The Song of Deliverance Exodus Series #19

Sustained by his role, a Methodist janitor spoke to James Robinson about what he had observed in his life: that, though he was a great evangelist, he had a tremendous need for deliverance. James Robinson eventually faced a heresy trial in the Southern Baptist Church – by the way, they’re not supposed to be able to do that, but they did.

Because of what happened through that confrontation, the little Methodist janitor who spoke to this great evangelist showed him that there were dependencies, traditions, fears, and insecurities in his life. Even his ministry was dominated by a need for approval, and there were bonds in his life that needed to be broken.

When I saw James Robinson on the other side of both the deliverance and the heresy trial, I saw a man who demonstrated in his life the freedom that the Spirit of God gives us when we allow Him to break illicit bonds, relationships, traditions, and narrow confines, setting us free. Now, James Robinson is not alone as a believer in need of that kind of deliverance. There are so many, and that has been the purpose of this series of messages which ends today – seventeen messages we’ve had in this series, some on Sunday nights, all of which have been very important.

The proposition has been addressed to all of us: that the covenant people of God, believers, need thoroughgoing deliverance in their lives – a true exodus, a going out – before they can ever enter in.

From the very beginning of the story of Exodus, right at the start, God says, “This is my son. Israel is my son. These are my children. This is my daughter. Let my son go,” He says in His first confrontation with Pharaoh. Let my daughter go. You must personalize that if there’s to be an understanding in your life that God wants you to be free to serve Him.

This deliverance of Israel is not just an incidental time in history isolated from other events. As the hermeneutic of this passage in the Bible tells us, both in Romans 15:4 and in 1 Corinthians 10:11, what happened to them, the Israelites, in the past are examples for us, and 1 Corinthians goes even further, stating that it’s written down for our admonition. Because the end of the age has come upon us. “Admonition” is a word that means very encouraging through earnest warnings. So, the question every believer has is: what are the warnings that God has in this Old Testament story that apply to me in the New Testament?

Invariably, Egypt is a type of not just sin but the world system – the thoughtless, material, wanton series of slogans, priorities, and maxims which value only the present and deny the eternity of the future. The church often misunderstands what the world is, thinking it’s just pornography and specific sins, but in truth, the world is a system better understood by the word materialism, and it’s a sin very present in the church.

Egypt, or the world, has a strategic way to keep believers bound. As we studied in Exodus 1, when we receive a word for deliverance, Egypt tries to bind us to taskmasters that will keep us tied to the material – credit cards are a prime example. Secondly, Egypt aims to cause us to serve with rigor, harshness, to break our spirits, filling us with dependencies and wounds. And thirdly, it attempts to abort or destroy our visions, leading to actual genocide – the world’s hatred with the ultimate goal of annihilating the church.

But God wants His people out of Egypt, out of the world system, and He calls us to an exodus – a departure from the lusts and passions that enslave us, from the love of gain or applause. He ordains a way for us – away from illicit bonds and controls in relationships, away from traditions, dependencies, fears, insecurities, and anxieties.

Dr. F. B. Meyer cries out this way: “You are summoned to come forth to the wilderness, the holy mount, the spiritual food, the spiritual rock, the heavenly food. Be loyal to the divine voice. Strike your tents and follow. Though the Egyptians pursue you, they shall not overtake you. The Lord will be your rear guard. He shall fight for you and save you. The Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see again no more, forever.” Dr. Myers concludes, “We are justified, therefore, in tracing a close analogy between the deliverance and salvation of the chosen people and the deliverance and salvation of our own.”

But perhaps you’re saying, “Look, preacher, we’ve already gotten through Passover night.”

We got through the results of Passover. We got Israel out of Egypt last week. It’s time to get on with other things. However, not so quick, because ahead of them lies the Red Sea. And our deliverance is not as swift as it might seem. It’s far from being finished. An insurmountable obstacle still awaits. You see, salvation isn’t merely something God does for us.

Instead, salvation is something that God does within us. Here is where so much of the church struggles. Being justified by faith in Christ must be followed by sanctification. Sanctification means identifying with His death, burial, and resurrection. The fact that the three chapters in Romans 5, 6, and 7 confuse most believers isn’t without reason.

Chapter 5 stands as the great chapter of justification. Thus, having been justified by faith, we find peace with God and access into His presence where we stand. We hope in the glory of God and rejoice in tribulation. It’s a wonderful chapter. Moving on to chapter 6, we learn that we are buried with Christ through baptism into death.

