In this sermon, the speaker discusses the story of the Israelites' escape from Egypt and their journey to the Red Sea. He emphasizes that just as God delivered the Israelites from their enemies, He will also deliver all nations in the future. The speaker also highlights the importance of God's law and how it reveals His character and demands holiness from mankind. He explains that breaking even one commandment is a contemptuous act against God and that the law exposes our need for redemption and salvation.

Exodus, chapter fifteen, and verse eleven. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, cheerful in praises, doing wonders? Fifteenth chapter of the book of Exodus was written to record one of the greatest events in the history of God's people as well. We read in the previous chapter the narrative of the miraculous defeat and overthrow of the armies of Pharaoh, and this fifteenth chapter, which you need to follow, is a memorial to the praise of God for that event. You will recall that prior to these things, the children of Israel had been for many years the enslave of the Egyptians, and then the time of God came when Moses was sent to Pharaoh's court with the command that Israel should be let go. After many judgments, Pharaoh, at length, gave his leave for the departure of the Israelites, but hardly had he made this decision when we read how he gathered all the chariots of Egypt and pursued after the children of Israel. We have that tremendous description of the position of the Israelites as they were approaching the Red Sea. They were hemmed in to the south and west by the mountains of Sinaihiloth and Baal Ziphon, how the armies of the Egyptians were descending upon them from the north and to the east was the water of the Red Sea. We read there how God sent a strong east wind that blew all night, and it opened up a passageway to the Red Sea so that the water stood up as two great walls, and in the midst of that passageway, the children of Israel crossed to the other side. And, as Pharaoh and his hosts entered also into that dry bed of the Red Sea, we read how there, in verse 28, the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the hosts of Pharaohs that remained not so much as one host. Now, it is not difficult for us to see some reason why this event was so important to Israel. It meant that they had been secured against their enemies. It meant that they were enabled to cross the Red Sea, to cross the threshold into a new era, that the way home to Canaan was opened up to them. It was a great turning point in their history, and it secured their deliverance. But, these are not the reasons which are given to us in these chapters why this event was so great and so momentous. The true importance of this event, as it is revealed to us here in these chapters, is that it brought to men, both to the Egyptians and to Israel, it brought to them a new view of the character and the glory of God. You will recall that, before Moses had decided to let the Israelites depart, when he first heard the word of God through Moses, Pharaoh had replied to Moses, "'Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I know not the Lord.' And it was because Pharaoh knew not the Lord that he did not listen to God's word, that he persecuted God's people, that he pursued after them. It was because he was ignorant of God that he descended into the dry bed of the Red Tree, and it was to bring his ignorance to an end that the waters and God's judgment descended simultaneously upon him." We read twice in chapter 14 that God said, verse 4, "'The Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.' And, in verse 18, "'And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.' And there, in verse 24, we read that it came to pass in the morning watch that the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians, which is to say that God manifested himself unto the Egyptians. So, the Egyptians cried, let us flee, for the Lord fighteth for them." And, here, our unconverted man, coming to a knowledge that it is too late, that the character of the God with whom they had to do, is the eyes of the Lord, or, in every place, beholding the evil and the good. That is the word of God. But, here, we read that the Lord looked, which is to say that Pharaoh was given a consciousness of the eyes of God, or, in every place. But, in this judgment period, we have men being brought to a recognition of the infinite majesty and justice and truth and holiness of God. The Egyptians said that it is true, for the Lord fighteth for them. And, just as this event brought a new knowledge of God to the Egyptians, so it also brought to Israel a greater manifestation of God's being. So, we read in the last verse of chapter fourteen, that Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servants most. Now, when you look at this portion of scripture in that light, it becomes full of meaning and relevance to us today. A great deal has happened since Pharaoh perished in the Red Sea. But, the scriptures tell us that the trouble of Pharaoh is the trouble of the natural man in every age. It is ignorance of God. It is to forget our nature, that the fundamental evil which afflicts the human race, the cause of all our misery and all our destruction in the earth, and all the search for