As we begin to enter into the study of the Passover and the Feast of unleavened bread, and the crossing of the Red Sea, we will find a lot of principles that pertain to the salvation experience to the experience of being born again.
You can't minimize that because spiritual growth comes from the continual understanding of that salvation experience. And really, the book of Exodus pictures the departure of God's people from Egypt, which is a type of the world.
You might be able to study that book and think, "Well, we are already saved, we just need to grow up." And that's really the truth in almost all of the cases that I am aware of. But how many can truly hear what is being said?
Spiritual growth comes from learning what happened at that new birth experience. It's knowing who we are in Christ that's important. So when we go back to Exodus there is much to be learned about who we are in Christ by watching these people and the principles that were appropriated into their lives as they left Egypt.
It is not something that is irrelevant to our spiritual growth.
In Christ you begin at the spiritual finish line. Scripture says we are complete in Him. But, it is the lack of awareness of that completion that still causes us to live in less than all that Jesus has prepared for us to enjoy. And so, during all of our Christian experience, the Holy Spirit has been sent to reveal to us who we actually are in Christ.
Understand that is the perspective from which we are coming. The book of Exodus means "the way out" the way out from the world and the way out of the world system.
The journey through the wilderness would then picture the growing process of deliverance and departing further and further away from the world system. The difference in understanding this or not is what causes groups of people to seek to leave this planet, looking for alien beings to come and get them, or whatever.
God is drawing His people out of the world system. So with that in mind, look at Exodus 15, and we are jumping ahead a little bit because we want you to see something. In Exodus 15 we have what is called the song of Moses. It is also recorded over in Revelation 15. So we know that there is something there that is important to us. We are not going to stay here long, I will teach this at a latter date. But I want you to look at Exodus 15:15, 16.
Pharaoh and his army have been over thrown in the sea. They were destroyed and Miriam began to play her tambourine. Here's a song that goes forth from the Lord. A spiritual song. Its prophetic from beginning to the end.
And we will get into that, but there is a point here that we want to start with today and I trust that you will see it and get excited about something. Look at verse 15
Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.Canaan is the Promised Land. They just have left Egypt, and they're on the other side of the Red Sea. They have seen a type of the devil and his demons destroyed. And it says that the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.
Canaan is the Promised Land. Canaan is the other side of the wilderness that they just entered. Therefore, verse 16 says,
Fear and dread shall fall upon them (the people in Canaan); by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people Passover, O Lord, till the people Passover, which thou hast purchased.Here's the nugget. This is a prophetic utterance that has been given at the point where a people, who typify the church, were born again. They just left the land of Egypt. That prophecy said, "As sure as you Israelites are born again, there will also be people who will someday be born again, too."
I'll say it this way the crossing of the Red Sea prophetically announced that if someone leaves the power of darkness, there will also be a people who will enter into the fullness of Christ which is typified by the Promised Land. So the thrust of this song is that the inhabitants of Canaan do not have a chance! Because Israel came forth from Egypt in victory, the conquest over Canaan was a sure thing!
Israel was just delivered from Egypt. We know that Canaan is not heaven because war occurred there. But it is a heavenly existence, and it speaks of entering the fullness of Christ. Jesus is our Promised Land.
Just as sure as someone gets saved, someone is going to enter into the fullness of Christ. Can you see that? It didn't say that everybody would enter Canaan. The first person that got saved on the day of Pentecost proved that there would be somebody that gets filled with the fullness of Christ and walks in all that He is before this thing is over. That's what that prophecy states.
That should excite you! We're going in!
Turn, now, with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 2.
I want to read a scripture here and then we are going to go return to Exodus.
We have been studying the plagues and all of the negative things that happened to Egypt how God delivered the children of Israel by His mighty hand. But before we leave this particular segment of Scripture, there is something in verses 7 through 11 that we have been looking at that is really interesting .
Look at verse 11
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.It is imperative that we know how the devil functions and what his objectives are as he seeks to keep a people out of spiritual Canaan. He's had it, if we grow up to be like Christ!
Jesus has already defeated him! He is a defeated foe! Jesus put him under foot. But the body of Christ is going to experientially enter into that. Do you realize that? We are growing up. But it is Satan's objective to keep us from the fullness. So we must understand his devices.