Then we’re told not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies, nor yield our bodies’ members to sin’s lusts. Instead, we should yield ourselves to God. Finally, we come to the seventh chapter. Just as you think it’s all over, you encounter a Christian saying something like this: I don’t do the things I wish to do, and I do the things I don’t want to do. If I do what I don’t want, it’s not me, but sin dwelling in me.

The chapter concludes with a powerful realization: “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” You need to attain an understanding.

This is why numerous Christians prefer chapter 7 before chapter 6. They advocate for justification by faith first, followed by a revelation of the troubles they’re in, and then sanctification. Sanctification involves being baptized into the death of sin. Then everything supposedly ends. They wish to avoid the 7th chapter after the 6th.

However, the reality is quite the opposite. This alignment of Exodus 14 carries immense significance. It’s not coincidental or merely historic, any more than the struggle of the believer in Romans 7 is out of place in the sequence of teachings in the book of Romans.

God orchestrated the entire sequence, including what seems to be the entrapment of His own people, as the Egyptians advance upon them. God mapped out what appears misunderstood and perplexing. But unless this is clear to you, you won’t grasp the ways of God.

God directs them in a remarkably circuitous path, altering the directions, leading His people into a seemingly hopeless trap, with the Egyptians closing in. God Himself hardens Pharaoh’s heart, propelling him into a military chariot race that aims to subdue the newly freed Israelites.

Now, as Christians, we yearn for a formula. We crave a simplified, syncretic Christian experience with straightforward answers. We want a world of absolutes where good guys always wear white hats and God only bestows blessings on His people. We stumble when faced with teachings like Romans 14, because we seek the four spiritual laws, the ABCs of salvation.

We desire instant spiritual gratification minus the deliberate self-crucifixion. We long for deliverance from Pharaoh without undergoing a baptism into death. We aim for substitutionary sacrifice without personal surrender. In essence, we wish to escape without stepping in. Justification is appealing, but sanctification isn’t. We hope for liberation from trials rather than the insightful presence of God within our trials.

We want to write our Christian music using a computer, not solely relying on experience. We aim to understand God through doctrine, rather than trial. We desire this, but it cannot be, for that approach is not aligned with Christianity, and it is not how God deals with us. Oh, how we love the song of Exodus! Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 15, where we find this magnificent three-part song presented.

In Exodus 15, Moses and the children of Israel sang this praise to the Lord and proclaimed, “I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song; He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him; my Father’s God, and I will exalt Him.”

In verse 7, it is written, “In the greatness of Your excellence, You have overthrown those who rose against You; You sent forth Your wrath, which consumed them like stubble.” Then, in verse 11, we read, “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched out Your hand.”

The earth engulfed them, showcasing Your mercy as You led the redeemed people forth. It’s worth noting that this song is the final anthem in Revelation 15, sung after the seven last plagues or bold judgments have been poured out, while the seven angels stand ready for the conclusion.

Amid a sea of glass mingled with fire, stand those who have conquered the beast, its image, its mark, and the number of its name. Upon the sea of glass, they stand, holding harps of gold. And what does the Bible declare? They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, proclaiming, “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty.”

“Just and true are Your ways, O King of the Saints. Who shall not fear You, Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments have been revealed.” Can you fathom the sanctity of this ground? Can you grasp that Exodus 14 and 15 symbolize a profound event, foreshadowing the overarching conflict between the church and the world? As the age culminates, Babylon—the world in its religious, commercial, and political forms—falls, and the church triumphs, singing this very song.

It’s essential to read, understand, and rehearse it. Exodus 14 serves as our guide to comprehending this truth. Now, consider this question: How does a song of deliverance like this arise? It’s easy to sing about the horse and rider cast into the sea, but how do believers genuinely raise their voices in such a song? To whom does this song of deliverance apply?

I believe you already carry the answer within your spirit. Yet, let’s revisit Exodus 14 to discern what unfolds. I won’t read the entire passage, but in verses 1 and 2, we learn that the Lord, who previously declared not to take the direct path, now guides His people into a strategic position.

They find themselves trapped between Piahiroth, Migdal, and Beelzephon. God reveals His intention: Pharaoh will perceive them as lost and bewildered in the wilderness. I shall harden Pharaoh’s heart. As depicted in verses 6 through 14, precisely this transpires. Pharaoh mobilizes 600 chariots and relentlessly pursues them with his cavalry. They corner the people of God.

