So just a few months ago, our culture experienced one of its pinnacle moments of the last 10 years. It had been waiting for it. It had been building. It had been so important that Americans could not wait any longer. It was the conclusion to Stranger Things.
We had waited years for this thing to finally come to a close. Would they defeat Vecna? How would they defeat Vecna? What would happen? For those of you who do not watch TV or Netflix, good for you.
But the point is there is something about stories and the joy of a conclusion. There's an anticipation of what is going to happen. How will the protagonist get out of this situation? How will these things come to fruition? Many people, maybe you're not a TV watcher, maybe you're a book reader, maybe you enjoy some fictional novels, will find that the main point of the story, the conclusion, isn't actually the conclusion.
The climax comes about 90% of the way through the book. And then the last 10% is roughly a rough down of how it all worked out, how everyone has a happily ever after, everyone's going to sing songs, and it's going to be great. That is next week's sermon. We are at the climax sermon. So we're at the penultimate moment of the exodus.
So this is God leading his people finally completely out of Egypt. This is the culmination of what we've been working through since August. So this is the culmination of the exodus itself. We are then going to journey into the wilderness to Sinai, which will be its own episode series, if you will, using modern ideas. This is the end of the big climax, the big final showdown between Yahweh and Egypt.
We've been building it up week after week in different ways. Some of you may have thought that that was Passover, but it's not. They still have not left the grips of Egypt. As we saw last week, they are right on their heels. The Pharaoh is still present.
He is still chasing them. The Lord has not fully removed his people from Egypt's grasp. Today, we will experience that full salvation of God's people. And part of it we will see is because one thing has not fully been revealed yet. It's the fact that God said very early on that he will be known in Egypt, that they will know him as the Lord, that Egypt will know him, and that the Lord is the one who will do this thing.
We've seen this play out, this picture of that they will know me not just as God, but as the Lord. It's what he told Moses on the mountain. They have known me as God, but now they will know me as the Lord. This picture of this revelation of God in full for his people in a new way. This is what will be unveiled today as we will see the personal relationship of God with his people all the more, but we'll see the knowledge of himself revealed.
We'll see it in his presence with his people. We'll see it in his judgment against Egypt, and we will also see it in his salvation. And so it begins with him answering Pharaoh's question from chapter five, verse two, when we first saw Moses come into Pharaoh's chamber demanding, let my people go for the Lord has commanded it. Do we remember Pharaoh's response? Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?
Who is this Lord? Who is this God that I should care about? We highlight this back in October, and today, here we are nine chapters later, months later in the actual history of time, the Lord will now be revealed completely to Egypt, so much so that we'll get to a moment that they declare the Lord is with Israel, the first time that they declare him as Lord. But as we work through this text, we set our context up to this point. The Lord has led them out of Egypt.
We've seen this over the last few weeks. He led them by a different path, not through Philistia straight into the promised land, but through this little wilderness wandering and camped them next to the sea. Again, if you're Israel, this is a weird place to be. We're going towards the promised land, and now all of a sudden we're just camped out next to a sea. This is clearly not the way we should be going.
God doing, last week we highlighted, and then Egypt, clear like, well, they're next to the sea, if we just get on one side of them, there's nowhere else for them to go. So we will entrap them next to the sea. What is God doing here? And thus we have, Moses gives that great speech, the Lord will fight for you, encouraging the people that God is with us. And this is where our text turns to as we see God making himself known in his presence with a very interesting opening.
Maybe some of you, if you look at your Bibles right now and read the opening verse of chapter 15, you're probably a little confused. If we're being honest, if you read it, you're probably like, what is God doing? The Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? What are you doing? Why are you crying to me?
Go, tell the people to Israel, go forward. It's kind of a knee jerk, like setback, like what, well, they're crying to you for salvation. This is what they've been doing. What we now see is that the time for prayer has come to an end, it's now time for action. It's time to move.
Spurgeon, when preaching on this text, goes, the Lord loves the prayers of his saints, but also the prayers of the saints are meant to move the saints to move, to act according to what God has told them to do. So you've prayed, you have laid out your burdens before me, now go and do them. Again, we don't have the inner monologue of what the Israelites were thinking, because you could honestly go, well, we're next to this water, well, we can't go that way, we can't go that way. Maybe the giant pillar of fire will just consume them all and we'll be done. God will fight for us, maybe that's God, he'll just, he's a pillar of fire, that makes sense.