happiness, all the unrest and all the disasters that mark the course of human history, that these, according to scripture, have one source in man's ignorance of God. The word of Pharaoh is the word of the modern man. Who is the Lord? That I should have said, his voice. The scripture says, there is none that understandeth, there is none that speaketh after God. The world, by wisdom, knew not God. Here, then, we find the truth, that as we behold this historical narrative, we will at the same time see what is in all our hearts by nature, that we are afflicted with an ignorance of the Eternal One who rules in the heavens. And, therefore, as we come to scripture, it is the primary purpose of scripture, whatever we begin to read it, that we may be still, and know, understand what it would say, and know that I am God. In short, the Catechism of the Westminster Divines, right there at the beginning, says, What do the scriptures principally teach? The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what beauty God requires of man. Here is the summary of what the scriptures teach, what we are to believe concerning God. That is the foundation of all true and saving knowledge and religion. This is life eternal to God's order, that they may know thee the only true God. We come, then, to this verse in Exodus 15, and this chapter is, indeed, the first great hymn of praise that is recorded in the scripture. It is spoken of as the song of Moses. It was given by inspiration to God's prophet, so that in this form, in this hymn, which the children of Israel sang, it might pass on to prosperity the record of what God had done, so that this knowledge of God which has been given of the Red Tree, that it might not be lost. And, in the eleventh verse, which we read at the beginning, we have the climax of this hymn. Who is like unto thee, O Lord among the gods? Who is like unto thee? Glorious in holiness. Now, it is that praise that I wanted to look at this morning. God is glorious in holiness, and the scripture in this verse puts that attitude of God first. Moses speaks of the matter of incomparability of the true God. As he looks upon the gods of the heathens, he says, Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Now, there were many gods among in the pagan world. Gods of war, and gods of wrath, and gods of power, and so on. But, the distinguishing truth about the living God was not present in any of these religions, namely that he is glorious in holiness. That is the distinguishing feature which the Holy Spirit puts firstly before us in this verse. Our knowledge of God that we have by nature is not a knowledge which makes us to hallow God's name. We do not know, we do not believe the holiness of God until it is revealed to us, as it was revealed here in Scripture. This is the distinguishing character of the true God as he comes to us in the power of the Spirit. We know him to be the Holy One, the Eternal and the True God. Now, when we speak, as Dick Burr speaks of the holiness of God, holiness, holy, is a word apparently which derives itself and originated from a word which means to separate or to cut. And, there is the idea of God being infinitely separated from his creation. He is so exalted in his majesty that he is the separated one. But, of course, that very soon has the additional meaning which lies in the fact that God is separate from us because he is infinitely pure, that he is perfect and, what we would say, holy. The word holy then comes to have the idea of the matchless beauty and splendor of God's perfection, his purity, that he is without any trace of darkness or sin or defilement. It is the infinite moral perfection of God. God is a holy God. But, this claim says that God is glorious in holiness, and that means that God's glory is bound up with his holiness, that he is glorious because he is holy. And, as the holiness of God is manifested in the earth, we behold his glory, glorious in holiness. If God were not holy, he would not be glorious. It is as his holiness is expressed to sinful men that we begin to behold his glory, glorious in holiness. And, let us then remember, as we proceed, that when we speak of the holiness of God, we are not speaking simply of just one attribute in the Godhead, but of all his attributes. That God's justice is a holy justice, that his love is a holy love, that his wisdom is a holy wisdom, God's promise, God's truth is called his holy promise, God's power is called his holy arm, God's name, which is all the attributes of God computed together. God's name is holy, the scripture says. God is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. But, in all God's attributes, there is holiest, there is perfect, and absolute purest. The holiness of God, today I haunt the holiness of God, is not to be conceived of as one attribute among others. It is rather a general term representing the conception of his countless perfections and total glory. God, then, is glorious in holiness. And, you may care to meditate, as you look at the scripture, on how often these two words are put side by side, glorious and holiest. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that which is holiest. We are being changed, says the Apostle Paul to the Corinthian believers, we are being changed from glory to glory, and by the spirit of the Lord. So, here the word glory continues interchangeably with holiness. We are not being changed into the likeness of God's omnipotence, or into his omniscience, but we are being changed into holiness from great to great. Holy, holy, holy is the prophet Isaiah, the whole earth is full of his glory. God's glory and his holiness are bound up together. Now, as we look at this statement, I want us briefly to consider the holiness of God as it is revealed in his works. In the work of creation, and secondly in the work of the law, and thirdly in the work of the new creation, and finally, briefly, in the work of the eternal state in the revelation of God in the eternity which is before us. Let us think, then, firstly, for just a moment, of the revelation of God's holiness in creation. Now, we know that the scripture says that God has made all things for himself. He made all things to glorify him, and in order to glorify him, he has made all things in a way that bears resemblance to him. Even this material world, the inanimate creation, displays the power of God with wisdom. The regularity of the world displays to us the power of God. As we read there in Romans chapter 1, the invisible things of him from the beginning of the world are clearly seen through the creation. Isaac Watts says in one of his hymns, There is not a plant nor flower below but makes the door of known. Creation glorifies God. Yes, but the very purpose of creation, the very pinnacle of creation, was the making of man in God's own image. Let us make man in our own image. And this, supremely, is the image of divine holiness. Man does not represent God as creation does, that is, the material creation, but man is the very highest form of created existence because he's made in the image of divine holiness. Scripture says, God made man upright. God made man so that, in our minds and hearts and in our lives, we may be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect. Adam was made holy in his mind, in his memory, in his imagination, in all that he did. He was the reflector of the glory of divine holiness. God made this world so that man could represent his holiness, and it is only when we begin to understand that, that we can begin to appreciate the true nature of sin. Sin is a violation of the purpose of our existence. God made us for his own glory, and by sin man has lost the image of God. Man has lost the desire to represent God. By sin we make ourselves God, and the true and living God we no longer serve nor represent. We read in Genesis 6 that God beheld the wickedness of man, that it was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was on the evil continuous. And then we read, and it repented the Lord that he had made man, and it grieved him at his heart. And that word surely expresses to us the enormity of sin. Sin has so violated the purpose of our existence that, when God saw the corruption of man, it grieved him that he had made man, and it repented him that he had made man, and it grieved him at his heart. My friend, have you ever considered sin in that light? Have you considered your sin in that light, in the light of the purpose for which God made you? Secondly, then, the work of God's holiness in the giving of the law. We read there in Exodus, further on, how God delivered unto man that perfect revelation of his will with regard to our moral character. The law, which is the Scripture, is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. And the purpose of the law was, and is, that man who has fallen into ignorance about God, that we might see in the law as in a mirror, that we might see in the law the character of the living God. The law reveals, above everything else, the character of God and the nature of his holiness. Now, how does it do that? Well, it does it in two ways. It does it by its precepts, by those commandments which are given. Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not commit adultery, honor thy father and thy mother, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, and then the great first table of the law. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy strength. These are precepts which are disclosing to us the absolute perfection of God. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not, it is because of what God is, that we shall not do this, and that we shall be like him. So, the law, in its precepts, by its great extent, in demanding the holiness of man, if it deals to us the character of God, if it commands that we shall obey God in our deeds and in our work, it forbids sins not only of commission, but sins of omniscience. It forbids sins not only of the hand, but of the eye and of the heart and of the will. The law comes to us in its perfection, and it shows us the incomparable standards of a holy God which he demands from us. The law tells us, he that offendeth in one point is guilty of all. That when we break one part of God's law, we are guilty not only of a breach of that commandment, but of an act of contempt against the author of God's law. Joseph in Egypt attempted to break the seventh commandment. He said, how shall I do this thing and sin against God? The law tells us that a breach of any commandment is to despise God. He that offendeth in one point is guilty of all. Now, my