Verse 10 recounts, “And when the people of God saw Pharaoh approaching, they initially rejoiced, praising God as their great deliverer. They anticipated victory and marveled at the mighty acts God would perform.” However, their confidence wavered. As the Egyptians advanced, fear gripped them. The children of Israel cried out to the Lord, directing their complaints at Moses—an aspect that puzzles me.

Why did they not address God directly? Instead, they cried to the Lord and conveyed their grievances to Moses, asserting, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, you have led us here to perish in the wilderness. Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt?” A curious double-negative phrasing in Hebrew.

The twelfth verse stands out, encapsulating the essence of the people’s sentiment. “Is this not what we told you while we were still in Egypt? Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians, for it is better to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

And Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid; see the salvation of God.” In verse 13, the Egyptians you see today, you will see no more. Then, in verse 15, “And here is God’s sympathy,” the Lord says this to me?

Boy, there are a lot of times I want to say, “I didn’t say anything! They said it!” Tell the children of Israel to go forward, but lift up your rod and stretch it forward. And of course, the rest is the children of Israel going dry-shod. And then, of course, in verse 20, the changing of the cloud for the Egyptians, so that to the Israelites it was light, but to the Egyptians it was darkness.

And then, of course, as the Egyptians pursued them, we come to the last four verses. Something very incredible happens in verse 21. The Lord looked down upon the Egyptian army through the pillar of fire and cloud. He troubled the Egyptian army and took off their chariot wheels, making them drive with difficulty.

The Egyptians said, “Let us flee!” But as the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand; the waters will come upon the Egyptians.” The Egyptians were overthrown in the midst of the sea. The rest of the passage states that not so much as one of them remained, and the Lord saved Israel that day from the hands of the Egyptians.

Now, in these words are many very important things. Not just historical, like we’ve seen in Cecil B. DeMille’s depiction, with the waters coagulating and standing there so the people of God could cross. Then crashing down upon the Egyptians like heavenly floods. By the way, I went to a very liberal school.

The first Bible course I had in college, the professor said, “Of course, we all know that they were led through a marshland. It was a sea of reeds, as it was called. So they just walked through the marshland.” I raised my hand to the professor and said, “That’s a greater miracle than I ever believed.”

He asked, “What are you talking about?” I replied, “Well, it’s one thing to say they marched through it, but it’s another thing to say that God drowned the whole bloomin’ Egyptian army in a swamp. That’s a far greater miracle than the first one.” Thank you for helping my faith.

Now the story divides into six very critical and easy-to-understand parts. This is the last time we have the discussion of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. It’s a paragraph about Israel’s fear and backbiting, and then a paragraph about Moses and God discussing the how and why of the upcoming deliverance.

Finally, there’s the actual miraculous crossing, and at the end, the Egyptians themselves are swallowed up in the revelation of God’s purpose. We could spend a whole day on any one of these points. But our purpose is to understand how believers need thorough deliverance – Deliverance as seen in the Passover.

Deliverance from the wrath of God – Justification. But God says, “I need to do something more for you. Because salvation or deliverance must be internalized. You must know it through application. We have to come to know ourselves, to see who we are, and to cry out for more from God.” I will tell you that most Christians never come to that place.

Most Christians, having been saved, never reach the point where they really see themselves and cry out for true deliverance. There are five basic things dealt with here that we should study this morning. Deliverance requires trust in God’s direction, God’s presence, and even circuitous circumstances and journeys.

Secondly, it means a proper evaluation of our situation. Thirdly, it is an identity with God’s completed work. And fourthly, it requires a true march of faith. Eventually, it produces true redemption from our enslavement and struggles. Now let’s start, first of all, with the first part of the story.

True deliverance, more than just getting out of Egypt, is about trust in God’s direction in our lives. Going back to chapter 13, we saw that God said there’s a ten-day journey, a well-marked road; your leaders have gone there before. I’m not going to lead you there because you’re not ready for the Philistines, so I will guide you on a different path.

But here in Chapter 14, it becomes even more confusing because he not only is leading them away from the Philistines, but he also leads them into a trap. He puts them right in the middle of a trap. Now, I said to you last week something you better have in your heart when it comes to changing your moral character.

God can never do it by a miracle, not one time in either the old covenant or the new covenant. Does God use a miracle to change people’s hearts? God only can work through means and through methods to do this. And so you need, clearly, to understand something. That you have to give God the freedom, you have to give God the right to arrange the circumstances and to put you in the place where He can expose the real problem in your life.

