Fear That Sings and Dances

0:03 Please turn to Exodus chapter 14. We'll start at the end of the chapter. it has been such an honor and joy to be with you city bible church here this weekend deeply encouraged how many you were at the conference this room was full so many endured with us all the way to the end at 3 30 yesterday it's a long day um it was encouraging to see your hunger for god and your desire to know him and to make spiritual disciplines, habits of grace, personal because they're about God, knowing him, having his grace, communing with his son. And so we won't be talking explicitly about spiritual disciplines or habits of grace this morning, but about the God, the one for whom and why whom we would engage in these various avenues of his means of grace.

1:05 Look at Exodus chapter 14. verse 30, and I'll read through 15, verse 1. So just as we read right through Galatians 4 into Galatians 5.1, we're gonna go Exodus 14 into 15.1. Thus, the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians. So, the people feared the Lord. and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously.

2:12 The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. there are some professing Christians who only seem to know their God as fearsome and I assume there's some in this room this morning meanwhile and far more tragically there are countless unbelievers who do not fear God at all Excellent for這bahplaces amazing bikes Bethlehem

2:55 Ul проект Pictures While others who should genuinely fear, don't fear. Another concern that I have this morning is so many Christians today who don't ignore God like unbelievers. Nor do they have any fear in their souls like those who are more tender among us. they acknowledge a God frankly who is small in their estimation he's more like a pond than the ocean he's more like a trickle than Niagara Falls he's more like a hill than like the Himalayas they don't have a vision of God in his greatness and so their joy in God is small.

4:06 It's thin. as Christians when we talk about God's attributes we mention his love his mercy his holiness his justice the omni ones omnipotence omniscience omnipresence but an often overlooked attribute of God today is one that the old theologians called his majesty. I love his majesty. And I suspect that our recovery of his majesty today would do some good for those who are fearful only without any sense of comfort. And for those who are unbelieving and have no fear, and they should. And for all of us who have smaller joy, thinner joy, Then we should because our vision of God in his power and greatness could be so much greater than it is.

5:11 And Exodus chapters 14 and 15 help us with that. This is a majesty moment when God shows himself in his majesty to his people. And in Exodus chapter 15, this is a song that his people sing in praise of his majesty. Which shows us that chapter 14, where he saves them, isn't mainly about liberating humans from slavery. As if that's the main thing wrong in the world.

5:48 But it's about showing small, powerless humans the very majesty of the God whom their souls were made to be thrilled with. God's majesty brings together for us both his greatness and his goodness, both his strength and his love.

6:16 Majesty is not only a fitting term for purple mountain majesties, but it's a particularly appropriate word for God, who is the majestic one, as Isaiah says in chapter 10, verse 34 of Isaiah. This word majesty is, it's emotive or it's affective. It indicates that there is a greatness that has been perceived in the eyes or with the ears. And it's a greatness that is also wonderful. It's a bigness that is beautiful to the eyes. there is imposing size but it's received with delight there's imposing power but it's attractive majesty calls attention to god's greatness and to the glory of that greatness and to the greatness of his glory So God's enemies see him in his greatness, and that brings terror, as we'll see.

7:29 And his friends see his greatness, and they declare his majesty. And I want you to see it and feel it and declare it afresh this morning. Two summers ago, our family was in Omaha, Nebraska. If you've got any college baseball fans here, you know that Omaha is the College World Series town. And so they do these youth baseball tournaments in town during the College World Series. And so we went there. It's like a six-hour drive from St. Paul, Minnesota. And the first night that we were there at the hotel, we looked across, and there's a restaurant across an open field. So all the parents and players, we went over to the restaurant, enjoyed dinner together, kind of lingered. We got done with dinner and we came outside and a storm was coming. I mean, not a usual storm.

8:25 This is Nebraska. This is Hurricane Alley. Actually, there was a hurricane. Tornado Alley. There actually was a tornado that came the following evening. There had been some tornado warnings. So we come out of the restaurant and we're across a field more than 100 yards. And there's our hotel. And the skies are about to burst. I don't know if I had seen the swirling of dark clouds like I had before. So here we are across this field. We need to get back to our hotel. We think, are we going to wait this out at the restaurant? It's not raining yet. There's no funnel cloud yet. Or are we going to wait at the restaurant? Are we making a mad dash? You can expect what a team of 13-year-old baseball players and their parents did. We went for the mad dash.

