That won't be a message you'll hear too often for me to tell you to stop praying. But that's what we're going to find here. Tonight, the Lord told Moses to march, to go forward. And we're going to see that it was a dependency upon God's promises that God is calling the children of Israel to. So let's look at this chapter 14 tonight and see how God led the children of Israel through the Red Sea. And it was by faith that they did so. It was not by their hand that they escaped, but by faith in God's promises they passed through this Red Sea. Well, so what happens here at the beginning is in verse 1 and 2 that they went and they were up against the Red Sea and they were camped by the sea. We really don't know where these cities are that you find in verse 2, but they were sort of pinned in. They were up against the Red Sea and Pharaoh is going to look in verse 3 and it says, for Pharaoh will say to the children of Israel, they are entangled in the land and the wilderness that shut them in. So he said, they made a tactical error. And he's still, at this point, Pharaoh is glad that they're gone. Remember, that's what he said, just leave and just get out of here. He just wants you gone. Well, now he's watching what they're doing, and they didn't go up by the Mediterranean Sea like he would have suspected them to do. Well, they went the wrong way. And he's thinking, well, they just went down into the wilderness. That's a pretty dumb mistake for Moses to make. And now they go camp on that border of the Red Sea, and that was just too much for Pharaoh to overlook. He just said, I'm going to have to go after them. They've walked right into a trap. And it would be crazy for me not to go after them. Well, verse 4 tells us really why it happened. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart that he shall follow after them. And I will be honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. So here we see God's purpose in this. God's purpose is that he would be honored in Pharaoh's destruction, that God is going to be honored upon Pharaoh, and God is going to be honored upon his whole army, and that the Egyptians, those that remain, and even those who perish, will know that Jehovah is God. When this all is said and done, they will confess. They won't believe, they won't trust in Him, but they're all going to confess Jehovah is God. For even at this late point, after 10 plagues, after the loss of their firstborn, the loss of their property, loss of their financial resources, they have been broken. At this point, Pharaoh still has that rebellious heart. And so God ordained this circumstance. He has led the children of Israel into what looks like a trap. And by that, Pharaoh sees that, and that's how God hardened his heart in this circumstance. He shows them, the children of Israel, in a tight spot, and God hardens his heart, and then Pharaoh just, he can't let it pass. He has such a hatred for God, and for God's people. He's gonna go and he's gonna pursue Israel one last time. So that's God's purpose. He's gonna receive glory, and the whole world is going to confess that He is God. We find that in the New Testament where Christ, where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. There will come a day where all men, women, boys and girls will bow their knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Now they won't do that in a saving way. I confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father right now. And I believe that and I confess that. There's a lot of people that won't, that they will not confess that Jesus is Lord. Jesus is not Lord in my life. Jesus is not Lord. He's not King. I don't care what Jesus has to say. One day they will. And one day God, the King of Kings, will make them back and they will confess. They will be judged for their sins, but they will confess. They will admit, they will be humbled by the King. Well, God said, this is what's gonna happen in Egypt. They will confess that Jehovah is God. And in their dying moments, even if that's when it is, they will admit. All Egypt will know that God, the Lord is God. Well, that's God's purpose. Verse five, we have the regret of Pharaoh. And it was told to the king of Egypt that the people fled and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people. And they said, why have we done this? That we have let Israel go from serving us. We have regret here. I've been studying regret. Lord willing, I'll be preaching about that sometime here in the near future, but he had a lot of regret. Looking back on his life, he's looking back on the situation and wished that he hadn't have done it. He wished that things were different, which is basically what regret is, which you go back in time and change things. And he looks and he regrets. Why did we do that? They were our slaves. I let Moses beat me. I let Israel beat me. I've got the army. I've got the finances. I'm Pharaoh. They were in my country. They were my slaves. Why did I do that? Why did I bow down to Moses as God? Why did I let our slaves go? Not only is our economy busted, we have to rebuild, but we don't have any slaves to do it now. And he looked and he saw the death and destruction and he blames Moses. He blames Israel for that. He hates Jehovah and they're gone and it's just eating him alive. He can't stand it. Why have we done this? Why have we let him go? Verses six through nine, it says he took and made his chariot and took his people with him. He took 600 chosen chariots and all the chariots of Egypt, and the captains over every one of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel. And the children of Israel went out with a high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them, and camping by the sea, besides Piharairath, and before Baal Zaphon." So he took 600 chariots, which may not mean too much to us, but that was like the Black Hawk