You’ve got to give Him trust in your life, you’ve got to allow Him to put you in places that will reveal what the real issue is. We like to think about the issue of deliverance. Lord, if you’ll just heal me, I’ll be happy. Lord, if you’ll just make my business prosper, everything’s okay. Lord, I’m out of work; if you’ll just give me a job, everything’s okay.

But the true believer for deliverance has to say, God, I trust you. You know what the real issue is here. It’s not the job. It’s not healing. It’s not prosperity. It’s something deeper. And I give you the right to lead me as you will. By the way, it’s interesting, Pyhahiroth is the name of a god; it actually is the goddess Heret. And in the same way, Beelzephon means the Lord of the North. This is the last place in leaving Egypt.

How many of you remember on the old Route 66, you used to get signs almost every 2 miles? “Last gas, 5 miles. Last time for food or drink in the next 300 miles.” Of course, it never was the truth. There were 10 other stores on the way down, as you remember, but they’d always put up these big signs. This is the last place in Egypt. And that’s… Unfortunately, where many Christians are: out of Egypt, but they’re in this place on this side of the Red Sea.

It’s very interesting, in fact, that this circuitous route that God leads them on has a specific purpose, and the first act of deliverance is that they must be willing to trust God, that the difficulties and circumstances and leadings of God have a distinct purpose. And they must be willing to allow God to do this, to expose things in them. And you must be willing to allow God to do this, to expose things in you.

There’s an interesting place in 2nd Kings, actually in 1st Kings Chapter 20, Verse 28. It’s when the enemy of God says to one of God’s enemies about a coming battle. They said, “Don’t worry, because the God they serve, this God, is a God of the mountains, and He is not a God of the valleys.” And that made God furious.

And so God wiped them out. He said, “I’ll show them that I am a god of the valleys as well as the mountains.” But you know what? I think most Christians are in that place. No sense talking about the rest of the world. I think most of us believe God’s a god of the mountaintop, but He’s not a god of the valley!

It’s very interesting. How long do you think it’s going to be in eternity? How many minutes is it going to take you to realize that 70 years of whatever you went through in this life is less than a thimble full of what eternity is going to be like? How long do you think it’s going to take you in eternity to realize that if God was accomplishing something in your character, something that you were going to have to live with for eternity, then 70 years of some kind of difficulty here is a good trade-off?

How many minutes do you think it will take you in the presence of God to realize that whatever the trade-off was to change your character here, it was a good deal? I don’t think it’s going to take minutes. I think it will be instantaneous. But some of you will go through that process kicking and screaming.

So true deliverance says, “God, you have a right. Put me exactly where you want to change me.”

It means a proper evaluation of the situation. Again, review the scripture. God hardens Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh comes in upon the people with 600 chariots. The people complain to Moses. They say, “You didn’t have enough graves in Israel to bury us.” Moses says, “Stand still and see what God wants to do,” that He will indeed harden the hearts of the Egyptians and He will gain honor over them this day.

What are the three things that are happening here? What are the three things that have to happen in this instance? They need to see the Egyptians to be Egyptians. They need to see themselves to be who they are. And they need to see God to be who He is. And that is exactly the purpose of what’s going on in the process.

You see, you are given a chance to either interpret God by the presence of your difficulties or to let the presence of God interpret your difficulties. Now that’s a totally different thing. If you try to cite God in through your present difficulties, then you’ve got a miniaturized God. Or as J.B. Phillips said years ago, your God is too small. But if you interpret your difficulties in the presence of the greatness of God, then it’s an entirely different thing about your life and about your experience. What is going on in this, of course, is something that we have to learn in our personal lives by Romans chapter 7.

Let me take you to Romans chapter 7, and I want you to see the 13th verse of Romans 7. “Now then, has good become death to me?” Boy, that’s an interesting question. Has good become death to me? Certainly not, but sin, so that it might appear to be sin, was producing death in me through that which was good, so that sin, through the commandment, might be found exceedingly sinful.

Who are we talking about? Christians. Saved people who are going to heaven and will be in the rapture, but God is allowing us circumstances so that they will really learn that sin is sin. And they’ll see it to be sin. In verse 21, he says it this way: “I find the law evil present within me, the one who wills to do good.”

