(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Men, this morning I'm going to be preaching about actually Exodus chapter number 15, which is the song that is sung after the great triumph at the Red Sea, where the children of Israel cross on dry land with the wall of water on either side of them. We just read about the story in chapter 14 to get the background. But in chapter 15, we have this song that's being sung in verse number one. It says, then saying Moses and the children of Israel, this song unto the Lord and spake saying, I will sing unto the Lord for you triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. Now, what's interesting about this is that what we read here in chapter 15 is going to be a song that's very similar to songs that we would find in the book of Psalms, right? We have this giant book in the Bible called Psalms that contains 150 such songs. And some of them are actually very similar to this, where they tell a story and they recount some great act that the Lord did, maybe even about the Red Sea and the wilderness and things like that, when we get around Psalm 106, 107, that region of the book of Psalms. And so it's kind of interesting here because it interrupts the narrative story to give us this song sort of reflecting back on what just happened. So in one sense, this is a musical, okay? Where, you know, the action finishes and then we have a song about it. Just kidding. But anyway, in this song, we find a lot of great spiritual content, just like all of the Psalms in the book of Psalms have a lot of doctrinal depth and they have a lot of spirit filled content. It's not just that Moses and the children of Israel wrote this song themselves or sang this song of their own heart. It's actually inspired by God. That's why it's in the Bible, right? All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and this would be an inspired hymn that is actually people speaking as they're moved by the Holy Ghost. So although Moses and the children of Israel humanly composed this song after the Red Sea triumph, they're inspired by God, and so it's God's word. It represents absolute truth, just like the rest of the Bible. So it says in verse number one, Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. And so the big theme about this song is how God is the one who fought their battle for them. And this is exactly what the Egyptians had just said when we read in chapter 14, where they said, Man, we got to get out of here because the Lord is fighting for the children of Israel. And so both the Egyptians recognize that, and the Israelites themselves recognize that. And the important thing about this is that this crossing of the Red Sea, obviously it pictures a lot of things, but one of the things that it pictures is salvation, okay? And we're going to see that a lot in this passage. And of course, when it comes to salvation, who gets all the credit for salvation? Who gets all the glory for salvation? It's the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. It's Jesus Christ, who is our Savior, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. And when we go out talking to people in this world today who claim to be Christians, they often will say, Well, I know I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person, because I keep the commandments, because I go to church, because I haven't done anything that bad, because I live a good life. But my friend, salvation is by grace through faith, not of works lest any man should boast. The works that we would boast about in regard to salvation are the works that Jesus Christ did to give us salvation. It's his death, his burial and resurrection that saves us. We don't save ourselves through turning over a new leaf, cleaning up our life, doing good deeds, et cetera. So it says here in verse 2 on that note, The Lord is my strength and my song, and he is become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare him inhabitation, my Father's God, and I will exalt him. Now let's stop and look at this for a moment. It says he is become my salvation. Now that's an important word there, become, because when we see the word become, it means that something has changed, right? Because otherwise the word become wouldn't make any sense. For example, in John chapter 1 verse 12, it says, But as many as received him, talking about Jesus, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even them that believe on his name. So what does it mean to become a son of God? It means that you were not previously a son of God, but that you have become a son of God, okay? That should be obvious just if we understand our own English language today, right? But a lot of people have this attitude that just says, Oh, well, we're all God's children. We're all children of God. But hold on a second. No, we become children of God when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the Bible says. And here the Bible says that the Lord is become my salvation. That is something that just happened. Why? Because they just got saved. Now, in this story, obviously, the salvation is physical, right? They're in a situation where the Egyptians are pursuing hotly after them. They're between a rock and a hard place. They're up against the Red Sea. Ah, there's no way to flee. The Egyptians are coming. What do we do? And then God saves them physically. He saves their actual skin by parting the Red Sea so that they can escape from the Egyptians across the Red Sea. That's what happened in the story here. But notice that that's when God became their salvation because he saved them. Well, let me explain something to you. When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's when God becomes your salvation at that point. Now, God already is salvation in general, but he becomes your salvation when he saves you. Okay? You know, I've talked to people before, and they just say, Well, I've always been saved. But that's not the way it works. He becomes your salvation. You become a son of God when you believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, I remember I went to Christian school, and at this Christian school, you supposedly had to be saved in order to attend because I remember when I signed up for the school, I had to write a one-page salvation testimony. I had to write all about what it meant to be saved and how I got saved and so forth because they just wanted to make sure that the kids who went to the school were actually saved. So I wrote that out. So me, after that, I just naively thought, Well, everybody here is saved because I figured, like, they must have all gone through that process. So everybody wrote that one-page paper, and if they weren't saved, then the school would have gotten them saved. You know, this is just my, you know, 14-year-old brain just assuming that naively. But then I remember one day I was talking to one of my classmates, and I asked him, When did you get saved? And he said, Well, I've always been saved. I've been saved my entire life. And I'm like, What in the world is that supposed to mean? Like, you know, when did you personally put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? When did you call upon the name of the Lord for salvation? And he just said, Well, I've just been a Christian my whole life because I was baptized as a baby. I'm like, Oh, what in the world? So now he's Lutheran, baptized as a baby, believed that you could lose your salvation. I mean, this guy didn't understand the gospel. He didn't understand that we're not saved because we got sprinkled with water as a baby by someone else's decision that we had no control over. No, no, it's when we personally believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that we are personally saved. And by the way, once you're saved, it's eternal. Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. And so then, thankfully, the people that were around me, because I wasn't talking to this guy alone, there were a few other of our mutual friends around us. They all immediately saw what I saw. We were all three of us like, wow, this guy isn't saved. So we proceeded to give the gospel to this guy and preach to this guy. And he wasn't really receptive to what we were saying. He wasn't really interested. He just kind of shrugged and was just gonna stick with what he believes. He's gonna stick with his religion, stick with his thought. And so the moral of the story is don't just assume, let's say you go to a Christian school. I know there are some kids at our church that go to a Christian school. Don't just assume that everybody at that Christian school is saved. Maybe you're part of a homeschool group or you're part of a sports team that's a Christian sports team or whatever. Hey, don't just assume that everybody who's called Christian is actually saved. Talk to people about their salvation. Talk to your friends. And you know what? I don't care if you're 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, why don't you talk about Christ with your peers, right? You don't have to be an adult to talk about Christ with the people around you. Why not speak to your fellow children and teenagers about salvation? And you might be able to win some people to Christ that you maybe had previously just assumed because when you start to talk to them, they might say things like, well, I don't know. I think I'd go to heaven. I'm a good person, right? And then you know, boom, they're not saved. That's not salvation through Jesus. Why? Because Jesus has to become your salvation. He has to become your salvation when you believe on him. And that's what the Bible is saying here. He has become my salvation. Why? Because they're saying we just got saved physically. He just became our physical salvation. Well, guess what? The same thing applies to spiritual salvation according to John chapter one, verse 12. So here's a really interesting thing coming up here right after that. It says, the Lord is my strength and song, verse two, and he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare him on habitation, my father's God, and I will exalt him. Now, what does this mean here? I will prepare him a habitation. Well, on one hand, you could think of this as being prophetic or looking forward to the fact that they're gonna build the tabernacle. They're gonna build ultimately even the temple, many centuries later, and so those places, whether it's the tabernacle or the temple, those end up being called in the Bible the Lord's habitation. So you could think of it as, well, you know, they're gonna build this building, but that's probably not what's going on in this verse specifically because of the fact that the whole blueprint for the tabernacle, that's still coming. They haven't really learned about that yet. They haven't been to Mount Sinai yet and necessarily even learned about that. I mean, maybe they know about that and they realize that that's coming, but honestly, when we talk about preparing a habitation for the Lord, this is more likely, when we read the rest of the chapter, a spiritual place of dwelling for the Lord. You see, God actually dwells among us and dwells in us as believers. For example, in Ephesians 3, verse 17, the Bible says that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ. So the Bible says that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. So in that sense, our heart is a habitation for the Lord. Not only that, but God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. God doesn't dwell in a physical building. God's habitation is in the congregation of his people. The Bible says wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. And so it's sort of like the song that we sing around Christmas time, Joy to the World, Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room, right? Preparing a habitation for the Lord. In fact, it's very similar to what we see here in Exodus chapter 15, pretty biblical song, right? Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room. Let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith. So a habitation for the Lord, I will prepare him habitation means one, I could prepare my heart for the Lord to dwell in my heart or preparing a congregation, a church in the wilderness in which the Lord's gonna dwell, not necessarily a physical building that they may or may not have even really known about yet, although they could be obviously predicting it or looking forward to it. So prepare him habitation, my father's God and I will exalt him. And by the way, I like the term my father's God. Why? Because God is never new, right? The true salvation is never some new doctrine or new idea because if it's new, it isn't true, okay? Because the truth doesn't change. Now, obviously people could pull out interesting new things from the Bible, little things because the Bible is very deep. But when you have some brand new groundbreaking doctrine that just overturns everything we've always believed, go running and screaming in the other direction because it's gonna be a false doctrine, okay? So new gods are what we talked about in Deuteronomy chapter 32. Moses talks about how they followed new gods that their fathers knew not newly sprung up religions and gods and things. Beware, he's our father's God. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. And it says in verse number three, the Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name. Now, why is this being brought up that the Lord is a man of war? It's kind of a strange statement, isn't it? Well, on the one hand, we understand that God is a Trinity, right? God is the father, the son and the Holy Ghost. And so sometimes we'll have verses in the Bible that say God is not a man. Like for example, God is not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he should repent. And then we have other statements like this where it says the Lord is a man of war. Or for example, like when in Genesis chapter 32, Jacob wrestles and says, I've seen God face to face and my life is preserved. He wrestles with a man, the Bible says. He wrestles with a man and then he names the place Peniel, which means face of God and says, I've seen God face to face, my life is preserved. Yet other places God says, no man can see my face and live. So this appears to be a contradiction, right? But it's understood once we get into the New Testament and understand that no man had seen God at any time, the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he had declared him. The way that man could see God is that man could see Jesus, right? Jesus is God in the flesh, God with us. God was manifest in the flesh and dwelled among us. And so when Jesus walked on this earth, if you look into the face of Jesus, if you lived at that time, you are looking into the face of God because there's God in