9:18 And as we go across this field, there is a great sense of fear. are the clouds going to burst on us? I mean, the wind is picking up. I can't judge wind speed on the fly. It's picking up. We're fearful as we run across this field. But then the most amazing thing happened once we got to the hotel safe. Nobody went inside. I was expecting everyone's going to run inside, go to their rooms, hide. Everyone lingered outside by the building. Like now we're safe. Get this building right here. If the skies break loose, we just back into the building. We're good. But what we wanted to do was linger. We wanted to see the majesty. We wanted to be thrilled. And so from a safe place, not running across the field, that wasn't safe. from a safe place by the hotel, we could view this site and have our souls thrilled by its bigness, its power from a place of safety.

10:23 The book of Genesis does not use the term majesty. Nor does it refer to the glory of God explicitly. God saves that for the story of the Exodus. In fact, he saves it for Exodus 14 and 15. This is the first use of language in the Bible about God's glory. And about his majesty. and one thing that sets it up is this foreboding statement in exodus chapter 5 verse 20 he's called moses had the burning bush he comes to pharaoh for the first time and he says thus says the lord the god of israel let my people go i don't know what moses expected the first response to be Listen to how Pharaoh responds.

11:20 He says, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord. Moreover, I will not let Israel go. mark that. When Pharaoh asks, who is the Lord? I do not know who the Lord is.

11:46 You know how the story goes. We pause here and we say, oh, Pharaoh, you will know. You're going to know. This is what God's going to do in 10 plagues. And what God's going to do at the Red Sea, you're going to know. And you're going to know him in his judgments on you. You're not going to know him from a safe place. You will know him in his judgments. You'll know that he's the Lord. no more will Pharaoh be able to say, who is the Lord? I don't know who he is.

12:31 Pharaoh will know him, but not as friend. Pharaoh will know him as a vanquishing foe. And God brings that back twice in Exodus chapter 14. So this is Exodus 14 verse four. This is a setup for what God is doing here in these chapters in showing his people his majesty. Verse four, I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he will pursue them, the people, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. Verses 17 and 18, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them. And I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh and his chariots and his horsemen.

13:33 Pharaoh thinks he's so majestic He's king He's God He's the most powerful man in the world but at the Red Sea, God will show his people, and he will show their oppressors his own majesty.

13:59 The reason that it goes down like it does at the Red Sea, with all these strange and unexpected details, is that God's making himself known as majestic to his people. The point isn't simply to free captives from slavery. God could have done that in a snap. Why all these 10 plagues drawn out? Why this scene, this strange scene at the Red Sea? The point is not simple human liberation. It is the revelation of divine majesty. So then how does God get glory over Pharaoh, over the Egyptians? How does he show the world and show all history and show us? God made it that we would have this today to see his majesty. How does he show us his majesty in Exodus 14 and 15? Four ways. Number one, God shows his people his great power.

15:06 He shows his people his great power. Look at verse 30. Wonderfully understated, verse 30. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians. And you know, hand is an image of power, right? Arm reaches, hand has power. So the hand of the Egyptians is the Egyptians' power. God saves them from Egypt's power. So verse 31 says, Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians. If you remember the story, you might say, this is all so more dramatic than it needs to be, right? Why does God do it this way?

16:03 So verses 1 to 9 of chapter 14 give us this strange setup. Essentially, God backs his people on purpose up against the Red Sea. They get there by God's instructions. so he moves the enemy then to come after them he says I'm gonna harden Pharaoh's heart I'm gonna change his mind I'm gonna draw him out to come after you when you're pinned up against the sea and in the moment this seems awful to God's people can you imagine how they're doubting him it'd be better to be slavery back in Egypt they complain than to be dead here They're back up against the sea. but it's a setup. It is a setup for God to put on a show for his people. The Egyptians will soon be dead.

17:01 He's going to fulfill the promise, the need to show himself to Pharaoh. It's not mainly about Pharaoh. He's going to show his people his power. The enemy does not yet know God's power, But here's the thing, neither does Israel. God's people don't yet know how they should fear him and what great power he has. Verse 10 says that the people greatly fear the Egyptians.

17:35 See, they got it wrong. They don't understand yet that their fear should be turned toward their God, not toward Egypt. And they're about to see who they should really fear. And so Moses says in verses 13 and 14,

17:56 Fear not, Israel. Stand firm. See the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see them again. The Lord will fight for you You only have to be silent all you got to do is watch. All you got to do is stay quiet. You don't need to lift a finger. You dare not lift a finger. You dare not raise your swords or even raise your voice. Not even a war cry. Later on at Jericho, he'll say, let's do a war cry at Jericho. Not here. You just stay quiet.

