When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed towards the people. And they said, what is this we have done that we have let Israel go from serving us? So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him and took 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them, and camped at the sea by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zaphon. When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, They said to Moses, "'Is it because there are no graves in Egypt "'that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? "'What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? "'Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, "'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? "'For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians "'than to die in the wilderness.' And Moses said to the people, Fear not, stand firm and 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 have only to be silent. The Lord said to Moses, "'Why do you cry to me? "'Tell the people of Israel to go forward. "'Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand "'over the sea and divide it, "'that the people of Israel may go through the sea "'on dry ground.' And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, so that they shall go in after them. And I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen. Then the angel of God, who was going before the host of Israel, moved and 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, without one coming near the other all night. Then 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. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch, the Lord, in the pillar of fire and of 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. Then the Lord said to Moses, "'Stretch out your hand over the sea, "'that the water 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 returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen. of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, 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 on their 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, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. What a story. Let's read now from the New Testament, two passages which refer or allude back to that story. and apply it to what Christ has done for Christians through the cross. First of all, Colossians chapter one. Colossians one, we'll read the verses 11 to 14, and it's especially verse 13 and 14 where we see echoes or hear echoes of the exodus. Colossians 1, beginning at verse 11. May you be strengthened with all power according to God's glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And then please turn with me to Titus chapter two. Titus 2, verses 11 to 14. And here again, in verse 14, we have that word redeem, which refers back to the exodus. So Titus 2, verse 11 through 14. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us. from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. So far from God's word. Beloved in Jesus Christ, when a sinner comes to acknowledge God's only son as his or her Lord, this is a bigger deal than you might realize. Because it means that something major has happened in this person's life, a radical transformation of the heart, which scripture compares even to the resurrection of the dead. In the words of the Apostle Paul in Colossians 1, verse 13, the person who acknowledges Jesus as his or her Lord has, in fact, been transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God's only beloved Son. There's been a transfer and there's been a transformation in the person who confesses Jesus as Lord. One word the Bible uses for this transfer and transformation is redemption. And so, this is what we'll consider together in our sermon this afternoon, in connection with Lord's Day 13 of the Heideberg Catechism, and in connection with the Christians' confession of faith in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, as our Lord, in the Apostles' Creed. So, let's think about what God's Word teaches us on this topic under two main questions this afternoon. First, how has God's Son become our Lord? How has God's Son become our Lord? And second, what difference does it make? According to God's Word, none of us acknowledges Jesus as our Lord by nature. And that's where we need to begin this afternoon. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 3 says, no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Why do you think that is? Why is it impossible for us to say Jesus is Lord, and mean what we say, without the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts? Because by nature, we are unable and unwilling to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. We might acknowledge him as a Lord, but we won't acknowledge him as the Lord until he becomes our Lord. Let me repeat that in case you missed it. You won't acknowledge Jesus as the Lord, the one and only, until he becomes your Lord. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Let me put it in a different way. Let me put it this way. You and I have a problem when it comes to acknowledging God and Him alone as Lord. Are you familiar with this problem? It's rooted in your heart. Its name is sin. And it leads you to acknowledge all kinds of created things as lords instead of, or in addition to the only true God, the creator of heaven and earth. Maybe for you it's money, or the things that money can buy, or the approval and acceptance of other people. Or maybe it's comfort and pleasure. There's all kinds of things in our lives that compete for the loyalty of our hearts and make us slaves to sin and Satan, instead of servants to the Lord. Do you recognize that about your own heart? Are you familiar with this problem of slavery to sin? God's Word pictures this problem with the slavery of the Israelites in Egypt. Do you remember how the Israelites were slaves in Egypt? How they served the Egyptians with hard labor? How the Egyptians made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in all kinds of work in the field? How in all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves? Does this not mirror your own experience of service to sin? And to other lords? Well, this was the Israelites' situation in Egypt when the Lord took action to redeem them. The people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God, and God became their Lord by redeeming them. As he said to them at Mount Sinai, I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Therefore, you shall have no other gods or lords besides me. So God redeemed the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt in order that they might serve him and him alone as the Lord, the Redeemer. But as you may remember from how the story continues, there was actually an even greater redemption that needed to happen before that was going to happen. Before they were going to serve the Lord alone as God. You see, although they had been redeemed from their slavery in Egypt, they were not yet delivered from their slavery to sin. Idolatry was still alive and well in their hearts, as you can read about again and again and again in the history of the Israelites, starting almost right from the beginning with a golden calf right at the foot of Mount Sinai, where they had just met the Lord in the fire and the cloud and the smoke. And then, finally, As this happened again and again that they turned to other lords, in the end, they found themselves in captivity again and in need of a new exodus. You see, the Israelites were captured by foreign armies and carried off in exile to foreign lands where they became slaves of foreign lords. And this was just a picture of their actual spiritual condition as slaves and captives to sin and Satan. The condition of all people by nature. This is our condition by nature. And it's why we need to be redeemed spiritually before we will acknowledge Jesus