helicopters of the ancient world, but that was the main military weapon of choice. And 600 chariots would have been an intimidating thing to have seen, to look up and, well, you'd heard them first, all the horses, Some of them had two horses per chariot, and some had more than that. And you hear all the horses rumbling, the wheels of the chariots coming, and you see the look up, and there would be the glistening of the paint or the gold on those chariots, the smoke rising up from the wheels, the dust and the air and so forth rising up. I've been scared, intimidated to see such a thing, especially if you was on foot. We went to an air show one time in Jacksonville, and there was a F-22 Raptor there. And the announcer was telling us that as that jet was getting ready to take off, it was going to do a flyby. And he told us to hold our fingers over our ears because it's going to be that loud. And he said that's what they would do sometimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. They'd fly these F-22 Raptors, just fly them over the city, do a flyby real low. And it would, just flying the jets over the city would intimidate people, intimidate the combatants before they sent in the infantry. But because it had so much power and so much force, when they did the flyby over us, you could literally feel the vibrations in your body. I mean, you say that you can feel it in your bones. You literally could feel that in your body. The vibrations just go through you. It was so loud. It was an awesome display of power. And I couldn't imagine being in your house and you hear that thing going overhead and know that the enemy's coming. Well, that's what it had been like. The top military machines on earth fast efficient deadly 600 strong with with the best military leaders on earth Now God told in Deuteronomy 17 and 20 God told Israel later on that they were not to have chariots because these were the the main source of military might some trust in chariots some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. That they were not to rely on human invention to protect them. And Solomon was the one that brought them in. Once Solomon started marrying the Egyptian women and marrying the ungodly women, the Jews started adopting their ways of doing things. But God told Israel they shouldn't have those chariots because they were to trust in Him. They were, like I said, the main military weapon. When Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. And they were sore afraid, and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And they said unto Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us to die out here in the wilderness? To die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. Now I said all that about the chariots, just so we could Kind of have a little bit of sympathy for the people of Israel. Because it wasn't that they looked up and they saw five or six people walking towards them. It said they saw Egypt marching. So that means that they had the chariots and they had the army with them. And this is what they saw. They saw this big army coming straight towards them. And they turned around and there's the sea right behind them. They were pinned in. What were they going to do? These were not fighting people. Were they going to hit them with their walking sticks, I guess? I mean, that's all they had. There was no way they was going to be able to defeat this enemy. They had no weapons. They had no training. And they were up against the best soldiers on Earth. Imagine that, having these people barreling down on you. What were they going to do? Now, I'm not making excuses for them because they were faithless. But at the same time, they were looking at the situation, and it was hopeless. They couldn't run because they were pinned in. On three sides, you had water around them. They couldn't go through the water or around the water. And then the only route of escape is the way that the Egyptians were coming. So they were trapped. It was hopeless. And when they got to this hopeless situation, They started to regret. Pharaoh regretted letting Israel go. Now Israel is regretting leaving. They regretted listening to Moses. They regretted even listening to God. Their heart was filled full of regret and they said, well I just wish we would have stayed back in Egypt. We had it better off in Egypt than we do now. Why did we listen to you? Then they start getting smart with Moses. Why did you bring us out here? There wasn't enough graves in Egypt? You're just going to take us out to kill us in the wilderness? Is this not the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? They may have said that, but you don't find that in the word of God. You also find where they cried out to God for the Lord to save them. You do find that where they cried, Lord help us, Lord save us, Lord deliver us. People cried out, and God sent Moses, and now they're saying, we told you all along we didn't want to go, but we listened to you. We should have not listened to you. We told you it was better for us to stay, but you wouldn't listen to us, Moses. This is all your fault. We should have never listened to you. Then they started to rewrite history. It was a whole lot better off back in Egypt. Now, we know what it was like in Egypt for them. They knew what it was like. But because they're in a bad situation now, they're looking back on their past with rose-colored glasses. And I think we need to recognize that we can do that in our lives. Whenever things start going bad, we start to murmur and complain about where the Lord has us in our life. And we look back and say, it was a lot better off the way it used to be. I wish the Lord hadn't dealt with me so roughly. It was a lot better off the way it used to be. I've done that. I've had jobs that I despised and wanted a different job more than anything. I got one and it was just