Israel: The Faith’s Triumph

Temple Baptist Church - 5-6-2020

Hebrews 11:29; Exodus 14;8-14

Introduction:

A.  God did some wonderful things for Israel.

1.  God sent His deliverer, Moses.

2.  God plagued Egypt until Pharaoh let Israel go.

3.  God spoiled the Egyptians, making Israel immensely rich.

4.  God instituted the Passover, the fourteenth day of a New Year: Nissan.

5.  God brought Israel out with a High Hand.

6.  God promised to both take them and take them in!

B.  Israel is excited because Canaan is eleven days away.  A land flowing with milk and honey!  Home!

C.  Now God does the incomprehensible!  God led Israel by a Pillar of Cloud by day and a Pillar of Fire by night.  There was no mistaking God’s deliverance or God’s direction.

Exodus 13:21-22  And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:  (22)  He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

Exodus 14:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.

D.  Though Moses did not understand nor did the Nation of Israel, they followed Him!

1.  God knew that Israel was not ready to defeat the Canaanites.

Exodus 13:17  And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt:

2.  God knew that Pharaoh would never leave Israel alone. 

Exodus 14:5  And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?

3.  God had told Moses that he would serve Him upon Mt. Sinai.  There Moses would be given the Moral Law, Ceremonial Law, Civil Law, along with the pattern of the Tabernacle and Priesthood.

Exodus 3:12  And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.

4.  God knew that this generation of Israelites would reject God’s promise of delivering Canaan into their hand and would have to die in the wilderness.

Numbers 14:2, 4  And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness ...  And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

Deuteronomy 1:35  Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers,

E.  One man put the story this way:

1. Egyptians were pursuing. (Verses 8-9)

2. Israelites were petrified and pouting. (Verses 10-12)

3. Moses was patient and peaceful. (verses 13-14)

1.  The Lord’s Direction.  (Verses 1-2)

a.  The Way was unexpected.  By “The Way of the Sea,” which is probably the route that Jacob took when traveling to Egypt was app. 220 miles and would have taken from 7-11 days to travel. 

b.  The Place was impossible.  God led Israel to the south along the west bank of the Gulf of Suez to a place between two mountains.  There, they face the Gulf of Suez, an impassible route as there were not enough ships in Egypt to carry them and all that they had over.

c.  The Possibility was incomprehensible.  15 miles wide and 1850 meters (6070 feet) deep

2.  The Lord’s Desire.  (Verses 3-8)

a.  God knew that Pharaoh had to be destroyed or they would never give up and let Israel go.

b.  God knew that He had to fight for Israel because they could not stand against Pharaoh’s army.

3.  Israel’s Dilemma.  (Verses 9-12)

a.  Israel’s Fearfulness.  (Verse 10)

b.  Israel’s Faithlessness.  (Verses 11-12)

4.  Moses’ Demand.  (Verses 13-14)

a.  Fear Ye Not.

b.  Stand Still.

c.  See The Salvation of The LORD.

5.  The Lord’s Deliverance.  (Verses 15-22)

a.  The Direction Given.  (Verse 15)

b.  The Divided Waters.  (Verse 16)  God told Moses to do this. 

c.  The Dry Ground Appeared.

6.  The Lord’s Defense.  (Verses 19-20)

a.  God’s Presence.  Moved from before to behind.

b.  Man’s Perception.  Darkness to Egyptians and Light to the Israelites.

7.  The Lord’s Demonstration.  (Verses 23-31)

a.  The Egyptians Drawn.  (Verse 23)

b.  The Egyptians Defeated.  (Verses 24-25) 

b.  The Egyptians Drowned.  (Verses 26-28)

8.  Israel’s Delight.  (Verses 30-31)

a.  The Israelites Beheld.  (Verse 30)

b.  The Israelites Believed.  (Verse 31)

Laodicea, The Lukewarm Church, History - 1945 AD to the Present

Temple Baptist Church - 5-3-2020

Revelation 3:14-22

Introduction:

A.  Tonight, we begin with the last age of the church, The Laodicean Church Age.  Lukewarm, despicable, relatively worthless and without cure.

B.  In two thousand years, we came from the Apostolic Church that “turned the world upside down” to this? 

1.  How did we get here?  The Bible Belt is unbuckled, most churches are modernistic and liberal, and fundamental Bible believing churches are like “hen’s teeth,” hard to find.

2.  How did we get here?  One inch at a time, the church has gotten used to the dark and found out that it liked the dark!

