THE SALVATION OF GOD AND THE NEW HISTORY

^[p. 320] THE SALVATION OF GOD AND THE NEW HISTORY

Exodus 14: 15 - 31; 15: 1; Acts 9: 1 - 18

We have a very interesting type of the work of grace, “the salvation of the LORD”, as it is called, in the way Israel was delivered out of Egypt. The judgment of God had fallen upon Egypt, so that “there was not a house where there was not one dead” - a terrible night of judgment; and as we find in chapter 12, the children of Israel were told to kill a lamb, every man according to his family, and to sprinkle the blood upon the lintel and the doorposts - figuratively the blood of Christ; and God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”. They were inside, and the blood was outside on the lintel and the doorposts, and the judgment passed over them; they were safe from the judgment.

One can be thankful that there are many who believe that the blood of Christ is before the eye of God; it is a good beginning, a good start, but not all. It is an immense gain to believe that the blood of Christ is before the eye of God, and that because of that blood-shedding, He passes by. A familiar phrase quite conveys it: ‘I know I shall not be lost’. That is all; you cannot go further. So with Israel; they were inside, and they were safe from the judgment, but they were not happy. They were very like a drowning man, rescued by a lifeboat, but still in the storm, on the rough sea - figuratively not out of the place of judgment. The gospel is that not only are you passed over, but that you are delivered from the judgment.

The man in the lifeboat is still occupied with his safety, he is not yet delivered from all danger; the nearer to drowning, the more he longs to be where drowning is not possible; he longs for the shore, and ^[p. 321] the moment he reaches it he is delivered, he is saved. When the children of Israel were in Egypt, though they were inside feeding on the paschal lamb, they were not happy, for you find that they had to leave Egypt, with their loins girt and their shoes on their feet and their staff in their hand; they were to leave the place of judgment, for they were not clear of the power of the Egyptians (the flesh), nor of the power of Pharaoh (Satan), by which they were oppressed; they were not yet delivered. It is true they were sheltered; the word ‘shelter’ implies that the oppressor has not been removed. They were sheltered from the Judge, but they were not resting in the favour of God; they were not assured that every disturbing element between God and themselves had been removed; they could not have peace while the enemy was still in power. Hence we find they were in terrible fear; Pharaoh and his army were behind them. Jehovah now said to Moses, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward”. This is a very interesting moment in the history of a soul. Do you believe that the blood is before the eye of God? Then you are sheltered; it is the right way to begin, but you cannot have peace until you see the offender removed in judgment, and the power of the oppressor broken; then you can sing the first verse of the song - “I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea”. A little further down it is said of their enemies, “They sank as lead in the mighty waters”. All that had incurred the judgment is gone in judgment. Israel was involved in the judgment on Egypt by being there, and hence they must pass through the night of judgment before they could be free from it. Of course, it is a type: they could not be saved from the judgment but by another bearing it. The passover prefigured the death of Christ. Many have the deep consolation that God’s eye rests on the blood of Christ; they call it assurance,

^[p. 322] and I admit that it is assurance, but it is not peace: nor are they consciously in the favour of God. They do not yet see, by the light of God, that all has been removed which caused the judgment. Hence God said to Moses, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward”. They were now to see the salvation of God. Mark how they were brought into peace, into complete deliverance from the judgment. It is not only, as in Romans 3, “Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood”, but you have to believe that God “hath raised him from the dead”. Hence God tells Moses to stretch forth his hand over the sea and divide it. The sea was figuratively death, and there was a way made through it, a way through the judgment; Pharaoh and all his host, chariots and all, were to be consumed, and Israel by divine light walked this new way; but Pharaoh and all his host perished.