as Lord. The only Lord over our hearts and lives. So how does this happen, this spiritual redemption? Well, we've considered the problem, now what's the solution? Even though the Israelites' redemption from Egypt was only a picture of the redemption that we need, it's still a very good picture, the best picture that perhaps that the Bible provides us with. Israel's exodus experience is an amazingly dramatic event that captures the imagination of young and old. Such an amazing story, and I'm sure you were reminded as we read from it together. And it's not just based on a true story, it is a true story. And yet it's part of an even greater story that climaxes with the cross and resurrection of God's only son, Jesus. And it's through the death and resurrection of Jesus that the exodus of exoduses has been accomplished. The exodus from the domain of death and sin and Satan, and the entrance into the kingdom of life and righteousness under the blessing of God. You know the story of the exodus. how the Lord delivered the children of Israel from the domain of Egyptian darkness and transferred them by way of a journey through the wilderness into that pleasant land where he then set up his kingdom and his temple under David, the man after God's own heart, and his son Solomon, whom he named Jedidiah, which means beloved of the Lord. Well, this was all a foreshadowing of what God has done for believers through his beloved son, Jesus. He has delivered us from the dark domain of the devil and transferred us into the kingdom where his beloved son is Lord. And how has he done this? By sending his only son into the world to lay down his life as a ransom for us on the cross. As a ransom. We've seen from the story of Israel's exodus that redemption has to do with rescue. That's the main idea of redemption in the Bible. But what we haven't mentioned yet is that redemption also involves a cost that must be paid, a ransom price, a redemption price. And this, too, was involved in the redemption of our souls from slavery to sin and from the penalty of God's judgment. God taught the people of Israel this necessity through the Passover and the other sacrifices of the Old Covenant, which foreshadowed the final and perfect sacrifice of Christ. He taught them that blood must be shed as the ransom price for their lives, for the forgiveness of their sins. He gave them priests who offered up animal sacrifices every day to teach them that every day they owed their lives to the one who redeemed them. These sacrifices of animals, bulls and goats and lambs and turtle doves, These were just pictures of what really had to happen before the life of even one sinner could be redeemed from the judgment of God, from the curse of the law, which is eternal death. The blood of goats or the life of an animal is no payment for sin, no substitute for the life of a human. Neither can a human who is himself a sinner pay for the sins of others. but God has done what the sacrifices of the old covenant could not do by sending his only son to take on human flesh and blood, to live a perfectly righteous human life, and then to offer up that life as a perfect sacrifice, an immeasurably costly ransom price in the shedding of his blood on the cross. This was the price of redemption from sin and its condemnation that Jesus paid so that we might no longer live for ourselves, but for Him, that we might acknowledge Him as the Lord, our Redeemer. As the Apostle Peter writes, you were ransomed with the precious blood of Christ. Therefore, the apostle Paul says, you are not your own, but for you were bought with a price. So glorify God. In other words, you are no longer a slave to sin because you have been redeemed, bought back with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And he is your new master, your new Lord. This is our answer to our first question, how has God's Son become our Lord? He has redeemed us, body and soul, from all our sins, and that not with silver or gold, but with his precious blood, and has freed us from all the power of the devil to make us his own possession. This is why we are not our own, but belong with body and soul to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, because he has fully paid for all our sins with his precious blood and set us free from all the power of the devil. Because Jesus is our Savior, who's redeemed us from sin and slavery to other lords, because he's our great God and Savior, we call him our Lord. And what difference does this make that Jesus is our Lord? Let's consider that now under our second point. What difference does it make? When I opened the sermon, I mentioned that when we are redeemed by Christ, we're not only transferred, but we're transformed as well. And so far, we've focused on the transfer aspect of our redemption that we find in a passage like Colossians 1, verse 13. In Christ, God has transferred us from one kingdom to another, from one domain of ownership to another, from one Lord to another. Jesus is now our Lord by right. We belong to him by purchase. There's been a transfer of status, of ownership rights. And it all looks good on paper. And it is good. Very good. But it still needs to become a reality in practice. in our hearts and lives. And this is where the transformation comes in, as the grace of God teaches us, and the Holy Spirit enable us to say no to false lords and to say yes to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul's words in Titus chapter 2, verse 11 to 14 are all about. He speaks of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us. That's a reference to his sacrificial death on the cross as our substitute. Christ's work of redeeming us from sin and its punishment. And then the apostle goes on to connect our redemption, not just with the transfer of status, but with the transformation of heart and life. Says Paul, Christ gave himself for us on the cross, not so that we might go on sinning, that grace may abound. That's not what he says, but he says, to redeem us from all lawlessness, or loose living, and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Do you recognize what the apostle is saying here? He's saying that his purpose in redeeming you and paying the costly price of his precious blood for your freedom, his goal was not to just give you a get-out-of-hell-free card, like a get-out-of-jail-free card in Monopoly, so that you can live your life however you want because you're saved anyway. In fact, if this is your attitude towards sin, it begs the question whether you are saved, whether you're a true believer, indeed. Because Christ's goal in giving up His life for your redemption was that your life might be transformed from the inside out, that you might be free indeed from slavery to sin, and free to do as you ought, as a servant of righteousness, as a faithful servant of the Lord. This is what Paul writes about in the previous verses in his letter to Titus. He speaks of the grace of God training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. And he speaks of God's grace also training us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. In other words, the grace of God in Christ, redeeming grace, it teaches us to say no to sin and to say yes to Jesus as our Lord, not only in theory, but in practice, not only in words, but in action. Redeeming grace is transforming grace. And so what difference does it make when we confess with word and deed that Jesus, God's only son, is our Lord? It makes all the difference indeed. Because it means that something truly life-changing has happened to us. The resurrection of our souls from death to life. because no one confesses that Jesus is the Lord except by the Holy Spirit, and we don't acknowledge him as the Lord until we know and experience him to be our Lord, until the day comes when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen. Let's now sing in response, hymn three, stanza three.