the flesh, but you're not looking at God the father. Nobody can see God the father and live. Jesus is the express image of God the father's person. And so the Lord is a man if we're talking about the second person of the Trinity, if we're talking about Jesus, but obviously when we talk about God the father, God is a spirit, the Bible says, and they that worship him must worship him a spirit and a truth. But that being said about the Lord being a man of war, how about the Lord being a man of war? Why is he described this way? Well, if you would flip over to 1 Samuel chapter 18 1 Samuel chapter 18, and we're going to come back of course to Exodus 15, but go to 1 Samuel chapter 18. What you have to understand is that elsewhere in the Bible, there's this idea where a king goes out to war or an army goes out to fight and when they return, they're greeted by a song of triumph, right? And I'm going to show you one example of this or a couple other examples of it in the Bible, but look at 1 Samuel chapter 18 verse six, it says, and it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul. Does everybody see that? So the women come out singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tablets, with joy, and with instruments of music. And the women answered one another as they played and said, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. So we have this kind of tradition of the men go out and fight the war with the king as their leader, and then when they return, the women have a homecoming for them. And even in modern times, you can think of like troops coming home and there's like a parade or something for the troops that are coming home. So we have this concept of women singing and dancing with timbrels and song and dance for when the returning victors come home from the war. So Exodus chapter 15 is like that. It's basically a song of triumph, but the only warrior is the Lord. And so what's interesting is that we don't just have the women singing, but actually we have men and women both singing because at the end of the chapter in chapter 15, the women are gonna join in and sing a little part themselves. And the point that's being made is that men are singing too. Men and women are singing, and they're all singing in praise of the Lord because he fought the battle 100% on his own. It wasn't done by man at all. So even the men have basically taken on the typical role that the women would play, right? Usually the women would greet the men who've come home from the battle, but instead we have men and women singing praises to one person alone, just the Lord, right? And praising him. He's the warrior that did it. And again, what is the emphasis here? It's the fact that salvation is brought about 100% by the Lord. It's not a team effort where we work for our salvation and we fight and we do something and we accomplish something and then the Lord, he picks up where we leave off or something or it's some kind of a two man job here. No, it's a one man job, right? The Lord is the savior. He gets all the glory for our salvation. Now that's not to say that the children of Israel don't have to trust in the Lord, okay? Or when he says, go forward, cross the Red Sea, they have to step forward and step into the Red Sea just like when the Bible tells us, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. We have to take that step into the Red Sea and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ because it's as many as received him. To them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. But you see, there's a big difference between saying that we have to take a step of faith, we have to step into the Red Sea, we have to call upon the name of the Lord as our savior. That's a big difference than, well, you know, we both fought the Egyptians. We both defeated the Egyptians. We worked together, you know, yeah, Jesus died for me, but I also attended church and kept the commandments and I got baptized and catechized and sanctified and I did all these things. You see, we don't earn our salvation whatsoever, okay? But see, a lot of people, they'll take that too far and say, well, you don't even have to believe, you don't do any God does. It's like, no. The children of Israel still had to walk across the Red Sea. It wasn't one of those things at the airport. God didn't do a miracle where he parted the Red Sea and then he created one of those conveyor belts at the airport, you know, and you just get on the conveyor belt. In fact, you don't even get on the conveyor belt. He just puts you on the conveyor belt. You obviously have to take the step of faith because it is a step of faith to step in. Look, if there's a wall of water on both sides, it still takes a little faith to step in there because you don't know when it's going to come crashing down as Pharaoh and his chariots are going to find out shortly thereafter. So, yes, we do have to believe in Christ. We do have to trust. We do have to obey that one command of believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or call upon the name of the Lord. You know, yeah, we have to take that step of faith, but that's a big difference between that and saying, well, we have to do our part in salvation. We have to fight the Egyptians. We have to earn it. We don't know. There's nothing. It's all God. It's all Jesus. He gets all the glory. And again, it's so easy to understand this. You know, if my parents give me a Christmas gift and they wrap it up and put it under the tree, I still have to open the gift, right? I still have to say, thanks, Mom and Dad, and open the gift and tear open the packaging and now it's mine. If I don't ever open the gift, it's not mine, right? I have to open it. But what kind of a foolishness would it be to say, well, I opened the gift so, you know, I actually did my part to earn this gift or I did part of the purchase of this gift. That'd be stupid, wouldn't it? It'd be like if you get a welfare check from the government, but you had to go to the welfare office and pick it up. We say, well, hey, I earned this. I had to go down there and pick this up. Wouldn't that be stupid to say that? Would anybody say welfare recipients earned the check because they drove down there and picked it up? No one would say that because it's absurd. But that's just as absurd as people who say, oh, well, if you had to believe in Christ and ask for salvation, you earned it. That's bizarre. That's like saying that opening the Christmas present means I earned the present or picking up the welfare check means that I earned the welfare check It's absurd. At the end of the day, the welfare office gets all the glory, OK? All glory and praise be to the welfare state. But the point is that we do not save ourselves in any way, shape or form. We take the step of faith and God does all the heavy lifting. He defeats the Egyptians 100 percent and we cruise into salvation by faith, by grace, through faith, not of works any man should boast. So that's the emphasis here. The Lord is the warrior. He's the man of war that's getting the song of triumph from the women. But this time it's men and women, because all of us are relying 100 percent on Christ as our savior, not on ourselves. And the men of Israel can't glory in this battle whatsoever. So let's keep going. It says in verse number four, it says Pharaoh's chariots were in Exodus 15. Pharaoh's chariots and his host as he cast into the sea, his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them. They sank into the bottom as a stone. So the emphasis here on the sinking and going down into the depths of the sea is a picture of going to hell, because the picture is the children of Israel are saved. God did all the work. They simply trusted. They simply had faith. They simply did what he told them to do to be saved, which in this case was just to step into the Red Sea, move forward. For us, it's believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the people who did not have that salvation, they sunk down. And of course, the picture here is of unsaved. People are going to go down even deeper than the Egyptians did. They're going to go down into the depths of hell because without Jesus Christ, the Bible is crystal clear that the unsaved will spend eternity in hell. And so that's what's pictured by the sinking down. Look at verse six. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And again, the word become means the same thing here. God's right hand always had power, but now it has become glorious in power because now it just now became glorious to the world where everybody now sees the glory of God's salvation. Because of course, whenever we want to talk about a great miracle, even to this day, what do we say in 2023? We say, hey, it's like a Red Sea miracle, right? Or who is the God of Israel? Well, he's the God that parted the Red Sea. That's going to be something that comes up all throughout the Old Testament. Constant reference back to this because this is where God's right hand and his right hand is associated with salvation. His right hand became glorious because everybody heard about it. That's what that means. The glory went abroad because of this event. It says in verse seven, and in the greatness of thine excellency, which thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee, thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And this again shows that the people that are drowning represent the lost that are going to hell. Because consumed as stubble, what is that a reference to? Fire, right? Because fire is what consumes up the stubble. And it talks about the wrath of God. Those that are in hell are experiencing the wrath of God. And so the Bible says in verse eight, with the blast of thy nostrils, the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. Now, obviously it's an amazing miracle that the Red Sea was parted and you have a wall of water on each side. And the word congealed there basically means something became solid. You know, I always like to think of the word jello when I think of this word congealed, right? It's when a liquid becomes solid because it's a wall of water on both sides. And so in that sense, it's like solidness. And so the Lord did this amazing miracle, but it says he did it with the blast of his nostrils. Now, if you really wanted to blow hard, like let's say you want to blow out the candles on your birthday cake. I don't recommend using your nostrils as the orifice, okay, for a lot of reasons, okay? So, you know, it's like, all right, blow out the candles. Okay. You know, you just blow it all out your nose, right? Why? Because you get a lot more power out of your mouth, right? Like you can move a lot more volume. And in fact, whenever I do long distance running, I always make a point to breathe through my nose pretty much the entire time just to make sure that I'm not working too hard. That's a way of pacing myself because if I have to open my mouth and start breathing through my mouth, I'm working too hard. I'm not pacing myself. So I'll try to run for a really long time just breathing through my nose. And so when the Bible says that he did this with the blast of his nostrils, it's basically saying that this is an easy thing for the Lord. This is a light thing for him. He doesn't have to muster up all of his power and he's just straining to part that Red Sea. It's more like just an exhale of the nose and just... So this is showing that salvation is something that the Lord easily accomplishes. Okay. For us, it's impossible. For the children of Israel, this would have been impossible. They can't cross the Red Sea. It's not humanly possible. They've got millions of people. There's this giant body of water. There's no human way across. But for God, it's easy. For man, it's impossible. Now, some people will try to say, well, salvation is difficult. Salvation is not difficult unless you're talking about it being difficult for people who trust in riches or difficult for people who are steeped in tradition or difficult because people are so brainwashed in lies. But in reality, salvation is not objectively difficult, is it? Now, let me ask this. Is salvation difficult for God? In 2023, does God have a hard time saving people? No. God's right hand is not shortened that it cannot save. I mean, God's ready, willing and able to save the lost and it's something that he could do without even breathing heavy. Okay, he could easily save. Okay, is salvation difficult for the lost sinner? No, it isn't because all the lost sinner has to do is look and live. All they have to do is just believe on the Lord Jesus that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in that heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now, the Bible does say, oh, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God? But that's just their own mentality that's making it hard for them because they're so into trusting in themselves because they're rich people and they think that they have to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and all that. But objectively, it's not hard. That's one of the problems with these modern Bible versions and one of the reasons why we're King James only around here. And we're not King James preferred, we're not King James mostly, we're not King James sometimes, we're King James only, okay? Because these modern versions, whether it be the NIV, the ESV, and even the New King James can sometimes have scriptures in them that say that salvation is difficult. You know, the KJV will say that narrow is the way and then the New King James will change it to difficult is the way. Those are two very different things. Narrow is the way is in reference to whether or not there be few that are saved. And in that sense, it's a narrow way because broad is the way that leads to destruction. Many there be which go in there at. It's not about the difficulty, it's about the numbers of who's going versus who's not going. That's what narrow is about. Whereas you get a New King James, so-called New King James because they dug up King James' dead body and they had the skeleton of his hand sign off and say, I'm King James and I approve this message. How do you have a New King James when the man's been dead for several hundred years? It's a lie. It's a fraud. There's no New King James version. There only is the King James version because King James has been dead for several hundred years. So he can't come out with new versions from the grave. Okay? Somebody needs to make a comic of King James' dead hand, you know, signing off on the New King James as a skeleton. Okay, that's morbid. Never mind. But the point is that if you get an NIV, ESV, one of these modern versions, in Mark 10-24, when Jesus says how hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God, those Bibles