We're winding down this little mini series on times in which we live. And what we find is that the word of God is timeless. It's always applicable no matter what we're going through. And let's go to the throne of grace and make sure that we're walking as we ought. We're commanded throughout the New Testament and really the Old Testament to walk worthy of our calling. That's the whole Bible says, just like God said to Abraham, walk before me and be blameless. It's what the righteous and holy God we serve requires of us. What does that look like? Well, it's to walk in the light as he himself is in the light, to have fellowship with him. And that means his righteousness in common in our experience with him and feeling sorry for ourselves, thinking more highly of ourselves than we shouldn't think, being jealous, being petty, whatever the sin category that we get hung up on that starts in our broken sinfulness, in our hearts, and then manifests itself in our hands or our words These are the things that are not having fellowship with God in terms of experiencing His righteousness and enjoying it together with Him. We walk in the light as He is in the light. In the blood of Jesus, His Son goes on cleansing us from all sin. And that's why we always take a moment for silent prayer. If you are dirty from personal sin and you're a believer in Jesus Christ, Jesus taught Peter that that's like having your feet dirty. That's like having your feet dirty. And what you do when your feet are dirty is you wash your feet. and Jesus himself has promised. So let's take a moment for silent prayer. If you need to confess any sins that you're aware of, this is the time to do that. If you've already confessed your sins, remember, if we confess, he forgives and cleanses. You need to take it on faith that God has forgiven in terms of your experience and then move on. And then I'll open us in prayer. Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful to you that we can come before your throne of grace because of the blood of Jesus Christ. We do not deserve the privilege, the honor, the high calling to come before you this way, but you've given it to us through your son. You are pleased to crush him for our sins so that you could exalt us in him. Father, we marvel at Your grace to the extent that any of our hearts are not marveling at Your grace. Father, open the eyes of our hearts to see the riches of Your wonderful inheritance, the power that You are exercising toward us who believe. Father, we want to know You better on Your terms. Indeed, we want to draw near right now to You. Father, expecting what You've promised, that You would draw near to us as the brother of our Lord has taught, drawn near to you, so that you'll draw near to us. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. If you could open your Bibles tonight to Exodus 14, Exodus chapter 14, we'll just grab the greatest action story in the Bible. I know you think that's in 1 Samuel 17, some of you do. the David and Goliath story. But in your Bible, in Exodus chapter 14, it is, of course, the great deliverance that God provided for Israel at the Sea of Reeds, often translated the Red Sea. In Exodus chapter 14, let me set the stage as we very briefly review the story. they have been through the plagues, the 10 plagues. The last plague was God finally broke Pharaoh's will. He broke him like a twig. He snapped him over his knee by taking the firstborn of all of Egypt. And that's the story of the Passover, the last of the 10 plagues, where God started with, let my people go and come worship me. And finally, Pharaoh said, okay, go and worship God. And God is bringing his people out with a mighty outstretched arm to deliver them into his revelation at Mount Sinai and eventually his inheritance in the promised land of Canaan. But to get there, God has a final expression of his glory through Pharaoh's rebelliousness, Pharaoh's resistance, Pharaoh's hardened heart, and exercising the power of state that he has as the supreme leader of Egypt under the creator who is really over all the kings. Pharaoh is going to have one more act of ludicrous, idiotic defiance, and it's going to destroy him, his military, and, I believe, his country and its future for quite a while, for generations to come. And that's Exodus chapter 14, and it is God simply setting conditions to showcase his glory in Israel's trust and Israel's obedience and in Pharaoh's rebellion and Pharaoh's violence. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, tell the sons of Israel to turn back and camp before Pi-Hahirot, between Migdol and the sea. You shall camp in front of Baal Zephon, opposite by the sea. And I've taught this many times and some of you may remember that we don't really know for certain what these names refer to. And so we have to ask God the question, why did you give us this? Why does he tell us these details that it's this specific place over here by this landmark in front of that landmark over this way? Why does he do it that way? Right? Why does God do it that way? It's because we're to draw a conclusion that God has triangulated the exact geographical spot that He wants them to be in. And it is the most uncomfortable, militarily foolish, untenable position that they could camp in. After the flesh, walking by sight, looking at what we would conclude in Exodus 14, What we would conclude from where God puts them is this is not a good place to receive a cavalry charge of chariots, light horse, and foot soldiers. It's not a good place to fend off the spears of Pharaoh because it's boxed in and there's nowhere for them to run. And the point I'm trying to make here is God put them in that kill zone. When a military force, when the American military trains, we train for things like ambushes. They're called battle drills. We train for ambush, to set an ambush, to kill the bad guy in the place we plan for. We plan for defenses. A defense is a mousetrap. When you plan a defense, you're setting conditions to destroy the enemy in the place you want. And you plan the battlefield out that, hey, this is a good spot where we'd like to make sure that we mass all of our catapults, or all of our artillery, and all of our arrows, or whatever we have. We're going to do all the killing we can do right here in this spot from a defensive position, from a static location. And historically, in terms of military strategy, we've always said a defense is much more lethal than an attack. you can kill a lot more of the enemy from a covered position with a stabilized rifle. aiming carefully than you can racing up a hill with your bayonet fixed. It's much easier to kill people from a defensive position. And so in terms of military affairs, the defense is the thing you want to do. In terms of moral considerations, we want to exercise violence out of a defensive posture. Think about it. You don't want to throw the first punch. You want to throw the last punch. because you don't want to be guilty of causing the violence. You just want to shut it down if it needs to be shut down. There's all kinds of reasons to think through defense, but this is technical military stuff. When you plan a defense, you plan where would be the very best place to kill the enemy. When you plan an attack, you have to do the same