So they're just standing still. And then God simply tells Moses, go. Tell the people to move forward. Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And so the Lord makes his presence known once again with his people by giving them the instructions on how to follow him.
He gives them how to know him and how to be obedient. So the prayers have come to an end, now live this out. So lift up your staff. This is the same phrase that Moses has been told to do time and time again. So lift up your staff and the plagues came.
We saw it six different times. Lift up your staff and I will work. We'll see it in a couple weeks when we get to the Amalekites for the first big battle of Israel against the nations. And we'll see Moses must lift up his hands and victory is accomplished. This is all part of God's care and oversight of his people, the lifting of his staff over them.
And so this begins their journey. Moses, I will give you the way, and it is through the sea. Now up to this point, we've seen God do some miraculous things, some really crazy things. And now we will see once again one of those miraculous mind-boggling moments where the Lord will open the sea before them that they may cross on it. They must only obey.
And so he gives his commands to his people. Will they obey what he has called them to do? Moses, lift up your staff. And in so doing, why is he doing this? Why is he taking them through the sea?
Why is he not taking them around through Philistia as we saw before? Why is he not just consuming them with fire immediately? Why is he doing this? What is his goal? So let me harden the hearts of Egyptians so 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.
He is doing this so that his name may be glorified and that they may know his name, that the name of the Lord will go forth from that moment. The Lord is far grander. He is the one who splits the water itself. He is the one who brings judgment against those who stand against him. He will not share his glory with anyone.
And so in this moment, we've seen time and time again how Pharaoh sets himself up as God. He is God to his people. No one receives glory but Pharaoh. Who is this Lord that I should listen to him? Pharaoh has no regard for Israel, has no regard for their God, has no regard for the Lord.
He only glorifies in himself. Always seen at some point, he will get the upper hand. Seeing this, he just continually doubles down. He's the one who keeps losing money and just keeps going back to the tables. Like, one of these days, it's gonna work out.
I'll just, one day, I will beat the Lord. I will beat the house. And as we see time and time again, the house, the Lord, never loses. So too, we have today. The Lord will not give his glory to another.
The Lord will be seen as God in his name. will go forth to all the nations from this moment and it's all based around the fact that God is with his people. His presence resides with this people. He is their pillar. He is their cloud.
He is the one who is leading them. And so they will know, the Egyptians will know, that the God of Israel is the true and living Lord. This is what he's been driving at from the beginning. The Lord will be known. And so we see this truth here, that God gives commands to his people, how they will live, how they will act now.
They will walk through this river or through the sea and he will be the one to do it. He will dry the ground. There's nothing that they can do to dry the ground. I mean, 600,000 people may breathe on the ground. Maybe it'll dry.
They can't. That's the picture. God is the one who is at work here. And so this is where they will go. Is there faith that God will be with them and will save them?
So he is with them through his command, but he's also with them as he leads them and as he protects them. For we've seen the pillar of smoke. And so we have in verse 19, the continuation. 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. And so God acts. We talked about this already. Pastor Adam covered this a couple weeks ago. The fact that the cloud, in many ways, is a theophany.
Fancy word for God with his people. God present in the text. In this case, we'll see this later in our own text, where it says that he looks down from the cloud and judges Egypt. This picture of God is seen with his people in the cloud. The angel of God is in the cloud.
He is with them. He is leading them. So again, we see this later in the book of Deuteronomy and other places, that the cloud goes to the temple of meeting and there God speaks with Moses face to face. Again, so we have this picture, not that God is the cloud, but God is visible to his people through the cloud. Very similar to the temple.
It's a physical manifestation of a spiritual greater reality for his people. He condescends. Ultimately, we see this in Christ, the true condescension with his people. But in this, again, we see this cloud as a dividing line that is protecting his people. Up to this point, we saw it lead them.
It led them through the desert. It led them to the water and now it will separate his people from the people of Egypt. He will be the divider. He will divide the righteous from the wicked in this moment, protecting his people. Now again, you've got to, this is a sight to behold.
If you honestly think about the visual of this moment, this giant pillar. Now, however this pillar works, Isaac and I were having a long conversation of what this pillar could look like. Is it a small pillar or is it like a tornado? Like you think of a tornado, if it's more than a mile wide, you can't see it at all. It just looks like a big cloud.