just change it to how hard is it to enter the kingdom of God. Man, it's hard to get saved. Man, it's hard to enter the kingdom of God. Yeah, if you're trusting in your works, it's hard. If you're trying to swim across the Red Sea, that's hard. I mean, I don't know how wide the Red Sea was at this point, but this is going to be a swim of probably at least several, many miles. Swimming across the Red Sea is hard. In fact, getting two million people across would be impossible. Okay? You know, yeah, it's going to be hard to do it in a kayak. Okay? It's hard to do it on rafts with two million people. But guess what? Walking across isn't that hard. All right? And guess what? Believing in Jesus, confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus, is not difficult. It's easy. It's so easy a little child could easily be saved. I got saved when I was six years old. Easy. Jesus did the hard part when he died on the cross. That was hard. And I guarantee you that he wasn't just breathing through his nose when he went through that whole ordeal, when he's being whipped and beaten and spat upon and nailed to the cross and experiencing the wrath of God the Father and saying, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Hey, he's not breathing through his nose. He was doing the heavy lifting. He was doing the hard work. But at this point in time, God can easily save and people can easily be saved. And so salvation isn't hard for anybody at this point because the battle's over. The battle's been won by Jesus. And so we see here that the blast of God's nostrils are what caused the depths to be congealed in the heart of the sea. Verse nine, the enemy said, I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon them. I will draw my sword. My hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind. The sea covered them. They sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like the glorious and holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Now, at this point, let me point out as well that some people will get a false doctrine that somehow there are other gods out there. And they'll look at verses like this where it says, you know, who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? And they'll say like, well, see, you know, there's other gods out there and God's just sort of the supreme God. And of course, we've got the second largest Mormon community in the world here in Mesa, Arizona. And they believe that there are all kinds of other gods on other planets and that someday they will become their own god of their own planet. And if they deny that to you, then they are a bald-faced liar because that is what they believe. And if you start showing them quotes from their leaders, then they will admit that that's what they believe. But first, they'll lie to you until you pull out the evidence. That's typically the way it works with them. But the point is that there is only one god that exists. Now, keep your finger there. Go to 1 Corinthians 8 in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 8. Just because there are Old Testament verses that use the term gods, that doesn't mean that other gods actually exist because they don't. There is only one god. And the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 8, verse 4, as concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other god but one. So the apostle Paul and the Corinthian church, they're like, look, we both know that there's only one god. There's no other god beside him. And by the way, in Isaiah it says, before me there was no god formed, neither shall there be any god after me. I am he and there's none else. And beside me there is no savior. So we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other god but one. Look at verse 5. For though there be that are called gods. So are there entities that are called gods? Absolutely. Whether in heaven or in earth. So in heaven and in earth there be those that are called gods. So even God might talk about other gods. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? God in heaven could talk about other gods. We could talk on this earth about other gods. And it says, as there be gods many and lords many, but to us there is but one God, the father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we by him. Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge. And on and on it goes. Then in a couple chapters later he's going to say that the things which the gentiles offer and sacrifice unto idols, they sacrifice unto devils. And I would not think you should have fellowship with devils. So what do we make of this? Because some people could take this out of context and I've seen Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses where they will read verse 5 and verse 6 but they'll skip verse 4. So they'll read verse 5 and 6 and say, well there be gods many and lords many but to us there is but one God. And so that's why when you ask Mormons how many gods are there they'll say well we only worship one God. But that's not what I asked you. I said how many gods are there? And then they'll lie and sometimes say one and then you pull out the quote from Brigham Young or you pull out the quotes from Joseph Smith and you'll pull out the quote about how there are so many billions of gods in this universe that it's more than we could even count and then they'll all of a sudden change their tune and say well the Bible says there are multiple gods. And I've had them use this verse to say well there are gods many, lords many, but to us there is but one God. No, no, no my friend. Back up to the end of verse 4. What does it say? It says we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one. We know that only one God exists. And again we have the Isaiah scripture there were no gods before me, there shall be no other gods after me, there's no beside me there is no God, on and on and on. When it says here that there be that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth, sure there are things that are called gods like the god of the Philistines, the god of the Mobites, the god of the Edomites, the god of the Amorites, those are called gods. They're false gods. So are there other gods? Yeah, false gods, but in reality there's only one god that actually exists. What are those false gods? What are they really? He tells us in chapter 10 they're demons. They're devils, right? The things that the Gentiles offer in sacrifice unto idols they sacrifice unto devils. The idol is nothing in the world. It's a hunk of rock, it's a hunk of wood, it's a hunk of stone. Okay, but it represents a devil. It represents a demon also known as a false god. Okay, and notice it doesn't say there are gods many and lords many. It says as there be gods many and lords many. And, you know, I'm not trying to get into some finer points of English grammar here, but that's not just a straight up indicative statement, is it? There are other gods. That's not what it says. It says as there be. This is a subjunctive because of the fact that this is a claim that is being made. Okay, the claim is being made that there are gods many and lords many. And that's why it says there be that are called gods. It doesn't say that they actually are gods. It says they're called gods. So we have the god of Islam, the gods of Hinduism, right? The gods of the Canaanites, they're called gods. Okay, the claim is being made that there are many gods and many lords, but we know that there's no other god but one. There's only one true God. And so when the Bible, so with that in mind, let's go back to Exodus 15 with all that in mind. And look what the Bible says in verse 11. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? So here's what he's basically saying. He said, okay, let's look at the gods of the Egyptians. Let's look at the gods of the Canaanites. Let's look at the gods of these other pagan Gentile nations. And then let's compare those gods to the god of Israel, Jehovah God. Who among those gods is like Jehovah God? Nobody. Now, is that to say that those gods actually exist? Of course not. Now, they do exist in the sense that people worship these entities and these entities are demons. So you could say, you know, hey, is Baal Zebub real? Yeah, he's real. He's Satan. He's the devil, Baal Zebub, right? But does that make him a god? Absolutely not. Satan is not a god. His minions are not gods. Okay, but they are worshiped as gods. They are called gods. They are treated as gods, but they're not. There's only one God. And so the Bible says in verse number 11, who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like the glorious and holiness, fearful and praises, doing wonders. Verse 12, thou stretchest out thy right hand. Of course, that's, again, a picture of salvation, the right hand of God. The earth swallowed them. Thou in thy mercy has led forth thy people, which thou has redeemed. Now watch this. This is an interesting statement. Thou has guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. Now, remember we talked about the habitation earlier. I will prepare the Lord a habitation. Now we have past tense. Thou has guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. Where is this habitation of the Lord? What are we talking about? And sometimes people will ask, is this Mount Sinai? Is this Jerusalem? Is this just the promised land in general? Where is this habitation? And in reality, God's habitation is anywhere that God inhabits. And in this case, it is the wilderness, which is why this is past tense, because he's saying it already happened. Thou has guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. Coming into the wilderness is coming into God's presence, and that is the habitation of the Lord, even just being in the wilderness, even though they're not really in a special place necessarily. Even Mount Sinai itself, what's so special about Mount Sinai? Do the children of Israel end up living there permanently? Does that end up being the site of the temple or the site of the crucifixion or any kind of a holy shrine? No. God was there at that time meeting with man. That's what made it special. Is it special today? No. And there's even an argument. Is this Mount Sinai? Is this Mount Sinai? And people argue about the real Mount Sinai. Guess what? You could go to either of those places. Maybe you can even bring a rabbit's foot with you, but it's not going to matter. You're not going to have some special tingling experience with God there because you're in a certain geography because God is not limited by geography. God is the God of the whole earth. There's nothing special about going to a certain geography and standing at the place where Jesus was baptized or standing at the place where Christ was crucified or standing at Mount Sinai or something. Those places, it could be interesting. It could be fun, but at the end of the day, you can have the ultimate spiritual experience right here in Arizona or anywhere else in this world for that matter because it's just about the presence of God. It's about the Holy Spirit. It's not about a place. And so they're standing on the shore of the Red Sea saying that God has guided the children of Israel into his holy habitation like they're already there, but they're not in the Promised Land. They're not even at Mount Sinai yet. They still have a long way to go, but here's the thing. The wilderness was always the destination that God told them about when they were in Egypt. And again, I don't want to belabor this for sake of time, but just quickly, you know, in Exodus chapter three verse 18, let us go. We beseech thee three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. Exodus 5-1, let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. Exodus 7-16, let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness. Exodus 8-27, we will go three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice the Lord our God. Verse 28, I will let you go that you might sacrifice the Lord your God in the wilderness. So again, it's wilderness, wilderness, wilderness, wilderness, wilderness. We're going to go out in the wilderness and meet with the Lord in the wilderness. So that's the habitation that's being referred to in verse, uh, whatever that verse number was that we just read. Verse 13, because of the fact that it's wherever God is, that's God's habitation and it changes over time. The tabernacle is a portable building. Tabernacle's here, tabernacle's there. Ultimately you have a more stable temple, but at the end of the day, God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. And we're going to see that very clearly in the next few verses. Let's keep going. So it says in verse number 14, the people shall hear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestine. Again, uh, we are familiar with that word in our modern parlance, right? To talk about Palestine as the place of Canaan, the Holy land. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed. The mighty men of Moab trembling shall take hold upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. And of course, Rahab the harlot's going to tell them about this, uh, 40 years later. Verse 16, fear and dread shall fall upon them. By the greatness of thine arm, they shall be as still as a stone till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over which thou hast purchased. So again, notice all the tie-ins with salvation, right? It's all done by the Lord. He paid for everything. He did all the work. He gets all the glory. He became their salvation. His right arm brought salvation. He purchased them. He paid for them. He bought them with a price, right? They're enslaved in Egypt and now they are free. Same thing. We were dead in trespasses and sins, servants of sin, but we have been made free. We have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. We're bought with a price, et cetera. And by the way, even the name of the Red Sea is obviously a symbolic name referring to the blood of Jesus Christ. It's a picture. Why, why the Red Sea, right? Why not blue or green? That would make a lot more sense for a body of water, right? You can think of lots of other colors, purple and all different things that would make more sense in the Red Sea. But I believe the Red Sea, that even that name is just more symbolism. Just like Rahab the harlot put a scarlet thread out her window, which represented salvation, represent the blood of Jesus. And so the Red Sea represents the blood of Jesus as well. And so the purchased people cross the Red Sea, but watch this. It says in verse number 17, thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance in the place. Oh Lord, which thou has made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary. Oh Lord, which thy hands have established. Now this is another verse that