This morning we have a guest preacher, since Matthew is on vacation, I'd like to ask Jeff
Kreisel to come forward.
Jeff is the RUF pastor at the Air Force Academy, and if you would like to know more about his
ministry, I'm sure he would be glad to tell you about it, and he even has a sign-up sheet
out front for his email newsletter, and he also brought swag.
So please welcome Jeff Kreisel.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Jeff Kreisel.
I'm the RUF campus minister at the Air Force Academy.
I'm excited to be here.
I always love coming to Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church and worshiping with you all and bringing
God's word to God's people here.
So for those who are unfamiliar with RUF, it stands for Reformed University Fellowship.
RUF is the PCA's campus ministry.
We're at 160 campuses, not only nationwide, but globally.
God is doing some amazing things through RUF, and I'd love to tell you more about what he's
doing at the Air Force Academy.
I will talk your ear off if you grab me after the service.
RUF strives to bring the church to the campus because we believe that the campus is in desperate
need of the church.
That is our goal.
That is our hope.
So that is what we are after.
So fun fact, the last time I preached at Cheyenne Mountain was the first Sunday in 2019.
And now I get to preach the last Sunday in 2019.
So my year, your year, I guess, has been bookended with me being here at Cheyenne Mountain.
It's kind of neat.
A lot has happened this past year in my life, in our ministry.
We have made some difficult decisions.
We have faced some very difficult crossroads.
I'm sure you all have been through the same.
As you think back over your 2019, what were some of the difficult decisions that you made
this year?
What were some of the terrifying crossroads that you faced or the roads that you chose
to take?
And have you been pleased with the roads that you have chosen?
Or have your choice has been accompanied by doubt and regret?
Perhaps you started a new job.
You accepted a new job this year.
And it has far exceeded your expectations.
It has been just a godsend.
Or maybe you accepted a job and it has not met any of your expectations.
And it has just drained you.
It has sucked the life out of you and your family and your marriage.
Maybe you bought a new house in 2019.
And you love this new house.
It's perfect.
Or maybe you bought a new house and it is falling apart.
And you're starting to regret that you didn't buy that other house that you were eyeballing.
Or maybe you regret that you bought a house at all.
Maybe in 2019, you stood at the reconciliation crossroads with one of your family or friends.
Perhaps you went down this one road and you pursued reconciliation and they rejected your offer.
And that hurt really bad.
Or maybe you took this other road and you chose not to pursue reconciliation.
You're going to kick that can down the road a little bit, maybe into 2020, which isn't a bad thing.
But which road did you choose?
We choose all sorts of roads day in and day out.
So as you head into 2020, what are some of the crossroads that you're facing?
What are some of the difficult decisions that are driving your New Year's resolutions?
That's one way to find out what crossroads you're facing.
Perhaps you are like me and you are standing at that dreaded weight loss crossroads.
I feel it every year.
You're looking down one road and you see a path that leads to sacrificing your time to work out consistently and to prepare healthy meals.
And there's sacrifice required for that road.
Or you can take this other road, which is comfortable and it's familiar.
You know, it's easy.
You love that road.
But then at the end of the year and your pants are bigger and your waist is larger and you're like, man, I'm going to maybe take that other road in 2021.
You know, maybe you are at a crossroads of a recurring struggle.
A recurring struggle that just won't go away.
Maybe you're struggling with alcohol or with porn or with workaholism or with greed or with materialism and you're tired of it and you're standing at this crossroads and you're wanting to know, you're trying to decide which path should I take.
You look down one road and you're like, this road requires me to have awkward community and vulnerability.
And I have to be honest about my struggles and that's painful.
And I'm not sure if I want to go down that road, even though I know it would be for my good.
Or I can go down this road, which means I'm going to retain a bad habit, something that I hate, but I simultaneously love.
Right.
Which road are you going to choose?
The challenge with any crossroads is that there's pros and cons to whichever way that you go.
There is a cost that we so often are not willing to pay.
Each road looks bumpy.
Each road looks less than ideal.
