slavery [and that cry] came up to God. And God heard their groaning. . .God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. [And] God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.”

There’s four points along this path of the promise. The first point is this:

 

1. A people who cry out (2:23-25)

 

You see, they are in the midst of slavery! They are suffering at the hands of a wicked taskmaster and they are made to work. And conditions are highly unfavorable, and it’s an awful situation. And we sympathize with those people who were made to be slaves. But here’s the good news: God hears their groaning! And in verse 24, we see that God listens when the groaning goes vertical! Not a whole lot of benefit comes from horizontal groaning, but when the groaning goes vertical, God starts listening, and God hears our groaning.

Now remember, we are not just looking at ancient history; we are looking at the story of our lives. Every person is born today into slavery! And if you have—throughout this week, at all—been disappointed, had any discontentment, had any heartache—any pain—if you’ve gotten a bad doctor report; if you’ve had relational conflict, if you haven’t had money or joy; if you have been kind of disappointed in the way things are working out—do you know what that is an evidence of? That is an evidence that you are living in a land God never intended you to live in.

Now, I am not talking about geographical territory; I’m not talking about northern Indiana or southern Michigan. I am talking about a spiritual place. Every one of us has been born into spiritual slavery. Their slavery was physical; ours is spiritual. And the New Testament requires us to read this story as if we were slaves because it is the picture of our story. And, matter of fact, you may have only known slavery, to this point, in the same way that those children did.

We are now five-hundred years past Abraham. And those children that have been born in the succeeding generations, they knew no freedom. They’d never heard of freedom. The only taskmaster they’d ever know was an evil taskmaster, Pharaoh. And, just like them, you may think what you experience in your groaning is normal—and you may not see any path out. Here is the great news of the gospel: the gospel is all about getting people out of their slavery! And, until you understand that your groaning is not just because you have a physical problem, it’s not just because you have a relational problem. Until you understand your greatest problem is that you are living and serving in spiritual slavery, you won’t turn your groaning vertical!

And when you do, that is the first step of getting out, because God hears our groaning, and He wants you to turn your attention to Him and say, “What do I do with this mess that is my life?—this habit pattern, this evil thinking, this way that I treat people—that I don’t even like? This selfishness and this sinful condition that causes me to be so upset with others and so upset with myself? Let the groaning turn vertical, and God will hear your groaning.

Do you see it? “[He] heard their groaning,” verse 24. Look at the next thing that He did in verse 24 He “remembered his covenant…” And He remembers the covenant, the promise, that He’s made with each one of us. God remembers back five-hundred years ago when He said, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and I will make you a blessing to others.” And God’s made the same promise to all who will believe and trust Him in that promise.

God remembers His promise. You know what that means? He doesn’t remember how awesome I am; He doesn’t remember the religious things that I’ve done. He remembers His promise. What prompts God to act is not the goodness of me, it’s the goodness of His promise. And so, God acts because He remembers His promise.

And then, thirdly, do you see it in verse 25? God sees our bondage. God saw the people of Israel. He saw what they were under, He saw their sufferings, He saw their persecution, He saw the condition that they were living in. He knew that they were slaves and He knew there was no way out, but He went to work.

And here’s the good news: God knows the way out! I love the way verse 25 ends, “…and God knew.” I don’t know what you’re going through today—but God does. There may be secrets that you know, that nobody else knows. God knows what you’re going through. There may be sin and habit patterns and shame and guilt. God knows. And God knows how you got into that mess, and God knows how to get you out! And so, it all starts with the people who cry out in Egypt.

Now we also know this is a story of Jesus. One of the interesting things that we learn in the New Testament about Jesus – do you remember when Jesus arrived on Planet Earth in the form of a baby? He was born in…what town? What town was that, that He was born in? Bethlehem. That was in the Promised Land, did you know that?

And yet, wicked King Herod—the Roman ruler at that time (who had lost his mind, he was so threatened and so afraid that somebody was going to take his throne), he heard that there was going to be a king of Israel born. And so what he did was, he declared that all of the Jewish children should be killed. That was a problem, because Jesus was a “Jewish children.”