So it's, who knows? Whatever it is, it's big enough to divide a group of people that are close to a million from an entire advancing army. It's a pretty big wall, if you will. But just imagine it going from here over your head to there. It's just the manifestation of God at work, or did it just disappear and then reappear?
Scripture doesn't tell us. Use your imagination. But either way, it's an astounding reality that there is this divide that now exists. They see the Egyptians coming. They are frightened the Egyptians are coming.
Now they can no longer see the Egyptians coming. That's the picture, that this wall of cloud has completely separated them. Neither can come close to the other. They're completely divided and cut off from one another. God is defending his people in preparing the way of their salvation.
This is God at work. And so his people now are preparing for what comes next. And so there is the reality that God is at work for his people, defending his people in preparation for what is ahead. For God defends his people, making the way possible for them to walk in his ways. It's not just that he tells them to walk, but he makes the way possible for them to achieve that goal.
Very similar to what we have in the book of Ephesians, that encouragement that he not just prepares good works for his believers, but he is the one who prepares them to do those works. He gives them all that they need to accomplish it through their salvation, through the love of Christ that changes them. He makes the way possible. He does not set forward a path that is not able to be walked in, but rather gives the defense and the means to accomplish his will. And so he gives that to us in his presence with us.
In the revelation of his word, we see him at work, the God who works for his people. And so he is the one who accomplishes these things, and so he makes their path straight. 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 and on their left. And so the Lord leads his people, they follow his commands.
So with the cloud behind them separating them, they now move forward as the Lord blows back the water. What's interesting, again, if you take a moment and think about the text, it says it blew from the east. It was an east wind. So usually you see the picture and Moses does this and the water starts here and it goes like this. It's the opposite.
Moses goes like this and it starts down there and slowly zips towards him. So even that, they're waiting for it to come to them. So there's a bit of anticipation that the Lord said the waters are going to divide. Moses' arms are out. You're still waiting for it to separate.
They're waiting for it to come. They don't even see the immediate effects of it. They're waiting for the Lord to separate the waters, which he does. It just gives you that picture of the Lord at work to his people that sometimes it's not immediate. They have to wait on his work.
And so they trust in him in this moment, waiting for the wind to blow. And so the wind blows and it dries the ground along the way and it stands on either side. And you have that wonderful Prince of Egypt moment. If everyone's seen the cartoon, if you have kids or were just a Christian in the early 2000s, water on each side, there's random whales and sea creatures just for the dramatic effect. Again, none of this is in scripture, but it's a fun, creative imagination.
But the animals will clearly, the water, fish still exist. Fish are still alive. These are all realities of showing God at work. God's supernaturally setting the walls up, all the water, top to bottom. Again, it's not like a small path.
If you actually think about this, we've already said there's over 600,000 people, however you want to do the math. If that's just men, it's over 1 point something million. If that's everyone, that's still not, that's all of Pasco County. At minimum, that's all of Pasco County. Just take everyone that lives in Pasco County.
Now walk through the Red Sea. So that's probably not going to be US 19. You're probably not getting everyone down US 19 about half a mile in four hours, if we're being honest. This is a big divide. This is a large separation.
The Lord greatly opens the water to transverse this dry ground and dries it as well. The wind blows, it separates, it makes the path for all of them to go across safely. We see this at work. We see the Lord lead his people and then they follow on dry ground without hesitation. There's no wondering like, oh, is it safe?
They just go. The text says, and they went on dry ground. No questions. The people follow the Lord, leading the command of Moses, and they cross. It says very clearly, the people went into the midst of the sea on dry ground.
This isn't any of those moments you've, again, we see lots of movies, which anyone who knows, if you watch a movie about scripture, it's going to be a little off or very off, depending. But most of them have this like weird mark that like they're running to the end, trying to get out of the Egyptians way, like trying to like, oh, last minute, get everyone across before Egypt. None of that's in this text. They're clearly safely on the other side. They're camping out.
They're having fun. There's no worry in the people of Israel. They're not rushing through the water, hoping to make it to the other side. God secures their path and guides them to the end. The picture we have here is eventually, okay, as we turn to our next sections, we see God revealed in judgment or God's knowledge.
