This, the thirteenth chapter, is we talk about provisions for the pilgrimage. God calls his chosen out that he might bring them in. God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees that he might bring him into the land that he would show him. God called Israel out of Egypt that he might bring them into Canaan, the promised land. And today God is calling out the church from the world that he might bring her into his heavenly kingdom. God calls us out that he might bring us in.
But that process doesn't happen in an instant. It takes a lifetime. We leave our past association and we journey on toward our future destiny as the children of God. But in the meanwhile, like Abraham and the patriarchs, we are pilgrims. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. We live among citizens in this earthly realm while being partakers of a heavenly calling. And we find our true identity in life's realities in that realm, the heavenly one.
We live out our pilgrimage in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. But we do so as the children of God, as strangers and aliens who no longer fit into the mold of the present order of things. I remind you of these words from the writer of Hebrews as he writes regarding the patriarchs of old.
All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth, for those who say such things, what? That they're exiles and strangers. Those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they, the patriarchs, had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.
But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city. When you and I get to the place of feeling comfortable in the world, when we're at ease with its standards, its morality, its goals, its motivating forces, and if we are children of God, we have become worldly and we have forgotten that we have been called out that God might bring us in.
Before being saved, we were aliens from God and strangers to the covenants of promise. We had no hope. We were without God in the world. But now, having come to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, if that be your case, having come to Him, having been saved by His grace, we are now strangers to the world system that was once our home. And we journey as God's pilgrims toward that place that He is preparing for us. The Lord graciously provides what His pilgrims need for their journey in this world.
Last week we looked at the truth that God gives us encouragement. Today we want to see that God gives us protection. Later on we'll see that God gives us guidance and reminders. You see, pilgrims need all of those things. Pilgrims need encouragement for the trials they pass through. Pilgrims need protection from their enemies. Pilgrims need guidance for their way because they're in a strange land. And pilgrims need reminders because, like all people, pilgrims can be forgetful.
We discussed last week the fact that God gave His promise to encourage us. He did to the ancient Israelites. He reminded them at this time of their departure from Egypt that He was taking them to a land that flowed with milk and honey, which is an expression that indicates the agrarian prosperity in that land that He would bring them to. God gives us His promises to encourage us.
And I shared with you very transparently and honestly last week some of the disappointments that I have struggled with over the last three months and the discouragements that I have been tempted with. My point in doing that was to testify to you that I am not discouraged in my ministry, but I am encouraged because of the promises of God. God gives us His promises to encourage us. Now today as we look further in Exodus chapter 13, I want us to notice that God gives us His protection to keep us.
I would like for you to read with me verses 17 and 18 which say, It came about when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by the way of the land the Philistines, even though it was near. For God said, Lest the people change their minds when they see war, and they return to Egypt.
In this instance, God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea, and the sons of Israel went up in martial array, that means in an ordered form, nothing military necessarily there, in an ordered form in march from the land of Egypt. God gave His people His protection to keep them. You see, the danger was in this instance, the likelihood of war had they approached the border area with the Philistines.
Whether that fighting would have come from the Egyptian border guards or from the Philistines who would have been concerned about two million people knocking on their door, we are not told. But God knew that if they went that way, that they might be tempted to return to Egypt. Therefore, God led them a different way. Notice it says that, God led them a different way for that very reason. He did not want them to be subjected to a trial that might cause them to be overwhelmed.
He protected them from that. God knew that this would be too great for them at this point in their pilgrimage. Oh, later God did lead them to some enemies and they fought some battles as you know. But this is too early. This is too soon. Therefore, God protected them from that danger. It was a shortcut to go through the land of the Philistines. My it would not have been a long journey at all just to go up along the seashore there to the land of Canaan.
But God led them a different way to protect them, to keep them, so that they might not be overwhelmed by the warfare they would encounter and decide to return to their bondage in Egypt. Beloved, God knows when the apparent shortcuts that we would like to take would end up in spiritual disaster for us too. You see, God can see what's ahead. God can see what's around the bend in the road.
There are times we wonder why God leads us the long way, why God takes us the hard way, when there is a shorter, easier route to our destination. God knows when the shortcuts would mean disaster spiritually and He protects us by leading us the long way and the hard way.