thing. And by the way, I hope you all understand, there's never been a military decision, there's never been a decision on the battlefield that decides what the future will be of the combatants that hasn't involved an attack. The only way you win is through attack, but the best way to kill is through defense. OK. Now let's talk about this. If Pharaoh was to plan a place to kill Israel, to fix them in a location which would give you the benefits of a defense, but yet they would be able to attack and finally settle this matter. It's exactly where God camps them. God puts them in what in the army we call the kill zone or the kill sack. This is exactly where you would set them up to destroy them. And God put them there. because God is not struggling with time and space like we are. He's not worried about, well, they can't get past this obstacle. It's not a problem for him. Verse three is your explanation. For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, they're wandering aimlessly in the land, the wilderness has shut them in. So even if he didn't tell us that, we would know from how the story develops, but he tells you, I want them to camp right here so that it looks to Pharaoh. It's broadcasting to Pharaoh that they don't know what they're doing and they're boxed in. Right there in the text, it says it. God is luring Pharaoh out with bait. these children of Israel that he hates, that he's coming to destroy. Thus, I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will chase after them, and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, and they did so." And I think when people want to question how does God do what he does, and is he co-opting human volition? Did he force Pharaoh by flipping a switch in Pharaoh's heart? I believe that the way it says he hardened Pharaoh's heart, the word thus, don't get too much. You can't dogmatically say that from the grammar, but I think the word thus is important. The way God hardened Pharaoh's heart was he placed Israel in the kill sack. And it led Pharaoh to conclude, that act led Pharaoh to conclude, oh, they're easy. There's an easy target. That's how he hardened Pharaoh's heart by the circumstances. Make sure you understand. I'm saying, I don't think God reached in and flipped him to kill Israel. He did it by the circumstances. Watch this. God is bigger than we think. So in verse five, Oh, by the way, Pharaoh and his army and the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh. This is gonna glorify God. Now, we're Israel, right? We're stuck with our back to the Red Sea. We see the bad guys coming. What are we saying? Why would God do this to us? What is God saying? I'm doing something, just go with it. Trust me, right? Now, if I say that to you, You would be right to say, I don't think you know what you're doing, because I don't, I'm just a human. But if God says, trust me, I know what I'm doing, that's your life, that's what we do. We're in Exodus chapter 14, I would like you to turn there, please. Exodus chapter 14, it's in the Bible, it's the second book. In verse five, when the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart toward the people. And they said, what is this we've done that we've let Israel go from serving us? Now we already had how God was gonna harden Pharaoh's heart by the circumstance. And now we hear about the change of heart. That's not an accident. People ask theological questions, try to force God into some sort of deterministic mold. Look what he does here. God is changing Pharaoh's heart, but he's doing it through the circumstances he presents to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh is responsible for his heart response. Never make that mistake of saying that Pharaoh is not responsible for his choices. So, verse six, Pharaoh made his chariot ready and took his people with him. See, Yul Brynner didn't go into battle. and Cecil B. DeMille, but this guy did. Pharaoh actually led the charge. I believe Pharaoh drowned in the Red Sea. He made his chariot ready, took his people with him, and he took 600 select chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt and officers all over, over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel. The sons of Israel were going out boldly. as they were going out boldly. And then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen, his army, and they overtook them camping by the sea, by the exact place that in verse one, it says, God told them to camp. Where? At Pihahiroth in front of Baal Zephon. Again, the place names are given to you so that you and I know without ever setting foot in this part of the world, you don't ever have to go there. You just know that God said, go to a certain place. It's not a good place to mount a defense. And they went there and Pharaoh was hardened in his heart by this, drawing them out. As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them. They became very frightened. So the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh. Of course they did, because as we walk by sight, not by faith, what we see is chariot dust clouds on the horizon, and it's impossible that we would survive this onslaught of a hardened chariot cavalry force with their weapons trained on us. Then they said to Moses, is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you've taken us away to die in the wilderness? This is some of my favorite complaining in all the Bible. Think about the cleverness of that. Is it because there were no graves in Egypt? She brought us out here in the wilderness to be buried, ground into the dust by Pharaoh's chariot wheels. Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt saying, 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. This is what we do in our limitations. We see Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and we see dying in the wilderness. And these are the two options. I can be with I can be in servitude to Pharaoh, or I can go die in the wilderness. And that is unbelief thinking without God's revelation. That is unbelief saying, these are the options that I see, and I pessimistically will embrace the lie that God is not there, that he's not acting, that he's not leading. And this is the lesson, and this is the most significant event. This is the action story upon which the entire Old Testament is based. This is the piece de resistance of the Exodus. This event, and look what God is doing. He's drawing fear out by putting them into an impossible situation, and He's drawing their faith by showing them, you can trust me even when you can't see why. Even when all you can see is, slavery to Pharaoh or death at Pharaoh's hands at the Red Sea. Now, I think the word serve is significant in context. We told you, leave us alone, let us serve Pharaoh. Do you remember Do you remember what God said when he said, let my people go? When he sent Moses and said, let the Lord's people, thus says the Lord, let my people go. Do you remember? Let my people go out and serve him, worship him. Let them go sacrifice to Yahweh and serve. And this is the point. To serve God, you're gonna do it God's way. And the alternative of slavery may even sound appealing. because at least we'll be alive. But the truth is, they're not going to die here. It's not the reason God conducted the