18:48 Just watch this power. God shows us something about himself when he saves his people apart from their obedience. He shows us another aspect when he uses his people and they participate when he gives them power in their souls, power inwardly that would be expressed in actions. But here, they only have to be silent. this salvation that God brings at the Red Sea is a sea only salvation at this point this is a faith alone rescue God does not say take up your weapons there will be other times for that chapter 17 he'll say take up your weapons against the Amalekites that's coming he does that too but before he calls his people to battle and works through them, he first fights for them without them doing anything but watching.

19:50 He is putting on a show of his great power. don't miss here the nature of his power for the rescues you might need right now i don't know where you would be in your life backed up against a red sea there's no way there's no how you don't see any way out it might be a marriage you think is done it's a friend or a child you're estranged to you think it'll never be reconciled there seems like there's no other options there's no possibilities the chariots are bearing down on you it's only a matter of time what is God doing in your life when he's backing you up into an impossible place?

20:50 He's hemming you in from all sides. You don't see the path out. There's nothing you can do. You have no agency in this rescue. he means to show you his majesty. He wants to show you his power, his greatness.

21:13 So here's a taste on the other side of the rescue from chapter 15. So what I want to do here under these points, I'll give you some tastes from chapter 15. After the rescue, how do the people praise him? Here's our first taste. Verses 1 to 5 of chapter 15. listen for how his people praise his power. He's shown them his power. How do they see it and praise him for it? Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord saying, I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and the rider, he's thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength. That's good that he's strong because he's my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. This is my God and I will praise him. My father's God and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods cover them and they went down into the depths like a stone. So first, God shows his people his power.

22:27 Second, God shakes off his enemies. This is an amazing image here, that he shakes them off. That's an expression in one sense of this is not a fair fight between the living God and Pharaoh and his army. God flexes over them, so to speak. He's not overdone. He wouldn't get a technical foul for it or a 15-yard penalty, but it's a flex. It sends them into a panic. So first, he looks down on them is what it says. Let me read for you verses 19 to 25. It's in chapter 14.

23:21 Then the angel of God who was going before them, before the host of Israel, moved and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. So this pillar of fire that's been leading them moves in between to protect them. and there was the cloud and the darkness and it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord drove back the sea by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land and the waters were divided and the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground. the waters being a wall to them on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen.

24:26 And in the morning watch, the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw them into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, let us flee from before Israel for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.

24:54 So God manifest in this pillar of fire. He looks down on him. it's like Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel. You know that story? Genesis 11, verse 5.

25:17 Humans in their pride are building this great tower to the heavens, they say. We're going to build our way up to God. and Genesis 11 5 says the Lord came down to see the city and the tower and the children of which the children of man had built like oh I'm sorry is that a tower down there I can't quite see I think they're trying to build a tower oh it's so adorable it's a similar image here represented in the cloud of fire like oh I'm sorry is is that an army down there are those chariots is that your best chariots pharaoh he looks down on them somehow I don't know how this worked I've never seen a pillar of fire look down on an army but it throws them into a panic and they realize in the moment it's all too late they're in big trouble God doesn't just look down on them but then verse 27 says he shakes them off.

26:26 my boys are baseball players think about shaking it off when you got a batter the pitcher throws his hardest pitch it hits the batter and the batter just kind of shakes it off go to first i'll take my base is that all you got pitcher come on it didn't even hurt just shake it off or if you're at the beach your towel gets some sand on it sand is no threat shake it off I didn't think about the Taylor Swift song but you can shake off haters comments toward you shake it off no big deal that's what it means it's no big deal it means that Pharaoh and his armies are weak. They're small. God just shakes them off. Here's verses 26 to 29. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, upon their horsemen.

27:30 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord, ESV says through, and it's got a note with a marginal reading, which says, the Lord shook off the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. So, as promised, Pharaoh and the Egyptians come to know God. They do.

28:22 They come to know him and his great power against them. as he looks down on them and as he makes them panic and as he shakes them off into the bottom of the sea. So here's another glimpse of their praise.

28:46 Glimpse of the people's praise. This is verses six to 10 of chapter 15. They see his majesty. He says, they say, your right hand, O God, glorious in power, or majestic in power. Your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty, you overthrow your adversaries. You send out your fury. It consumes them like stubble. At the blast of your nostrils, the waters piled up. The flood stood up in a heap. The deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoil. My desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword and my hand shall destroy them. You blew your wind. The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. So how does God show his majesty? He acts to show his people his great power, and he shakes off their enemies like they are nothing.