people would debate about. What does it mean? What is this mountain? And some people would say it's Mount Sinai, but hold on a second. Does that really make sense? Because are they really going to be planted in Mount Sinai or are they just going to do a brief stint there and then move on? They move on, right? They don't live there. They, they receive the law of God and then they move on. So it says, thou shall bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance. Other people would say it's Mount Gerizim or something. That's what the Samaritans would have thought. It's what the woman of Samaria, she would have interpreted it that way. Uh, what about Mount Moriah or Mount Zion or the temple Mount or, you know, is this a foreshadowing of Jerusalem or, you know, place that God's going to bring them to literally several hundred years later or, and you know, what's so funny is, uh, people, they lean so heavily on these like Bible commentaries, right? Here's what's so funny though. Whenever, cause sometimes just for kicks, I'll look up these verses in a com and in commentaries to see what they say. And here's what always happens. I'll look up a verse like this and I'll look at like six or seven commentaries and they all say the exact same thing. Like, I mean, these people were writing these commentaries before anti-plagiarism software had been invented, folks, because these people, and, and, and even when they're wrong about something, they'll just all be wrong together. It's just like, it's like, that's why these, these commentaries folks don't listen to what they're saying. Okay. At the end of the day, you just read the Bible and be guided by the Holy Spirit and listen to living, breathing preachers expound to you the word of God, you know, and, and let the Holy Ghost speak to you in 2023 then to just pull out some dusty commentary off the shelf. And that's somehow authoritative when they're all clearly just copying each other because they'll all say the same thing. Like I literally, because you can just click on a certain website, just, it'll just give you like a bunch of major commentaries all in one page. And they're all, this is what they all said. They all said, um, well, you know, Israel is a mountainous region and Egypt is a plane. And so when it says, um, that thou will plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, planting them in the mountain of thine inheritance is just referring to the land of Israel in general because it's a mountainy place. It's like, okay, if you want, if you want to think that, if you want to believe that, is that a possible interpretation? Okay. But don't think it's a little funny that they all are saying that exact same thing. Like why are they all just in chorus and then people just take this as gospel? That's what the commentaries are all saying. But the reason that they're all saying the same thing is because they're not thinking for themselves. One guy is just reading the other guy's commentary, who's reading the other guy's commentary, who's reading the other guy's commentary. And it's, instead of new ideas, it's just this sort of just, uh, in interbred kind of hillbilly family tree of, of theological thought where they're just all saying things. It's like, why are you coming out with this book just to tell us what everybody's already said? You're just saying it a little different or something. And they're clearly not thinking on their own when they all have the exact same answer. And it's not like it's a clear answer. It's not like, well, they all have the same. It's not like, well, they all say the same thing because it's clearly right. Cause it's a little bit of a stretch talking about a specific mountain. Well, it's just, it's just, it's a rugged terrain. And I'm not saying that it's necessarily a bad interpretation, but is that really the authoritative interpretation on this passage? But yet there are so many preachers. That's where they get their views on the Bible. Instead of studying the Bible on their own and, and reading the Bible with the Holy Spirit. It's just, they're just, they're just constantly going to that commentary. In fact, I've talked to people who said, man, I'm so sick of it. I go to my church every Sunday and the pastor just reads me what commentaries say every Sunday. And this is what I heard the church members say, quote, I don't want to hear what that commentary says. I want to hear what you have to say. You're the pastor. I don't want to be pastored by some 200 year old book on a shelf. I want to be passing by a living, breathing human being who actually reads the Bible and has his own walk with God. And the Holy Spirit reveals things to him as a person. That's how I feel about commentaries. And I, you know what? I have found that whenever you, whenever there's actually like a really hard passage and you can't figure out the answer, the commentary is like never helpful. It'll just won't even bring up that part or something. And you're just like, what in the world? And then, and then the commenters just state the obvious or just repeat each other. It's like, get this book out of my sight. But you know what, what do we do with this verse? It's kind of an interesting verse, right? Because it says that, uh, thou shall bring them in. Let's see if we're smarter than all the commentaries. Let's see if we can figure it out together this morning, which shouldn't be hard. Thou shall bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance in the place, O Lord, which thou has made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. Now, how about that last phrase into the sanctuary, which thy hands have established? That doesn't sound like we're talking about a manmade building in any of these places. It doesn't sound like we're talking about the tabernacle or the temple at all because was the tabernacle manmade? Yeah. Is the temple manmade? Yeah. Okay. So go to Hebrews chapter nine, go to Hebrews chapter number nine. And by the way, for your personal Bible reading, I would recommend that you not use a study Bible. Not only would I say don't use commentaries, but I would also say don't use a study Bible. And let me tell you why. Because obviously human beings can teach us a lot about the Bible. And I think it's great when humans teach us the Bible, but we all need to have a certain time each day that we spend alone with the Lord. Alone with the Bible. Here's the thing, you know, my wife and I, we hang out with the kids around a lot. Most of the time when I'm talking to my wife, there are kids around because I have 10 kids living in my home. So do you think that my wife and I are alone most of the time? No, we're surrounded by other people. We're surrounded by kids. We're not alone. But don't you think that there should come a time, either daily or weekly or something, where we actually have some alone time where it's just my wife and I? Or do you think we should just always spend time with each other in the presence of others? Obviously in order for us to have a functional marriage, we're going to have to spend some alone time. Am I right? Okay, well guess what? Okay, why don't you spend some time alone with God and your study Bible is bringing in a third party and three is a crowd when it comes to studying your Bible? What it ought to be is just you and the Holy Spirit reading the Bible together. Now look, again, I'm not against you