Some roads lead to uncomfortable lifestyle changes.
Right.
Some roads are marked by the fear of the unknown.
Some roads take us back to the status quo.
And then there are some roads that lead us to places that we know will harm us.
But man, that road looks so enticing.
It's just painted with like fool's gold.
And we want to take that road every chance we get.
What do you do when you are standing at a crossroads and every direction looks terrible?
Or every direction looks like a dead end and you feel stuck?
Are there any other options?
Or are you stuck at that crossroads for another year?
In our passage this morning, the Israelites find themselves at a terrifying crossroads.
Every direction looked like a dead end.
It was a dead end.
But God, in his great mercy, he makes a way.
He makes another option.
He paves another road.
And this road goes straight through the chaotic waters of the Red Sea.
And he brings the Israelites from slavery to freedom.
In a moment, he brings them from death to life.
And that's where we are this morning in Exodus 14.
So if you are willing and able, I invite you to stand for the reading of God's word.
We'll be looking at Exodus 14, verses 5 through 22.
And it's somewhat of a long passage.
So bend your knees.
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people.
And they said, What is this that we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?
So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him.
And he took 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.
And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
And he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.
The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army,
and overtook them and camped at the sea by Pahaharoth in front of Baal-zaphon.
When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes.
And behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly.
And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord.
They said to Moses, Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?
What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?
Is not this what we said to you in Egypt?
Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.
And Moses said to the people, Fear not.
Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.
For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.
The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.
The Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me?
Tell the people of Israel to go forward.
Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it,
that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.
And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them.
And I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen.
And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.
Then the angel of God, who was going before the host of Israel, moved and went behind them.
And the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them,
coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel.
And there was the cloud and the darkness, and it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night
and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground,
the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
This is the word of the Lord.
Let me pray for us.
Gracious and good Heavenly Father, as we celebrated this Advent season,
the coming of the Messiah, Emmanuel, God incarnate,
we know that you are with us.
We know that you are present.
We pray that we also would be present and attentive to your word this morning.
We pray that you would focus our hearts and our minds on you.
And it's through Christ's name we pray. Amen.
You may be seated.
All right, so in Exodus 14, the Israelites are at this terrifying crossroads.
After the 10th plague, the 10th plague was the one in which the Lord passed through Egypt,
and he killed all of the firstborn sons who were not protected,
who weren't sheltered under the blood of the Passover lamb.
Okay, the blood of the Passover lamb acted as a substitutionary sacrifice for them
so that God could pass over.
The Egyptians, though, were not spared.
They had had enough of these plagues.
They had had enough of the Israelites.
You see, the pros were now way down here,
and the cons now outweighed the pros by a landslide.
Okay, and the Egyptians were like, we're done with the Israelites.
Take what you want.
They gave them this large spoil, and they kicked them out of Egypt.
But not much time passes.
The dust finally settles, and Pharaoh, he once again, he regrets his decision.
He realizes that he just pushed out their entire slave labor force out of their nation.
And so he gathers his massive, powerful, superpower army,
and he takes, it says, 600 chosen chariots, and then all the rest of his chariots.
So he has a slew of chariots.
And keep in mind, chariots were like the killing machines of the ancient Near East, right?
They would be akin to like F-22s or F-35s or Bradleys or Apaches or whatnot.
These were like the killing machines of the day.
And he takes all of them, and they start chasing after 2 million Israelite,
essentially peasants, children and elderly included.
So keep in mind, the Israelites aren't going on some casual ruck march out of Egypt, okay?
This is a hard, hard march, okay?
They are carrying their children.
They are caring for their elderly.
They are dragging along all of their possessions.
And they just got a lot of new possessions when they were pushed out of Egypt.
They got all sorts of gold and heavy items.
They were guiding all of their livestock through a desert, mind you, okay?
This was not an easy hike.
They were easy pickings for the Egyptian army.
And so the Israelites are at a crossroads.
They really only have four options, four directions they can go.
They can try to run along the shore.
They can go left or right.
But the Egyptians are in chariots.