plagues of the Exodus. And in our pessimism, in our disregarding the revelation of God, in our thinking God isn't there, or if he is, he doesn't care about me, in our listening to the serpents whisper that when God told you not to eat from the tree, He was really telling you a lie because God knows that when you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you'll become like God knowing good and evil. In other words, the diabolical implication, God is holding you back from the good things that he could have given you and that I, Satan, want to give you. Remember that diabolical implication? That sneaks into our thinking when we see Pharaoh on the horizon. That the two options are, I can be enslaved to Pharaoh, which is not what God said, or I can die in his hands, which is not what God said. And what's missing is God. And it's functional atheism. And it's very ironic that they cry out to the Lord in verse 10, and then they speak atheism in verses 11 and 12. They call out to Yahweh in verse 10, and they speak atheism. They say, God is not in it. And verses 11 and 12, do you see that? This is so helpful for you and me. David Roseland needs this every single day. We all, all of us, all of you, all of us, we will fall into a form of functional atheism where step one, we will call out to Yahweh and step two, we will pretend like he's not there. And step three, we will double down and we will conclude erroneous, insane conclusions. We will conclude things that you should never think. Well, I should serve Pharaoh. Who are we supposed to serve, Yahweh? And if I don't serve Pharaoh, then I'm going to die. And what does Yahweh want us? He wants us to live. What I'm trying to tell you is that in your flesh, with your circumstances, you are right to be pessimistic, to think that there's no good outcomes, that there's no hope. There is no optimism. There is no good thing to look forward to in your flesh. And you're right to conclude that. And the children of Israel were right to conclude that except God is there, he's real, he loves you, he's got a plan for you, and he's working it. And that's the reason this story is presented the way it is. Moses wrote this narrative the way he did so that we would feel the tension and see ourselves. And that's the power of God, the Holy Spirit, and the word to remind you that, you know, God has red sea exercises for us all the time. He has, you're backed up to a situation that he led you to. All you can see is failure and hopelessness on your horizon. And God is working something that's going to glorify him, but you've got to trust him. And you got to walk when he says walk and stop when he says stop. Verse 13, Moses said to the people, do not fear. As we've said many times, a lot of the promises of scripture come with commands. And it's interesting to me that in some circles, we've forgotten the commands that embrace the promises. Well, that doesn't make any sense. 1 Peter 5, 7 is casting all your cares on him for he cares for you, but the command is verse six, therefore humble yourselves Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that He will exalt you at the right time, casting all your cares on Him for He cares for you. Get with the commands. They really free you to know exactly how to structure your life. What is the command? Do not fear. Stand by and see the salvation of Yahweh, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you've seen today, you will never see them again forever. Is it an accident that Moses says to them, the Egyptians that you See, you will never see them again forever. What do you call that when Moses said that? What kind of statement is that? He says, the Egyptians that you see today, you will never see again forever. What kind of statement is that? Y'all help me out. What kind of statement is it, number one? He says, the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again forever. What is that? Huh? It's a statement of fact. What else is it? The Egyptians that you see today, you'll never see again forever. What was that? It's a promise. It's a promise from whom? Who gave that promise? Who said those words? Moses. And who is Moses? Moses is the prophet for Israel, for whom in Deuteronomy 18, we're told there'll come another, someday another prophet like Moses. That's Jesus. He's the type of Christ as the lawgiver. He's the one, he's the last judge. I'm sorry, the first judge of Israel. He's the one that God speaks through to give us the five books that open the word of God. Moses is the prophet of Israel who gives them a promise from the Lord. Don't fear. Is that a command? Yes. Who's the command from? Moses. Who's it really from? Who's really saying don't fear? God is using this prophet to give this special revelation. Don't fear. And then what's the promise? These Egyptians that you see today, you will never see again forever. And so what are we told? We're told by God, You get to see the danger so that you can see the deliverance. You get to see the Egyptians on the horizon so you know the God that has you, that loves you, that is delivering you. See, if there was no Egyptians, there was no Egyptian army, there would be no great celebration in Exodus 15 after they walk on dry land and God drowns Pharaoh and his chariots. If there was no enemy to combat, then we wouldn't see the glory of the great salvation, the great Savior God who delivered Israel. And that's part of the way a good story, and this is the great story of the Old Testament works. You have to have a big enough enemy that the fight is worth watching. And that glorifies God, and that's what they're seeing. What's the thing? that I'm facing, what's the thing that you're facing in your life where you feel like your back is against the sea and there is no hope? You're supposed to read this and say, oh yeah, the Lord is letting me see one thing, but not what he's personally doing about it, because as I get to see his deliverance, I will glorify him and praise him and serve him. Now, verse 14, is another promise. Moses saith, the Lord will fight for you while you keep silent. Irony ensues. Moses says, the Lord Israel, the children of Israel, something like 3 million people he's talking to, 600,000 military age men, that's probably 3 million people. If you take all the babies, grandparents, everybody. Moses says, and that's conservative estimate, by the way. Moses says to them, The Lord will deliver you while you keep silent. He will fight for you while you keep silent. What's the irony? Have you read this in a while? The Lord will deliver you while you keep silent. And what is the next, who speaks next? Then Yahweh said to Moses, why are you crying out to me? Verse 14 is a promise and verse 15 is hilarious. Moses tells Israel, the Lord will fight for you while you keep silent. And I believe he's speaking prophetically. And we don't know how much time elapses, but the next thing we hear is Yahweh says to Moses, why are you crying out to me? I mean, Moses really sounds composed, doesn't he? By the time you get to verse 14, he's got it down. But in verse 15, God is training him. God is correcting him. Why are you crying out to me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. Okay. Nothing's changed, Moses. This is working on my perfect timeline. I'm ticking