C.  Laodicea: “The Rights of the People”

1.  The Lukewarm Church

2.  The Materialistic Church

3.  The Despicable Church

4.  The Drag Net Church

5.  The Last Church

D.  The History Timeline of the Laodicean Church Age:

1.  Pre-Laodicea - Three things drove America spiritually to its knees in prayer prior to 1945.

a.  World War I, 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918, The Great War.  The first global conflict.

b.  The Great Depression - August 1929 to June 1938

c.  World War II, 1 September 1939 to 2 September 1945, The Second World War.

2.  On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb from a B-29 bomber plane called the Enola Gay on Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, August 9, 1945, a second was dropped on Nagasaki—bringing Japan to a place of surrender on August 14, 1945, bringing an end to World War II.

3.  The biblical structure of the home changed during World War II as the men went to war and the women left the home and went to work in the war effort.  When the men came home from the war, they were tired of fighting, the women were making the decisions and the home has never been the same.

4.  War has always been good for the economy because it increases its output and number of workers to support it.  At the end of the war, materialism was in full swing. 

a.  Americans could now afford the luxuries of life that they had only dreamed of in the past.

b.  New homes, new cars, modern appliances and conveniences became the norm in most American homes, and this took MONEY!

c.  Since the women, for the most part, now worked outside the home, the two income home was the answer to the materialistic desires of America.

5.  Over the past 75 years, great change has come to America and the world.  These changes have not all been good ones.

a.  The first official television broadcast began on January 3, 1954 and Hollywood has done much to shape the thinking of America ever since.

 b.  The “Baby Boomers” came into this world to families with working moms and dads.  Many became dysfunctional because of this change in family structure where mom was not always at home.

c.  Grandparents, babysitters, Daycare Centers and Kindergarten took over the raising of the children because mom and dad now had to work to pay bill for the newly acquired assets.

d.  Breakdown of authority.  The Old School of authority became just that, “Old School.”  Children were not corrected in the home; children could not be in the schools; this bled over into every aspect of life.

e.  The rise of the hippy (flower children) movement; burn the bra movement; women’s lib movement; NOW – National Organization of Women, etc.

f.  The “Godlessness” of the public-school system. 

1.  The “Godlessness” of Evolution.  Science falsely so-called has permeated schools.

2.  The “Godlessness” of Humanism.  Where there is not God, man becomes “god.”

3.  The “Godlessness” of Globalism.  “We are world and we are one.”  Montessori method of teaching.  The first Montessori School was established in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1913.

4.  The “Godlessness” of Socialism.  The Socialist Movement in America is deeply rooted in public education as colleges are turning out liberal left socialists.

g. The evolution of the “religion.”  Not salvation as it never changes.  As each generation became more unchurched, causing the churches to change their biblical structure in lieu of a more worldly approach to draw the worldly.

h.  In the early 1950’s, more “new bibles” came into existence and the King James Bible was being taught as archaic and, therefore, not as relevant as the modern versions.  Mostly liberal churches changed to the new versions through ignorance BUT many so-called fundamental churches and universities push them today.

1.  The Westcott-Hort Text, i.e. the Critical Text or the Minority Text began to be translated around 1853.  New Testament finished in 1881 and RV completed in 1885. 

2.  The Revised Version was rejected by the majority and the King James continued to be the Bible of choice until the early 1950’s.

1952 – Revised Standard Version

1965 – Amplified Bible

1966 – Jerusalem Bible

1970 – New American Bible

1971 – New American Standard Bible

1971 – The Living Bible

1976 – The Good News Bible

1978 – The New International Version

1982 – New King James Version

1989 – New Revised Standard Version

2001 – English Standard Version

2004 – Holman Standard Christian Version

2004 – New Living Translation Updated

2008 – ESV Study Bible Published

i.  Demographics have changed:

1.  The Old School Americans (pre-WWII), for the most part, have passed away; Baby Boomers (post-WWII), also called Generation X, are now the senior citizens and are passing off the scene; Millennials (As of July 1, 2016 (the latest date for which population estimates are available), also called Generation Y, are parents; and Generation Z (America’s youth) are coming up.

2.  With each change, there has been a forsaking of some degree the values of the preceding generation and America is rushing toward the self-destruction of socialism as the “blind” are now leading the “blind.”

3.  All these changes are evidenced in the modern day COVID-19 “crisis,” as not only the world is caught up in it, churches are also.

The Valley of The Sea

Temple Baptist Church - 5-3-2020

Psalm 77

Introduction:

A.  As a rule, when seas are mentioned in the Bible, they are places of hardship or difficulty.  They are places that test our faith!  In this particular Psalm, we find “hindsight’s 20/20” in operation.  The Psalmist looks at the trial from start to finish.  He started with faith; faith faltered; faith remembered; and God delivered!