being taught by humans. That's what you're doing. You know, you're in church right now and Pastor Anderson is teaching the Bible, but this isn't your alone time with God. You need to on Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, get out a Bible without some other, you know, turkey in there trying to say, well, hey, here's what, hey, it's like, hey, shut up so I can read my Bible. Shut up, I'm trying to read the Bible. Well, what this actually means, you know, somebody posts a picture on the internet yesterday of some Ray Comfort study Bible or something and it showed like Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith and then not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, the gift of works, the city man's supposed. And then there's a note under it saying, you know, note reader, you are not saved by your faith. Make sure you realize that you're not saved by your faith and it's like, um, excuse me? Because actually, yeah, I am saved. I thought Jesus told that woman in, what is it, Luke chapter 7 verse 50, don't quote me on that. Go thy way, thy faith hath saved thee. Thy faith hath saved thee. But note reader, your faith doesn't save you. It's like, I could do without that in my Bible reading. And look, obviously he's a false teacher, but you know, we don't need a pastor Anderson study Bible either. You know what I mean? We don't need a pastor anybody study Bible. What we need is a Bible that just contains the text of God's word so that we can spend time alone with the Lord. Not to say that it's wrong to get teachings from others at other times, but don't we need a little alone time where it's just us and the Bible. And that's why in my personal Bible that I read, I don't want Ray comfort or anybody else looking over my shoulder and be like, Oh, excuse me. Uh, let me tell you what that means. It's like, no, shut up and let me just read it. And the Holy spirit can tell me what it means. Amen. So I'm not into commentaries and study Bibles. Okay. Uh, it's one thing to have teaching and preaching of God's word, but we should keep the teaching and preaching of God's word separate from our personal alone time with the Lord alone, reading the Bible with just the Holy spirit. Well, you know, if people are just reading the Bible with just the Holy spirit, if they don't have any tools, you know, they might get the wrong ideas. Well, that sounds like the Roman Catholic churches philosophy. Can't let the Bible read it. We can't let people read the Bible on their own. They might figure out the salvation is by faith. They might figure out that the Pope is an Antichrist. All right. I digress. Look at the Bible. If you would, in Hebrews chapter nine, verse 11, the Bible reads, but Christ being come Hebrews nine 11 and high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands. That is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood. He entered into heaven. He entered into heaven. He entered into the heavens, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the Holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Jump down to verse 22 is the last point I want to make this morning. So hang with me here. Almost all things are by the law, purged with blood and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these for Christ is not entered into the Holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. So what is the Bible saying here? The Bible is saying that the temple, the tabernacle, these earthly sanctuaries are only a picture of the true sanctuary, the real sanctuary, which is specifically called the sanctuary that is not made with hands. The temple that is made without hands, right? Human beings did not make the temple in heaven. It's created by God. So therefore, if we take that understanding back to Exodus chapter 15, the Bible says in Exodus 15, 17, thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mount of thine inheritance in the place of thine inheritance, in the place of thine inheritance, in the mount of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. We're not talking about the tabernacle. We're not talking about the temple. We're not talking about Mount Sinai, a very temporary dwelling place. We're talking about heaven itself, okay? We're talking about the Mount Zion in heaven and we could look up many scriptures that talk about Mount Zion being in heaven. Now, there's an earthly mount that is a rough approximation for Mount Zion, but guess what? Zion's in heaven, not on this earth, okay? We're not Zionists. There is no Mount Zion. You know, you're just like, well, Mount Zion, where is Mount Zion? I mean, if I go to Israel and I ask the Torah, excuse me, can somebody point me to Mount Zion? There isn't, I mean, the only Mount Zion that I know of is Mount Zion. There isn't, I mean, the only Mount Zion that I know of is in Utah, okay? But guess what? Mount Zion is a spiritual concept, not a physical place, okay? So you have Jerusalem being an approximation of Mount Zion. You have the tabernacle being an approximation of the sanctuary of God. You have the temple figuratively being, but it's all formed after a pattern of a real tabernacle, a real Holy of Holies, a real Ark of the Covenant, a real sanctuary for God that is located in heaven and the place where God's people will ultimately be planted in this place where, let me find the verse here, which is not made by hands. What we're actually talking about is we're talking about salvation through Christ, ultimately bringing us to... Finish my sentence. Ultimately taking us to? All right, thank you. All right, you knew what I was gonna say anyway. So just let that sink in for a minute. God is gonna bring them in and plant them in the mountain of my inheritance and this is the classic case of dual fulfillment where there's a rough, non-literal approximate. Yeah, he's kind of bringing them to the Mount Sinai. He's kind of bringing them to a mountainous country or whatever, but at the end of the day, the real significance here is that this is all a picture of space and spiritual salvation. Who cares if some nation didn't die at the Red Sea 3,500 years ago? Does that really affect me today? What if the Israelites would have just got slaughtered by the banks of the Red Sea or something? Does that affect me 3,500 years later? Here's why it affects me. It's because they're the people of God and ultimately symbolizing something that they have relevance to me, which is salvation through Jesus. And so it's only fitting that this verse in verse 17 would be pointing us to an ultimate goal of all this, which is going to heaven when we die and be planted in the true sanctuary of God, which is made not by human hands, but which the Lord's hands have established. He built it himself. Let's borrow his number of prayer. Lord, we thank you so much for this great song, Lord, and for all the great things that we can learn about salvation, Lord. If there's anybody here this morning that is not saved, Lord, I pray that they would get saved before it's eternally too late, that they would realize that salvation is 100% purchased by Jesus Christ and that the only way they're gonna enter into that mountain of your inheritance, that sanctuary made without hands, that perfect place in heaven, the real Mount Zion, is through the blood of Christ, through faith in his death, burial, and resurrection, and it's in his name we pray, amen.