There are two things of great importance to bear in mind: one is, that God made the way through the sea; and the other is, that the light which showed the way was God’s light. Christ has made the way through death - the judgment of God. He died; He has borne the judgment, and He has been “raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father”. I want you to accept that the Israelites did walk this new path through the sea; and every one who walked it knew that he had found the way out of it; as in John 5: 24, he had “passed out of death into life”. Every one is involved in the judgment. You cannot get out of it except through the death and resurrection of Christ. He has opened a way out of death, He is “declared to be the Son of God with power ... by the resurrection from the dead”. There is no one who with the eye of faith beholds the Lord risen, but sees there is a Man who has come out of all that was against me; He was raised out from among the dead. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt ^[p. 323] believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”. Think for a moment, it is very simple; one Man has risen out from among the dead, and He has broken all the power of Satan. Satan tried to terrify Him in the garden of Gethsemane, so that He said, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness”. He went down into death, and bore the sinner’s judgment; He so glorified God that He “was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father”. I am speaking now of the antitype; but the type shows us the beautiful way all was done. There were two things of deepest interest: one, that the way was made through the sea; and the other, that the light from God showed them the way. They saw the sea on the right hand and on the left - the judgment which they incurred - but they were saved out of it, while Pharaoh and all his host were drowned in the Red Sea. “The Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever”. It is a type that both Satan, and the flesh which Satan can act on, are gone in judgment. I can understand a simple soul saying, Well, if I could see that, and know that all against me was gone in judgment in the eye of God, I should be perfectly happy. It is not merely that the blood of Christ was offered, but that He went under the judgment, that He broke the power of the devil, and judicially terminated the man under judgment; as we read in Hebrews 2 (mark the words), “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil”. I ask every one in this room, Do you really believe the power of the devil is broken, and that Christ has abolished death? It is not the power of death only, but that “he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage”. All the ^[p. 324] saints before were subject to bondage, because death had never been annulled.

It is of great importance that you should understand the type. Israel went into the sea, figuratively the judgment of God, and they found that there was a way made for them through it. “The waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left”. They walked through the sea, and when the morning appeared they were saved, and the waters covered their enemies. The death of Christ is the judgment of this world; as the Lord said, “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out”. All Israel walked through the Red Sea; they did not only hear of it, but they walked every step of the way; they appropriated practically for themselves the work which was done for them. Step by step they appropriated the salvation of God; and where they were saved, their enemies were swallowed up. Hence the song in Exodus 15: “I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea”. The power of the devil is destroyed. Though the devil is still here, his power as Pharaoh is gone for the believer. Christ has abolished death. I do not say that you have by faith laid hold of this great fact. You may believe in the blood of Christ before the eye of God, but you may not have seen by faith that all which was under judgment has been set aside in judgment. Israel was implicated in the judgment because of the Egyptians, and now they are gone in judgment, while Israel was led safely through by the Lord. Hence it is no work of their own, but they sing, “The LORD ... hath triumphed gloriously”.

So far is the type. Now I turn to Acts 9. This is the first account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus; he, in the most relentless way, was persecuting the church of God worse than ever. But “as he journeyed ... suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven”. The light has come from God; that is His first work in the soul. As I have already said, there are two things; there is the way of escape, and there is the light to see it; there is a way out of death through the death and resurrection of Christ, and there is the light out of heaven to show the way. The light is the first thing; you cannot see at all if you have not the light, and the light comes from God. As the apostle says, “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”. The light has shone on this man; he had thought himself a very exemplary man, though he was unrelentingly persecuting the church of God. He even forced some of the christians to blaspheme; while in the eyes of the religious world he was most commendable, and as to himself he “lived in all good conscience”. I call a man a monster who is opposing God in the most daring way, and at the same time getting credit from men for being religious. Saul had gone outside Palestine on his terrible mission, and was journeying to Damascus, when suddenly the light shone out of heaven. Though so religious he could not bear it, he fell to the ground; though he had lived in all good conscience unto this day, when the light of God reached him he fell to the ground. The work of God has begun; Saul cries, “Who art thou, Lord?” He has a sense that he has to do with God - a sense which always awakens fear. “And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks”. How terrible that moment must have been to him! Full of self-righteousness, he was the chief of sinners, as he afterwards owned. I do not consider that an exaggeration. No one surpassed him in his opposition to Christ. It is important to bear in mind that a man of unblemished conduct may be the greatest opponent ^[p. 326] to the truth. Now he is subdued: “And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” - he is not off legal ground yet. “And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus”. He has received divine light, the light of God has shone into his soul, and he has heard the voice of Jesus; but he is not rescued yet, he has not peace.

