I know this story is well known to you and you know what has gone ahead of it. How that the children of Israel groaned in bondage in Egypt and how that Moses was chosen over his protests to go into Pharaoh and to demand that the people be allowed to leave. You know how God visited plagues upon these people until at last he struck down their firstborn And then, and not until then, were the Israelites permitted to leave. After they had left, the people in Egypt said, We were foolish to let all these slaves go. And so Pharaoh decided that they would pursue after them, bring them back again into the same servitude. But he reckoned without God. Let's pray, shall we? Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee that These old, old stories with which we are so familiar still contained for us lessons that we must need ponder time and time again. We ask that this evening we might hear thy voice speaking to us, that we might be concerned about the things that are brought before us, and that we might realize how very necessary it is in every direction that we turn, not only to reckon with God, but to be concerned about his plan and his purpose and his will. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. I want you to notice verse four in this fourteen chapter. God says, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he shall follow after them, that is after the children of Israel, and I will be honored. upon Pharaoh. Now this is my concern tonight to think about God's honor. I will be honored upon Pharaoh. Now we know the word that God sent to Pharaoh and the people in Israel. It's been put to music and it's been often sung and we've heard it sung let my people go. Now if you go back to the earlier chapters of Exodus, when the groundwork is being laid for the chapter from which we've read this evening, you will find that when eventually the leaders of the children of Israel went into Egypt and unto Pharaoh, they called themselves Pharaoh's servants. Why hast thou dealt so hardly with thy servants? They wanted to know when Pharaoh had commanded that no straw be given to them to make their bricks, but they go out and scavenge and find it for themselves. Why, they said, have you dealt so hardly with thy servants? But God was never happy with that title, when eventually his demand was to be made of the people of Egypt, It was let my people go. Not let your servants go, but let my people go. And the reason for this is because God had chosen this people to be an instrument for his honor and for his glory. And he is going to honor himself through them upon Pharaoh and upon his host according to verse four. I am the Lord, he says. And it's a very, very dangerous thing to be found siding against God. We've well said that one with God is in the majority. If we are foolish enough to pull in some other direction, we're only inviting trouble and disaster into our lives. You know what happened to Egypt, don't you? You know all about the life, and you know all about the frogs, and you know all about the plagues. And you know how that finally God struck down the firstborn in Egypt, trying to prove to Pharaoh and his hosts that it is a lost cause to fight against God and against the people of God. So in the end he had to heed that word, let my people go, and he had to do just that. Let them go. In the first place, He was anxious that they shouldn't go very far. But the leaders of the children of Israel, Moses and his cohorts, they were not prepared to compromise in this matter. God had spoken, and so they said, No, you have to let us go completely. And in the end, that was what Pharaoh said he would do, and he let them go. Now, in the story that follows in our chapter here, There are three things that occur to me with regard to God's honor, which was had upon Pharaoh and all of his hosts. First of all, it's quite apparent here what is the character of God's honor. Secondly, in the story, it is just as apparent what are the channels of God's honor. And then finally, what is the cost of God's honor? And I want to apply these things to our own hearts and our own lives because they are very appropriate and apt. First of all, the character of God's honor, it involved several things. It involved, first of all, the obedience of his people. And then it involved the success of his plans. And then it involved the destruction of his enemies. Let's look for these things in our chapter here. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi-ha-Hiroth, between Migdal and the sea, over against Beal-Zifon, before it shall ye encamp by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness have shut them in, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart that he shall follow after them, And I will be honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his host, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord, and they did so. God's glory always involves the obedience of his people. The Lord spoke to Moses and said, Speak under the children of Israel that they do this. And it says, and they did so. Did you notice God's perfect knowledge of Pharaoh? He knew all about Pharaoh's thinking. He knew all about what Pharaoh would say. He knew all about the decision that Pharaoh would make. And he knew all about the actions that Pharaoh and his host would undertake. There wasn't a thing hidden from God. And in his wisdom he sees fit now to reveal it to Moses so that Moses in turn can reveal it to the children of Israel. You know, God knows the repercussions that come from obedience. He knows that it is a costly thing to obey him and to fit into his plan and to perform his will. Now it's very striking that although God told Moses this much, so that Moses was able to convey this much to the children of Israel, God did not reveal the outcome of their obedience in this particular instance. They were going to be penned in by the armies and they were going to face the barrier of the sea. And they were going to be surrounded, and God did not tell them how it was all going to end. I have a sister who lives further south in Florida. Pardon the personal illustration, won't you? She lives in Hollywood. Her husband was one of the finest Christian men that ever I knew. I remember when I first got acquainted with him. He was in the army