Out Of The World – Into Christ

  By T. Marshall Morsey (1893 – 1942) 

    In the Word of God we are told a wonderful story of the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt.  Since Egypt is a type of the world and its bondage of sin and death, we will find helpful instruction for our own spiritual lives. 

Deliverance Through the Blood

    ...We see great plagues poured out upon Egypt, but none of these judgments delivered Israel.  They did not move one foot out of Egypt until the night of the Passover when the lamb was slain.  No matter what may happen to you, you will never be delivered from the bondage of sin and the world until you are delivered by the blood, “the blood of the Cross.”  How many are trying today to be delivered without the blood!

    Paul says:  “...God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14).  You are still in your sins unless you have put your life under the blood; you are still in bondage unless you have been delivered by the blood.  “Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Rom. 5:9). 

Through the Red Sea

    From their homes, the children of Israel journeyed to the Red Sea, and there God gave us another type of deliverance from the world.  Not only were their sins atoned for by the blood of the lamb, but they must, themselves, pass through the Red Sea.  Paul says:  “I am crucified with Christ:  nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:  and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

    And again in Romans 6:3-6, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?  Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death:  that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection:  knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

    Into the Red Sea, a type of death and burial, and out on the other shore, a type of resurrection.  No one ever knows the new resurrected life in Christ Jesus until he has been crucified with Christ.  This we reckon, or count on.  “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11).

    If you are struggling with the pull of the world, remember the children of Israel had to cross the Red Sea – an impossible task.  So, you too, must be dead and buried and raised again, an impossible task, until the wind blows upon the sea – that is by the Holy Spirit.  “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom. 8:11). 

The Mixed Multitude

    Finally, and very significantly, it is stated that there went out with the children of Israel a mixed multitude (Ex. 12:38).  They were not Israelites, but were interested because of the great things they had seen.

    Many today go through the form of receiving Christ.  They say they believe; they unite with the church; they accept with the mind the Christian faith; they are baptized – but they have never been born again.  They are not Israelites, but interested Egyptians; they are not Christians, but are baptized heathen.

    We learn that this mixed multitude was always a snare to Israel, and fell to lusting.  “And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting:  and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?  We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic:  but now our soul is dried away:  there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes” (Num. 11:4-6).

    They are not satisfied with manna – Christ and the Word – but they want the cucumbers and leeks and garlic of the Egyptians.  They want the fleshpots of the world. They are still of the world, and so cannot have satisfaction in the things of Christ.  They that are after the flesh always mind the things of the flesh.

    A sheep eats grass because he is a sheep.  A goat eats brush and weeds because he is a goat,  We, in the church, often mix in buckbrush with blue grass to make the goats feel at home, hoping they will grow into sheep.  We mix in onions and garlic with the manna, hoping that eating the mixture will make the mixed multitude true Israelites.

    We bring worldly affairs and attractions into our church life to make the worldly baptized heathen feel at home, hoping they will evolve into Christians.  Such a thing is impossible; it is contrary to nature.

    Nothing but being born again from the old line of Adam, into the new life of Christ, can make this change.  “Ye must be born again” (John 3:1-7).  If the true Manna, Jesus Christ, and the Word of God, does not satisfy you, do not try to cultivate a taste.  Go to the Cross, that you may there be saved and be born again, for you are still an “Egyptian,” one of the “Mixed Multitude.”

    Remember, deliverance is by the blood of the Cross, and by being crucified, buried, and raised again by His Spirit, to live in newness of life.  Accept none of the devil’s substitutes.  Deliverance is by the blood of the Cross, by death, and resurrection.