He has made known through his judgments as he makes sure his people are safely to the other side. And then Egypt breaks through because this is all to fulfill, again, what he said in verse 18, the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And so he hinders their advances. He opens the way. Again, it doesn't say how, it doesn't say when the cloud was removed, how the cloud was removed.
Did the cloud go forward when? We don't have that information. We only have the fact that at some point, the Lord lets Egypt through. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. In the morning watch, the Lord in the pillar and fire and 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. Egyptians said, let us flee from before Israel for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. The Lord makes himself known and here we see it by hindering their advances. He looks down from the cloud and he makes their way difficult. So the picture is we had dry ground, somehow that dry ground got mushy.
The picture here isn't just, oh well they walked and naturally if you walk on dry ground. The picture is the Lord makes it mushy. The dry ground is not dry anymore. The dry ground is now a little wet. It's heavy, their wheels are.
They're clogged in this seabed. They cannot rush quickly with their chariots and catch up to Israel. The Lord has thrown them into confusion. They don't know what is left and what is right. They are lost in this event.
Maybe they're frightened by the water on their left and on the right. This is not a normal moment. Even if you're going into battle, you're not usually running through pillars of water on either side. There is a terror that exists in Egypt's advance. So in this, we have the fact that the Lord is leading them to their destruction to know him.
Very much, if you want, it's a trap would be a very good explanation for this moment. It's very much a trap. The Lord has led them into the water to destroy them. So you can have your Admiral Ackbar moment for the Star Wars fans. That's a reality.
They are not seeing this clearly. They are blinded by their own rage to destroy Israel. And so the Lord will get his final victory over Egypt. Time and time again, we've seen the Lord victorious over the people of Egypt, over their gods and over their own hubris. He's continually conquered Pharaoh week after week and yet Pharaoh keeps coming.
This will be the final destruction. There is nothing to come back from. God's judgment will be final. In that judgment, his name will be proclaimed. It's why it's so important that we do not miss that phrase at the end of 25, the last words of the Egyptians in the book before us.
The final words of the Egyptian people in the book of Exodus is that the Lord fights for them. Using the name the Lord. He's not some mythical God. He is the Lord. The one who said he was going to set his people free.
The one who Pharaoh refused to acknowledge. Who is this Lord? Who is this Yahweh who has sent you here? I have no regard for him. He is a waste of my time.
Again, we had the picture of him brushing off Moses and Aaron as if they were nothing. And this Lord is nothing to me. Here now they proclaim in a loud voice, the Lord fights against the Egyptians. This Lord is God. He is mightier than all of our gods.
He is mightier than all of our forces. They walked across dry land. We can't get 10 feet before our wheels are all gunked up. In this moment, the final full revelation of God has come upon the Egyptians and it's too late for them. Judgment is at hand.
His name is revealed in his judgment against the wicked. We see this actually throughout scripture. If you read the book of Ezekiel, time and time again, each of his words of judgment against the nations or against those who fight against him, it says, so that they may know that I am the Lord, I will do this. Against Israel, he will say in the book of Exodus, so that they may know that I am the Lord, I will send them into exile. Judgment is a means by which God is revealed.
Ultimately, we see throughout scripture, there are two realities of knowing the Lord. We will either know the Lord, as we will see in Israel's case in this moment, as the savior of his people. We'll know the Lord through Christ as the one who lived and died and rose again for the salvation of his people, for those who repent and believe. Or we'll be with all those who every knee will bow in heaven and earth and declare that he is the Lord, not in salvation, but in judgment. God is God of all people and will be acknowledged as such, either in salvation or in judgment.
Those are the only options. There is no middle, well, I kind of, he's existed sort of. He will be known in one of two realities. And this is one of the first clear evidences of that teaching in scripture. Egypt comes to know him as the Lord, as they are drowned in the sea.
Now, in this, this is not all of Egypt. Take a little aside, back a couple chapters. Stay in Egypt No, it says many went with Israel. They saw the work of God. They saw the death of the firstborn They saw all the miracles and they went.
Hey, we want to follow that guy The Lord is the Lord But not all Israel or not all Egypt left many stayed continuing to reject this God And this becomes the reality for them the judgment that is poured out on them that he may be Known as the Lord So he pours out his judgment on Egypt on the Egyptian forces and so he stretches out his hand again And the text says Then the Lord said to Moses stretch out your hand over the sea that the water may come back upon the Egyptians Immediately after they declare he is the Lord Stretch out your hand. That's how the text unfolds So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared Now 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 and all the hosts 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 water being a wall to them on their right and on their left So our text paints this picture of God's full judgment poured out The idea of tossing them into the sea. It's actually an illustration. He just brushes them off His cloak is actually the idea that they're nothing they just brushed. It's just a bug Is this picture of God tossing them into the sea?
