The Red Sea
Do You Know The Lord?
According to a PEW Research Center report last year, 80% of Americans believe in God or a higher power. The same report showed that only 56% of Americans believe in the God of the Bible. This number doesn’t even get into real believers or false converts, but self-professed believers in God. So I ask you, “Do you believe in God?” Do you know the Lord?
When I hear about these statistics and think of these kinds of questions, it makes me think of Pharaoh of Egypt when the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians. God sent Moses to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of bondage and into freedom and afterwards, they were to worship the Lord their God.
Exodus 5:1-2 states: And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.
Who Is The Lord?
Moses tells Pharaoh the Lord God of Israel says let my people go and Pharaoh responds with “Who is the Lord?” “I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” Pharaoh answers honestly. He worshipped many false gods and the one true God was not one of the many gods that he worshipped. So he really didn’t know the Lord. In fact he questions who is this Lord.
In America today, there are many people who also don’t know the Lord. Oh, some people don’t know Him willingly because they do not want to bow the knee or confess with the tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord. So unlike Pharaoh, they know who the Lord is, but they prefer to live in rebellion against the Lord rather than in submission to His Lordship.
Professing Christians
Then there’s a group of American Christians who profess Jesus with their lips while their heart is far from Him. They may be counting on walking an aisle one-time or having some sort of religious experience, but they too refuse to surrender their lives completely to the Lord Jesus.
They claim to be a Christian, but they are not a follower of the Lord. Yes, they want to go the Heaven instead of Hell, but they are still living for the pleasures of the flesh instead of walking in the Spirit. Unfortunately, this group is just as lost as the outright unbelievers, God-mockers and God-haters.
They are ashamed of Jesus in front of their friends and Jesus will deny that He knows them on Judgment Day. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven (Matthew 10:32-33).
Do You Know The Lord Or Are You Like Pharaoh?
Do you know the Lord? Are you a Bible believing, God fearing, follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you truly repented from your sins and surrendered your life fully and completely to Jesus? Are you truly saved? Are you born-again? Have you repented and put your trust in Jesus?
Are you a new creature in Christ? Are you saved? Do you know the Lord or are you like Pharaoh and know not the Lord? If Jesus is not your Lord and Savior, then you will split Hell wide open after you die in your sins. It doesn’t matter if you miss Heaven by a hair’s breadth or by thousands of miles. Close does not count in salvation. Almost being a Christian is 100% being an unrepentant, Hell-bound sinner.
You are either lost or found. You are saved from your sins or still dead in your trespasses and sins. If you do not have eternal life then you will face the second death, which is never ending death and everlasting torments. There is no middle ground. There are no halfway Christians. You are all in or all out. You are fully saved or fully doomed.
Are You Standing On The Rock?
You are standing on the Rock of your salvation or you are sinking in the quicksand of your rebellious, sinful life. Whosoever comes to me, and hears my sayings, and does them, I will show you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and dug deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
But he that hears, and does not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great (Luke 6:47-49).
You are seen as righteous through the righteousness of Jesus our Lord or you are still a wretched, Hell-bound sinner. It’s one or the other. Either you know the Lord or you don’t know Him. Do you know the Lord? If you died tonight, would you go to Heaven or Hell?
What Are You Counting On To Go To Heaven?
Heaven you say? Then what are you counting on to get there? If you are counting on your own goodness, you will fail. If you are counting on doing more good than bad in your life and God grading on a curve, you will fail. Adrian Rogers used to say, “God grades on the cross, not on the curve.”
Don’t die in your sinful state. Don’t die in your rebellion against God. Oh, don’t die telling God that you will not have Jesus Christ reign over you. Jesus is Lord, Lord of all. Submit to His Lordship. Come to Jesus tonight and be saved. Repent from your sins and put your faith in Jesus. We are to have repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21).
Pharaoh Knew Not The Lord
Pharaoh knew not the Lord, so he repented not. God sent the 10 plagues against Egypt. The last plague was that the first born of all the Egyptians and of their animals died. Finally, after that last plague, Pharaoh let the Israelites go. But after they left, he had a change of heart. So he and his whole army pursued after the Israelites. After the Israelites safely crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, the Egyptians pursued after them.
God let the waters go back and all the Egyptian army including Pharaoh drowned in the Red Sea. Not only was Egypt destroyed from the plagues and all the first born killed, but the whole army was destroyed too. Pharaoh knew not the Lord while he was living, but he knows the Lord now.
Pharaoh knows that God is a good God and that He must and does punish sin. Yes he knows that God is righteous, Holy and just. Pharaoh’s been suffering the torments of Hell for thousands of years and he will suffer God’s righteous wrath over his sins for all eternity.
Now Pharaoh Knows God Is Real
Pharaoh knew not the Lord, but now he fully knows and feels the pain of his earlier unbelief. But it is too late for Pharaoh. It’s too late for anyone who dies in their sins. All unrepentant sinners will suffer the flames of Hell forever.
People who die in their sins, as unrepentant sinners, just like Pharaoh know that God is real. But that will never lessen their eternal pain and suffering. God’s punishment is sure and everlasting: In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:8).
Don’t continue rebelling against God. Don’t continue going through life not knowing the Lord. God calls you to repent and trust Jesus. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men everywhere to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead (Acts 17:30-31).
Repent From Your Sins And Trust Jesus
Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19). Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:14-15).
You know the Lord when God reveals Himself to you. Oh, when you recognize that you are a sinner and that there is no goodness in yourself and that God alone is God. That God is good and we are not. That’s when you cry out for God to save you. When you repent from your sins and surrender your life to Jesus and receive eternal life.
Jesus Will Never Leave You
Oh, do this today. Today is the day of salvation. Jesus says that He will never leave you nor forsake you. All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and he that comes to me I will in no wise cast out (John 6:33). Come to the Lord Jesus. Bow your knee, confess with your tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Repent from your sins and surrender your life completely and utterly to Jesus. Then you will truly know the Lord and receive eternal life. He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him (John 3:36). Repent and believe the Gospel and know the Lord Jesus Christ.