as bad as the one I'd left. I was sitting there and thought, I wish I would have kept that other job. It was a lot better than this one. It wasn't any better. It was just the way that, I think it's just the way that we are. We can't be content with where God has us. And the future is unknown, so we think whatever is going to come around the corner is going to be better. And then the past, we'll look back upon that and we'll say, well, I was happy back then. I was content back then. I wish it was more like that. That's just not the way that it is. It's usually that we're just not content anywhere. and we would rather be anywhere. Well, that's the way Israel is. They were not content anywhere. They were not content being saved out of Egypt. They weren't content in Egypt. Well, fine, they won't be content as God is leading them to the promised land. No matter where they're at, it's the worst place they've ever been. They had no joy in Christ. They had no joy in the Lord. They had no faith in God's promises. And wherever they were, they were going to complain about it. They were lying to themselves. That's another problem that you have when you look back and you're not content because you're lying to yourself. They weren't better off in Egypt. They were being killed in Egypt. This all started when Pharaoh was killing their baby boys. There's an order that having a baby boy was a death sentence. And now God is delivering them out of their hands and giving them their freedom. And they're saying, boy, we was a lot better off back in Egypt. Yeah, I guess unless you were a baby boy, you was better off. They were whipping them, beating them, plaguing them. It was terrible. A terrible situation, so much so that they were crying out to God for God to deliver them. But they were saying, boy, I was better off. Well, God has shown himself strong to Israel. God has shown himself strong in the plagues. He supernaturally led them out of Egypt. But now at the first sign of trouble, they're showing regret. Boy, I wish it wasn't like this. Take care that you don't cry out to God in anger when things don't go the way that we want them to go. I've moved around a lot in my life, different places, and I've had that, I've done that, to think, well, the last house was better than this house, or we need to move to another house, because it'll be better than this one, or whatever it is. I could be murmuring and complaining that things didn't go exactly the way that I want them to go. But all this stuff happened so we can learn from Israel, so we can learn from their mistakes. So yes, they were in a rough spot right now. And they should have been afraid, but they shouldn't have been blaming God and blaming Moses and getting mad at Moses and rewriting history and looking at everything the wrong way. I mean, it would have been fine if they had said, Moses, pray for us, Lord, save us. You know, anything like that, that'd been fine. It'd been good to be afraid and to cry out to God, but first thing out of their mouth was complaining and murmuring. In verse 13, Moses said, unto the people feared Enoch, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today. For the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them no more forever. the Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace. So Moses didn't, you know, Moses is an amazing person. And, um, how many of us would have said, you, you're just being ungrateful. You were just complaining just a couple of days ago about how bad it was in Egypt. And now, You're complaining to me and blaming me for all this. He didn't say that. Moses amazes me because his care is always for the people of God. He loses his temper and he prays. and he gets angry at them, and you'll see that, but it's just amazing how Moses dealt his concerns with the people of God. Not to prove himself right, he didn't start defending himself. They accused Moses here, but he didn't start defending himself. He cared for the people, and he said, fear not. Don't be afraid. He knew their hearts, and he knew, I believe he knew why they were lashing out, And he just says, fear not, stand still, be quiet, and see the salvation of the Lord. He's gonna bring them into peace by pointing them to God. A.W. Pink wrote, fear not is one of the great words throughout all scripture. Fear not to what God said to Abraham in Genesis 15. Fear not, neither be thou dismayed was his message to Joshua in Joshua 8. Fear not was his command to Gideon in Judges 16. Fear not was his David's counsel to Solomon in 1 Chronicles 28. The word to the Jewish remnant in the day to come, be strong, fear not, behold your God will come, Isaiah 35. Fear not with the angels, counsel the Daniel. Fear not, little flock, is the message to us, the church, and Luke. I will fear no evil, the psalmist said in Psalm 23. Does not Isaiah 26.3 sum it all up? That will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind has stayed in me, because he trusteth in me. Fear not. is the word that God has for his people continually. Fear not. Why? Because we get afraid and there are situations where we tremble. Sickness comes, we get afraid. Trouble comes maybe in the church and you get afraid. You have to go and talk to somebody you don't want to talk to and you get afraid. What is God's word? Fear not. What was the word to Timothy as he feared persecution in 2 Timothy? Don't be afraid. Be strong in the Lord. So that was Moses' word to the people here. Fear you not. Why? Not because you're strong, not because Moses has a plan. It was fear not and see God's salvation at hand. He tells them to quiet stand still, quiet their souls, quiet their hearts, and look to God. And that is good for us whenever we are upset and worried and afraid, to fear not, to seal our hearts, calm our hearts down, and look to the Lord. When we see the truth of our sin and the truth of God's