and he was home in Birmingham, England on furlough, and he became acquainted with my sister and the family soon became acquainted with him. Now he had been converted in Hong Kong while he was in the service. He had immediately faced up to the consequences of giving all to God and he became a witness for God among his fellow military men. Eventually he finished his time and was pensioned off and then he began to look for another job. And he found one with an automobile firm on the outskirts of the city of Birmingham. When the war clouds began to hover over the country, he was called into his superior's office along with two or three other guards at that factory. and he was told that because of the imminence of war they were going to have to bear arms. Now he had been in the army for twenty or more years and never carried a gun. When he was a Christian he played in the band, this was the reason why he didn't carry a gun. But when he became a Christian he faced up to the fact for himself And if ever the time came when he had to carry a gun, he would not for conscience sake do it. But he never was faced with that kind of a challenge or decision during his time in the army. But now he was a civilian and a guard in an automobile factory, and now he was faced with this same experience. He told his boss that he was a believer. and the conscientious objector as far as carrying arms was concerned, and therefore he could not carry a gun. He was told not to be too hasty in his decision, since the weapons were not yet to be distributed. But he told his boss on the day that they are, then I shall have no choice but to turn the gun down. And that day came. And so his boss called him into his office and said to him, Frank, The time has come. Today I have my instructions to distribute the weapons. And if you're not willing to take one, then you're fired. He said, I, before God, cannot do it. And so he, in the middle of that morning, packed up his things and left his job and went home to tell his wife that he was out of work. And although the war was hovering in the near future, he found it very, very difficult to find work. And for several months he trudged up and down in that city, looking in vain for employment. One day he opened the newspaper after several months, and he saw a job that he felt was just down his alley. He prayed about it. He made his way to personnel. And personnel referred him to the man who would be his superior. And when he was ushered into that man's office, he looked into the face of the very man who had fired him seven months before. And he said, Frank, I need a man of integrity and a man with a conscience and you're the right man for the job. And immediately he upped the pay and my brother-in-law found out that it pays to be true to one's conscience and to be concerned about God's will, and to be willing to pay the price for God's honor. Now, I'm not saying that because he was a conscientious objector, everybody else who wasn't was wrong. I had to face this for myself, and I felt that if I was drafted into the service, I would not be a conscientious objector. But however, this was his conscience, and because he gave God his way, God honored him. Then that honor me, he says, I will honor. God knows all the repercussions that come from being obedient. But he also knows that no price can be too big to pay in order to be concerned about God's glory and to do God's will. So this is the character of God's honor. it involves the obedience of his people. Now what was true in the days of Exodus fourteen, and what was true of those pre-war days is true today. When we arrive at a place where we have to make a decision which is going to be costly for us, but God's honor is at stake, there's only one decision that can be made, and that a refusal to compromise God's glory. To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, than the fat of rams. Now again, God's honor, oh God's glory, involved the success of his plans. When God raised up Abraham, and when God made certain promises to Abraham about the nation that should come out of his loins, And when eventually Israel became a fact, and even when Israel was taken into bondage in Egypt, it was God's intention eventually that they should be free to carry out his plan and his purposes. And certainly those were not to be his permanent plans when they were in bondage in Egypt. And so, Having so tried the nation of Egypt, the people of God now are brought out from their bondage, and in the wilderness they are on their way to freedom, and on their way to the fulfillment, the successful fulfillment of God's plans for them, and the accomplishing of God's glory through them. His plans have to be successful. If His honor is going to be the result, And if his glory is going to come about, they cannot and they must not be thwarted. Now again what was true of Israel is true of us. God's plans for your life must not be thwarted. God's honor is dependent upon his will being accomplished in your experience. Now Tim is going to Germany tomorrow. Only God knows what lies ahead of him. But I'm quite confident that he will find himself face to face with numbers of decisions which will involve for him the will of God and the glory of God. And some of those decisions for him are going to be costly ones. But I would impress this truth upon him as I would impress it upon my own heart and the hearts of everyone here. That anything less than the will of God and a concern for the glory of God. has to be absolutely disastrous. Now he's going to need our prayers as he goes abroad, just as his brother needs our prayers out there in California, preparing himself for the life that God has for him. And God help us not to be remiss in our support in prayer for these young men. The third thing that is involved is the destruction of God's enemies. And in the end, God is going to do this completely. In fact, he's going to make them the footstool for the Lord Jesus. Egypt shall know, he says, that I am the Lord, and says, see, Pharaoh shall perish. Look at verse eight, will you? It says, the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. I don't know whether this puzzles you. But, you know, Pharaoh hardened his own heart first. And so God came in and hardened his heart in turn so that he could not repent even if he wanted to. God had decreed as the result of his prior hardening of his own heart his destruction was going to come about. So we have a hardened heart in verse eight. Look at verse twenty four in this chapter and it says, and it came to pass that in the morning watch, The Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire of the cloud and troubled the host of the Egyptians. You know, when you are in opposition to God, a hardened heart becomes a certainty. And when you're in opposition to God, God will certainly see that your life becomes a troubled existence. When we get to verse twenty-five, we find that this is translated into the realm of material things, and it says, God took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily, so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians. But you get to verse twenty-eight, and you find that the best-laid schemes of mice and men gang after glee. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them, there remained not so much as one of them. So Moses' word to the children of Israel came true. The Egyptians that you see, you'll see no more. So the glory of God, God's honor, involved the destruction of his enemies. They fought against Him, their hearts were hardened, their minds were troubled, their chariot wheels break, and they were drowned in the sea. But not before they had realized that indeed they were fighting against God. Now I mentioned this morning the possibility of the believer backsliding, and I feel it's appropriate for us to remind our hearts of this again tonight. Because if we are not as believers concerned about the glory of God, then we are concerned about the things that are selfish. We are concerned about the things of ourselves. And we must be very, very careful that we do not continue that way because even the believer can get a hardened heart and fail to realize that he's gotten to the place where he's fighting against God. even though God is his own God. It was to Christians that the word was written, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Beware that you don't fight against God, because there can only be one issue to that battle, and that disaster for you. Here then is the character of God's honor. which involved the obedience of his people, the success of his plans, and the destruction of his enemies. Now what should we say about the channels of God's honor? You know the glory of God in the past has been brought about through the inanimate and it still is. It has also been brought about through human channels and it still is. Look at verse twenty will you. of our chapter and see how God honors himself using the cloud. Verse nineteen, for the sake of connection, says, And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them. And the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to breeze. To the Egyptians it was cloud and darkness. To the Israelites it was light. So the one came not near the other all the night. So here you have a besieged Israel. The sea is in front of them. The host of Egypt are gathered around them, and exalting in the fact... that victory for them is very, very close, when the angel of the Lord removes and puts himself deliberately between Egypt and Israel, and the cloud that had been ahead of them now comes again as a barrier between them and their enemies. God glorified himself through the cloud, which was an inanimate thing. Look at verse twenty-one, will you? and Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. Now, just as he used the cloud for his glory in verse twenty, so he uses the wind for his glory in verse twenty-one. When we get to verse twenty-five, it's the wheels of the chariot. God was responsible for this, you know. It doesn't mean to say that they were not well made. But God interfered with the progress of the Egyptians and the wheels of their chariot break, and they brave their chariot heavily. And then when we come to the verses twenty-six and twenty-seven and twenty-eight, having used the cloud and the wind and the wheels, now he uses the waters. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, That the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. Moses did this, and the enemies were drowned in the sea. Now these things that I'd mentioned to you that are found in these verses, they constituted a variety of circumstances. But all of these circumstances were calculated eventually to produce God's honor. It was true of the cloud, it was true of the wind, it was true of the wheels, and it was true of the waters. When God's honor is at stake, God can make use of the inanimate. He also made use of the lower creation. You remember how that once he opened the mouth of an S that spoke to its rider because he just wouldn't listen when his leg was crushed against the wall. I'm speaking, of course, of Bailyn. When God spoke to a big fish, he was exactly where he was supposed to be when Jonah was taken by the sailors and thrown over the side of the ship. What Jonah wouldn't do, that was listen to God and obey him. The big fish did, and it was a good thing for Jonah, that the big fish didn't do what Jonah had done and disobeyed God. But instead, because God's glory was at stake, the fish obeyed and was found where he was meant to be, just ready to make a meal of Jonah, and later to vomit him up, on the dry land. That's Bible language, so I hope it doesn't offend your ears. But you know, God is just as able and just as anxious to use the human being for his glory. In fact, I think even more so. You remember that we read to you the story of Palm Sunday a couple of weeks ago. When the people were crying out, Hosanna, blessed if he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Rebuke these, the Lord Jesus was told. He said, if I prevent them from crying out, the stones will take up the strain. But God prefers the human life, and God prefers the human voice, and God prefers the human effort through which to produce his glory. But you know, Sometimes God performs his will through the human, and the human doesn't even know. You find examples of that in the Old Testament where God took up kings and made instruments of them for his glory, destroying this army or that army through them, making them victorious. They didn't even realize that they