“I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin.” You’ve got to hate the Egyptians. You see, some of you want to get saved, but you don’t dislike sin. In fact, like the Israelites, you’re glad to get out of Egypt, but you want to stand there and say, “Well, those Egyptians weren’t so bad after all,” and actually, I told you to begin with.

“I just as soon served the Egyptians as to be here.” You see, it’s still very much a part of you. You don’t hate sin. You’re still tantalized by sin. I want to say something to you. Sin is an intruder to the human heart. It doesn’t belong there, and God wants sin expelled. And as long as you’re in this mortal body, you’re not going to live in a perfect world.

You’re not going to be perfectly conformed to God, but God wants sin out of control in your life.

I lived through a particular experience several years ago with a very intimate and personal friend, and thank God this situation has been reversed. But this personal friend of ours, who was a person of wonderful Christian character and commitment and decision, had made a decision to live out a moral experience, a sexual liaison of impurity in her life, and to justify it by saying, “Well, I know it’s really not right, but I feel happier now than I’ve ever felt, and I don’t understand why anybody couldn’t approve of this.”

I see that every day in my life. And until people see sin for what it is, as the hateful destroyer, until you hate the Egyptians, as long as you’ve still got a string in your heart that says, “Well, it really wasn’t so bad,” then God’s got to bring an experience where they’re thundering down upon your destruction so you see the hardcore look of those Egyptians who are meant to destroy your life.

And let me just say it this way, the greatest moment of any Christian’s life is when he gets on the other side of the cross. Because 90% of Christianity is on this side of the cross. In other words, they’re saying, “I know Jesus died on the cross, I believe he took my sins on the cross, it’s wonderful, I’m saved, I believe in God, I’m going to heaven, if Christ comes for the bride, I’m going to be in the bride, and this is just wonderful,” but they never go through the cross so that sin dies to them.

“Oh, it’s wonderful, I’m born again, I’m saved, I believe this is great.” But the cross has never become the thing which separates them forever from sin. That’s the Red Sea. You see, as long as they were on this side of the Red Sea, they could go back. Because even though they were justified, even though they were redeemed by the blood, they were still in this love affair with sin that was pulling hard back towards Egypt.

The trouble with the Midianites and the Melodites and the Edomites was yet to come, but they needed an experience where they would never face the Egyptians again in their life. And that’s an experience that most of us need today, the step of identity with what God has said. Let me give you a definition of brokenness.

I’ve quoted it in the past from Roy Henshin’s book, “The Calvary Road.” Brokenness in daily experience is the response of humility to the conviction of God. It’s the point where you realize what sin is, and you realize what you are; once and for all, you see who God is. Now, this is called sanctifying.

This is the sanctifying experience. This is sanctification. God doesn’t put you where you are simply because he doesn’t know a better way. He wants you to see yourself, and he wants you to see the Egyptians. Deliverance means an identity with God’s completed work. When Moses finally says to the people of God, “Don’t be afraid, stand still, and see the salvation of God.”

The Egyptians whom you see today, you will see no more, again, forever. This wonderful statement that he makes because God wants there to be this entire and total break with the Egyptians. God moves the angel, and he moves the cloud behind them, so it’s light to the Israelites, but it’s darkness to the Egyptians.

And God brings a final victory in which he can say to his people, “Forever now, you are freed.” I want you to go to Romans 7 again and listen to these words at the end of that chapter: “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?” Do you think that? Are you quite happy that God really has done a very good thing in choosing you?

And you’re quite well worth the investment that Christ made at Calvary. Or has God shown you enough of yourself that you say, “I am a wretched man, how will I ever have deliverance from the body of this death?” I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. In other words, the Red Sea is where God wants to put a separation between you and the past.

This is what the old holiness preachers used to talk about. They used to talk about the eradication of the sin nature. They used to talk about the death of the old man. And they needed to talk about the death of the old woman, too. They didn’t get around to that in most of those churches. But the point is…

God doesn’t just want to deal with the sin that’s on you. He wants to deal with the sin that’s in you. He doesn’t only want to deal with your justification for the penalty of sin. He wants to deal with your sanctification. He wants to deal with the presence of sin in your life. He wants to give you an experience in which sin not only has condemned you but in which sin has power in your life.

Some of you are saying, “Because I trusted Christ, I’m going to heaven. All my sins were paid for on the cross of Christ. It’s just as though I’d never sinned.” Well, that’s all wonderful truth. But it’s facetious to talk to those kinds of people about victory. I want you to know you may go to heaven. I’m not sure how that’s going to work out.