Again, very similar to a word play on Pharaoh towards the Lord who is this God that I should pay any attention to him? Who is Egypt that I should pay any attention to them? They're thrown into the sea receiving the full judgment do them Again cycling back as every good story does back to the beginning with a different group of people thrown into the sea The children of Israel are thrown into the sea to their death For the prosperity of Egypt they kill the slaves children the sons Here now it is Egypt that is tossed into the sea as if they are nothing They're tossed into the judgment that they are due They aren't innocent bystanders that just got stuck in the crosshairs The they are willful participants in this endeavor These are Pharaoh's army These are men of renown and Pharaoh's household These men are very active in all that has transpired as well and all of this is that God will be known and we will see throughout the rest of the text if you work through the rest of The Old Testament you see God's name go forward from this moment. It is on the lips of the people This is the people who God brought out of Egypt This moment will echo an eternity for them God who saved his people out of Egypt walking on dry ground the Lord is Good to his own and he has gained glory over Egypt and over Pharaoh Now whether Pharaoh dies in the water is a question mark for everyone. It has been pondered throughout history whether or not Pharaoh is in the water Nothing's explicit.
Psalm 136 is the closest you're gonna get where it says that Pharaoh was overthrown at the water Either way the point being that's just for your own ponderance Feel free to work that on a small group question if you want the idea though is God gained victory That question all has to do is whether or not Pharaoh sees the reality of his final destruction or if he just experienced death either way but the picture here God is God has received full glory over the people of Egypt. They will be of nothing We won't see them again in Israel history for a long time. They lose their power their majesty their strength They now become but a byword in this moment for Israel God has gained full victory over them the Lord's glory has been Displayed as he saved his people through the water He brought them to the other side safely, but to Egypt it was Destruction it was their judgment And so we see the end is the fact that God makes himself known through the salvation of his people So he is with his people. They know him by his presence They know him now as seeing judgment enacted and lastly we see him known and we can rest in him as we see salvation God saves his people Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians the penultimate moment. The battle is won They've crossed through they stand victorious having done nothing but walk all they did was walk and God is victorious.
God is the one who fought for them in ways. They would not have expected walking through the water all you who had to do was walk and they walked on dry land and they saw and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore Israel saw the great power of the Lord used against the Egyptians so the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses so through this final work of salvation through everything that they've experienced they fear the Lord this made him more secure that made them more secure in who God is as they've seen in full he has fulfilled his promises he kept the word that he said to them that he would lead them out of Egypt he has now led them out of Egypt he has destroyed the Egyptians along the way and they will not see them again the very thing that he promised you will not see the Egyptians again your last sight of them is dead on the shore this is the great enemy who tortured you enslaved you for 400 years and I have gotten victory over them I fulfill my word my word does not return void I am the God who fulfills his promises to his people and so God saves them God brings them out and in so doing they see the power of God and they fear the Lord the work of God produces two realities produces the fear of him and the belief in him so as you see God at work it should produce these realities one is a sense of fear a real sense of fear and the fact that we serve God who can do anything so we usually think about this as a father who is mighty okay there is a reverent fear there's a fear that he can act like that produces a reality of fear not in a like I'm gonna scare and hide in a corner but there is a confident fear that my father in heaven can do whatever he says he's going to do that is both a confidence and a frightening reality okay and that is this picture it produced the fear God destroyed the Egyptians with water again you look at all the different ways he led them into a sea that is a that is a trap like they just I'm just gonna wander into the water and he closed it in on this is a God to be feared but it's a fearful belief because he fought for them he was their God he was with them through it all and so this fear produces belief we serve a mighty God who is sovereign over all who is this awesome powerful God who fulfills his promises in so we may believe in the Lord we fear the Lord we believe the Lord this is actually the first time that the text directly says that the fear of the Lord is with them throughout scripture up this point again one thing fear of God is often spoke about they feared God and highlighting again this little caveat that we saw back at the beginning of Exodus that the Lord will be known again it's not that it's separate it's highlighting the personal nature of God with his people they have known me as God they will know me as the Lord here