holiness, we tremble. But in the Gospel, Christ tells us not to fear and to trust Him. In Christ, we don't need to fear death because He defeated death. In Christ, we don't need to fear hell because He paved our sin debt. In Christ, we don't need to fear this world because He overcame it. In Christ, we don't need to fear our circumstances because He controls them. We have no reason to fear. So, this promise goes for us. Fear not, and see the salvation of the Lord. The Lord shall fight with you. He will win the battle. The Lord will have victory in our lives. A lot of people talk about having victory, and this is how you can have victory in your life over this sin and that sin, and they give you five steps to defeat this sin and have victory and so forth. Well, you're not gonna have victory in your life unless it is by God's grace. If the Lord doesn't fight our battles with us, if we don't go and mortify sin in the power of the Lord, then we're not gonna have victory. We won't have victory over temptation if we just try to be stoic or try some worldly measures. We have to have the Lord on our side. The Lord will fight for us. Hold your peace, he tells them. Stop complaining, stop murmuring, stop rebelling, be still, stand still. See, when we come to the point where we have nothing that we can do in the flesh, that's when we have to stand still and see the Lord's victory. Moses couldn't do anything. Moses didn't have a plan. He didn't know what was gonna happen. Moses didn't know any more than the children of Israel knew what was about to happen. The difference here is Moses had faith that God was going to deliver them. That's how Moses seems so calm when Pharaoh and his army is marching right towards them and they're pinned against the sea and Moses is just a picture of tranquility because he's trusting in God. The people have lost their minds, they're frantic, they're worried, they're overcome. Why? Because they're not trusting in the Lord. They're afraid. And they're saying, we can't do anything. There's nothing we can do. Therefore, we are going to be overcome. And Moses said, we can't do anything. There's nothing that we can do. God is on our side. We want to trust in him. And that's his grace, isn't it? That we don't strive for our own salvation and sin and death is the enemy that we can't overcome. We're trapped in and hemmed in by our own sins and devices. Our only hope is trusting in the Lord for salvation. That's the way a sinner is. He's pinned in against his own sin. He's trapped by his own sin. There's nowhere he can go. There's no escape. There's no deliverance. And you can either die in that wretched spot or look to the only one who can save. And had they not cried out unto the Lord, had the Lord not saved them, they would have surely died. So in verse 15, we get to the place where we stop praying and start moving. And the Lord said unto Moses, wherefore cryest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward. We don't go forward until we've stood still and trusted in the Lord. But once we've trusted in the Lord, the action, the call to action is forward. Not retreat, not to to run away and hide, but forward. Forward in the Lord's work. Forward in sanctification. Forward in knowledge and grace of the Lord. Forward in the work of prayer. Forward in all the call of God in our lives. Forward. The Lord said, why are you crying to me? Tell the children of Israel to march. Now, why would God say this? Why would God say, stop crying out to me? The whole thrust of the Bible is that we pray, we pray, we pray. And why would God tell Moses to stop crying out to God and just go? Well, there comes a point in time where we do need to stop praying about God's direction and start moving in the directions He's told us to go. There are some things that we don't need to pray about. Certainly we can pray for God's help. We must pray for God's blessing. But we don't need to pray for God's guidance in some things. We just need to do what God said. We shouldn't wake up in the morning and get down on our knees and say, Lord, will you reveal to me if it's your will if I go to church this morning? We don't need to pray about that. Could you imagine walking around And Sunday, well, should I go to church or should I not go? I just don't know. I don't know what the Lord would have me do. Maybe the Lord wants me to sit at home and not go this morning. I just don't know. And marching back, Lord, will you show me? You don't need to pray about that. See, that's the kind of situation they were in. The command, it's time to move. They don't have to say, Lord, what should we do? Lord, which way should we go? Now it's time to go. We don't have to pray about whether we should stop sinning. Sometimes people have issues they want God to guide them in their life. Are you seeking guidance on whether you should do something sinful or not? You don't pray about whether you should stop sinning. Should I stop robbing from my employer? Lord, would you give me guidance if I should stop robbing or stealing money from my employer? You don't pray about that. You stop doing it. Lord, should I tithe? Should I give, like you said? Lord, should I love my spouse? Will you give me guidance on whether I should or not? You can pray, Lord, help me to be a cheerful giver. Lord, help me go to the house of God with joy. Lord, give me strength to stop sinning. Lord, help me to love my spouse more. But Moses didn't need to pray, Lord, what should we do? Because now he just needs to go. He needs to obey. No, I didn't have to pray to see if God wanted me to preach tonight. I prayed about the sermon. I prayed about the message. I prayed as I studied. But I didn't have to pray whether or not God wanted me to or not. You know how I know? Because you called me to be your pastor. We have a church service here to which the word of God is expounded. I