The Keys Of The Kingdom

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: Matthew 18; Lord's Day 31
Psalters: 279, 244, 380, 132
  1. Trapped Israel.
    1. The pillar of cloud led Israel along the western (“wrong”) side of the Red Sea, away from Canaan.
    2. The children of Israel reacted with great fear and cried out in bitter complaint (10b-12; Ps. 106:7).
    3. Moses courageously responded (13-15).
  2. God “saved them for His name’s sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known” (Ps. 106:8).
    1. God told Moses to “lift thou up thy rod and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it” (16).
      1. The angel of God in the cloudy pillar moved behind Israel (19,20).
      2. God brought a strong east wind all night (21b; 15:8) as His instrument to “rebuke the Red sea” (Ps. 106:9).
    2. By faith Moses and Aaron obediently led Israel forward.
      1. Israel tramped through the Sea in the darkness of a severe thunderstorm and during an earthquake (Ps. 77:16-18).
      2. As the wind and sea obeyed their Maker, so Israel by faith obey their Redeemer, following the lead of Moses and Aaron.
    3. The great salvation was more from the Egyptians, for the sea was the means to deliver them from Egypt.
      1. After most of them were in the midst of the sea, God took off their chariot wheels (25).
      2. Moses obeyed God’s command and the walls of water collapsed on the pride of Egypt, delivering Israel.
  3. The passage through the Red Sea signifies, as baptism does, deliverance from sin through the washing of Jesus’ blood.
    1. The reality of this sign is grasped only by those exercising faith.
    2. It was all grace.
    3. As a picture of baptism, it portrays being washed, being cleansed by being separated from sin.
    4. This event pictures the union we share with those baptized with us.
    5. It admonishes us to live godly in humble repentance and not take this deliverance for granted (I Cor.10:1-6).