Maybe simply trusting in Christ is enough, but I’m going to tell you this, you’ve got a miserable way to go. Because even though you are quote “saved by your testimony,” you’re still bound by sin. You’re still under the power of sin. You’re still under the control of sin. You still love the Egyptians. And there’s never been a Red Sea in which forever you can never go back because it’s not possible to go back.

God had to bring you across miraculously, and you couldn’t possibly get back on your own. That’s the experience God promises to us. It may not be the eradication of the sin nature, it may not be the death of the old man, but it is, it is what 1 Corinthians 10 says, it is a baptism. 1 Corinthians 10 is a very interesting passage.

In which the word of God says, “Moreover, brethren, I don’t want you to be unaware that our fathers were under the cloud and passed through the sea, and were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea, and they ate the same spiritual food, and drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.”

But do you know what the context is? Erase that tenth chapter division. That’s a man-made thing. Do you know what Paul’s subject was? Listen to it. “Do you not know that those who run in a race run but only one way? Receives the prize run to that. You may obtain it. Anyone who competes for the prize must be self-controlled in everything.”

“They do it to obtain a perishable crown in the Olympics, but we do an imperishable crown. Therefore, I run not with uncertainty. I don’t fight like someone beating the air. I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection, lest when I’ve preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”

“Moreover, brethren, I want you to know and not be unaware that our fathers were under the cloud and passed under the sea.” In other words, the context of this passage is a man living as a Christian disciplining his body so he doesn’t become cast away. That’s the context of being baptized in the Red Sea. And you understand that identity if you understand anything spiritual. Paul says, “I’m free from all men, but I’ve made myself a servant to all. To those under the law, and to those without the law, I’ve become a servant,” and listen immediately to that context.

Now honey, if you’re not striving to win this Christian victory, then (I realize you’ll never hear a preacher say this), but I’m going to say it to you honestly: get out of it.

At least in the world, at least in sin, you are unified and purposeful, and you’re doing something. But to come only partway, to get a deliverance that says, “Well, I’m safe, thank God, I’ll go to heaven,” regardless of how miserable my life is here – the fact is, when you get there, you’ll face a Christ who judges you based on how you lived your life here.

The only answer is sanctification. It’s not an additional experience that some people might get. You see, it’s not just imputed righteousness, meaning His righteousness transferred to you; it must be imparted righteousness – righteousness in your life. That’s the difference. You see, in our old Baptist tradition, we love to say, “Well, thank God the righteousness of Jesus is imputed to me by grace, and all His righteousness becomes mine.”

But you never hear them say what God says: “I want to impart righteousness to you. I want to make you righteous. I don’t want you just to have the imputed righteousness of Christ; I want you to have righteousness in your life.” That’s sanctification, and blessed be to the man of God, the woman of God, who’s never come to that position and said, “I’m a wretched person.”

“The thing I know to do good, I don’t do. And the thing I know to be evil, I constantly do, and I don’t want – I don’t wanna live this way. I don’t care what my testimony is of being saved; I want a baptism in the purposes of God by which I can reckon sin to be dead in my life.” In Romans 6, he says this, “Don’t yield your bodies anymore.”

“Don’t yield the members of your body anymore as instruments of unrighteousness, unto sin. But yield yourselves unto God as those who are alive from the dead, and yield your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” You mean to tell me you’re a Christian and that’s never come to your mind?

That you should not be yielding the parts of your body as instruments for sin? But because you’re saved, you should be yielding your body as instruments of righteousness unto God.

The verb tense is interesting there. “Do not yield continually” is the word, is what it says. “Do not continually yield.” I’ll tell you something: all of us will struggle with sin in the reality of this life, and nobody is going to be perfect. But I’ll tell you, the man who continually yields himself to sin has got a problem.

Jesus said, “You are the servant of sin if you serve sin. It’s your master.” And you can say whatever you want about your confession of faith, but whoever sins is the servant of sin. So the life of a born-again believer is to be changed, and God says, “I want to do what’s necessary.” And let’s be very careful about this.

God will not protect you beyond your identity with what he’s already done. God is not going to stand up for you until you stand up for yourself. He isn’t going to get angry about the Egyptians until you’re angry about the Egyptians. And when you want yourself to see victory, then the Spirit begins constructing a hedge about you.