knew what I was supposed to do. I didn't have to sit at home, walking back and forth, praying whether I should do it or not. I need to pray that God would help me and strengthen me, empower me, bless me, give me boldness, but I don't need to pray whether I ought to do it or not. So don't succumb to spiritual paralysis and be stuck in indecision about things that God has commanded you to do. Has God given you a command? Has God given you something that you need to do? Whether it is help someone, pray for somebody, witness to somebody, spread the gospel to somebody. Well, these are things that God has told us to do. We just have to march at this point, forward, onward, and pray for God's blessing in the work. I think there's more problems of having a paralysis in our spiritual life than there is being too presumptuous. I would say if you looked at the children of God as a whole, I would say the problem is not being presumptuous and doing too much, but it's probably the paralysis and just not doing anything. So God says, stop praying, start marching forward. We have our orders. We have our commission. We have what God has called us to do now. March, go and pray that the Lord would bless our movement. So it's not that we don't pray for God's blessing, but some things you don't have to pray about whether God wants you to do it or not. If God has told you to do it, then go. Verse 16, but if thou lift up thy rod and stretch out thy hand over the sea and divide it, and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea, and I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them, and I will get me honor upon Pharaoh and upon all his host, upon his chariots, upon his horsemen, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten me honor upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, upon his horsemen. So here's the plan. God says he's gonna open up the sea. You're going to walk on dry ground across the sea. He said, I've already told you that I'm going to be glorified. And everybody is going to know that I'm the Lord. I'm going to be glorified. I'm going to harden the hearts of Pharaoh. And not only that, I'm going to harden the hearts of this nation and this army. And they're going to pursue you, but I'm going to get glory out of out of their wickedness. Verse 19, and the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud went from before their face and stood behind them. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and there was a cloud and a darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these, so that the one came not near the other all the night. Now the angel of the Lord, I believe is a pre-incarnate Christ, that this is the Son of God. We see back in chapter 13 and verse 21, it said, and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way and by night in the pillar of fire to give them the light to go by day and night. And then here in verse 19, it is the angel of God that had went before them and behind them in the pillar of cloud. Well, which is it? Well, this angel of God, remember angel just means messenger, and this angel of God, I believe the second person of the Trinity, was there with them. He led them. He led them to this place. Remember, everywhere they went, they went because the pillar of the cloud and the fire either led them or lit the way. God led him to this place, which is why Moses wasn't afraid. God was with him. He knew he was with him. He could see God, or he could see the cloud, God's presence. Well, now the angel of the Lord goes behind them. Now he stands between them and their enemy. Now he is their protector. He is their shield. He is their defender. He is their strong tower. And now, if God is for them, who can be against them? See, the Lord brought them to this place, didn't tell them what was going to happen. He brings the Egyptians to the place, and He waits until they can see them, until they're looking at one another, before the Lord goes and blocks and stands in between them. It wasn't that God was waiting for them to do something, but He was strengthening and testing and proving their faith. And we have to live by faith knowing that God is with us. That our life is not going to be smooth. There's going to be bumps in the road, but we have to trust that our Lord is with us. He is our shield and our protector. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing will. Tribulation won't. Stress won't. Persecution won't. Famine won't. Nakedness won't. Poverty won't. Being in danger won't. The sword won't. There's nothing in life or death or angels or principalities. Things in the earth or under the earth or over the earth. There's nothing in the depth. No creature. Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. The mighty armies of the Egyptians could not separate them from the love of God. There is nothing for us in Christ Jesus that can separate us from the love of God. Death won't. We can't die and be separated from God because we'll go be with Him. Sickness can't separate us. The inability to serve Him like we ought to won't separate us. If we get old and sick and we can't serve the Lord, that's not going to separate you from the love of God. Persecution won't. Poverty won't. If you lost everything that you owned and have to go live down under the bridge, that's not going to separate you from the love of God. There's nothing that we need to fear. We also find here that as the cloud moved, it brought darkness to the Egyptians, but light to Israel. The cloud was darkness to the enemy, but gave light in the night to the children of Israel. This is light for us, this is hope for you and me, if we know Christ, to know that we are in Him and our sins are forgiven. But that's darkness to the world, that doesn't help the world any. Do you think that gives anybody any comfort in the world to know that Christ Jesus died for sins?