And so, God, in the form of an angel, spoke to Jesus’ daddy (earthly daddy, Joseph) and said, “I want you to take baby Jesus out of Bethlehem, and I want you to take Him to Egypt.” And Matthew interprets that this way: He said the reason that happened is to fulfill the prophecy of Hosea 11:1, which says, “My son will be called out of Egypt.” The whole story of the gospel is “being called out of Egypt.”

And so we find here, there is a people enslaved in Egypt, and God is going to use His Son, that He calls out of Egypt, to call His people—His spiritual children—out of Egypt. And so, what I want you to understand is, God is calling us: “Get out of Egypt!” You’re not designed to live there, God never intended you to live there. You’re not intended to live under slavery; you are designed to be free and live in a Promised Land! And so, if you as a people will understand your burden, your bondage, your slavery and cry up in your groaning, God will call you out!

Number 2 point along the path is:

 

2. A judgment that passes over (12:21-23)

 

So, we’re going to kind of move quickly. Turn one page, two page. I’m moving over to Exodus 12 now. You say, “What’s in there?” Let me summarize it for you. God goes to work to try to get Pharaoh’s attention, and so He sends nine plagues on Egypt to try to get Pharaoh to be convinced, “I should let these people go!”

And, do you remember the plagues? He turned a river into blood, He sent them flies (anybody a big fan of flies—or their babies, maggots?—not a great thing to live with). He sends them gnats, He sends them frogs, He sends them locusts; all of the livestock dies. They have hail storms; they have darkness cover the land, and still Pharaoh hardens his heart—God hardens Pharaoh’s heart—and so together they’re both hardening their heart.

And so Pharaoh still won’t listen, and so God says this in Exodus 12, verse 12: “For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night. . .I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. . .on all the gods of Egypt [gods with little “g’s”] I will execute judgments.” Why? Because, “I am the Lord…”—“and I can do whatever I want to, and I am holy, and there is nobody holy in Egypt.”

Now, I want you to notice very specifically what it says in verse 12. He says, “I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt…” That’s a problem! Why? Because there were children of Israel living in Egypt! Do you see, in verse 12, God’s judgment was on every firstborn child? Israel and Egyptian. The judgment was coming. Every firstborn child had the judgment upon them.

Sometimes we get to thinking, there’s good guys and bad guys in the Bible. We got the good guys—the Israelites, and we got the bad guys—the Egyptians. Wrong! Everybody’s wearing a black hat in this story; there’s nothing but bad guys. God didn’t pass over Israel because they were better than the Egyptians. Everybody had the judgment on them! So, why did God not kill the firstborn of the Israelites? Verse 13: “The blood shall be a sign for you, [and] on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”

Where was that blood going to come from? Look down at verse 21: “Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go and select lambs for [yourself] according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb.” Verse 5 tells us that lamb was to be a one-year-old lamb; it was to be a lamb without spot, without blemish. It was to be a perfect lamb. And verse 22 says, “Take a bunch of hyssop…”

            Hyssop was a tree, and it had branches, and apparently it had some absorbing capacity, and so they were to take a hyssop branch. Why so detailed? Why couldn’t you use a sponge? Why couldn’t you just throw some blood up on the…? For some reason, He wanted a hyssop branch. “Take a…hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel…” A lintel is the top post of a door, in case you didn’t know. “…Touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until…morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your [house] to strike you.”

What’s going on here? It does not take a lot of creativity, it does not take a lot of imagination, to see something. We have blood on the lintel and we have blood on the left doorpost and we have blood on the right doorpost. What do you see? If some of this blood is dripping, what do you see? I see a cross! This was a thousand year before Roman execution was invented. And God is showing us, in the second book of the Bible, a preview of coming attractions, and He is showing us the path of the promise is through the blood. The only way any of them is getting through this alive is if judgment passes over because of the blood and they get out of slavery through the blood! It’s an incredible picture of Jesus Christ!

One day, John saw Jesus passing by, and he nudged his buddies and said, “See that guy right there? Behold the Lamb of God!” On the last night of Jesus’ life, do you know what He was doing? He was celebrating with His disciples the Passover meal, which required those guys to find a spotless lamb, drain its blood, roast the lamb and have the lamb for supper. That’s what they were doing the night before Jesus was killed. As a matter of fact, on the day that Jesus was killed, and He was on that cross—and a crown of thorns was placed upon His head, and blood was dripping from the top—and His hands were stretched out, and blood was coming out of His hands on the left side and the right side, John tells us something very interesting that a Roman soldier did.