this operation through perfectly. There'll never be a better military operation ever executed in all of world history, unless perhaps the destruction of 185,000 Assyrians by the angel of the Lord. a few generations later. But there's never been a better, more precisely timed thing than what God does here in this military deliverance of the sons of Israel. Now, I love that God commands Moses to separate the water. I love that. because what it says about how God actually separates the water, but he tells Moses to stretch out his hand and divide the sea. That's what he says. And I believe that in that is a message for you and me. God commands us to do things that we in ourselves cannot do, but in God's power, we can do whatever he commands. And that's what happens here, exactly what happens in this story. As for me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, so they will go in after them. And I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen." The death of Pharaoh and this military has a glorious purpose. And it is not for the freedom of the Egyptians. It is for the glory of Yahweh as they fight against him, attacking the apple of his eye, his beloved people. Verse 18, then the Egyptians will know that I'm Yahweh, when I'm honored through Pharaoh through his chariots and his horsemen. How is Pharaoh gonna honor Yahweh? Not in saying not our will, but your will be done, oh Yahweh. Not in being a steward of God's people as they were when Joseph first got them into Egypt. And Pharaoh blessed Abraham's children and Pharaoh was blessed and magnified. No, God's going to be honored in Pharaoh's rebellion against him and his fighting against Yahweh and his attempt to destroy Israel. Remember, we're talking about key doctrinal rationales for troubling times in our study of Christian stability in times of historical uncertainty. This message, this theology that God is presenting is multifaceted. He is teaching Israel with this. He is glorifying himself through Pharaoh. He is teaching us to look beyond Pharaoh's chariots in the dust cloud and expect the deliverance of the Lord. Now God told Moses what to do, and then he explained to the theology why in verses 16 through 18. And now in verse 19 of Exodus 14, the angel of God who had been going before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. And now we learn God is not functionally fixed. The Shekinah, the pillar of cloud that leads them by day and the pillar of fire by night, this, representation of God's glory isn't just to show them where to go or to show them that he's with them. It is also militarily powerful. It has a military function. So it came between the camp in Egypt and the camp of Israel, and there was the cloud along with the darkness that gave light at night, and the one did not come near the other all night. This protection, this separation that God provided with his presence defended the children of Israel so that they could Passover on dry land, God is ticking through this military operation with perfect precision. This is so much better than the great escape and all that's involved in that preparation. If you've ever seen the great escape, it's perfectly timed and sequenced, including Israel having enough time to watch those chariots on the horizon and fear for their lives and deny their creator. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind. Did you hear that in verse 21? God told Moses, you stretch your hand over the sea, in verse 16, and divide it. And the sons of Israel go forth on dry land. You, Moses, stretch out your hands over the sea and divide it. Verse 21, skip down, cut down to verse 21. Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind. You get it? God told Moses to do it. Moses stretches his hand out. Did Moses' hand cause the sea to divide? In a way, yes, because God told Moses, stretch out your hand and divide it. In a way, no, God did it through him. God did it. It says God sent the wind. So what is Moses in this? He's a prop. He's a willing prop, but he's the one that's got the stick and he stretches it out. But God causes the wind to separate. And you can't see the wind. You see God's man following God's word, doing God's instructed hand motions. Stretch your hand out. And God causes the wind to blow. So the waters were divided. And then the sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land. Waters were like a wall to them in their right hand and on their left. And then the Egyptians took up the pursuit and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea. And y'all know what happens. The morning watch, Yahweh looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion, caused their chariot wheels to swerve and made them drive with difficulty. So the Egyptians said, let us flee from Israel for Yahweh is fighting for them against the Egyptians. So they're treading where Israel has already trod and it's not going well for them. And it isn't like God's giving them one last chance. He's letting them know. what's about to happen to them. God lets them know that it's Him, and He is being honored by their knowledge of Yahweh. Israel's God is fighting us, we must flee. Then so Yahweh, as they're in confusion, said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and over their horsemen. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its normal state and daybreak while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it. Then Yahweh overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. and did something that, oh. Now, this is what writers, I've understood, that write narratives, that write fiction, come up against. They'll write themselves into a corner. They'll tell a story, and I don't know how to get out of this. What's the solution? And everyone reading, it's like, oh, how's he going to fix this? And a good writer has done this craftily to look like there's no way out, and then they don't invent aliens or something to zap them out. They do something that's ingenious. You're like, oh, that was really well done. It's a great way of telling a story. Well, that's what God did. He put them in front of an obstacle that for us is impossible to see. For God is like, well, that's it. God just sends a little wind and not a problem at all. And that's the nature of our lives. We have the rules, we have the laws, we have the, well, this will never work and this will never be fixed and this thing will never happen. And yet God's word says, what's impossible for you is not impossible for God. And that's the lesson that he's constantly teaching me. That's the lesson he's constantly teaching us in the word. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and even Pharaoh's entire army that had gone into the sea after them, not even one of them remained. But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left." Now, in terms of the action sequence, I think the way this works, that Israel's still walking, And Pharaoh's chasing, but then God causes confusion. And so they're like, oh, God's fighting. So they start to run back. So part of the sea closes. It's a long walk. Part of the sea closes while the rest of Israel's finishing. Perfectly sequenced. I think that's probably what happened. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. When Israel saw the great power which Yahweh had used against the Egyptians, the people feared Yahweh and they believed in Yahweh and in his servant Moses. Let me look at real quick. Will you flip back forward in your Bible a little bit? Let's go a couple thousand years over to Sorry, let's go 1,580 years to Ephesians 1, just very briefly. I just want to say amen and good night. But look what he does in Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1, the apostle, after telling them their riches in Christ, tells them that he's praying for them in verse 15 and says, I do not cease giving thanks in verse 16 for you while making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him. that He's not asking for them to receive the Holy Spirit. He's asking for the Holy Spirit to get so ahold of them with the word that their spirit is characterized by God's wisdom, by God's revelation, like we just worked through this awesome deliverance of Israel. In Exodus 14, I pray that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened so that you'll know what's the hope of His calling, the riches or the wealth of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and the surpassing greatness of His what? The surpassing greatness of His, power. Paul's culmination of this awesome prayer, one of the two great prayers in Ephesians, is that they would know the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe in accordance with the working of the strength of his might. That's the big That's the dessert at the end of this prayer. Wisdom, revelation, the Holy Spirit get a hold of you with this character of God in terms of His Word, so that you will know the power, the surpassing greatness is a power toward us who believe. Which God brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly place is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. I believe that what Paul is praying for is something God has to directly provide. I don't think I can give it to you. I don't think you can give it to each other. I think God has to do this in our hearts. And I think he does it in the power of the Holy Spirit through his word. If you were really thinking through and meditating on what God did in Exodus 14, I think you start to get a glimpse of the power of God toward us who believe. And this is something we deny when we worry, when we're afraid, when we borrow trouble, synonyms. We're talking tonight about key doctrinal rationales for troubling times, and the rationale I wanna camp out on is the essence of God rationale. That's a lot of words, but I think it's helpful to get a title for this thought process in your mind. It is simply this, if I know what God is in terms of his attributes, his character, his moral attributes, his power, his person, if I know the nature of God from what God's word says, and this is a big summary of the Bible, and I compare that to my problem and his promises, then I can be strengthened regarding the problem by expanding my perspective to take into account the infinite God as infinite power as it bears on the situation. Or I can compare God's infinite power, his omnipotence, one attribute of God's essence with the problem I'm facing. And I say, the problem isn't a problem for him. Now it doesn't mean my problem goes away. It doesn't mean I don't hurt. It means that my perspective has now expanded to encompass that this is a little fly that really is pestering me. And God's power is a really big fly swatter. And God isn't struggling at all. He's not troubled at all by Pharaoh. The way God fought for Israel is he put his finger, if you will, between Israel and the armies of Pharaoh. And then he blew a little wind. to stand up the water, and then he pulled the wind away to kill Pharaoh's military. It wasn't a problem at all for him, but we see an impossible obstacle. All right, I want to share with you a quote from a theologian that if you read this theologian, you will be blessed. But if you agree with everything he said, like I would suspect most all theologians, you would be into some doctrinal errors. And his name was Jean. Colvin. I suspect the way his mama called him. Jean Colvin. Anybody know how you say that in English? That's John Calvin. There's a photo. A photo of a painting of him in his younger days. Much of our reasoning theologically is derivative of his excellent insights that you can read about in the Institution of the Christian Religion by Calvin. Some would be really surprised that I would quote him because what people think of Calvin is determinism and I disagree with him on that. I'm not where he is on that topic that people call Calvinism. But boy, do I agree with him on so much theology. He wrote about the whole realm of theology and really paved the way in some ways for doing systematic theology, this side of the Reformation and Luther. But look what Beverage translates Calvin's Latin and French to say in just number one. Now he's talking about anthropomorphisms, or the places where God has a nose and eyes and hands, and yet elsewhere it says God is spirit and he doesn't have a body. But here we're talking about God's outstretched arm. Calvin talks about these things that we call anthropomorphisms, where we're describing God in terms humans can understand from our bodies. For who is so devoid of intellect as not to understand? That's a really great way to start off, isn't it? Who is so devoid of intellect as not to understand that God in so speaking of himself as having fingers? Lisps. with us as nurses or want to do with little children. I picked it because of the word lisp. I went and ran this down because in my studies before I've run across this quote, it's a great way of describing what God does for us. A nurse dealing with a child, teaching him to speak, can speak baby talk is what he's saying. And that's how God treats us. He talks to us in baby talk because that's our language. He lisps with us as nurses or want to do with little children. When I was a little kid, I had a lisp. Such modes of expression, therefore, do not so much express what kind of a being God is as accommodate the knowledge of him to our feebleness. This is the doctrine of accommodation, that God is infinite in his existence, and yet he communicates to our finite minds without breaking us. So we have an idea of God that is sufficient, but it's not exhaustive, it isn't, the fullness of all that can be known by God about himself because we would break. And so this is Calvin's sort of way of explaining by way of a beautiful illustration that you talk to children so they can understand. you talk to children so that they can understand, wouldn't God talk to us so that we can understand? And this gets into the question of the attributes of God, that we would understand Him. At some point, you have to understand any statements we make about God are approximations. They're true, but they're approximations in terms of what we mean. Let me give an example. If I had a quarter and I set it on the table and you could see the quarter, you'd say, oh, 25 cents. If you were standing over the earth and you saw a stack of quarters that, let's say, had six or seven million quarters in one stack, and you're looking over the earth and you saw a quarter, the top of that stack, you would see what? You'd see a quarter. And