The Sea That Swallows and Saves [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The answer of the Gospel has to be, simply put, I have been forgiven.

There is no penalty that remains. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series that we've called The Top Ten from Pastor Alan, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina in the first 10 years of Pastor Alan's radio broadcast ministry. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now, a digital copy of The Top Ten from Pastor Alan Wright. This digital download can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries, or if you prefer, we do have a CD album available. Your choice as you listen to today's message go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastoralan.org, that's pastoralan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. We'll tell you more about it later in the program, but right now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. When our daughter was, I don't know, three or four, she was in the back seat, and I've told this story before, we were riding along and all of a sudden this little voice from the back goes, I have a cow. And we said, you have a cow? And she said, yes, I have a cow. We said, well, sweetie, what are you talking about? She said, you know, I can't talk very well. I said, oh, your horse.

Yeah. So in our family, your horse, you have a cow. I've had a cow most of the week, so bear with me today, but I not only have a cow, I have some good news.

You ready for some good news? God is committed not only to your healing, but to your hope. He's committed not only to your hope, but also to your healing.

And these two things are inextricably linked. This is, in fact, one of seven components of a spiritual DNA or a core value system that we've identified in our church is that we believe in healing and hope. That if there's a church that only emphasized healing, it'd be wonderful in this sense. There'd be much mercy and grace for those that are hurting.

There would be comfort and nurture and much solace for the sorrowful, and that'd be wonderful. But that's not all there is in the Christian life, because also you have a destiny. God has a place for you to go.

He has territory for you to take. He has instilled gifts in you for you to use, right? So you have a hope, a future in front of you. But if there's a church that just emphasized all that you're called to do, then it can start sounding like, well, you've got all this to do, and yet there's no attention given to healing the scars of our lives that have caused us emotional pain.

And it's not only that there's no solace, therefore, for the wounded heart, but there's always a nagging voice of condemnation if you remain unhealed. And what I want to show you today, as we turn back to this beautiful image of the Red Sea parting for the people of God, is just how a beautiful and rich symbol this is of how God uses one sea to save some and swallow some. He uses it for the moving forward of the people of God to the place of promise, but he also uses it to swallow up the voices of condemnation of the former slave masters that would have always been breathing down their backs. This is in Exodus, it's chapter 14, and I actually want to pick up reading just prior to chapter 14 to show you something interesting that's important to the story, that after the people of God have been set free and they have come out through the Passover and they're on their way to the promised land, God directs them, but he directs them in an unusual path. Verse 17 of Exodus 13 says, when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. Then we're going to pick up reading chapter 14, verse 1. The Lord said to Moses, tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pihiroth between Migdal and the sea in front of Baal-Zephon.

You shall encamp facing it by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, they are wandering in the land. The wilderness has shut them in and I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he will pursue them and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host and the Egyptians shall know that I'm the Lord.

And they did so. Let me pause here to say, God providentially led them to this place where they would face what seemed to be an insurmountable predicament. This Red Sea seemed to be a huge problem, but it actually was a huge provision and God had led them there on purpose. Verse 5, when the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed towards the people and they said, what is this that we've done?

That we've let Israel go from serving us. So he made red his chariot and took his army with him and took 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.

The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army and overtook them encamped at the sea by Pihiroth in front of Baal Zephon. When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold the Egyptians were marching after them and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord and they said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you've taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone that we may leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians. For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. It was in this predicament that Moses, instead of cursing the people, brought forth this beautiful blessing.

And it's our blessing that we've been speaking over one another as we begin this new year. It's a blessing that is particularly for anyone who has come through something and then you find yourself facing another obstacle. When you've experienced God's freedom and favor and then find yourself facing new and unexpected challenges, take heart.

God still parts red seas. Receive the word that Moses gave to the Israelites when they felt trapped between an army behind and an ocean in front. Do not be afraid.

Stand still. See the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you. For these Egyptians whom you now see, you shall see again no more forever.

