What did Israel have to recognize at the Red Sea before God delivered them?
Israel had to recognize that she was trapped against the Red Sea, completely helpless and doomed, with nothing she could do. Only when she acknowledged her total inability could the power of God enter in and become her escape from that hopeless situation.
Les explains that Israel had to come to the place where she recognized her situation: she was up against the Red Sea, there was nothing she could do, and she was doomed. Until the power of God entered in, and that was her escape. He applies the same pattern to salvation: every person was separated from God and in the bondage of sin, and had to come to the place where the power of God alone could do it. Les connects this to Colossians 1, where Paul prays for believers to be strengthened according to God's glorious power, and says the Father has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us out of it. He notes this is past tense for the believer—not something worked toward or hoped for, but something we have right now. Israel was in the darkness of slavery in Egypt, but the power of God brought them out.