you'd say, look, 25 cents, and you'd be right. But if you saw it from a different angle, like God's perspective, you'd say, oh, there's 6 billion or 6 million quarters stacked on each other. It's a way of thinking about our limitations, that we have a two-dimensional approximation of something that's really three-dimensional. And when we talk about God, he's infinite. His righteousness, his love, his grace, his glory, these are infinite things. And I'm even talking in a way that doesn't really communicate much when I say infinite. Why? Infinite means not something, not finite, not limited like we are. So this is just a little bit of a taste of getting into real theology and a little bit of grace with people like Jean Covin who have misunderstood some things in their effort to square everything in scripture with scripture. Last time I gave you a definition of a doctrinal rationale. and I made a mistake, and it's gonna pay off in some dividends, even though I made a little bit of a little flub with some of my language. You gotta be precise when you speak in terms of logic. I call a doctrinal rationale a thought process that you work through in order to think correctly about a situation. A thought process that you work through in the moment. Now, if you're here now and you're thinking with me, and we're kind of in class mode, you're taking notes, whatever, you are, having no problem with a doctrinal rationale. God's in charge, God's omnipotent, God's got it, just like at the Red Sea. When you are dealing with the house burning down and you have no idea how you're going to build your life back together, figuratively or literally, you're not in that mode. You're not in study and understand mode. You have to grab a hold of this rationale and force yourself to think it. because you'll be overwhelmed with your feelings. And that's part of what this is designed to do. This idea is a paradigm to help us think truthfully about things that overwhelm our emotions. And I am convinced the Bible is written so that we will do this. This is my application of all that we have in scripture. Like, for example, in Exodus 14, you have that story, not just, oh, that's nice, and we had a bedtime story. You have that story so that when you see the dust clouds on the horizon, you've got something in you from the Spirit of God, from what He's communicated through Prophet Moses, you've got something in you to grab hold of and think through, to balance the fear that you feel, the trepidation over that onslaught. A doctrine rationale mixes the principles you know from God's word with our faith response. Our faith is directed toward God, but it is directed him through, through the concept he's revealed concerning himself and us. What was the concept that God called Israel back to when Moses gave his promises? He said, what you see today, the Pharaoh and chariots, you will never see again because God will fight for you and deliver you. What is the character quality of God that Moses is telling them is there? Pharaoh's powerful, but God is more powerful, right? This is one force of violence. God's got greater force of violence. And we can talk about his faithfulness to do what he said. We can talk about other qualities in God, but the picture is my God who is fighting for me is a better fighter than Pharaoh. And it's about God's power that is in view. Our faith is directed toward God when we grab hold of this rationale, but it's directed through the concept He's revealed concerning Himself in us. In other words, when you're struggling, it's probably not going to be enough for you to say, uh, trusting God. You need to trust in God on the basis of what He said. You need to start thinking Even when it's the last thing you feel like doing. Sometimes when we're dehydrated, the last thing we feel like is a drink of water. If you're thirsty enough, you can get to a point where you're not thirsty anymore. But the truth is, that's when you need to carefully approach rehydration. You really do need a drink. The thought process follows a very simple logical proposition, not syllogism. The proposition is this. If something is true, then I can trust God to do it, to do something. If one thing is X is true, then I can trust God to do Y. Or you could say, This character in God, character quality of God, implies this action of God's intentions. And I made a mistake. I call that a syllogism, a P then Q statement as a syllogism. And that's actually technically not true. And I appreciate the opportunity to readdress that with you. What is a syllogism? This is what the Concise Oxford English Dictionary says a syllogism is. It's a form of reasoning, and we're talking about reasoning like, oh, I don't want all this logic. This is what you need. This is what we need to do. We teach the children mathematics so that they will learn to think And this is where it applies. It's logical reasoning. This is a form of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn from two given or assumed propositions or premises. A common or middle term is present in the two premises, but not in the conclusion, which may be invalid. If you're just listening to this, I know I'm going fast. Part of what I, one of the interesting things I hear from people that listen is that you talk really fast, pass your day. Well, if I'm showing you what I'm reading, then you're also in my thinking, you're reading along with me reading out loud. So by the time I finished reading it fast, you've probably already read through it. Maybe not. But that's one of the things I've noticed is this message is an audio visual message. And if you're just audio, then you're not getting all the video. And that's something to keep in mind for me, the teacher. What is a syllogism? It's a form of reasoning that has two premises that draw a conclusion based on these premises. And so you can turn an if P then Q logical statement into a syllogism, which I'll show you in a minute. And it's actually a very helpful thing to recognize you put all these things together to draw your conclusion. The suggestion of getting into what a syllogism really is has helped me slow down the reasoning process to go from principle to practice and application. So let's use a syllogistic reasoning and doctrinal rationale. Here's the way it works. This will be fun. This is your story times. Here we go. If P is true, if proposition P is true, then conclusion Q is true. That's your principle. That's your first premise. And it's the complicated one. If P is true, look up here, then Q is true. Look up here. That's you, right? If P is true, then Q is true. Now, do you think you're going to see this again for the rest of your life? Yes. This is an introduction to thinking that you're going to be trained for the rest of your life. And so learn it so that you're ahead. I'm not speaking for myself. Okay. Now, if this one statement is true, then this conclusion, Q, that follows from it is true. And P and Q are just placeholders. Now, watch. The next thing you say in this reasoning process is for argument P is true. And so the conclusion you have to draw is, therefore, Q is true. That is a syllogism. Now, I understand why I got this confused in the language, because the last two statements here are assumed from the premise, from