C.H. McIntosh wrote, the Lord in His condescending grace so orders things for His people that they do not at their first setting out encounter heavy trials which might have the effect of discouraging their hearts and driving them back. God knew His people Israel could not take it at this point in their pilgrimage. Do you believe that God knows you so well that He knows what you can take and what you cannot take? Do you believe that God knows what you can take and what you cannot take?
The Psalm 103 verses 13 and 14 mean it when it says, Just as a father has compassion on his children, so Yahweh, so the Lord, has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust. Does God know your frame? Does God know the kind of dust that you are made out of like He knows the kind of dust I am made out of? Of course He does.
And God in His loving care for us and in His sovereign plan is not going to take us a route that would spell certain disaster for us. Because God gives us His protection to keep us. But the fact is if we insist on our own way, if we rebel against Him, if we refuse His leading, and we go the way that looks best to us, then we may have to learn some lessons the hard way. We may in fact go to a disaster, spiritually speaking.
How much better, how much wiser it is for us to allow God His leading in our lives. So that He can protect us from the trials that would leave us exasperated and vulnerable to the enemy's temptations. Oh, if only Lot had let God choose for him in Genesis chapter 12. You remember the occasion, don't you? Lot and Abram could not dwell together any longer. Their herds were too great. The herdsmen were bickering and battling with each other.
Abraham graciously, the servant of God graciously said to Lot his nephew, You pick first and I'll take what's left over. The scriptures tell us that Lot looked down on the plains and saw the sea. Lot looked down on the plains of Zor, plains down there by the Dead Sea as we call it today. At that time they were green and lush and prosperous. And he looked the other way and saw the hills of Judea. And he said, I want that. He chose for himself what he thought was the best. He chose what he wanted.
He had his own way. And it spelled disaster for him and for his family. You know the rest of the story, don't you? Because they went to live in the city of Sodom where he became something akin to the mayor of the city of Sodom. If you can believe that. He lost his wife in the great conflagration that came upon Sodom. His sons-in-law, apparently being involved in the sins of the city, burned in that city.
And his two daughters who escaped the fire in Brimstone and who went with him away from there, ended up committing incest with him. They got him drunk. It's a sordid story. And he ended up living in a cave the last time that we see Lot in the Bible. There's the tragic example of a man who said, I want to live life my way. I'll make my own choices, God, thank you. And it spelled disaster for him and for his family.
And all that he hoped to gain and to live for in life, he ultimately lost, being the only caveman I know in the Bible. Because that's, as far as I know, where he died. He lost everything. Lot would have been wise to have listened to God at that point when Abram gave him the choice. 1 Corinthians 10 13 says, No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man.
And God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it. What is the temptation spoken of by Paul in this text? The word, the same word, perosmos, can be understood to be a test, to prove as good, or can mean, the very same word, can mean a solicitation to evil. We have to look at the context to figure out which meaning that particular word has.
In the context there it seems that it may well refer to both. Both thoughts may be embraced here. There is no trial that has taken you, but such as is common to man. That's true. But if you look at it the other way, there is no temptation to evil. That has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. That's true, is true. None of us is unique. We often think we are the only ones facing this trouble. We are the only ones who have ever suffered this heartache. No one else knows. Yes they do.
Or we think there is no one else who faces the temptations that I face. All the evil within me. Yes, there are others who know, because none of that is unique to any of us. It's all common to man. The idea there being that it's characteristic of humanity that we experience these things. But God is faithful it says. Isn't that a great truth? We sing the hymn, Great is thy faithfulness. And here in the midst of a verse about both temptation and trial, it says, God is faithful.
Now tell me, how many times can God fail and still be termed faithful? God is ultimately and completely faithful. The word describes Him fully. Not once has He ever come short of being completely faithful. It says He will not allow you to be tempted or tested beyond what you are able, but with the temptation, the test will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it. What is that way of escape? Well, literally it says the way out.
He will provide the way out, says the apostle. There are some who see the way out as a side door somewhere in the midst of it. You can slip out the side. Or an escape hatch, so you just pull the lever and God's going to get you right out of the midst of that whole thing. That isn't the way out, beloved. The way out is through the trial. That's God's plan. The point is that there is a way out. It's not going to last forever.