had been a tool in God's ends. But God did it. He sometimes did it with unwilling people. You read in the early part of Exodus about Moses. Moses comes to God and he says, I can't speak. I'm such an insignificant creature. How can I go to Pharaoh and talk to him about letting the children of Israel go? How can I do it? He was quite unwilling, but God was insistent. God says, because I'm telling you to go, I'm the one who will give to you all the power that you need. He says, cast down your rod. When Moses did it, it became a snake. He said, put your hand into your bosom. When he did and pulled it out, it was leprous. Now he said, put it back again. And when he did and pulled it out, it was as clean as it had been before. God said, you don't have to be afraid of being an instrument for my glory, because I'll be right there to vindicate you. I'll be right there to empower you. I'll be right there to prove to you that there's no other way that is profitable. And because God proved this to Moses, he went into Pharaoh's presence, and eventually the children of Israel were not only brought out from their bondage, but delivered by the banks of the sea. So the channels of God's honor are sometimes inanimate. Sometimes animate, sometimes human, and sometimes not even aware of the fact that God is using them. Others times used in spite of their unwillingness. But you know what God looks for is an unquestioning human being. He is looking for those who are willing to say to him, Lord, whatever you want, that's what's important to me. Young people come to us at youth retreats and after meetings so often and say, how can I know the will of God in my life? And you know, those of us who are older, we sometimes ask ourselves some questions about the will of God in our lives. Is the path that I'm pursuing? Is the life that I'm living? Are the things that I'm doing according to the will of God? And even though we're older, sometimes we are puzzled. and we are not quite sure. Now the word of God says that to know his will one must be prepared to do it. He that willeth to do his will shall know. Knowledge of the will of God depends upon our readiness on the part of the person asking to do that will. If I come to God and say, Oh God, I realize that your will is important. And I realize that you have a plan and a purpose for my life. And Lord, I want you to speak to me. I want you to show me what that plan and purpose is so that I can weigh it up and make my decision as to whether or not I want to go this way. I must surely have told you before about the old gypsy woman who was seen tossing up a twig two or three times she did it. And a man who was interested in gypsies watched her, intrigued with her performance. And eventually he approached her and said, Would you tell me the significance of what you're doing? You've tossed up a stick at least three times because I've been standing watching you. She said, Well, I'm an old gypsy woman. I've nowhere in particular to go. And she said, When I come to her fork in the roads like this, I toss up a twig. And when it comes down, I go whichever way it points. But she says, this stick is stubborn. It keeps pointing that way, and I want to go this way. And you know, that's how some of us treat the will of God. Like the young man who prayed, Lord, show me whether it should be Mary or Jane, but please make it Mary. His mind was already made up. And so often we try to squeeze the will of God into molds of our own making. And that's a very foolish, a very unwise, a very sad thing to do. It isn't until I'm willing to come to God and say, Lord, whatever your will is for me, that's what I want to do. Show it to me, and by your grace I will do it. There are some of us, you know, who would hesitate to pray a prayer like that, because we're afraid of the will of God. Then if you're in that position, just ask God to make you willing, to be made willing to do his will. And he'll do that. And then as surely as you're willing to do what he wants you to do, he'll show you what his will is. Because to bring about his honor and his glory, he wants those who are submissive and totally unquestioning. These then are the channels of God's honor. Now what about the cost of God's honor? Go back again to verse two, will you? It says here, speak, and God is the speaker, speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihah Hirah, between Midgal and the sea, over against Beo-Ziphon, before it shall encamp by the sea. Now Israel was told. And simply told. And then Israel was expected to trust. God said go and encamp on the banks of the sea. Outside of this city and beyond that city. Israel was simply told. And then Israel was expected to trust. And that's the way God deals with individuals. He tells us. And then he expects us to trust him. He did not reveal what the outcome of this encamping was going to be. He didn't tell them what was going to be the final experience as a result of this encamping. Israel was not only told, if you look at verse eight, you'll find Israel was tailed, and tailed by Pharaoh and his hosts. Having had his heart hardened, Pharaoh with his host pursued after the children of Israel. And the children of Israel went out with an high hand. But they are being followed by their enemies. Now this did not surprise God. In fact, it shouldn't have surprised the Israelites. Because God had told Moses, and Moses had already told the children of Israel, that Pharaoh's heart would be hardened, and that he would pursue. And so it came about. God's word then to Israel became an accurate word. As soon as the noise of the chariots was heard, as soon as the sound of the army became apparent, Israel became fearful. But they should have been encouraged by this realization that God had already told them it was going to happen. And here his word is proving absolutely accurate. God deals that way with his people today. He's given to us an accurate word. He expected the children of Israel to trust as they obeyed him, and he expected them to believe his word and to know that in the end everything was going to be all right. When you come to verse nine, you find that Israel that had been told and tailed was now trapped. The Egyptians pursued after them, or the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them, encamping