friends, it is as the law comes to us in its spirituality that we begin to realize our true condition. Paul of Tartus was a religious, a righteous man in the eyes of the world, serving God as he thought best. But, Paul said as a converted man, I was alive without the law once. But, when the law came, he lived. And, I died. But, under the power of God's law, Paul died to his own hopes of heaven. He died to his own righteousness. He became, through the knowledge of the law, a lost and a ruined sinner. I was alive without the law, but when the law came, he lived. That is, he saw sin, and I died. The precepts of God's law condemn our self-righteousness and lead us to a knowledge of divine holiness. But, not only the precepts of the law show God's holiness, so also do the penalties of God's law. God is not only the law-giver, but he is the judge. And, he will judge all men in terms of that law which is good. We may think that Balthasar, as he takes a cup from God's temple in Jerusalem, and as he begins to carouse and to enjoy the wits of his wives and concubines and princes and babblers, we may think that here is a man who is secure against Jehovah, that he has overcome God's poor people who lie in ruins. But, here is the living God coming into the very temple and the very palace of Balthasar and writing there upon the wall, "...the God in whose hand thy brethren is thou not glorified." Here is the penalty of God's law. "...thou shalt love the Lord thy God, thou shalt honor the Lord thy God." Now, is this not the first commandment if he has been broken? Or, if you read in the Biblical chapter 10, you will see Nadab and Abihu, two priests going to worship Jehovah, and they come into the tabernacle with carnal faith and spirit. They are coming to bring their own strange fire to God's altar, and we read there God's justice before the altar. "...thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Or, as God says there in the Biblical 10, I will be sanctified, I will be regarded as holy in all them that come nigh unto me. As we go through the Old Testament history and the history of the New Testament, are we not seeing that God is a God who executes his law? "...be sure thy sin will find thee out." But no one sins against God's law, and finally, possibly, as we read our history, we are reading the evidence that God judges men according to his law. And, of course, the greatest evidence of that is the fact of physical death. Death is not a natural thing. Death has come in by sin. Death, as Paul speaks of it there in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the strength of sin is the law. The sting of death is sin. Death would have no sting. Death, we need not fear if it wasn't for sin, and what has given power to sin is the law. The strength of sin is the law. So that Paul is teaching us there that death is the outcropping of God's law. Death reigns from Adam to Moses for that all have sinned. Death reigns over us because we belong to a sinful foreign race. And, as we look at death around us, we have to realize this. Some of us went on Friday to see the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, and what a moving thing that is, to see those places where so many men lie their earthly remains, their immortal souls, now in eternity. Ten thousand men, some dying with Bibles in their pockets, some dying with a knowledge of Christ, some with no knowledge of God, but all of them immortal beings. And there we behold death. Whether we die on a battlefield, or die in a hospital, or die in our beds, we are under the reign of death. The only difference is that for the Christian, the sting of death has been taken away because we have one who is the fulfiller of the law for us. That leads us then, thirdly, to speak briefly of the work of God's holiness in the new creation. When God designed the work of salvation, He did it, we read, before all time began. He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be whole and without grace before Him in love. The purpose of God's new destination, the purpose of the whole planet again, is that men and women should be created and redeemed that would lead to the praise of the glory of God. And, in that truth, we have the complete rejection of any idea that the doctrines of grace can make men carnal or careless. If we believe in the election of God, we believe that God who has predestinated us has predestinated us to be holy, to sanctify us. But, this is the very purpose of our election. The design of God in redemption is the glory of His own holiness. Not worth our need, not worth our happiness, but above all things that He has designed for His own praise. Think for a moment of the appellate, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is it above all else which is revealed to us of the cross? When we see our Lord rejected of men, when we see the heavens darkened, when we see the contempt and the shame and the suffering which He bore, what is it that we are to realize? Surely, that He has borne our grief and carried our sorrow, that He was smitten of God and afflicted, and that here is divine judgment, defending on God's own holy Son. And, how can we explain that? But, our Lord Himself cried in the twenty-second cross, which He received from the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But, He