Red Sea Experience

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” – Romans 6:17-18

              

It does not matter who you are in this world, everyone is a servant.  King or pauper, prince or merchant, young or old, rich or poor; we all serve somebody or something.  We are all a servant of the devil or of God.  If you are living in sin you are a servant of the devil.  That’s not the way you think about living in sin; “I am a servant of the devil.”  Nevertheless, the scripture places you in bondage under Satan when you have sin within; but thank God, we were not left out without a deliverer!  

The children of Israel were in cruel bondage for hundreds of years.  They were forced to work and labor without wages.  They were stripped of their freedom and ability to serve their God like they should.   When you’re a servant or slave, you can’t just pick up and go out to dinner on a random Tuesday, or skip off to visit your friends on the weekends.  There is no vacation time, or salary, or Christmas bonus.  Your entire life is mastered by your master.  They drive you, they govern you, they decide your life and in many cases I am sure; your death.  The children of Israel were servants to the Egyptians; and then Moses came along.  Moses is a type and a shadow of Jesus Christ.  He is a deliver, redeemer, and guide to the Israelites.  When he comes to Egypt and begins telling Pharaoh what God is going to do, at first it is not well received by the Israelites (because it was not well received by Pharaoh).  However, things start to happen and ten plagues later the self-same people that were enslaving them are literally throwing their possessions at the Israelites as they beg them to leave town.  Not long after the Israelites departure, Pharaoh begins to realize that he just told his nation's workforce to leave, and sends the best of his army after them.  They find them at the bank of the Red Sea and just when it looks like the Israelites have no place to turn, God parts the waters and they cross to the other side.  When Pharaoh’s army pursues, the waters recede and they are drowned in the Red Sea.  The Israelites, who are now watching the entire thing play out on the far bank, begin to see the bodies of their persecutors washing up on the bank.  When the reality of the situation begins to sink in, and the gravity of their deliverance takes hold; they begin to sing.  They sing a song of salvation, deliverance; they sing and glorify God.  The likeness of the enslavement of the Israelites to the sin in our own lives is unavoidable.  We, each one of us, individually, can have a “Red Sea” experience.  When you come into this world, you come with sin in your heart and we exhibit the traits of such sin by committing sin.  This is a sad story, but what is far more depressing is that the devil tricks us into loving our sinful state of enslavement.  By any means necessary he would deceive us into believing that this bondage and enslavement is the best we can do in this life.  He tells us that we are happy in our sin because we are doing “exactly what we want to do”.  Furthermore, he tells us that if we turn our lives over to God that we will be enslaved and not get to do what we want to do.  He has the world brainwashed into thinking that his lash is a message and that your labors for him are a workout.  “It is all for you!” He says.  This lie consists until the preaching of Jesus comes, and you begin to see the life that is in righteousness.  The liberty that is in serving Christ; when you become convinced that Jesus is the way, truth, and life.  When you decided to follow Him, like the Israelites followed Moses, then and only then can you find deliverance.

            We can spend our life slaves to sin, or we can be delivered.  Deliverance is in a decision.  It is a decision to follow Jesus, and believe His word.  You must confess that you are a sinner and in need of forgiveness; forsaking your sin.  Christ will forgive.  Then you must press on to receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, purging out the inbred sin within and giving you the power to live Holy.  Jesus will give you a “Red Sea” experience.  He can take you out of sin and into a life of righteousness.  He can bring you to a place where you say “I was a servant of sin, but now I am a servant of righteousness.”