God not only measures the intensity of it, He measures the duration of it. And God provides the door out of that trial as you pass through it. We must not look for short cuts in our trials. We must realize that God's plan is that in the midst of that trial we learn endurance, James chapter 1. And it says when endurance has done its perfect work, it will bring to us spiritual maturity. You see, that is God's goal. Causing us to grow up spiritually, to be mature.
And the way that God does that is through trials. He brings trials into our lives, just like the one that some of the family this morning are passing through. We cannot understand all that God is doing, but we know this much, it's a trial. And what God wants to teach all of us who are involved in this trial is endurance. Hanging in there. Not becoming rebellious, not grumbling and complaining, but in faith, standing strong and believing God.
It says that when we have learned to do that, we will be growing up to spiritual maturity. And God says, that's what I want. There are times we say, Lord, how am I to react in this trial? What am I supposed to do? James says, if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. We can come to God in faith, not wavering, but in faith and know that He will not withhold. He will give us wisdom to know how to respond to the trials of life. But be clear of this. God does not solicit us to evil.
That does not come from God. He has never tempted anyone to evil. He Himself cannot be tempted to evil. Therefore, He will not tempt us to evil. Where do the evil temptations come from? We have to think too long for the answer to that, do we? It comes from the enemy. You see, the trials that God brings into our lives are for our good. They're to test us, to prove us as the children of God, and to make us grow. But Satan uses those same trials often to tempt us to evil.
He solicits us to follow him, and he says, oh yeah? So that's the way God treats you. When I walked into the house last night at the Johnson's, they had just gotten the phone call after an initial call about the accident saying that Karen was unconscious. They had just gotten the call that the doctors had pronounced her dead. And almost the first words out of Muriel's mouth, so characteristically, were, God is good.
I don't know how far the devil must have flown when he heard that, because that isn't what he wanted her to say. He was trying to whisper in her ear, I'm sure, because it's just like him. So this is the way God treats you. You faithfully serve him. What do you think of God now? God is good. When Job lost everything except his wife, what was his response? The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's the response.
God does not put us into trials that will break us. We have to believe that. Everything within us says, I'm about to break. We feel like we can't go on. But remember, those are feelings. We don't live by our feelings, we live by our faith. And what God takes us into, he will bring us through, because that's the way out that he will faithfully provide at the right time. We must endure in faith. I don't know what trial you may be passing through today. It may be a family problem of some sort.
Perhaps there are tensions between you and your spouse, between you and your parents, or you and your children. A trial. Perhaps it's a trial of financial difficulty or school problems. It may be that you've come to college this year, and you have no idea how you're going to stay in college financially. Perhaps it's health problems that you're facing or someone you know might be facing. Perhaps it's business setback that you've had.
Whatever that trial, child of God, will you believe today that God is bigger than the circumstances? He is. And he's faithful. He's faithful to you. He will protect you from being overwhelmed. Now, if you rebel and resist him, expect to be overwhelmed. But if you yield to him and trust him in that trial, you will be preserved. He is not going to bring you into a trial that's going to break you. He's going to make you.
You say, well, I look back on the Old Testament, and I look at Abraham, and God even told him to offer up his son, Isaac. Yes, my friend, that was a trial. Who can imagine what went on in Abraham's heart as he struggled with that? But remember that God gave him that trial at the end of his pilgrimage, not at the beginning. Perhaps Abraham couldn't have taken it then. You see, he endured and was faithful. God knows when he can put us through the trials.
And if God has you in a trial today, I want to suggest three things for you to do. Number one, I want to suggest you to pray. Please, give it to God. I want to urge you today to give it to Him, and to give it to Him in faith. Take it to the mercy seat, and know that there is a high priest who stands there who perfectly knows you and understands and sympathizes with all your feelings, and believe that he intercedes before the Father on your behalf, because he does. Pray. That's the first thing.