How are you going to understand them? One way to know where to go into the Old Covenant and see those places that picture the enemy, the devil, Pharaoh. See how he sought to deceive the children of Israel, and learn of his tricks.
Let's go and do that.
Turn to the book of Exodus and start in chapter 3.
You may be wondering why we read towards Exodus 11 and then we go back to 3. There are some things that we must see by the Spirit of God, and therefore we are going to read all over this book.
First of all, we have to understand, what the objective is. What does God tell Moses to go demand of Pharaoh? That is important because whatever God tells Moses to demand of Pharaoh is what Jesus is of the enemy.
Exodus 3:18 And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.
That principle is the principle of the Word of God. The enemy is doing whatever he can to keep a people from going three days and sacrificing. "Don't let them go three days and sacrifice."
The program of the ages is embodied in the reference to three days.
Matthew 12: 39-40, as Jonah was in the belly of the whale 3 days and 3 nights, so also must the Son of man be 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth.
Jesus' redemptive work was a three-day accomplishment. It has been completed for two thousand years. And from the time that it was a finished work until this day, the Spirit of God has been sent into this world and has been teaching the Church to experience those three days.
What we're talking about is going back and seeing what those three days mean to us. We need to learn how it affects us and how it has already affected us how we became who we are because of that.
And so here is a whole nation in bondage to the world. The Christian world today is in bondage to the world. The only way that we will be delivered, whether you are bound by habits or whether you are financially strapped, or however the world and the fall of Adam has you gripped. The way out is three days and then the subsequent sacrifice. We've got to get people to do see this.
The response to this was increased work that Pharaoh put upon the children of Israel. He said, "You will not only build brick, but you will get your own straw to build bricks."
And this teaches us a lesson. When we purpose in our heart that we are going to let the work of Christ be it, then immediately the enemy will add as much as he can to that finished work, and even more. We've got to rest!
There will be a people who will rest in the finished work of Christ. There will be a people who read the Bible with the thought in mind, "I must follow in His footsteps. I must go back in the my own spirit and renew my mind to the things that happened there and how they affected me."
It's the program of the ages. We will take three days those three days and learn what happened then.
When you know what happened, I promise you that you are then going to be on your way! We are on our way to the Promised Land when we know what happened there.
Turn with me to the 20th Chapter of John's Gospel and then we will come back to this compromise later. I want to show you some of these principles.
When this gets to the place in which it works in you, the whole Bible becomes alive. Christianity becomes a constant spiritual drink.
Verse 6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher, and seeth the linen clothes lie, 7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
Picture this in your own mind. Its the morning of the third day. The three days and three nights of the work of Christ had been accomplished. Redemption was settled. The tomb was empty, and Peter ran to the tomb. He came in and he looked in that tomb and here is what he saw. Over to one side, the cloth that covered the head was neatly folded and wrapped up and set aside. But the cloth that covered the body was still laying out there. It was not neatly put up.
Do you see that? The work of the head was finished. But the body cloth was still over there waiting for someone to fold it up and put it up where the head was.
It speaks of an awesome truth! Peter needed to get that cloth and put it with the head.
The lesson is that what is true of the Head will some day be true of the body. Someday there will be a people who follow Jesus through His death, burial and resurrection. And we can be that people, and they will walk over into the rest in the Spirit.
I believe that in the Spirit we can take that cloth and wrap it up for each of us. What is true of the Head must be true of the body.
Would you have enough guts to go and wrap that thing up and put it over with the head? That's what's going to happen! The first witness, Jesus, said, "It is finished." The body of Christ must also rise up and say, "Bless God, I believe that it's finished, too!"
That's what we mean by going three days into the wilderness and sacrificing. Did you know there was never anything that you offered to the Lord that He receives, that He did not first give to you? Someone says, "You mean that God wants my money?" God gave you the money to give to Him.
Why does God receive a sacrifice? The only thing that He wants is something that He gave to you, and that sacrifice. You need to go three days and offering up Jesus and say, "Lord this is my only thing to offer the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. That's all I have going for me."
Some might presume to impress God saying, "Oh, Lord, I built fourteen churches, and I did this and that." No, you better sacrifice.
He says "Yes, I wanted you to help mature the people in the first church, and you never did do that." We can have fourteen churches filled with confused folks.
I just want to hold in my hands the finished work of Christ and say, "I've gone that three days and here it is."
Can you understand how the enemy will fight you in that, saying don't
you do that?