From Rescue to Worship

From Rescue to Worship Exodus 13:7-14:31 Justin Deeter June 28, 2015 Introduction The people of God are on their way out from Egypt. Pharaoh finally gave in after the 10th plague. The people left quickly from Egypt. As they were leaving the land, Pharaoh s heart hardens again and he sends out the Egyptian military to kill of Israel. If he can t have them, then he will just eliminate them. This leads to the great rescue as God fights for Israel and leads them across the Red Sea all the while crushing the Egyptian armies. This truly is a remarkable account of God s power and deliverance. As the title of our series suggests, we are rescued by God to worship God. That is the pattern that is laid out across Scripture. As God redeems sinful people from their captivity, this culminates in God s people rejoicing in climactic praise! As God rescues the people from the Egyptian military force, Israel will sing in worship praising the Lord for his mighty rescuing hand. This morning as we look at this passage together, our rescue by Christ should culminate in a life of worship. Worship is not a side note to the Christian life, but rather the purpose of it. The only proper response to God s grace in salvation is to worship. As we study God s word together, may the Spirit lead us to worship this morning. From Rescue (13:7-14:31) As they people departed from the land, they left in a hurry. God guided his people by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The Lord guided the people out of the land. Yet, Pharaoh s heart hardened one final time. When he saw that the people were out of the land, he changed his mind and sent an army after them. If he can t have them, then no one can. So as 1

the people are fleeing, traveling both day and night by foot, the galloping feet of the horses and hissing wheels of the chariots begins to get louder and louder. The army of Pharaoh was getting closer. They were trapped! The red sea is before them and the chariots behind them. There is no way out. By all human estimation, they are as good as dead. The people of Israel cry out in fear and anger to Moses. They tell him, Are there no graves in Egypt that we must die out here! Why did you even bring us out of the land. Moses tells the people to not fear and stand firm. Haven t they seen Yahweh do the miraculous? Why would they doubt him know in their most desperate hour? Moses tells them that they must simply remain silent. The Lord is going to fight for them. God is going to save them single handedly. God tells Moses that he is going to make his name glorious by defeating Pharaoh once and for all. So then God, represented by the pillar of fire, moved behind the people to behind them, to defend them from the Egyptians. Moses, as God commands him raises his staff over the sea, and behold the sea begins to part! The people of God begin to cross the sea on the dry land. As Pharaoh s army begins to cross the walls of water come crashing down on the army. The victory has been won. The people of God had been saved. God rescues us. He does this by his own hand and by his own might. Like Israel, we have been enslaved by our great enemy sin. Like the chariots of the Egyptians it comes chasing behind us longing for our destruction. Sin seeks to kill and it seeks to destroy. We are weak, frail, and powerless. We cannot defend ourselves from it and it will surely overcome us. Yet, we are not left to ourselves. For God fights for us. In divine glory God puts on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the fitting warrior king who comes to defeat our great enemy. The humble Jesus went to the cross and through his defeat in death, he won the victory over sin. He paid the penalty we deserved and by his blood our sins are forgiven. Through the blood of Christ we too can walk on the dry land of the parted waters to 2

deliverance. Through Jesus a way is opened when all else seems to be lost. Though our enemy may be breathing down our neck, and though we may feel so enslaved by our passions that freedom seems to be an impossibility. Though the spears of the Egyptians are poking into your backs, God has provided a way. He has provided a rescue. That which serves as our own deliverance proves to be the destruction of our enemy. By the grace of God we pass on the safety of the dry land as the warrior king Jesus fights for his people. Then at the command of God the waters come crashing down on our enemy. As Jesus hung on Golgotha s tree, all the world could finally see, the cost of that which to be free, to deliver the oppressed to victory. Christ the warrior has won, through the death of God s holy one, sin and death our enemies done, crushed by the blood of God s own son. May we never lose sight of the glorious Gospel rescue God has given us. You are the damsel in distress and the helpless child in the fire. You are the bird in the cage and the man in the grave. All our lives we are chased by our own sin, yet God rescues us. Our rescue is by God s own hand. The text in Exodus couldn t make it any clearer. It is God who fights for his people. The people of Israel are passive. It is God in his omnipotent power that throws the greatest military force in the known world like rag dolls into the red sea. God too single handedly delivers us from our sin. We are impotent and powerless, yet we have a God who fights for us. Some of you this morning might very well be trying to fight your own battle. You ve tried to be self-disciplined. You ve tried therapy. You ve tried the self- 3

help books. You ve tried positive thinking. The mistake is in thinking that you can free yourself from sin on your own. This day may you rest from your fighting and let God fight for you. Put your faith in him, in Christ! Then you will see that you will pass through the waters on dry land, as God wins the day. To Worship (15:1-21) God is the rescuer. He frees his people. How should we respond to this Gospel? What is the proper response to good news? It is worship. God rescues us in love to set apart a people of his own possession to worship him.as the people of Israel stand on the opposite bank of the red sea, the people begin to burst in exuberant praise. In chapter 15, we see the song of Moses and the people of Israel. In response to their rescue, the people worship. This is a song of celebration of God s defeat of Egypt. I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and the rider he has thrown into the sea. (v. 1) In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries at the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap (v7-8) God has demonstrated complete and total victory of the people of Egypt. They sank like lead into the waters, all by the gloriously powerful hand of God. The song climaxes with a series of question in v. 11, Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? The answer to the question is obvious. There is no one like him and no one to compare him. In these first 15 chapters of the book of Exodus the narrative has been driven by one main question who is the Lord? His name is Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the one true God who executes 4

