8th August 2025

8th August 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 14:1-31 focus v26-31)


Message (Alan Burke)


The Lord had brought his people safely through the Red Sea and just as he had parted the waters as Moses stretched out his hands they now flow back. The Israelites had been brought salvation, the Lord brought salvation to his people that night from the Egyptians who pursued them and the Egyptians were swept into the sea. No more would they fear or be pursued, they were free, a redeemed people by the Lord God. What we may miss in this is that the Lord as he brought salvation to his people and judgement on the Egyptians was also judging the gods of Egypt, well in this the Lord is judging one of the gods of Egypt in particular and that was the god Ammon Ra. Their God Ra was the sun god, he rose in the east but he was powerless to save his people from the Lord God of the Israelites. God was doing this all for his own glory. 


This judgment of God on the sun god Ammon Ra and the Egyptians who died foreshadows what will happen to Satan In the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 18 we are told of the destruction of Babylon, the city of Satan and how it will be thrown into the sea never to be found again and it is for the glory of God for after comes the chorus of hallelujah. God’s people had crossed from death to life, the Lord was bringing himself the glory in all of this, for he is saviour and judge as he brought salvation to his people that night. 


The Lord saved the Israelites - the LORD saved them, the day before they had their backs to the water and faced the Egyptians, with no where to turn but to God and the Lord God brought salvation to them, they saw how he had worked, the strewn bodies of the Egyptians floating in the water and they praise the Lord. By the end they were moved from fear to faith. Why because they had come to see the power of the Lord. For us the question is have we lost belief in the power of the Lord. We might dismiss these miracles, think well that was then this is now, but the Lord has given us the gospel, the good news for all who will hear for it is as Romans 1:6 reminds us it is the power of salvation. The gospel is the power of God for salvation, if you know and love the Lord, if you have come to faith then God’s power has been shown in your life, you have been brought salvation, saved from your sin. 


In the midst of what the people of Israel faced that day all seemed as lost but the Lord was at work and using it for his glory, God was bringing glory to himself. In the church today things might seem like doom and gloom in places, we all know that the church is not like it once was but the Lord is at work in the midst of it all, he is building his church he will preserve his people. He can be trusted and he has throughout the ages has been at work, he will persevere his people even if it seems like our backs against the water, the Lord will preserve a people for himself. The crossing of the read sea, the salvation that the Lord brought his people, saving them ultimately foreshadowed what the Lord would do by sending his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Not to save us from our foes here on this earth but from the bondage of sin and the final enemy which is death.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q42 What is the sum of the ten commandments?
A. The sum of the ten commandments is, to love the Lord our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.
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