Now read verse 9, which describes how he found salvation: “And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink”. What was he doing? Then the work of grace was effected in his soul. Many have faith in the blood of Christ, are assured of its virtue in the eye of God, and yet are much distressed by Satan and by the flesh. You are not clear of them if you do not see that Christ has made a way through death by His death and resurrection, and that you cannot be clear until you have appropriated His death, the antitype of walking through the Red Sea. In deep seclusion, apart from every one, like Saul of Tarsus here, when for three days he did neither eat nor drink, you have so believed in the work of Christ on the cross that you have walked through the Red Sea; you have seen the way for you out of death through the death and resurrection of Christ. What a wonderful relief to Israel when they had reached the other side! We can understand that Saul during those three days did neither eat nor drink. He is learning that by the death of Christ he is cleared of all against him in the sight of God. The light has come to him from the glory of God, and he has heard the voice of Jesus in the glory, and now he sees that there is a way for him unto Christ in glory, through His death. To the ^[p. 327] satisfaction of his soul, he appropriates by faith the death of Christ as the only way “out of death into life”. Then he prays; he has come to God. “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee”. Then Ananias is sent to him. The Lord’s commendation is, “Behold, he prayeth”.

He has to do with God, he prays. The prodigal son says, “I will arise and go to my father”. That is confidence. Presumption is acting from my own feelings; confidence is acting because of the feelings which another has for me. You see the same with the thief on the cross: “Lord, remember me”; he began by prayer. Great was his confidence in the Lord. Now Saul prays; he has turned to God, he has confidence in Him; the judgment is over, the morning has appeared; and now Ananias is sent, and says to him, “Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus that appeared to thee in the way in which thou camest, that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit”. That is, he is to enter on an entirely new history here. I do not dwell upon this, but I press that the wonderful fact was now known to Saul that all under the judgment of God had gone in judgment; he had learned that the old man was crucified with Christ; he had walked through the sea - literally, he had travelled through Christ’s death to the other side of death. “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you”. Now he can say, The Lord hath triumphed gloriously.

Saul is now outside of judgment, and no one who dwells on it but will see the great advance there is from the light coming to him and his hearing the voice of the Saviour, and his present position - saved for glory, and the Holy Spirit filling him. I trust you see that all under judgment has been removed in judgment in the death of Christ; for though Satan is still here, he is never again as Pharaoh to the believer in Jesus; and though the Egyptians are here - that is,

^[p. 328] the flesh is here - yet Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the sea shore. So should you see our old man crucified with Christ. If Israel attempted to revive an Egyptian dead on the shore it would be unaccountable. Christians are more so when they revive the flesh which was set aside in the cross. You should rejoice that our old man is crucified with Christ. But no one will be free from the old man till he is glad that he has gone in the cross; and you never can know that he has gone till you travel through faith in Christ’s death out of the place of judgment. If you do not accept the death of Christ as the salvation of God, the wrath of God abides on you. But on the other hand, the Lord grant you may be deeply interested in His grace - even that not only is the blood before the eye of God for you who believe, but that the man under the judgment of God has been judicially ended in the death of Christ, and that, as He is risen out of death, you have to do with Him risen and glorified. The effect upon you is that not only are your eyes opened to see things in this world in a new way, but you are filled with the Holy Spirit; you enter on a new and blessed history on the earth. You begin your new history with a song; you have come to God - “The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation”. Like Saul of Tarsus you are in a new and wondrous position on the earth; you have a Saviour in glory, and the Holy Spirit in you.

May your hearts be bowed in faith with thanksgiving, for His name’s sake.