now the fear of God has been turned into the fear of the Lord okay so we just see that personal nature that Exodus is trying to add to us to understand of God with his people the whole people of Israel we've had individuals along the way now we have the people of Israel the fear of the Lord okay they fear the Lord and they believe in him and in his servant this picture again of belief being a trust a faith that he is who he says he is now again does that make them rely on that faith this is where it's the fun point of as you work this text out as we work out they believe he is the Lord does that mean they no longer rebel against their belief no they will still struggle to work out what this belief looks like the entire journey 40 years of working out what this looks like this entire generation minus three will die minus two sorry Moses however you want work on Moses dies on the mountain right beforehand but two people that's it Caleb and Joshua everyone else dead 40 years of working through this belief but they are said to believe the Lord they believed he is who he says he is they believe he is the one who has saved them they believe Yahweh is their God they will then struggle in what that belief means and how they will work that out as many of us understand the salvific work of God in working that out belief does not produce perfect obedience but a growing obedience they will work through their relationship with God all the more since we highlight their name is Israel. There's a little bit of a play on word earlier in the text that he fights for those who fight against him. If you will, the Egyptians say that Yahweh, those who strive against God, he is fighting for those who fight against him. It's this weird play on words that ideas, God is with his people.
Even as they struggle against him, he fights for them. For they believe and so we believe and we grow and we continue to grow in our knowledge of the Lord as we continue to grow in what he does in us, through us, in our community, we see God at work. One of the great things about living out the faith, not by yourself, but in the church body, we enjoy this element of many of you probably experience this in small groups or just in different relationships, is seeing how God does stuff in other people. Sometimes we get blind spots of God doing stuff in our own lives. You ever had that like, well, what's the Lord doing in your life?
Things? But then people start explaining that what God's doing in their life or pointing out and you're like, oh yeah, that is something that's changed. That is something, wow, that's, would have never imagined that God would do those things. Part of living life in community is being able to see God at work in ways that we just don't think about. We read the scriptures and we see God at work in miraculous ways.
When we live the faith together, we see God at work in big and small ways. And as you spend life together for the long haul, you see lots of those things play out. Again, as you work through all of each, like we've worked through this actually, we've seen God work in different ways in the people of Israel. As they live life together for the long haul, God will work in different ways in the life of Israel. As we do life together, God works in different ways in each and every one of us here.
And we're able to share and experience that knowledge of God together. As God shapes us and molds us into the image of his son together. It's one of the beautiful things about the knowledge of God being revealed to us through the body that he has saved. And so in our text, we see this final conclusion, this final climax of this battle between God and Egypt and the victory of God and the salvation of his people that produces belief, produces a salvation of his people. So too, we're reminded of God's victory over sin and death that brought forth our salvation.
For those who repent and believe in the work of Christ, the one who lived and died and rose again for our salvation, who repent and turn from sin, no longer pursuing the things of the world, but pursuing Christ, this salvation is real. He has conquered sin and death. There is nothing that separates us from the love of Christ. The cloud is gone. We're on the other side of the cloud.
We have the presence of God with us. The knowledge of God revealed to us. We have blessings beyond imagination that will lead to song. Next week as the conclusion of this chapter of Exodus ends, we have this proclamation of song as they will sing praise to God who saved them from the Egyptians. Miriam will dance and sing.
Moses and the people will sing to God. This is the outworking of those who've experienced the salvific work of God. It's a joy beyond measure, a joy that is transformative as we know our God in a new and personal way. If you have not received, if you've not experienced this joy, I would ask you to ponder deeply the reality of your life. Do you know the Lord?
Not do you know God, God in an ethereal sense, but do you know the Lord? Do you know the Lord in full as revealed in Christ Jesus? Do you know that salvific work that did not simply lead you through water but led you through and out of sin and death? Do you know this Lord? If you don't, I would ask you to deeply seek him out.
Repent and believe, Christ calls us to do. Repent and believe on him. Turn from your wicked ways. Trust in him for the salvation of your soul. Speak to one of the members here who will happily walk you through the depth and the beauty and wonder that is the grace of God is revealed and what salvation looks like.
And for those who believe, may you take the joy of your salvation to those around you that his glory may go far.