gives us the answer you felt in that second cross. The sorrow of holiness, how that He coveted the praises of Israel. It was the holiness of God that demanded that, in order that sinners might be saved, God's own holiness should be vindicated. That God would not redeem them, except in a way which exhibited the fullness of His righteousness. So, Paul says, in Romans three, whom God has sent forth to be of appreciation to faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins of a time. To declare, I say at this time, His righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of sins, that believeth on Him. This is the glory of the cross. We cannot appreciate the cross of Jesus Christ until we see the problem. How God can be holy and forgive us our sins? Isn't this the burden of the convicted sinner? It is no comfort to tell a convicted sinner that God can pass over his sins and not look upon his sins. The convicted sinner wants to know how a holy God can do that. My friend, if you have ever been truly convicted of sin, you are not going to rest in just the general idea that God can forgive, because the sense of your sin will have taught you that God is a holy God. But, your carelessness about God, which you are now convicted of, will not allow you to rest in the general idea that God will forgive you. You want to know how God can be just, and justify you? That is not the cross, fellas. There in the cross, we behold divine justice upon the head of Jesus Christ. God, who is a sin-shaking God, has so loved us as to put us in His hands to punish your sins in Christ, so that in Christ you may be reconciled, and so it is God looks upon the believer. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, because Christ has borne my condemnation. Christ has borne my sin in His own Body on the tree. The whole doctrine of the atonement is bound up in the character and in the holiness of God. And, if we had time to look at every part of the doctrine, we would see how it also glorifies the holiness of God. I was reading recently a statement which stuck me so much of the time. This writer would say that the characteristic of self-Christianity in all ages has been the preaching of salvation without repentance, which, in other words, is saying the preaching of salvation without teaching men to abhor sin and to turn from sin to a holy God. I believe that's true. How much we have of it today. The preaching of salvation without repentance. Let us then, in the last place, think of the revelation of God's holiness in the eternal state. We know that multitudes will not be convinced in this life that God is a holy God. That multitudes will be in the same condition of terror and of the Egyptian. That, when judgment overtakes them, and when they come to a true knowledge of God, it will be a God whom before they did not know, and a God from whom, therefore, they will flee. If we ask ourselves what is the purpose of God's healing with men who are sinners in the eternal state, if we ask ourselves why there isn't a day of judgment, if we press these questions as we ought to press them, we shall find that the answer is not that God takes any pleasure in the death of the wicked. God will be. It is not that there is any blind necessity. It is not that there is any possibility of God looking with complacency upon the suffering of the lost. It is not for these reasons that God will deal with sinners in eternity. It is because he is a holy God, and because he loves righteousness, and the scripture teaches about the eternal state, is that, upon the witness, God will pour fire and brimstone on a horrible tempest. For the righteous Lord, love of righteousness, it is the character of God that commands that sins will not be unpunished. There is no greater delusion in the earth today than the delusion of those who believe that, though they die unconverted, the character of God will shield them against eternal judgment. They say that they cannot believe that God will judge them eternally and punish them in hell. They say that it is because they believe that God is too good that they cannot accept such a teaching. Oh, my friends, your estimation of God's holiness is very different to God's own. God so loves his holiness, and justice and truth, that he is going to vindicate before the whole universe his justice in the condemnation of sin. That is the purpose of the day of judgment. The day of judgment will not be to determine our destiny, for our destinies are determined in this life, but the day of judgment will be in order to manifest the justice of God in his dealings with men, and all who have a list, and all our deeds. As Paul says in Romans 2, when even the secret of man shall be judged according to my God, this is in order that God may be free to be what he is, a holiness and a righteous God. Robert Murray McCain wrote, When this passing world is done, when has come beyond glowing sun, when I stand with Christ in glory, looking on like sin's joy, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. When I hear the wicked crawl on the rocks from hill to fall, when I see them start to spring from the deluge, how I grieve, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. There is to be, you see, a revelation of knowledge of that day, when we shall