Secondly, think. Often we get so wrapped up in our feelings in the midst of trials, and our emotions begin to waver back and forth. So I urge you to think. Use your mind in your trial. And as you use your mind, focus on Jesus Christ. Remember what is said about Him, Hebrews chapter 12. For consider Him. The word consider means use your minds. Put Him into your minds. Consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. My friend, the answer from losing heart, the answer against weariness, is considering Him. Think. Put into your mind the person of Jesus Christ, the truth about Him, what God's promises say. Think. And then finally share. Find someone to share what you're going through with. We all need that. God has not created us to stand independently. He has made us like pieces of a puzzle that are interdependent.
Find someone, a pastor, a leader of your group, a teacher at school, a friend, someone who knows Christ, who is walking with God and share what you're going through. I'm reminded of Peter on that night when he boasted that he would never deny Jesus. Remember that? And Luke tells us that Jesus said to him, and Satan desired him, but he said, I prayed for you, Peter, that your faith will not fail. If Jesus prayed that, do you think his faith would ever fail?
Jesus knew that there was a trial coming that night for Peter, and Jesus knew because he is God what the result would be, so I prayed for you that your faith not fail. Now Peter was pretty self-confident. I'm sure he didn't exactly say this, but he may have felt it. Well, Lord, why do you need to pray for me? I can handle it. But he couldn't. And when those words came, you're one of them, aren't you? Three times he said, I don't know the man, and finally cursed, saying, I am not a part of him.
And only Luke tells us what happened when the rooster finally crowed. It says Jesus turned and he looked at Peter who was standing in the courtyard. Can you believe that? In that mass of people, Jesus knew exactly where Peter was, and Jesus knew what was going on, though he was suffering, he was on trial. He knew exactly what was taking place with his beloved disciple.
At that moment when Peter failed, Jesus turned and looked at him, and it says that Peter fled in tears, weeping, because he knew he had blown it. We've all experienced blown trials, and we have failed in the midst of them, and that may be where you are today. Perhaps self-confident or self-willed, you entered into the trial thinking you could do it on your own, and now you find yourself in over your head and you are defeated. My friend, Jesus looks at you today.
Not eyes of condemnation and accusation, and I told you so, but he looks at you today and he says, my child, I love you. I know that you've blown it. I know that you've failed. But I love you. And if that doesn't break your heart and bring you to repentance, then I fear for your soul. If you're one of God's today whose heart is just overwhelmed with defeat, will you know that Jesus Christ today invites you to come to himself and surrender to his Lordship, fresh and new in your life?
Will you do that? John Bunyan, of course, wrote Pilgrim's Progress, and in that beautiful story he writes of Christian and hopeful who fell asleep in a field that belonged to the giant that he named Despair. You may recall that the giant found them in his field and he took them captive to his castle that was called Doubting Castle. And there he put Christian and hopeful into a dungeon that was dark and smelled without food or water.
On his wife's advice, the giant Despair beat the two of them mercilessly, and then he suggested to them that they commit suicide. And then the giant turned around and left, and the two companions discussed what they could do. And finally Christian remembers that in his pocket he has a key. He said, I have a key in my bosom called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.
And sure enough as he put the key into the lock of the dungeon, it opened it, and the next door it opened, and the next door it opened, and until finally they were out of the castle of doubt and once more resumed their journey on the King's Highway. Are you on the highway today? The King's Highway? Are you saved? Can you trust in Christ? What is your need today? The Savior loves you, my friend, and He wants to meet that need. Let's bow together.
Will you talk to the Lord right where you are seated? Just give it to Him. Release your hold on it. Join Peter in repentance. If you are not a Christian, would you trust the Savior today as your own? Would you bow the knee and receive Him into your life, recognizing that He is the Lord Jesus Christ? Whosoever believes on Him, the Scriptures say, will be saved. That's the promise that will get you out of your dungeon, and get you on the King's Highway.
Father, I thank you today for the practical nature of your Word, and for meeting us just where we are this Sunday. Thank you for the trials you make us to pass through. As James tells us, we want to count them all joy, but oh, how we need wisdom. Show us, I pray, how to make the most of the trials that we are passing through, and how we might endure by faith and experience maturing unto true spiritual adulthood. Thank you, Lord, for your willingness to restore the Peters who have blown it.
I pray that you will wrap your arms around those today who, like Peter, have repented and confessed, and come anew to worship you. Thank you for meeting with us in this hour. Thank you for loving us. We love you. We love you. Amen. Please stand together with me, please.