1.  We Find Confidence – vs. 1  “God Will!”

2.  We Find Confusion – vs. 2  “God Hasn’t!”

3.  We Find Complaining – vs. 3  “God Won’t!”

4.  We Find Contemplation – vs. 4-9  “God has turned His back on me”

5.  We Find Consideration – vs. 10-18  “God has been here and done it before”

6.  We Find Confidence – vs. 19-20   “God will do it once more”

B.  Seas in general are immense!  The Red Sea, to Israel who had no boats or planes, was just such a sea.  It was:

1.  A Place Of Improbability – The path north was the easiest and quickest

2.  A Place Of Impassability – The path south was one of entanglement by sea,

mountains, or desert.

3.  A Place of Impossibility – They could not go forward, they could not go backward, they could not stay put!

C.  Life is hard at best.  When I think of a sea, I think of:

1.  Great Depths - The Mariana Trench is 36,201 feet deep (Mt. Everest—the highest mountain in the world stands only 29,029 ft. tall).

2.  Immense Size - The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean. It covers 69,375,000 square miles.

3.  Incredible Power – Currents that cannot be contained.

4.  Sudden tempests – Storms of great magnitude.

5.  Long Crossings – Thousands of miles on major oceans.

6.  Physical Impossibilities – I cannot neither wade through nor them can I swim across them.  I often go to the Atlantic and the possibility of my swimming across it never even crosses my mind.  As a matter of fact, there are fish there that would love to eat this fat preacher!

D.  Verses 13-15 declares that God is known in the Sanctuary, God’s house.  God’s house is essential!  ” Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?

1.  There We Remember The Past – Verse 11.  “Thy wonders of old.”

2.  There We Meditate on The Present – Verse 12.  “All thy doings.”  (Performance or opportunity)

3.  There We Declare the Future – Verse 14.  “Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people.”

4.  “What Did The Sea See When The Sea Saw?”  “The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.”  (Verse 16) 

E.  The Psalmist said, “Thy way is in the sea and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.”  God often allows His children to come to hard places in their lives.  Not paths chosen by us but paths allowed by Him.  This verse tells me three things:’ 

1.  God’s Path Is Not Always Easy!

2.  God’s Path Is Always Ahead of Us!

3.  God’s Path Is Not Always Visible!

1.  God’s Sea is a Prepared Place – His Property!   God created the seas and knows every part of it like the “back of His hand!”  He made every mountain and every valley in the seas.  I believe that God knows every trial that we will face in our lives.  It is not that God creates sinfulness nor does He condone it, but I believe that God still controls it!  It Is Not The Way Of Our Comprehending!

2.  God’s Sea is a Providential Place – His Permission!  God knew before He ever created the world that Israel would one day stand at that precise place because it was the “hand of God” that led them there.  It was a place of God’s choosing.  Every good General picks his place and time of battle.  God chose the place of Israel’s crossing.  So does God allow us to be brought to hard places in life in His providence!    It Is Not The Way Of Our Comfort!  It Is Often The Harder Way!  It Is Often The Long Way!  It Is Not The Way Of Our Choosing!  It Is Often The Only Way!  When you have no choice, you can make no wrong decision!

3.  God’s Sea is a Powerful Place – His Parting!  When I see the ocean, it never ceases to amaze me with its magnitude and its power!  It goes beyond the horizon; it goes for thousands of miles; no power on earth can either tame it or stop it.  It is controlled only by God!  When we come to our sea—Seas Of Disappointment, Seas Of Discouragement, Seas Of Dire Circumstances, Seas Of Duration, Seas Of Doubt—they are seas where only God can show His might power!

4.  God’s Sea Is A Protected Place – His Pillar!  When Israel came to the impossible, impassable Red Sea and the enemy drew near to destroy, God placed Himself between the enemies of God’s people and the people of God.  No matter how they hated Israel and Israel’s God, they could do nothing to draw any nearer than God would allow.  He has put Satan and the enemies of God’s children on a leash!  The most protected place is not always the easiest one.  The most protected place is in the midst of the fire in the will of God.

5.  God’s Sea Is A Purposed Place – His Plan!  His purpose is to deliver the children of God!  God does not purpose that we be destroyed and He will show up on time to deliver.  When we get to the end of life and look back, we will see the hand of God in our lives.  His purpose is to destroy the enemies of God!  As God destroyed Israel; as God destroyed Haman; God will destroy those who oppose Him and refuse to get right.  Egypt could have been spared if, at any time, they had turned around but God hardened their hearts and they continued until they perished.  His purpose is to purify the saint and bring praise and glory to God!  In the sea, God is still God!  Just let God be God, trust Him with all that you have, and He will be glorified.