And so eventually the Israelites are going to be caught,
and they're going to be forced back into slavery, okay?
So left and right don't look like great options, okay?
Another option is they can do an about-face,
and they can try to take on the Egyptians head-on, right?
They can try to go toe-to-toe with this great superpower.
But they're a superpower.
And the Israelites are essentially a bunch of non-military peasants.
How were they going to defeat this large military?
So going backwards didn't seem like a great option either.
The only other option they had was to go forward
and try to swim across the Red Sea
with all of their stuff, with all their children,
with all of their livestock.
And keep in mind, back in the ancient world,
swimming wasn't exactly a popular pastime.
Most biblical historians,
they believe that very few in the ancient world
were even able to swim.
So if they had even tried that option,
they would have eventually drowned, okay?
They were in quite the pickle.
They were stuck.
They couldn't go left, right, back, or forwards.
They couldn't fight their way out.
They couldn't run away,
and they couldn't swim their way out of this.
They couldn't save themselves.
And so the Israelites did the only thing that they could do.
That is this.
They cry out to God.
They pray to God.
Now, while this was the right thing to do,
okay, it was right for them at this crossroads
to pray to God,
but they do it in a really twisted way.
You see, instead of crying out to God for deliverance,
they cry out at God with accusations of abandonment.
And there's a massive difference between the two here.
They cry out at God for abandoning them.
And they start condemning God through their mediator, Moses.
And they say, essentially,
what have you done bringing us out of Egypt?
Life was good back in Egypt.
Don't you remember, Moses,
how good life was back in Egypt?
Yeah, they were harsh to us,
and they treated us like lowly slaves.
And oh, yeah, of course,
there was the whole incident
where they were throwing our children
into the Nile River.
But that was on us.
We were the ones being obstinate and disruptive.
We'll be better this time.
We'll go back to slavery
where it's familiar and safe,
as if it's safe at all,
to go back to slavery.
And we'll be better this time, right?
And then they say this sarcastic line.
They say, is it because there are no graves in Egypt
that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?
That's such a low blow, right,
to Moses, who has just delivered them
from this wicked, terrible situation.
You see what has happened here.
The crossroads in which they are standing,
the fear that they are experiencing
has caused them to become delusional.
They're starting to rewrite history,
their own history.
If you recall, the night before Exodus 14,
the Israelites are celebrating
the fact that God has delivered them,
that he has given them this Passover lamb
to cover and atone for their sins,
that he was going to make a way for them
from slavery to freedom.
They're worshiping God.
They're dancing.
And now they're wanting to go back to slavery in Egypt
because the fear they're experiencing
at this crossroads.
They're looking down all of the roads
and each road appears to be a dead end
and their present fear has caused them
to forget their past oppression.
All right?
They have short-term memories
when it comes to the oppression
they experienced before.
And the same is so often true for us.
Like the Israelites,
when we find ourselves
at difficult crossroads,
where difficult decisions have to be made,
or when an old oppressor
or an old struggle
or an old bad habit
is like hot on our tails,
wanting to enslave us,
wanting to bring us down,
wanting to allure us back
to our old behaviors,
our old way of life.
We are prone to look back
at our old way of life
and think to ourselves,
it wasn't that bad.
It wasn't that bad.
But it was that bad, right?
It was that bad.
We just so quickly forget how bad it was.
We think that our old life,
the familiar,
can satisfy us
when we know in our heart
that it won't.
You see, your old life
wants you to forget
how bad it was before.
It wants you to feel like
there is no escape.
It wants you to feel like
your only option is to concede
and start walking backwards.
It wants you to feel hopeless.
It wants you to feel stuck.
But don't forget
what life was like before.
Don't forget
what the oppression
that you experienced before.
My friends,
there is no joy
in jealousy.
Ever.
Why would you go back to that?
There is no rest in rage.
There is no peace and panic
and there is no love and lust.
Never.
Right?
Why would we go back to that?
We know these things,
but when we find ourselves
at crossroads,
like in Exodus 14,
our fear,
it causes us to forget
our past oppression
and then go back to it.