A Roman soldier grabbed a hyssop branch (sound familiar?), and he dipped it in some wine and it was medicated, and he offered it to Jesus. Why the specificity of a hyssop branch? Why didn’t He just say “a sponge” or another tree? Why a hyssop branch? Because we see that in Exodus chapter 12. It’s a preview of what Jesus is going to do for each one of us as our Passover Lamb. And that’s exactly what the New Testament tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:7: “Christ [is] our Passover lamb [and He] has been sacrificed.”

John also tells us that, as Jesus died on that cross, none of His bones were broken. He bled a lot, but His bones weren’t broken – which was interesting, because the normal way that someone would die on a cross is, the Romans would come by and accelerate the execution by breaking the legs of that criminal so that he didn’t have the strength to raise up and breathe. He would die of suffocation because his legs were broken. That didn’t happen to Jesus, we’re told. Why not? Because of what it says in Exodus 12, verse 46. It says, “It shall be eaten…” This lamb shall be eaten “in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones.” God is showing us the story of the gospel in the story of the Passover!

I’m going to ask the ushers to come forward right now, and what we’re going to do right now is to illustrate what the story means for each one of us. And it’s something that is so important. We’re going to be passing down your aisle, these trays. The trays have a little bit of juice and a little piece of bread. It looks like one cup; when you pull it out, the bread’s in the bottom, the juice is in the top; you’ll find out it’s actually two cups. I want you to hold it there. But, listen, I only want you to take it if you are a Christian, and you are in covenant relationship with God. This is only for Christians. Just pass it by.

But I want to tell you the story of these elements. Why do we do this? This seems so weird, and what’s the story? And different churches do it different ways. Let me tell you the story. On the night before Jesus was killed, He was celebrating this Passover supper. And do you know what He had the audacity to do? This ceremony that was an annual holiday—it was something that was to commemorate the Passover that took place a thousand years earlier. One of the things that Jesus did was He annulled the Passover—and He replaced it with something else.

Jesus said, “Guys, I want you to stop remembering the blood of some lamb that was spilled a few years ago. I want you to stop remembering the slavery of the Egyptians. I want you to stop celebrating the people getting out of Egypt. There’s something else I want you to start remembering. There’s something new I want you to start. And this is what He said. At supper, while they’re celebrating the Passover meal, this is what He said. He held up some bread. It was unleavened bread, because that symbolized it had no “sin;” leaven was a picture of sin; the bread was to not have any “sin” because Jesus didn’t have any sin.

And He held this bread up and He said, “This is my body…” This little bread, this is My body “which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” He doesn’t tell them to remember something that had happened in the past; He says, “I want you to remember what’s about to happen to My body. My body is about to be given for you.” And then He said this (He held up a cup with juice; He said), “[The] cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant…” “The new promise, the new path out of slavery to freedom is through My blood—not the blood of a lamb—My blood.”

And, on the next day, do you know what happened? His body was nailed to the cross, and He says to us as a church, looking back on that event—“This is my body, which is [broken] for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And so we do this in remembrance of Christ. In the same way, He took the “cup that is poured out for you…” and He says, “This blood—it’s the new covenant, the new promise, the new way that slaves are set free!” And so, He says, “As often as you drink it…” understand, it is the blood of the new covenant. “Do [this]…in remembrance of me.”

            And in doing that, what we’re doing is understanding that we’re slaves. And the only way that we’re getting out of our spiritual slavery is through the blood of Jesus Christ! And that means the judgment has passed over!

Here’s the third point along the path. We see:

 

3. A warrior who gets in between (14:10-20)

 

So, I want you to turn a couple of pages; we’re in Exodus chapter 14 now, and God has brought the children of Israel, two million of them, out of slavery!

Now Pharaoh realizes, “Hey, um, I just lost my whole workforce! This is going to be devastating to the economy!” He changes his mind, and he starts chasing the children of Israel into the wilderness. We pick up the story in chapter 14, verse 10: “When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them…” But that didn’t bother them, because they’d seen God deliver them so powerfully through the blood of the lamb, and they had seen all these plagues that God had worked, miracles, to get them out of slavery, so they weren’t bothered by that all! Is that what your Bible says? Oh. That’s not what my Bible says either. This is what is does say: “The Egyptians were marching after them and they feared greatly…” Why? Do they somehow think God is going to leave them in the wilderness now, after He’d gotten them out of Egypt?