the first statement, if P is true, then Q is true. And that's your power. Now watch this. Now watch this as we process. If your pet is a dog, P, if your pet is a dog, then Q, your dog is an animal. Your pet is an animal, sorry. If your pet is a dog, then your pet is an animal. Is that true? Is that true logic? Right. If your pet is a rock, then your pet is an animal. No, it doesn't work. But if your pet is a dog, then your pet is an animal. Your pet is a dog. So what's my conclusion? Therefore, your pet is an animal. And you're like, well, that's not helpful. I mean, I already knew all that. But we're lisping. We're learning to just pull some logical things together to think. If you are learning mathematics in your education process, this is the reason why. This is what it's for. Mathematics, listen carefully, historically and truly in practice, mathematics is not numbers. Mathematics is shorthand writing to understand logical connections between quantities. And quantities can be numbers, but they don't have to be simply numeric. They can be statements. Let me give you an example. What is the word is in mathematical symbols? What's the word is? The equal sign. What is of? What is of, math people? Huh? Multiply, yeah. What's from? Subtract. See, these are just English words. All right. Well, let's get into the doctrinal use of a syllogism. Well, you didn't do that. If P is true, then Q is true. P is true, therefore Q is true. If Romans 8, 28b, and the way some Bibles print it, is true. If you love God and are called according to his purpose, Remember Romans 8.28, we know that all things work together for good of those who are called, that love God, that are called. If you love God and you are called according to his purpose, there's a moral should in this for you. There is a better be so for you. But if this is true, then Romans 8.28a, all things are working together for your good. Now I am obviously pulling apart something that's very obvious. Every time you say this verse, you're not even thinking through the rationale, but I'm just trying to show you that's how it works, because you can do this with all of God's word. Romans 8.28 is stated in a logical rationale, but the rest of the word can be thought this way if you understand it in its context. So what he says, If you love God and are called according to his purpose, then all things are working together for your good. That's the implication of Romans 8.28. And here's my challenging and wonderful, thought-provoking and sanctifying question for you. Is P true for you? Do you love God? And has He called you according to His purpose? How would you know? Because believers are the elect, and the elect are believers. And if you're a believer, then He's talking about you. That's my little theological interpretation. Well, it's not theological, it's contextual interpretation in Romans 8. Is P true for you? Do you love God? There's a gut check there. You better say yes. It's the central command of the Old Testament to love the Lord your God with all your heart. And as a consequence, to love your neighbor as yourself. It hasn't changed. Of course you love God. What does that mean? Well, Jesus teaches us in places like John 14, if we love Him, we keep His commands. That's how we express our love for Him. He loved us. He gave His only begotten Son for us. You do what is appropriate to the other. What God wants for the other is what you do. For God, it's between you and him, it's to obey. So is P true? Do you love God? Are you called according to his purpose? Yes. Then Q is true. Then all things are working together for good. Do you see it? Do you see it? This is how you personalize something that is so very powerful in your spiritual life. And furthermore, Let's go further in this rationale and talk about whatever the thing is. If I love God and I'm called according to His purpose, then all things are working together for my good. That's what we just said. If I love God and I'm called according to his purpose, then all things are working together for my good. Do you believe that? It's God's word. Do you take this one on faith? This is reasoning along with what God has said. We are thinking God's thoughts after him. I think it was Copernicus who said that. Thinking God's thoughts after him. Another science founder of the modern scientific method, Christians said, we're looking up through creation to see God. So now let's take it further. Next premise. If all things are working together for my good, and this problem I'm facing is part of all things, now this is where it gets some teeth. This problem that I'm facing, and this is where, you know, this is generic, it's X. What is your X? What are you dealing with? What do you got? I could tell you some things I got going on, Some of you who know me well will be like, yeah, I could list them too, Pastor Dave. It's okay. That's called knowing each other, bearing one another's burdens, loving each other. Nobody is Jesus but Jesus, and no one's resurrected but Jesus, but I have Christ in me, and I'm headed to the resurrection he's promised. But here it is. I mean, what is X that God has us backed up against the Red Sea? What's the problem? What are the chariots on your horizon? This problem is part of all things. Is it true? Is this problem all things? Part of all things? Yes. And are all things working together for my good? Yes. Then what is my conclusion? Then even this thing is for my good. I don't want this thing. I don't like this thing. I don't want to fix the flat tire and the rain. Did you ever see the Incredible Hulk pilot? That's an interesting switch, isn't it? 1978, I think, you know what I'm talking about? Bill Bixby, Lou Ferrigno, the pilot, the hour and a half, two hour movie that was the kickoff of the Incredible Hulk TV series. Some of you are like, just click off, just turn, all done, all done, Pastor Dave, but just go with me on this. Did you know that the first time Bill Bixby turned into Lou Ferrigno, the first time, David Banner in the series, hulked out, was when he was changing attire in the rain. That's great. Of course, that's when he's gonna lose it. Now, whatever this is, whatever it is that I'm facing, whatever the trouble is, what the word of God is telling me to think is, that somehow this is for my good. I can't know how, I don't see it. I don't know what God is gonna do, but I get some clues from the Bible. For example, I couldn't tell you why he wants to stage this military drama at the Red Sea. I don't know why he chose from eternity past to glorify himself the way he did in that event that we now have as a story, as a narrative, but this actually happened in history. I don't know why beyond he's gonna glorify himself and cause us to see this whole drama play out so we know to trust him even when we can't see what his plan is. I think that's the reason it's told to us. Now, a bigger reason is why is he setting this drama in history? Why do I need to have trouble so that I look past the trouble to what God has told me and I trust him through the situation? I'm with the million dollar chorus, million dollar quartet. I think it was sometime in the late 50s or early 60s that Elvis, Jerry Lee, Chet Atkins, and I always forget the fourth one. There's no door prize if you can guess at