by the sea, beside Pihahira before Baal Zephan. Now here they are, and they are actually surrounded. They are literally trapped. Now I made a reference to Dunkirk this morning, and I remember the details of that retreat to the coast. I remember how that afterwards Churchill admitted to the nation that since there were three hundred and forty thousand men in that surrounded expeditionary force, he would have been prepared to be encouraged if the forty thousand could be evacuated. But in the end three hundred thousand were evacuated and only forty thousand left behind. Why? Because although they were trapped, God intervened, and the nation recognized that fact. A fog came down over the heads of those soldiers as they waded into the water, trying to reach the literally scores and scores of cockle shell type boats that had come out from the English coast across the twenty-two miles of water to pick them up. Now that channel can be very rough. My wife and I have crossed it and we've discovered it can be very rough. But it was just like a mill pond for the period that was necessary. Not only so, that fog came down and kept back the strafing planes so that they could not find the troops. And underneath that fog those soldiers waved into the boats that sometimes could only pick up a couple of soldiers and then deliver them back in England, turn round and come back across the Channel to pick up two more. Scores and scores, literally hundreds of tiny pleasure boats. made that dreadful journey to bring back those soldiers. But I'd never met one of them, not a single one, but admitted to me that it was obvious that God intervened. And after that experience, the nation got down before God to acknowledge that God himself had indeed taken up the cudgels for them. Now the God who could do it at Dunkirk was the one who had proved himself able to do it long before this for the children of Israel when too they were a retreating force and surrounded with the water in front of them. So Israel was trapped. Now this is where faith was demanded of them because eventually God says to them, Tell the children of Israel to go forward. Now how could they go forward? There was a sea in front of them, but God had already opened up their way, and so were the waters towering on either side. They began a march across the riverbed or across the seabed, and it was absolutely dry. They were not only told and tailed and trapped, but they were terror-stricken. Look at verse ten. When Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel, lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them, and they were sore afraid. Look at verse eleven. They said to Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the way that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians, for it have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness? Already they had forgotten their groaning. Already they had thrust behind them the history of their harsh taskmasters with their whips and their cruelty. And here they are in a dilemma surrounded and absolutely terror-stricken. Overcome with defeatism, it would have been better if we had stayed in the place of bondage. God is so gracious. God didn't say, All right, then I'll let you be recaptured, and you shall go back to your bondage, and back to their whips, and back to your crying, and your murmuring, and your total unhappiness. But he didn't. He just said to Moses, Tell them to go forward. And so the children of Israel, still terror-stricken, I suppose, still afraid now of the waters which were even closer to them than the Egyptian host. But as soon as ever they are safe on the other side, God says to Moses, stretch out your hand. and the waters will come back together and that's precisely what they did but if you look these things through you'll find it was a very costly thing to bring about honor on Pharaoh and his host to bring about their destruction called for the place placing of the children of God in a perilous and threatened position I don't know whether there's anyone here And your circumstances tonight are very threatening. Your circumstances tonight are very dark. Your way is very uncertain before you. And it doesn't seem there's help on any hand. Let me remind you that God has not changed. And what God has in mind, even though your circumstances are dark, and even though you may be afraid of them, As the children of Israel were afraid, God has in mind his own glory, and he's going to bring it about through those dark circumstances, through those puzzling things, through those trying and threatening experiences. And in the end, like the children of Israel, you'll be able to turn around and see what God has done upon your enemies. It may be hard at this moment to trust. It may be difficult at this moment to exercise faith. But will you remember that the God who lived in Moses' time is just the same today? There's been no mistake. Your circumstances are not incidental. They haven't come about as a result of an accident. God is silently planning behind the scenes. And what he says is this. I am silently planning for you. That is for your benefit. He says, though thou passest to the waters, I'll be with you, and through the fire thou shalt not be burned. Will you go home tonight with this assurance in your hearts? To do the will of God ultimately cannot harm me. To accept and to submit to the will of God. In the end shall bring about His glory and therefore my eternal reward. God help us when we think of this story to learn those lessons because God's honor must be the very, very first consideration in all of our living. The question is, is it? Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, we have read in thy word, I will have honor upon Pharaoh and his hosts. And we see how it was brought about so miraculously. And Lord, we realize that thou art still the miracle working God. We pray that we might be in that condition of heart and mind, where we shall be willing to submit to Brie and to thy plan and to thy will, no matter how dark it may seem, No matter how perplexing it may be, help us to realize that everything is safe in thy keeping, and that thou art working out our circumstances, and that thou art going to use us to thine ignoring, and in the end reward us for being so evil.