The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace. It's a rich, deep word. And I appoint you today specifically to this powerful idea that the Egyptians that you see today, the voices that make you feel condemned, in other words, the presence of that Egyptian army behind them, brought back every feeling of slavery. They had been in bondage to those people for all those years and the mentality, your soul doesn't just change overnight because suddenly you're out of that slavery. And they saw those slave masters and they saw the chariots and they saw them coming, breathing down upon them.

And how did it make them feel? It made them feel like we are trapped. We are condemned. There's something wrong with our situation. We're stuck.

We're doomed. In other words, condemnation paralyzes and that's the way they felt. And God has a word for us. That when you feel that, that there is a way in which God not only moves you on towards promise, but his gospel is so powerful that his grace will swallow up that voice of condemnation. And it's like, this is the image I feel like the Lord gave me, it's like the difference between saying you have a fear but you can manage it versus not having the fear at all. It might be like if you had a nightmare night after night and you'd wake yourself up and remind yourself, oh, it's not real. So you could comfort yourself with that.

But wouldn't it be a far better thing to just not have the nightmare at all? And that's what I think God has for us. And it's been something I've experienced in an ever-increasing manner in my own life. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. The life-changing message of good news has been taught over radio from Alan Wright Ministries for quite some time now, and God has used every one of those messages. But some broadcasts have really hit home in special ways. In gratitude of more than a decade of radio, we have assembled the most powerful, best-loved messages from each year of the first 10 and put them together in one special album. When you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we want to give you Alan Wright's top 10 CD album or digital download.

Are you ready for some good news? Make your gift today and discover God's grace afresh with Alan Wright's top 10 of the first decade. The Gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. Now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. When I was a kid, I had in a lot of ways an ideal childhood. There's so many advantages, so many blessings. And when I tell my story, it's important just to be reminded myself and others that I was so thankful. I was never abused. I was never neglected. I wasn't openly cursed.

I was never neglected. I wasn't openly cursed or any of that like many of you have experienced. But I did come from a home that was broken, a home that had suffered the pangs of alcoholism in it. I came from an environment in which everybody in my family seemed to be excelling.

And so that's what I set out to do. And I felt like I had a lot of friends. By the time I was in high school, I guess I was with the kind of popular crowd. I played two varsity sports. I made really good grades. I was accepted into a good college.

I had a sweet, cute Christian girlfriend. I would have never said of myself that I felt under condemnation or I would have never said that shame was a word that applied to me because I felt like I was more or less succeeding in life's plan. In other words, I was moving, moving on and moving, moving forward and doing okay. And even after I went to seminary and I took clinical pastoral education and I learned so much, I still would have not identified that as being an issue in my life until later after having been a pastor for close to a decade and helping others, I began to take a more honest inventory of my own soul. And that's when I began to realize some things that were wrong, right?

Like warning lights on your car dashboard. One of them was I was perfectionistic. I was driven. Why did I, I was, I was working, I was overworking. And it was out of, I realized, a need that I had to never let anybody down. I had a hard time saying no to anything or anybody. And it was related to really wanting to please people, which made me realize that approval of others was way too important to me.

Why was this the case? I also had to be honest with myself and say that in fact, it mattered. I took criticisms way too hard. I could have 200 people tell me a message, bless them in one person, write me a note that was critical and I'd be brooding over the one criticism. And I mean, nobody loves criticism, but it would set me back.

You know, I'd find myself brooding over it. Why was this the case? If I was just on a trajectory and everything was was wonderful and I was moving forward, why was I feeling like that? I also had to be honest that though I was never abusive or anything like that, I could be negative towards the people I love the most. And I realized it was, I wanted perfectionism for myself, but I would often expect it of people near me too, as if you're not perfect, that I might criticize you. And that might have bothered me most of all. And I started wondering, why are these things the case? And that's what led me on a path of discovering the power of shame that essentially is a condemning voice that says there's something not right about you.