But I want to remind you
that at these crossroads,
you aren't stuck.
Okay?
You can look to the left,
you can look to the right,
you can look backwards
and forwards,
and they may all look
like dead ends.
But thankfully,
it goes to an out-of-the-box thinker.
And in Exodus 14,
we see him graciously pave
another road
that takes them
straight through the sea.
Verse 13 and 14,
Moses says these words.
He says,
Fear not,
stand firm,
and see the salvation
of the Lord,
which he will work for you.
The Lord will fight for you,
and all you have to be
is silent.
In other words,
stand still
and watch God work.
You can't save yourself.
You are stuck.
But I can save you.
Right?
He's saying,
I'm going to get you through this.
I'm going to make another way.
All you have to do
is just stand still
and be silent.
But here's the thing,
we don't like standing still
and being silent.
Right?
Especially when it comes
to our salvation.
We feel like we have
to contribute something,
anything,
to our salvation.
standing still
and being silent
requires us
to trust in God
more than ourselves.
It requires us
to relinquish
the one thing
that we hold so dear,
and that is
our sense of control.
Right?
We have to believe
that God knows
what's best for us.
We have to believe
that God is for us,
that he is with us,
and that he loves us
more than we can fathom.
We have to believe
that serving God
is more life-giving,
it is more satisfying,
than serving Pharaoh.
Everyone serves something
or someone, right?
Everyone serves a Pharaoh.
My Pharaoh may be
different than your Pharaoh,
but it's the exact same Pharaoh.
Right?
It's a Pharaoh
who wants to pull you back
into an old way,
an old pattern,
an old habit.
It's a Pharaoh
who demands
your full allegiance,
and then when you try
to escape,
he hunts you down
and tries to put
the shackles back on.
Now, what is your Pharaoh
this morning?
What Pharaoh
are you prone to serve?
To rephrase this question,
what do you serve
to give your life meaning?
If it isn't God,
it's a Pharaoh, okay?
And it can be
a very good thing
that we turn into God things,
and when we do that,
those things become
worthless things.
All right?
Is it your job?
Is that the thing
that you are serving
to give your life meaning?
Is it your reputation?
Is it your hobbies?
Is it your family?
Is it your friends?
Is it your looks?
Is it your parents' approval?
What is it
that you serve
to give your life meaning?
After winning
an Academy Award,
Reese Witherspoon,
she held her new trophy
tightly to her chest,
and she said these words.
She said,
I'm just trying to matter,
and you have all
made me feel tonight
that I might have
accomplished that.
You see what
Reese Witherspoon has done?
She has made the opinions
of others her Pharaoh.
She was serving them
to get meaning.
Madonna says this
about her life.
She said,
my drive in life
comes from the fear
of being mediocre.
I push past
one spell of it
and discover myself
as a special human being.
But then I feel
that I am mediocre
unless I do something else,
because even though
I have become somebody,
I still have to prove
that I am somebody,
and my struggle
has never ended,
and I guess
it never will.
She's swimming upstream.
She's serving a Pharaoh
that can't meet her needs.
Exodus 14 shows us
that the struggle
that she faces,
the upstream swimming,
it can end.
We aren't stuck
at this crossroads,
because God has graciously
entered the crossfire.
Did you see this
in verse 19,
what God does?
Verse 19 says,
then the angel of God
who was going before
the host of Israel
moved and went
behind them,
coming between
the host of Egypt
and the host of Israel.
I don't know why
we missed that.
We kind of glossed
over that point.
That God moved
from being in the front
to going to the rear
to shield and defend them
from the Egyptian superpower.
You see,
God stands between
the Israelites
and their enemies.
He says to Pharaoh
with that action,
if you want to attack,
if you want to condemn
my people,
you have to go
through me first.
You have to go through me
and good luck with that.
Right?
And he says the same thing
to your Pharaohs as well.
He says,
if you want to get
to my child,
if you want to condemn
my child,
you have to go
through me first.
And my friends,
that is some really,
really good news.