29:56 Number three, he thrills his people with fear that sings. He thrills his people with a fear that sings. This Red Sea crossing is all about fear. about Israel's fear and about Egypt's fear.

30:21 Egypt goes from a fearless pursuit to panic when God pivots on them. And you might think, all right, that Israel's gonna go from this great fear of verse 10 and this great fear of the Egyptians and they're gonna go from great fear to fearlessness. Now we're the fearless people of Israel. But that's not what happens. Look at how this ends in verse 31. Chapter 14, verse 31. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord. Not the Egyptians. They feared the Lord. And they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

31:09 Now, they've seen the power of God on display. Plague after plague after plague. But now, in this dramatic demonstration of his great power, they see how far God's power surpasses Pharaoh and Egypt. All along the way, they should not have been fearing Pharaoh. He's so tiny.

31:37 They should have been fearing God. but for Israel, it's not the kind of fear that throws them into a panic. It's not a terrorizing fear. It's the kind of fear that elicits praise. That's the amazing connection between the end of chapter 14, right into the beginning of chapter 15. So the next thing recorded after the people fear God and believe in him and his servant, Moses, the next thing is then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord saying, I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously, literally for he is highly exalted. He has highly exalted himself. The horse and his rider, he's thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. This is my God. I will praise him. My father's God and I will join him in exalting himself, I will exalt him.

32:39 and as God's people delight in him and praise him, you know what happens? God gets glory. He looks good.

32:59 The people see his great power, and they feel a delighted fear, a fearsome joy he's our God and he's strong and they not only see it but they say it and they don't only say it but they want to sing it they have a fear that doesn't panic they have a fear that sings and this mingling of fear with delight does not ruin the joy of salvation. It intensifies the joy of salvation. This is not a small, mild joy that they experience at the Red This is a fearsome joy. It's utterly thrilling.

33:53 It's an exquisite delight to be so rescued by a God like this of infinite wisdom and great power. and when God's people respond with such an intensity of joy and with a fear that sings he is greatly glorified he looks really good when his people see his majesty and fear him with that kind of joyful delighted fear so God gets glory when his enemies cower and when he defeats them. And he gets even more glory when they panic and he shakes them off. And God gets glory when his people enjoy him and thank him. And he gets even more glory when their hearts thrill at his great power and his great love. When they move from fear of things in this world to a greater fear, a holier fear, a happier fear in him.

35:02 This is what we're doing on Sunday mornings. We don't gather here just to enjoy each other, enjoy some coffee, enjoy a little God. we gather on the banks of the Red Sea to be thrilled together at the majesty of God, to have the fear that's called faith. They feared the Lord and believed in him. The fear that goes with faith, the fear that then sings.

35:38 Joy transforms fear and fear transforms joy. Joy makes fear pleasant. And fear makes joy intense. God made us to be thrilled at his majesty. And his majesty is highly exalted when we are thrilled at the God of majesty. Here's another glimpse from chapter 15. This is verses 11 to 13 of chapter 15. The people say, they get the point. They're saying, who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you? majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders. You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them. You have led in your steadfast love.

36:32 This is the first mention of God's love in the Bible, I believe. I think I'm right about that. I'll check on that. I think this is the first mention of his love for his people in the Bible. in this great revelation of his power. You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

36:59 And it's not just fear that sings, but dances with the body. Verse 20, Miriam, the prophetess and sister of Aaron took a tambourine in her hand and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. He didn't just sing and shut it down, move on. There's singing, there's a joy that informs life and our bodies and our Monday to Saturday. All right, number four, final point. he invites others to join in.

37:39 God invites others to join in the enjoyment, the praise of his majesty. In Exodus 14, it's too late for Pharaoh and the Egyptians. They've had plague after plague to repent. Their time's up. But now, because of this event, other nations are gonna hear about it. Like the word's going out. This is going viral. what God did at the Red Sea. And when the other nations hear about this, they're going to tremble. Then the question is, will it be the trembling of terror or will it be a trembling that will lead to worship? That's the question. So here's verses 14 to 16 of chapter 15. The peoples have heard, they tremble. Pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed. Trembling seizes the leaders of Moab.