And you've got to do a little bit more in order to be accepted and acceptable. In other words, I discovered about my life that I was exactly like those Israelites, where there's a Red Sea and I might have confidence that I'm going to be able to move forward, but there was an Egyptian army always behind me whispering accusations. And what happens, beloved, and some of you identify with me on this, is that when you are experiencing life like that, where you might have a relationship with God or you have a sense of some confidence about moving forward, you know that you're a Christian, you know you've got heaven in front of you, but there's something that's always tugging you backward, that what it does is that it causes there to be an angst in your soul. And so the picture of these people of God that are Red Sea in front, army behind, is that they feel condemned by these voices of the former slave masters, and so it causes them angst, and they begin to have all kinds of problems in their souls. This is what happens when there is a nagging voice of condemnation like the Egyptian army's threat over the people of God. And God, therefore, not only wants you to know He has a plan for you to move forward, but in that plan for you to move forward, He also has a plan by the power of the gospel to set you free from that gnawing anxiety and the nagging voice of discontent, the nagging voice of an accusing spirit that is always hovering.

God has a victory in the power of the gospel, and it's pictured in this Red Sea. There is a relationship between healing and hope. If you have healing, but you don't have hope, you may be well nurtured, but without destiny.

If you have hope and a sense of destiny, but no healing, you will move forward only with angst. And if you're like me, you'll often feel like an imposter, and something will be withheld in you. And what spiritual warfare comes down to essentially is this. The Bible calls the Prince of Darkness Satan because the name Satan means accuser.

And I want you to understand this. You're in a spiritual battle, and the principal weapon of hell is the voice of accusation. And only if that accusation can find some place of connection in you will you have any suffering in this battle. Because in as much as you know that the voice of accusation has no substance against you, then you're free from it. This is the visual of the army being drowned by the sea, is the voice of the accuser being drowned out by the cross of Jesus Christ. Because what happened in that ocean is what happened in the cross. Through the cross of Jesus Christ, what the Lord did was He paid the penalty Himself for your sin and for mine.

It's not a popular concept in today's culture, and it runs contrary to the spirit of the age. But our predicament is that we are born in sin, and all sin deserves punishment. And everyone, whether consciously or unconsciously, is aware of this, that we are therefore under a penalty. And in some ways we're trying to make ourselves right, ask most people why do you think you should go to heaven, and they'll say because I'm a good person. In other words, if my good outweighs my bad, then somehow I'll escape the penalty.

It just proves the fact that we feel that we're under some sort of penalty because of our flaws. And what God did in Jesus Christ was He said, yes, humanity must pay the penalty, and so a human being will pay it. Jesus, the Son of God, was a human being, God in the flesh, and He paid that penalty. And when you know that and accept it, you are forgiven and your sin is cast as far as the east is from the west. And that forgiveness puts you in a new position in the cosmos. But there's something else that God does.

It's something that I emphasize to you all the time. He didn't just put the penalty upon Jesus. He put the blessing that should have been reserved for Jesus upon the believer. So in this exchange, He became your sin and you were given His righteousness. What this means for us is that the voice of the accuser is defeated through the cross of Jesus Christ because we no longer have a penalty due to us. So when the accuser says, look, you're stuck and the reason is because of your sin. Look, you're doomed because you're a failure. You don't measure up.

You haven't done enough. And therefore, the torture of our soul causes us to be paralyzed in fear. The answer of the gospel has to be, simply put, I have been forgiven.

There is no penalty that remains. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. In today's teaching, the seed that swallows and saves. one special album. When you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we want to give you Alan Wright's top 10 CD album or digital download. Are you ready for some good news? Make your gift today and discover God's grace afresh with Alan Wright's top 10 of the first decade. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries.

This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Alan, for the one listening right now who feels hopeless, but they've heard something good here, what's your takeaway? Well, to say that it's a seed that swallows and saves is to say that the gospel not only swallows up the fears that would surround us and that God has done the work in Jesus to answer the issues of your past and, you know, all of that swallowed up in the sea of His love, but that this is the same gospel that saves and liberates you into a whole new promised land. It's a beautiful image, isn't it? You know, to think that that seed that swallowed up Pharaoh's army was also the seed that saved them.

Right. Sometimes the things that might look like, oh, this is insurmountable and impenetrable and a difficulty that God may end up using it for His glory and your benefit. Visit us online at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.