That we have a God
who shields us
from our enemies.
Now this may surprise you,
but my favorite part
about being a campus minister,
it isn't going snowboarding
with my cadets
or beating them
and bowling.
They're all so terrible
at bowling.
It isn't even officiating
their wedding ceremonies,
which is like
such a joy.
My favorite part
about being a campus minister
is when a cadet
comes to me
with tears
streaking down their face
with their head
hanging low
because they feel
the weight of their guilt
and their shame
and I get to be the one
who reminds them
of Romans 8 verse 1.
There is now
no condemnation
for those who are
in Christ Jesus.
I get to say that to them
over and over
and over again
to press that truth
into their soul
so they believe it.
There is now
no condemnation
for those
who are in Christ Jesus.
In other words,
when God stands
between you and Pharaoh
and he says,
you can't condemn my child,
he is saying
to your sin,
you can't condemn them.
He's saying
to other people's opinions
of you,
you can't condemn
my child.
He's saying
to you
when you try
to condemn yourself,
you can't condemn
my child
because there is
no condemnation
because I shield
them from it.
The other thing
that God does here
is he not only
shields them
from Pharaoh
but his deliverance
is decisive.
Right?
Did you notice this?
In Romans 8 verse 1
it says,
there is now
no condemnation.
I love that word now.
I love that Paul
threw that word in there.
That present tense reality
that we now experience
no condemnation.
As Christians,
we live
in an objective
no condemnation reality.
Even if
we live our lives
as if we are still
under condemnation,
we're free from it.
Okay?
In Exodus 14,
the Israelites'
deliverance
was decisive.
It was a now
deliverance.
Okay?
In one moment
they were doomed.
In one moment
they're on this side
of the Red Sea.
They're on the
condemnation side.
And then in the next moment
they're on this side
of the Red Sea.
They're on the
justification side.
In one moment
it happens like that.
It was a decisive shift
from being in slavery
to being in freedom,
from being under death
to being in life.
And this is the paradigm
of our salvation as well.
The Red Sea
is our paradigm.
Okay?
When we cross over
decisively from life,
from death to life.
In Christianity,
God brings us
from death
into life
in a decisive act.
every other religion
says that justification,
it's the process,
it's being right
with God,
becoming right
with God.
Justification
is a process
in every other
religion
except for
Christianity.
Okay?
In every other religion
it says,
do this
and do this
and do this.
Follow all these rules
and regulations
and maybe you have
what it takes.
Maybe you're strong enough
to earn your way
into heaven
or nirvana
or enlightenment.
This is what
they essentially say.
They say,
okay,
you can't go left,
you can't go right,
you can't go back.
So start swimming
even though you can't swim.
Like how cruel
do you have to be
to like throw someone
into water
and say,
swim your way to shore
when they can't swim.
That's essentially
what every religion does.
every religion
entails
telling its followers,
try harder.
Keep trying.
It's on you.
And as a result,
in those systems,
there is never
any rest.
There's never
any assurance
of salvation
because you never know
if you've done enough,
if you've swam far enough.
You never know
if you've reached the shore.
Every religion
says start swimming.
When Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones,
one of my favorite theologians,
when he would,
he would want to figure out
where somebody stood spiritually,
he wouldn't beat around the bush.
He wouldn't overcomplicate evangelism.
He would just ask him this question.
He said,
are you a Christian?
And if their response
was,
well,
I'm trying,
Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones
would go on to explain
that their answer
indicated that they had no idea
what Christianity
was all about.
What makes one a Christian
is not a change in effort,
but a change in status, right?
It's your status
that changes your effort.
It's not your effort
that changes your status.
We can't get that backwards.
This status change
is decisive, right?
On my wedding day,
I went from being
not married
to married
in a moment.
My marital status
changed
in a decisive declaration,
I now pronounce you
husband and wife.
In that moment,
my life changed.
Something decisive
had changed
in my status.
Now,
what if someone
came up to me
12 years later
and asked,
hey Jeff,
are you married?
And I said,
well,
I'm trying.