38:34 All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them because of the greatness of your arm. For they are as still as stone. But the climactic show of great power and of divine majesty... and for inviting the nations to bow at this God, the greatest show of that is not the crossing of the Red Sea. That's not the fullest and final demonstration which the nations will hear about and be stunned and have the chance to either bow in praise or flee and be destroyed. Did you notice that strange addition in verse 31 of chapter 14? The last verse of chapter 14.

39:31 That the people not only believed in God, but in Moses. What's that? How did Moses get into this thing? the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and in Moses, his servant. So Moses is with God in verse 31 as the object of the people's faith. But then in the next verse, Moses appears again and now he's with the people. Now he's singing praise. Moses and the people of Israel sang. Moses is the covenant mediator so he stands with the people as they feel thrilled in God and as they praise him the God of majesty and he stands with God as a recipient of the people's trust because of what God has done at the Red Sea and in the new covenant we have a far greater mediator who stands with us as humans and experiences our thrills our fearsome delight in his father and who stands with his father as fully God and is the focus of our faith in this mediator unlike Moses did not stand safely on the seashore and watch it happen.

41:03 Jesus went into the sea for us. He was shaken off to the bottom because we deserve to be shaken off to the bottom. It's God's grace that you're not shaken off to the bottom. But Jesus gave himself to be thrown into the depths of the sea that we might be spared the death we deserve. the great majesty moment that exodus 14 and 15 anticipates is the cross and the resurrection he goes to the bottom and he comes back up and even more majesty is seen and the message goes out to the nations an invitation that you can come into utter safety with this God.

42:08 We now know of a safety with more surety than the people of Israel knew as they sang in Exodus 15. We know how God's gonna do it. Now we can really have a fear that sings. So final word to unbelievers this morning who have no fear of God.

42:33 The unbelieving Egyptians didn't exhibit any fear until all of a sudden, in an instant, the pillar pivoted on them and they panicked. And so it will be one day soon. For all who have set themselves against the God of majesty, they will fear. They will panic. They will experience an unparalleled terror. In the face of Almighty God. On that day, you don't want to be against this God when he looks down on you.

43:12 At that moment, it's going to be too late. But now, you have a moment with the nations who heard the message. They heard the message. They had a moment. You have a moment. Right now, this is your time to repent. it's your time to experience the fear that sings so that you don't experience the fear that panics in the end and to those this morning who claim the name of Jesus and yet you find yourselves just dogged by fear you don't have a fearsome joy it's not an awe I have such good news for you you're so close the answer isn't to have no fear of God the answer is he wants to add joy to your fear with the work of Christ he wants to transform that fear with joy he means for you to fear him and he wants you to stand in awe of his great power and in Jesus Christ who went to the bottom and came back up that you would feel utterly safe that joy would make your fear pleasant.

44:44 And to the rest of us, let holy fear make your joy more intense. I pray that you would not have a thin joy in a small God, but that you would have a great joy in the God of majesty. That word majesty, it's so perfect for worship. You can notice this now. In these songs, we often employ the word majesty. majesty comes from a fear that sings when god's people have a holy fear and awe of his greatness we say majesty majesty that goes back to exodus 15 you see the choice of the word majesty says something about the worshiper. Majesty attributes not only greatness and power and glory to God, but signals an awe and a wonder in the person who says it. God's friends declare his majesty, not his foes. The Egyptians don't say majesty. The Egyptians say terror, horror.

46:06 But in the eyes of Israel, in the eyes of his people, in the eyes of those who know themselves protected by his power and safe in him, they worship his majesty. So, brothers and sisters, as we gather on Sunday mornings, we're not playing games.

46:29 This is not another social event. we gather to share in the fear that sings that we might dance the Christian life from Monday to Saturday. We come to have our hearts thrilled with the one who puts all the cheap imitation thrills of our life into their proper place. We come to worship his majesty. We come to worship not only on the banks of the Red Sea.

47:06 We come to worship at the foot of the cross and by the empty tomb, which is even far greater than the banks of the Red Sea. Let's pray. So, Father in heaven, we want to thank you now for Jesus. we want to declare his majesty as the king of kings we have seen in him an even greater majesty than your people Israel saw at the Red Sea so father in heaven would you be pleased for those who experience a fear without deep joy and safety to grant that even this morning in resting in Jesus. And Father, for those who have such a small view of you and because of it have small joy, I pray that your great power would break in upon us.

48:03 Would you give us the holy fear that intensifies our joy and do so even now as we praise the majesty of your son. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.