judgment on the idols of Egypt and who powerfully delivers the people of Abraham through the waters of the Red Sea. Now, all the nations are beginning to hear about the greatness of the God of ISrael. The peoples have heard; they tremble. (v. 14). Edom is dismayed. Moab is trembling. The Canaanites have melted away. All the earth is beginning to hear about the greatness of God. God will fulfill his promises and deliver the people into the land he has promised them. Notice where God is taking the people in verse 17. Moses sings, You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. Moses says that God has rescued them for worship. God is going to bring his people to the place of worship. This is why I decided to entitle the series through the book of Exodus as I have rescued to worship. The book follows this structure. The first have describes the rescue of God s people from the Egyptians. The second half is God bringing them to the mountain of God to receive his Law and establish his covenant with them. Why does God rescue us? What is his motive? Well, on obvious motive is that he loves us. God is love, and it was his love that led him to send his son to free us from our sin. Though, I believe there is a greater motive to why God rescues us and it is this his glory. It is his passion for his name that leads him to rescue a people from oppression and set them apart as his own so that they can worship him. I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. (Isaiah 42:8, ESV) everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. (Isaiah 43:7, ESV) I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay; I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory. (Isaiah 46:13, ESV) 5

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. (Isaiah 48:11, ESV) So God s primary motive is his passion for his own name. His glory, the highest good in the universe, motivates him to send his son in love to us to rescue us. He does this so that he might have a people, his church, made up of all the peoples of the earth to glorify him in worship. We are rescued to worship. This means that worship is the purpose of your existence. You were made to find your identity and your being as the instrument of praise God has made you to be. After all, this is the only response to God s redemptive work isn t? As we think about our sin and how God saves us in spite of who we are? As we think about the love he lavishes on us in Christ Jesus, our brother, who goes to the cross on our behalf, and as we think about the glories of his victorious worship. Shouldn t our response be just like Moses and the Israelites as we say, I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously? So how do we respond in worship to God? If I have by faith accepted the rescuing work of God, how to I respond back in worship? Let me suggest to you a few ways from the Scripture. 1. Worshiping God means Treasuring the Son The first thing it means is for us to treasure Christ. It means from our deepest parts of our soul, Jesus is our all consuming treasure. There is no pleasure, no person, and no thing on this planet that has our affections like Jesus. As we have come to him in faith, we see him as the pearl of great price. We see that to live is Christ and to die is gain. It means all our eggs are in one basket. We have given Jesus everything we are and we have submitted our life to our glorious and loving king. When Christ is your treasure you seek him, you know him, you value him. The things of this earth will begin to look strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace. He captivates your gaze and holds your focus for eternity. 6

Do you treasure Christ like this? To love him is to worship him. Is your life and identity tied up into who Jesus is, or is your identity and joy found in lesser things work, family, romance, technology, success, wealth, sex? To be a Christian is to treasure Christ solely and see all of your life as under his authority and rule. 2. Worshiping God means living in holiness Worshiping God also means living in holiness. As the people of Israel prepare to travel to Mount Sinai to receive the law of God, God is going to call them to holiness. To be God s people means that we live differently in response to his mercy. He calls us to live in purity and in distinction from the world. This means we are to see our selves as a holy people who are but distinct exiles in this world. We don t really belong and we don t fit in with the culture around us. We are set apart. Our marriages look different than the surrounding culture. We speak truth even when it is costly. We show love to others a great personal expense. We forgive one another and refuse to hold grudges. We gather together with other believers to worship God. We confess our sins. We repent of our failures. We are constantly growing and being shaped by the Spirit of God, conforming into the righteousness of the blameless son of God that covers us. Are you seeking personal holiness in your life? Are you honoring God with your body, as one bought with a price? Or do you love sin? Are you addicted to the desires of your flesh and to the numbing sensation of entertainment? Are you selfish, greedy, and prideful? This is not the way to worship. We worship God by seeking personal holiness as his redeemed people. 3. Worshiping God means living on mission. Thirdly, worshiping God means living on mission for God. God rescues us so that all the people of the earth might hear about his glorious name. Isn t that what happens here in Exodus? As God rescues Israel all the nations of the earth hear about the greatness and power of the God of Israel? 7

We too as the new covenant people, saved by the blood of Christ, have been given the same mission. We have the mission to go to the ends of the earth and spread the Gospel of Jesus. We are to share with others the good news of what God has done and call others to repent and believe in Jesus. This is the Great Commission. We are to make disciples of all nations. We are the people of God sent out for the mission of God. As you prepare to leave this place this morning, may you worship the Lord by telling others what he has done! Final Thoughts We are rescued to worship. As we pass through the blood of Christ, our sins are forgiven and our enemy death is defeated. We are saved by the grace and powerful hand of God. In response to God s rescuing love, we are to worship him. We give him our lives as Christ is our treasure. We live in holiness as the distinct people of God. We go and tell others about Christ so that the glory of God can spread through every human heart. So there are two questions I wish you to think on with the Spirit s help. First, Have you been rescued by God? Perhaps this morning you are lost in your sin. Your enemy is still breathing down your neck seeking your life. Trust in the Lord Jesus today who fights for you. In faith, call out to him and you will swash you clean from your sin and defeat your enemy. He will rescue you, if you will believe in him. Second, if you have been rescued by God, are you living your life in worship to him? Is Christ your treasure and joy? Are you seeking personal holiness? Do you need to repent of sin this morning? Do you need to commit to share the Gospel of Christ with someone this week? Church may we live our life unto 8

the glory God in worship. We are a rescued people, and we are rescued to worship. 2015 Forest Hills Baptist Church 9