He said, “And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord.” That was a good first step, but then by the time they get to verse 11, they’re crying out to Moses, and they’re griping about their leader, Pastor Moses. “[And] they said to [Pastor] Moses, ‘Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us [out here] to die in the wilderness?’” “Moses, didn’t you see those pretty cemeteries in Egypt where all of our great-great-grandparents…We want to die in Egypt! We want…we want to be buried in those beautiful graves in Egypt!”

Really? “‘What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?’” Somehow, they thought Moses was doing something to them? Verse 12: “Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’?”—because we love how the Egyptians are treating us here! We’re having such a great time! It’s like a retreat in Egypt; it’s like a vacation destination here in Egypt—it’s so wonderful compared to where you’re leading us! I mean, we think it’s bad in Egypt. This is horrible out here in the wilderness!” And then they say, “For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” Does that sound like anybody you know?

Isn’t it crazy? God has gone to such great lengths to get them out of slavery, and yet they are still acting like slaves, thinking like slaves; they still have slave patterns in their thinking. Do you know what’s happened to these people? God has gotten them out of slavery, but He has yet to get the slavery out of them. And isn’t that just like us? We’ve been set free—we no longer have a slave master—and yet we still think we would be better off if we could just live like we used to live, think like we used to think. When we face some opposition in the Christian life—and somehow, we’re coming up short—and we think God has forsaken us, and “Where is God now? It must be the leader’s fault! The leader’s—the pastor’s—trying to do something to us!” No he’s not. He’s just trying to lead you in taking your next step of faith.

And yet, we turn around and somehow we still hear the voice of Pharaoh in our ear: “Get back here! It’s better back here! I’ll take care of you!” And, somehow, we want to look back, we want to turn back, we want to go back. Listen! We have to continue to turn our back on our former life and take steps of faith in trusting God.

So, Pastor Moses has a word for these people. We find it in verse 13. It’s a beautiful four-point sermon. And this is what he says: “And Moses said to the people, ‘Fear not, stand firm…see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you only [have] to be silent.’” Did you get the four-point message? “Fear not. Stand firm. Watch closely. And Shut up!” That’s the four-point message. At least that’s the way I would have preached if I was putting it together with Powerpoint, and alliteration.

And God says the same thing to us! “Why are you afraid? Why are you trying to devise an alternative plan? I don’t need your help. There is a path that I have created for you to be on—the path of promise. You just have to fear not, stand firm, watch closely, and shut up!” And you’re going to see the greatest thing you’ve ever seen before – a God who fights for you! By the way, only two kinds of people in the world: people for whom God is fighting for, and people that God is fighting against. And the question is, which side are you on? It’s not going to go well for you if you’re on the wrong side.

And so, in verse 19, we see the fight. He says, “Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved [I love serving a God that moves! He moved.] and [he] went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night…” God’s about to light them up!

This is such battle language here.  “…Lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.” You want a Warrior God? Do you see what God is doing? When we need direction, He moves in front of us. When we need protection, He moves behind us. Either way, we can’t lose! And He stands in between the enemy and me, and “the one doesn’t come near the other.”

And that’s exactly what Jesus did on the cross. On that cross, God got in between the judgment that I deserve and me. And He absorbed the attack of the enemy—sin and Satan. Jesus went to war on the cross! He got in between the judgment and me, and He fought! Verse 21 says, in this story, “Moses stretched out his hand over the sea…” And so they had pursued them to the edge of the Red Sea, and Moses stretched out his hand over the sea “…and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.” Listen! God didn’t just part the sea, He paved a road! It’s dry! It’s not even muddy; they didn’t get their sandals muddy; they didn’t have to take their shoes off when they got to the other side. It was dry land!

            Verse 22 says, “The people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground [and] the waters being a wall. . .on their right hand and [a wall] on their left [hand, and] the Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea [bad move!] [and] all [of] Pharaoh’s horses, [and] his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and [the] cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, ‘Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.’”