And it begins to make victory possible in your life. The next point, the march of faith, of course, is obvious. And it needs very little word for us because once you really know who you are and you know these Egyptians don’t mean good for you, then the only hope is a miracle that gets you across. But the miracle that comes only comes after the method of God has been revealed to you.

What must happen? Hebrews 11:28 says, “By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn would touch them. And by faith, they passed through the Red Sea on dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.” Sanctification is a positive word. Now, I had several key girlfriends in my life.

I had one girlfriend I was ready to marry because she made good pizza – in fact, the best I’ve ever had. I never did have anybody in my life who made pizza better than Hazel did. There was another girl I almost married because she sang beautifully. But I thought how miserable it would be waking up every morning saying, “Justify this marriage; please sing.”

You know that would get old after a while. And I had a third girlfriend who played the accordion and had lots of money – at least her family did. That’s not all bad either. But when I met Anita, when I really got to know her (having met her a couple of years prior to that), but when I came to know her, and God began dealing with my life and with her life as well, that this was something that was to be meaningful and eternal in our lives.

Do you think I went around saying, “Oh boy, no more pizza from Hazel. No more accordion from Rosemary. No more singing from Joyce. How stupid.”

And yet, that’s the attitude some of you have about the things of God. You really do believe in your heart of hearts that God is an ogre. He’s trying to take something away from you that’s really good. And that if you were to be truly sanctified by the presence of God and separated for God’s purpose, like a man decides in that one moment of separation for one woman and all others fall away, somehow that’s limiting to you.

And you’re like the cocky kids today who run around saying, “Well, I don’t want to get married. There are so many fish in the sea, you know. There are so many people, so many girls, and so few days, and so forth.” Good luck; they’ll never know it. They’ll never know the joy of love. And that’s the way of a committed Christian.

Never gets down to this point. Deliverance is meant to produce a redemption of enslavement in your life. F. B. Meyer asks an interesting question: What is your Egyptian? Some besetting sin that has been your taskmaster for years. Long ago, it made you its slave. Perhaps it enslaved your father before you. In former days, you struggled valiantly for freedom, but all your efforts were in vain, and of late you’ve renounced the conflict, allowing yourself to yield to the tyrant’s imperious behest.

Perhaps you cherish the hope that someday the ebbing force of your life will emancipate you from your servitude, but it’s a weary prospect. Not for you the perfect peace, the erect head, the cheery tone, the victor’s shout. Thanks be to God who gives the victory. And now from this hour, will you not begin to cherish the anticipation of complete deliverance? Not hereafter in old age in heaven, but now and here.

Not because of your resolution, striving, or agony, but because you stand still and see the salvation of God. The Lord will fight for you, and you will hold your peace. I want you to understand something I’ve said to you on several occasions about this event. Two pictures that you’ll need to have for the rest of your life.

One I’ve given to you. Moses said on several occasions to the people, “You shall borrow from the Egyptians, you shall ask from the Egyptians.” But here, after this moment of victory, and the Egyptians are swallowed up in the same ocean that parts for the people of God. And here are these Israelites, walking down the beach, seeing the cold, dead, stony faces of the very men who were their enslavers. The very men who beat them with whips and who demanded that they toe the line. Now here they are, lying cold and dead on the shore of the sea.

And by the way, have you ever asked yourself this question? Where did they get the weapons to fight the Midianites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites? Every weapon they would use from this moment on came from the Egyptians. And Israel, a nation of slaves, became the best-armed army in the world because God plundered the Egyptians and put it in the hands of his people. So there are two pictures you need to have. One is that little tabernacle built in the wilderness.

Every single instrument in that tabernacle is made of pure gold, with the exception of the things in the outer court. And that gold comes from the Egyptians. And we need to see them armed to the teeth against their enemy because their weapons come from the Egyptians. God redeems what the enemy has lost and has taken from us.

I remember very well a young man many years ago who was a friend of mine. He got involved in a marriage, one of those tragic, absolute, unmanageable marriages because the woman had deceived him, like Hosea’s wife in the Old Testament. She had deceived him. Shortly after the marriage, the truth was out. As a result, he had to divorce.

And that meant that all of his potential in the denomination he served, he could not be an ordained minister, he could not pastor a church. Everything he had dreamed about spiritually in his life. And I remember the discussions and prayers we had. But God turned it around. He went into a place in Southern California and said, “There must be a lot of people like me, broken, in the experience of life.”