stand in awe of God, the one who has redeemed us, the one who has loved us, when we shall stand in awe of him, when we shall sing, as we read in Revelation 15, the song of Moses and of the Lamb, when men will say, as they once sang by the Red Sea, Who would not fear thee, O Lord, for thou only art host. Let us remember that. What God did at the Red Sea, he is going to do again to all the nations of the earth, when there comes a new heaven and a new earth. God is going to manifest to all eternity in the church the glory of his holiness. We shall delight in him, or we shall treat him as he is. The purpose of heaven is that, in his new creation, we may manifest the holiness of God to eternally, when we shall perfectly, in measure, resemble God's own Son. As I close, my friends, let me just ask you one or two questions. I believe they are questions which divide the human race. My first question is, do you love God because he is host? I do not ask you whether you love God. There are many who profess to love God. They believe that God will do them good. They believe that they receive good things from God. They profess that they love him. But, you know, the mark of the regenerate man is that the holiness of God attracts him. That the believer loves God not only for what gives God his name, but loves God because of what God is. He loves God because God is holy, because God hates his sin, because God is going to sanctify him. The believer would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than dwell in the tent of wickedness. But, my friends, if you are not converted, you will dislike the holiness of God. You may like all the things about the Bible. You may like to hear of the love of God. You may like to hear of the goodness of God. But when you hear that God is a holy God that punishes sin, I say you will not like that because you will not reject it. You reject, you resist. This is the truth about God from which you hide yourself. Because you are still covering yourself in your own righteousness, you are not prepared to stand before a God who is so infinitely perfect. You realize that if God is what the scripture says he is, then all your righteousness is a silky rash, and that you need to be redeemed by another, and not by your own character or work. My friend, is that your position? Do you love the holiness of God? Or do you resent that it is still? Do you wish that the sermon were done, and that you heard less of these things? I say that is not the model of belief. The believer longs after the likeness and the purity and the holiness of God. The unbeliever turns from such a God with dislike. I ask you another question. Does the company of the world grieve you? Of course we mix with our fellow men we work with them. But is it a burden to you to live amongst carnality where sin is joked off, where God's name is defied? Does this grieve you? Do you feel that this world is not your true resting place? Do you feel that you really belong to God's people? That you're a spartan or a pilgrim in the earth? That is one of the results of knowing the holiness of God. The believer cannot rest here. He is going forth. One last question. How much does your lack of holiness grieve you? Can you say in any measure at all, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? That is the mark of a true Christian. The true Christian grieves for his lack of holiness. If you are not a Christian, it will never give you any trouble that you're not more holy. You may occasionally have a twinge of conscience, but it will be no burden to you. But the regenerate man, realizing the greatness of God's holiness, he grieves for his unbelief and for all that is unworthy of his savior. O wretched man that I am. This is the language of the Christian. My friends, I beseech you to know God as a God with glorious impotence. That you come to Him as such a God. That come to Him not in your own name, but come in the name of Him who is smitten and wounded for the transgressions of sins. That under the covering of the blood of Christ, you may come to such a God, and that you may call Him your Father, and that you may know Him as one who is going to mortify your sins and make you like Him. Come to Jesus Christ. Come to Him to be made whole, to be cleansed, to be washed, to be finally glorified, to the praise of His name. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that there is none other name under heaven given whereby men must be saved, but the name of Thy Son. We thank Thee that this morning in every land and nation, the gospel of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, is being preached to men. And we pray Thee, Lord, that here in this church, Thou wilt bless Thy people through this nation, through all the nations of the earth. Revive Thy works, O Lord. Pour out Thy Spirit upon us in power, that we may truly glorify Thee in the earth and through all eternity. Have mercy upon us, we pray. Cleanse us from all the deceit and the hardness of our hearts through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen. This message was recorded by the Mount Olive Presbyterian Church Tape Library. Permission to reproduce this tape for the purpose of distribution should be obtained from the Mount Olive Tape Library, P.O. Box 142, Bassfield, Mississippi, 39421.