That'd probably be
a very confusing
response for them
to hear,
and if my wife
was overhearing,
she'd probably
smack me upside
the top of my head.
There's no
I'm trying
in marriage.
You are either married
or you aren't married.
There's no
like middle ground
called
I'm trying.
Okay?
And likewise,
you are either
a Christian
or you aren't
a Christian.
You're either
on this side
of the Red Sea
or you're on
this side
of the Red Sea.
You're either
on the condemnation
side
or you're on
the justification
side.
There is no
I'm trying
middle ground.
The I'm trying
middle ground
is really called
lost.
Through faith
in Christ,
you cross over
from death
to life.
You cross over
from being
in Pharaoh's
kingdom
and under
his rule
and reign
to being
under God's
kingdom,
under God's
rule and reign.
When you cross
over,
you go from
being out
of God's
family
to being
in God's
family
in a moment
and you're
in that family
forever.
You cross over
from being
under God's
curse
to being
under God's
blessing.
Have you
crossed over?
are you
in God's
family?
Are you
a citizen
of God's
kingdom?
Are you
a part
of his
church,
Christ's
bride?
I pray
that you
are.
Have you
crossed
over?
Listen,
you don't
cross over
because of
the quantity
or the
quality of
your faith.
You cross
over because
of the
object of
your faith.
The object
of our
faith being
the one
who can
part the
waves,
the one
who is
gracious,
when we
are
faithless,
the one
who stands
between us
and Pharaoh
and acts
as our
shield and
defender.
It's the
object of
our faith
that matters.
In Exodus
14, it
shows us
that crossing
over from
one side
to the
other, it's
by God's
grace alone.
In that
verse, it
says,
fear not,
see the
Lord's
salvation,
that he
will work
for you.
Look, it
wasn't long
ago.
It was
probably like,
I don't
know, a
few minutes,
30 minutes,
an hour or
so before
the seas
part, that
the Israelites
are accusing
God of
abandoning
them.
They're
essentially
mocking God
and mocking
his mediator.
They're
demonstrating
how faithless
they truly
are.
Faith wasn't
exactly the
Israelites'
strongest
attribute.
Right?
But get
this, they
still crossed
over.
They still
crossed
over, and
they crossed
over with
all of their
mess, with
all of their
doubts, with
all of their
struggles, and
guess what?
God still held
back the
water.
Even though
each Israelite
had a
different quality
of faith,
they were
all equally
saved.
Likewise, in
Christianity, you
cross over with
all of your
mess.
you cross
over with
all your
doubts, with
all your
struggles.
You don't
have to
clean yourself
up first.
You don't
have to
prove yourself
worthy.
You don't
have to
swim a
little bit
first.
As we're
going to
see next
Sunday, I
get to be
here with
y'all for
two weeks
straight, which
is awesome.
This week, we're
really focusing
on justification.
Next week, we're
going to focus
on sanctification.
Next week, we're
going to see
that until
you're on the
justification
side of the
Red Sea, the
sanctification
process cannot
begin.
But here's
the thing.
You can't
cross over the
sea on your
own.
And we know
it, but we
try so hard to
get across.
To get across, you
need a mediator.
You need someone
who's going to
obey God's
word and who's
going to part
the waters and
is going to
make a way
when there was
no way before.
You need someone
who would be
faithful for
you.
You see, when
the Israelites
were standing at
this crossroads
and the Egyptians
are right on,
like they're hot
on their tail,
their first
reaction, it's
like their
natural response
was to start
accusing God,
to start blaming
God for
abandoning them.
They essentially
say, you did
this to us.
Like some gods
you are.
You brought us
out of Egypt
just to die in
the wilderness.
We'd rather
serve Pharaoh
than you.
That's what
they say to
the God of
the universe
who just
delivered them
from Egypt.
And how does
God respond to
their faithlessness?
He turns to
Moses, the one
person who was
faithful, the one
person who wasn't
accusing God of
abandoning them,
the one person
who was faithful
throughout this
process, and he
rebukes Moses on
behalf of the
Israelites'
faithlessness.