God brought another lady into his life, a wonderfully dedicated soulmate to him. And the two of them founded a church. Within five years, it was the largest church in Southern California in those days. It started with a thousand, then four thousand, eventually becoming twelve thousand people. God plundered the thing that Satan had meant as defeat and caused it to be the very source of his victory.

You need to understand this day that the besetting sins and the taskmasters that have made you slaves, the heritage of your fathers, and all the rest, not only need to be broken, but God wants you to cherish the hope and understanding that the things which have been in the past become the means by which God releases the new.

Now, what this shows us so clearly, and why Christians don’t want Romans 7 to be where it is, and Christians don’t want Exodus 14 to be where it is, is that we want a nice, clean, black and white deliverance from sin and to get to heaven. We don’t want to understand that God has to design the circumstances of our life after we’re saved to bring us to a place where we see ourselves.

We see sin and we deal with the issue of sanctification that will not only take us away from hell but take hell out of our lives and sanctify us by the blood of Christ as we identify with the death of Jesus so that sin is no longer a taskmaster in our life. Then God can lead us through a Red Sea that leads where we never go back.

The cross becomes not just something to look to and believe in but something applied to our life that puts to death the power of sin, and we live through the sanctifying power of God on the other side. I’ll tell you, my friend, you’ve been cheated. You’ve been robbed in modern Christianity that teaches you justification and doesn’t lead you into sanctification.

No wonder there’s no victory and joy. You’re just twiddling your thumbs until the end, hoping to be taken out, not knowing the power of victory and the armaments of preparation for spiritual victory in your future. Let’s bow our heads in prayer, please. This may be one of the clearest words God ever brings from this pulpit on sanctification.

Those old preachers had it right. Maybe not all their language was right, and maybe they didn’t set it in the right context, but they were right when saying that after you’re justified, you’ve got to deal with this issue of sanctification.

You’ve got to let sin become sin. Has God allowed you to be in a very strange way? Because God is trying to show you sin as sin. He’s trying to show the Egyptians as the destroyers they are, and He’s trying to show you the duplicity of your own heart, so you can cry out, “Oh wretched man that I am.”

One writer said that’s the most spiritual cry in the New Testament. “Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?” That becomes the moment in which God begins to work a Red Sea experience, and He changes us, heart, soul, and mind while our heads are bowed and eyes are closed.

Just a simple response this morning. Does God speak and confirm to you this morning the need for a sanctifying work in your spirit by His grace? May I see your hands?

A work of sanctification. Identification with His death. Thank you. Anyone else? See these raised hands across the auditorium.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could say, “Now everybody come forward, and we’ll lay hands on you and you’ll be sanctified today.” No, it’s a process, but it does have a beginning point. That’s the point of this message. There is a crisis in which the process of sanctification begins. It’s a crisis in which you see yourself and hate your sin.

In which you want the work of God internalized, not only for you but in you. And your cry is, “God, do it in me. That freedom from sin will be lived out in my life by your grace. You stand still and see the salvation of God.” F. B. Meyer said, “Do you have an expectation for this taskmaster to be totally broken in your life?” That expectation comes from the power of the blood. You’ve seen it to be what it is. The revelation has come by God’s dealings in your life, and now you stand on His work.

It’s not works of righteousness which you do. The same faith that brought you justification brings you sanctification. Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, that you may be alive unto God and unto righteousness. Consider it so! Consider it. Have faith. Step into the water. The Red Sea rolls back, and God separates you eternally from that principle in your life.

Father, I pray for my friends who have today, across this auditorium, experienced a sweet moment of Your Holy Spirit doing something in our lives. I have sensed Your revelation breaking through in people’s lives, in which they’re saying, “Now I see this, now I understand that though I’m saved, this is what God’s allowing, so I will forever know that sin is sin.”

And that God is righteousness, and that He has a plan for me to be separate from sin, and separate unto Him, and to live my life in the victory of the cross. I passed through the cross this morning. I not only looked to the cross, but I placed the cross upon my life. And I say with Paul, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live. The life I now live, I live through the faith of the Son of God who loved me and saved me from my sins.”

This cross, on my cross, on my life, Paul says, “I die daily.” Daily, this cross continues the work of separation and sanctification. And Lord, I pray that be confirmed today in each person in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s stand and sing this together as Don is playing.

“Change My Heart, O Lord.” We know the words. “Change my heart, O God. Make it ever new. Change my heart, O God.”