            “[And] the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water[s] may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.’ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters [turned] and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, [and] not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right [hand] and [a wall to them] on [the] left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord [because there wasn’t anybody left to fear!], and they believed in the Lord and [in] his servant Moses.” What happened? A Warrior God gets in between.

And then, finally, there is:

 

4. A point to cross through [14:21-31]

 

There’s a point to cross through. And what we see is that every story of the Bible tells us there is point of decision for us to make. If you want the rescue, all you have to do is take the step of faith. The question is, “Which side are you on?”

The story’s real clear: Through Jesus, God gets us out of our slavery—through the blood—and brings us to a crossing point. My question to you is, “Have you crossed over?” Are you absolutely certain that you are on the right side of salvation? You are either on the side of death—where the Egyptians ended up—or you are on the side of life, and God has parted the waters of judgment.

There is a wall on the left of judgment that God’s holding back with this hand; there is a wall of judgment on this side that God’s holding back with this hand (interestingly, Jesus had two hands nailed to the cross)—and the way through to the other side is dependent on whether or not you’re going to take a step of faith!

Now, I can imagine there being two groups of people here, in Israel, as they’re standing there and they’re looking at the wall of water on the right and the wall of water on the left. Some of them were probably extroverts, saying, “Go, God!”—and they probably walked through backwards just so they could mock and taunt the Egyptians on the other side because they had such confidence that God was making this way! Some of you would have done that…looked like an NFL football player strutting out the pregame introductions, doing a little dance!

Others of you are like, “Ah, I’m not so sure. . .ah, that’s a pretty tall wall of water on that side, and we’ve got another one over here. And, how long’s that gonna last? And I’m not quite sure. I mean, I don’t know, I don’t know how long, I don’t know how many steps I have to take to get to the other side, but it looks like a long way! What if I get half-way through and this wall comes crashing in, and that…”

Listen, whether you are the extrovert that has great faith or the introvert that’s kind of timid and you’ve just got an itty-bitty little bit—do you understand that both were saved and got to the other side? Because salvation is not dependent on the size or the greatness of your faith. Salvation is dependent on the object of your faith. It is something God does. You just have to believe that what He has done is made the path to the promise available to you. But you have to step in; you have to come to the crossing point. The question is, “Which side are you on?” Becoming a Christian is not a passive process. It involves a decision, a place and a time which you exercise faith and cross over.

Some of you’ve been coming to this church; some of you were raised in church; some of you are kind of in and out of church; some of you are kind of a roller-coaster-faith-person. Listen, the question is, “Have you crossed over—at a place, at a time—so that you have escaped the slavery and the judgment that’s on this side, to experience the promise and the grace and the life that’s on this side? There is a point that you must cross over.

May I ask you to bow your heads? For many of you, you can identify the place that you took a step of faith and you have confidence that judgment has been passed over because of the blood. But some of you are, you’re still acting like a slave! You’re still thinking, “It’d be better off if I could. . .if I could indulge my flesh, if I could go back to being the way I was, if I could enjoy the things I once repented of.” And some of you are still acting like a slave. Listen, turn your back on that stuff and start acting like the person that God has called you to be. “[It was] for freedom [that] Christ has set us free.” God never wants you to be the subject of bondage again!

Others of you, if the truth was known, you’ve never identified a point at which you have crossed over. There is a time and a place. You’ve got to make a decision. Either you will cross or you will wait and be judged. If today you have never, by faith, taken the path that God has provided, I want to invite you to take that step. And take another step. And another step. Every day of your life is a day you will be required to take a step of faith, to keep moving. God will give you His direction by moving in front of you; He will give you protection by moving behind you. But He’s going to require you to cross—every day—by taking a step of faith.

Don’t doubt God! Don’t try to create a different path; don’t be content being a slave. And if, today, you would say, “I don’t know if I’ve ever crossed over,” I want to invite you, right now, to cross over. And tell the Lord—right now—say, “Lord, I realize, I have been enslaved to sin. I’m born into slavery—I don’t even know anything different! No wonder I’m groaning! No wonder I’m so dissatisfied. And I don’t want to live in this land anymore; I don’t want to live the way I’ve been living. God, I want You to get me out. Thank you for the blood that was shed on that cross, in my place, as a sacrificial Lamb for my sin. And right now, God, I choose to cross over by faith. Thank You for making a way out!”