home or here present, but whoever was the fourth singer in the Million Dollar Quartet, it was one recording session, I think, where these rock and roll guys got together. Was it Johnny? I think it was Johnny Cash, he was the fourth one. I think that's right. If it wasn't, that would be really great. Anyway, they got together and they recorded a session and did several songs, but one of them was one of the best things that any of these men ever sang, and they sang it together. And it was that old hymn, Farther Along. Do you know what I'm talking about? farther along we'll all understand. Farther along we'll understand why. We're supposed to, as I was just talking to Jack Hayes about today, we're supposed to go to James 5 and say, I'm looking for the appearing of Jesus. I am waiting. I'm anticipating. I am longing. for the resurrection, and that hope, that blessed hope is giving me staying power in this situation. Farther along, we'll all understand. Farther along, we'll understand why. Bear up, you're gonna find out when it's time, and we'll know. But right now, you need to trust Him. And that's what happens in the story. There is a resolution. God says, I'm gonna glorify myself in Pharaoh, and I'm gonna deliver Israel, and He does it. And God's gonna glorify Himself in your life, and He's gonna deliver you. And he's gonna do it in a situation at times when you can't see a way out, and that's the test. Do you trust me? Do you trust me? This is reasoning from God's word. Well, we've just gotten into. the rationales. Christian worldview response to crisis. I'm proposing these three rationales that you really want to practice and think through and get hold of. The reason you read your Bible in part is so that you can do this. The reason you spend time in prayer and meditate on what God has said is so that you can do this. That's one of the reasons that God has given you his word versus the essence of God rationale where you think through who is God. The second is the position in Christ rationale, which is the question you today as a believer in Jesus Christ asked the question, who am I? Who am I? Am I somebody that God is just abandoning or somebody that God is tormenting as I'm suffering in the situation? No. Who am I? I am a son of God, according to Romans 8, not like Jesus as God the son, but an heir, a fellow heir with Christ. That's who I am. I'm one who stands to inherit all things with the heir of all things. That's who I am in Christ. And so you think through what the Word of God says about you, and it humbles you because it's not about you, and it magnifies you because it tells you that you're glorified, seated positionally at the right hand of the Father in Christ. And then the biblical eschatology rationale, which is the question, what is God going to do with me? You know you're part of the whole package of what God is doing in history. We know that for those who love God, he's causing all things to work together for good. That is eschatology. All things includes all things in the future. And these three thought processes, these three doctrines, if you will, you should be able to get out a pencil and paper And from your understanding of God's word, you ought to be able to write you 10 or 15 sentences or truths that you know about every one of these questions. Who is God? Is he the lover or is he the tormentor? Is he the one that knows or is he the one that's wondering what's gonna happen? Is he the one that always does the right thing because it comes directly from his character, that everything he does is perfect righteousness? Or is he the one who kind of slips up from time to time like you and me? You should be able to assess who God is from the storehouse of the treasures of God's word that he's placed in you. And this is one of the reasons we do theology, because we need to summarize. We need to think in terms of the summary. If you're so inductive in your approach that you're wondering in the moment, I wonder if God is good, then you've missed the point. You need to nail the things about God down that are so, that God has revealed to you, from His Word, I mean. So, who is God, who am I, and what is God going to do with me? There are volumes. This might be an interesting systematic practical theology to write on, three-volume set. Who is God, who am I, and what's God doing? And we've covered all the key bases of systematic theology at one point or another in that discussion. The question of the essence of God, something we'll take up next time. But this is where you grab hold of the character attributes of God. You think them through one by one in comparison to your crisis. The one doctrine of God's essence that we've looked at is his power. That's what God is showcasing in Exodus 14. He's also showing his omnipotence and his love and his righteousness. God acts always in unity with his character. But the thing he's showcasing is how much more powerful he is than Pharaoh. And that's what Paul prays, that we'd be able to see the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe in Ephesians chapter one. And so what you do is you figure out who is God from what he said, and then you compare those attributes of God's character to your problem. And as you do that, God becomes bigger and bigger in your perspective. I mean, he doesn't change, but in your perspective, you change. And your problem gets smaller and smaller, painful as it is. And that's looking way unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. I wanna talk to you about grabbing hold of the essence of God in a theological process. I want to talk to you about it tonight, but I have committed to spend only an hour with you and then to take rest and then get back together with you on Saturday when we assemble over at Jack's place. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the essence that you've shown us in your word, that you are the omnipotent God who can and will bring about all that you desire and nothing that you don't. Father, we praise you that you're also revealed in scripture. You've chosen to reveal yourself as the righteous and omnipotent God. So everything you do in the infinity of your power is also in the infinity of your perfect moral righteousness. Thank you that you showcase this righteousness in the law so that Israel would showcase to the nations what it is to serve the creator, and that we would be instructed and trained in righteousness by paying attention to all scripture, which is God-breathed. And Father, help us always go back to these principles, not in each other's faces, not, oh, trust in God. and being trite with each other in our pain, but in our own hearts, going back to you and saying, Father, you are the omnipotent God, and I'm trusting in your power in this impossible situation. Father, strengthen Preston City Bible Church and all those who affiliate with us, and indeed all of those who are studying your word to serve you, to know you, all those that are teaching your word, to equip the saints to study, to know you, to serve you, to obey, to be on mission. Father, strengthen us with this awareness, with this capability of thinking clearly, and switching from emotional compromise to doctrinal stability in our thinking. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.