The one person
who didn't
deserve to be
rebuked was
rebuked because
of his role as
their mediator, as
their representative.
And as a result,
he essentially
takes upon
himself the
Israelites'
faithlessness, and
he gives them his
faithfulness.
He gives them the
favor that God has
bestowed on him
so that he could
part the waves and
that they could walk
on dry ground.
Moses was a great
prophet, but we
know on this side
of the cross that
Moses was ultimately
a foretype of a
greater prophet who
would bring about an
infinitely greater
redemption.
It was the night
before Jesus'
crucifixion, and he
retreated to the
Garden of
Gethsemane, and he
found himself at the
most terrifying
crossroads.
Moses.
His enemies
surrounded him.
In a sense, he was
stuck.
He was boxed in, but
unlike the Israelites,
Jesus had the power to
save himself.
This was the man who
fed the 5,000.
He created nothing.
He created something
from nothing, right?
This is the guy who
walked on water, who
healed the lame,
healed the blind,
who raised people
from the dead and
cast out demons.
That's how powerful
Jesus is.
Jesus could have
Thanos snapped
all of the, all of
his enemies
out of existence.
He could have
snapped them into
dust, but that
wasn't the road that
he chose.
Instead, he took the
road that led to a
cross where he would
die in our place.
You see, in
Gethsemane, Jesus
cried out to God.
But unlike the
Israelites who cried
out to God in an
accusatory way, Jesus
cries out to God in
this faith-saturated
prayer in which he
relinquishes control
and he says, not my
will, but your will.
And he knew what that
prayer meant.
With those words, he
chose a road that
would take him to a
cross.
He chose the road of a
criminal so that we
could take the road
of adoption.
He chose the road of
a slave so that we
could take the road of
freedom.
And he chose the road
of death so that we
could take the road of
life.
He chose the road that
would lead him into the
chaotic waters of
death.
In order to
construct an
imperishable road with
his blood that leads
us to new life.
It's the great
deliverance story.
As you head into
2020, you have a lot
of difficult decisions
to make.
There aren't many
guarantees in life, but
this is one thing that
we all know is certain,
and that is that trials
will come your way.
The Christian life does
not promise an easy
life.
In fact, it promises the
exact opposite.
In 2020, you're going
to face some difficult,
terrifying crossroads.
You're going to have to
make decisions that are
costly.
You're going to have to
make decisions that are
painful.
You're going to make
decisions that may alter
the trajectory of your
life and those around
you.
But if you're a
Christian, when you find
yourself at these
difficult crossroads in
2020, and you feel the
enemy closing in, you
feel that old way of
life luring you back, I
pray that you will let
these words that Moses
said to the Israelites
wash over you again and
again, day after day.
Fear not.
Stand firm and see the
salvation of the Lord,
which he will work for
you.
Through faith in Christ,
you are standing not on
the condemnation side of
the sea.
And that changes the way
that you do life.
You're on the
justification side.
So strive to make
decisions in 2020 that is
in accordance with that
reality.
Make decisions that say,
I believe that my
justification is true.
You can face the most
terrifying crossroads with
confidence and you can
make very difficult
decisions because you
know that the God who
sent his only son to die
for you, he will not
leave or abandon you
now.
He will make a way
because that's the kind
of God that he is.
And that's the promise
that he makes to us each
and every day.
Have you crossed over?
Amen.
Let me pray for us.
Heavenly Father, we
thank you for this
paradigm of salvation
that you have shown us
in Exodus 14.
Because of your
overwhelming grace,
that you have decided
to free us from a life
of oppression and bring
us into a life of
freedom.
Not because of anything
that we have done, but
because of your sovereign
grace alone.
We pray that you would
continue to shield and
defend us from the
enemy, that you would
keep us from the
allurements and the
enticements of this
world.
Keep us from Pharaoh's
grip.
We thank you that you
love us so much that you
would send your only son
to pave a new road with
his blood into life.
We pray these things in
Christ's name.
Amen.