This evening, remember those
who requested prayer. Add to your prayer list Donna Sue Wolf,
who lives in Bunches Creek. She thinks she's going in for
a stint. That's what she thinks, right?
So remember her in your prayers. When do you get your adjustment
on your machine? First. When? First. First of the month? First of
May. First of May, OK. All right. Remember Crow, he's going to
have his heart machine adjusted. Hopefully they get that fixed
for him. I also continue to remember Tracy Wright, I don't have any
word on her, and Inez, and Dee Parks, Patsy Ledford, and I continue
to remember Fred, he's feeling good one day and then
working too hard, and then he feels bad the next day. Kinda
like, sounds like getting old, don't it? That's what happens
to me, I work real hard one day and the next day I ain't worth
10 cents, you know. But remember these in your prayer. Seek the
Lord's help for them. Happy birthday, Stephen. Get him a new truck
for you. Will you add the Geiger family? Geiger? Yeah. He's a co-worker
of mine. He's had a grandbaby that was
born and had a heart complication. Oh, OK. That's a G-E-I-G-E-I. G-I-E-R, I think. G-I-E. German, that's German. Okay,
that's the Geiger family also. We'll add those to the list on
Sunday. And the furnace man, I finally got in touch with him.
He's going to come tomorrow evening. He's got like three jobs. He manufactures these candles
that he sells different places. Him and his wife have a little
business. He works at Ace Hardware. He's a manager there, one of
the managers there here in Cherokee, and he also does this heating
and air conditioning. But he's coming tomorrow. That's
what he said anyway, so we'll see if he does, hopefully. Okay,
hymn number 272, Christ the Solid Rock I Stand. ♪ My hope is built on nothing less
♪ ♪ Than Jesus' blood and righteousness ♪ ♪ I dare not cross the Swedish
frame ♪ ♪ But wholly lean on Jesus' name ♪ ♪ On Christ's solid
rock I'd stand all alone ♪ When darkness veils his lovely
face I rest on his unchanging grace In every high and stormy
gale On Christ's solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand. Christ the Son in rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand All other ground is sinking sand
When He shall come with trumpet sound Oh, may I then in Him be
found Rest in His righteousness alone ♪ On Lester's stand before
the throne ♪ On Christ's solid rock I stand ♪ All other ground
is sinking sand ♪ All other ground is sinking sand Hymn number 485. We praise thee, O God, for the
Son of thy love, for Jesus who died and is oh god for the spirit of light
who has shown us our savior and scattered ♪ To the land that was slain ♪
Who has borne all our sins ♪ And has cleansed every stain ♪ Hallelujah,
thank the glory ♪ Hallelujah, amen ♪ Hallelujah, thank the
glory ♪ Revive us again ♪ Revive us again ♪ May it so be rekindled with fire
from above ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank the glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, amen
♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank the glory, revive us all ♪ Have your Bibles turn with me
to Exodus, the 19th chapter. I'm going to read the entire
chapter, but I'm going to do a deal with the first four verses
tonight. But I want you to listen carefully and read along with
me. And as we do read this chapter, consider what we've studied in
Hebrews and Galatians and Corinthians, because there's a great amount
of things in this chapter that is used in the New Testament
to define the Gospel in various forms. Chapter 19 verse 1, In the third
month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land
of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
They departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of
Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel
camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and
the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus
shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children
of Israel, Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how
I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself. Now
therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for
all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came, and
called for the elders of the people, and laid before their
faces all the words which the Lord commanded him. And all the
people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath
spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words
of the people unto the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, I
come to thee in a thick cloud, that people may hear when I speak
with thee, and believe thee forever. And Moses told the words of the
people unto the Lord. And the Lord said, Go unto the
people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash
their clothes, and be ready against the third day. For the third
day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon
Mount Sinai. Now shall set bounds unto the
people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go
not up to this mount, nor touch the border of it. Whosoever touches
the mount shall be surely put to death. He shall not a hand
touch it, but he shall surely be stoned and shot through. Whether
it be beast or man, it shall not live. When the trumpet soundeth
long, they shall come up to the mount. Moses went down from the
mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their
clothes. And he said unto the people, Be ready against the
third day, come not at your wives. It came to pass on the third
day in the morning that there was thunders and lightnings,
and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet
exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people
out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the nether
part of the mount, Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because
the Lord descended upon it in fire. The smoke thereof ascended
as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder
and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mount,
and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount, and
Moses went up. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the
people, lest they break through unto the Lord, degaze, and many
of them perish. And let the priests also which
come near to the Lord sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break
forth upon them. And Moses said unto the Lord,
The people cannot come to the Mount Sinai, where thou chargest
us, saying, Set bounds about the Mount, and sanctify it. And
the Lord said unto him, Away, get thee down. and thou shalt
come up thou and Aaron with thee, but let not the priest and the
people break through and come unto the Lord, lest he break
forth upon them. So Moses went down unto the people
and spake to them. Let us pray. Our Father, we bless
you and thank you for your word. We thank you for the fact that
your preachers and the disciples of yours in those early days
after the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ in the early
days of the church all the way through the time of Revelation. Use this old book, this Old Testament
to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are thankful as we
read these words that much is called to our mind concerning
the gospel. Help us to see the greatness
of your work and help us to see what goes on here as the people
are first introduced to this mount. Help us tonight as we
look at what you've done for us in Jesus Christ. Help us to
see what we need to see. We pray for those who are sick
and those who have been added to the prayer list. We ask Lord
you'd be pleased to meet with them and deal with them and prepare
them for whatever comes ahead of them. and father we pray you'd
reveal yourself to them and let them know that you are with them
through Jesus Christ we know that you are able to do this
where no man can we can't do anything for people save to pray
for them we ask your help father help us tonight also as we gather
to hear that you might be pleased to meet with us in the presence
of your spirit to take the things of Christ and show them unto
us help us to see him who is worthy of all praise and honor
and glory bow us down in the dust where we belong lift our
eyes to see him and his majesty high and lifted up at thy right
hand because he's purged our sins and sat down help us now
we pray in Christ's name amen now this chapter as we will see
in the weeks to come because we're going to spend a little
time in this chapter is an iconoclast. That means
it knocks down idols and it does knock down idols. I've titled
this message Law and Grace but I will not get to that subject
tonight. I thought as I was, I thought well I'll cover the
whole chapter you know and then go back and pick out pieces but
once I started studying I saw that I couldn't get very far
tonight unless I was going to preach here about three or four
hours and y'all don't like that so. And I don't like it either,
so that's the bofus. We don't like it. But we will
get to Law and Grace probably week after next. So we'll get
to the title, so I'll just keep using this title for the next
three messages anyway until we finally get to that subject. Three months have passed since
the Lord has delivered Israel from Egypt. Three months to the
day, for it says on the same day. The Lord has faithfully
led them through the wilderness, providing for them bread and
water and flesh to eat. He has tried and proved them
on several occasions, and they in each case have been found
wanting. Nonetheless, in every case, the Lord saved them, delivered
them, showing that His salvation is for unworthy sinners and can
never be conditioned upon the behavior or character of a sinner. because he saved them in spite
of what they did. They were murmuring and complaining
and striking out against Moses and against the Lord. He saved
them anyway. This is the grace of God. This
is the mercy of God. It does not deal with your character
or your behavior. Now we find them coming to the
base of Sinai and to encamp there. What follows will become volumes
of teaching in the New Testament concerning law and grace These
things that are in this chapter are mentioned in Galatians, they're
mentioned in Colossians, they're mentioned in Romans, they're
mentioned in the Revelation, mentioned over and over again
in Scripture using passages from 1 Peter, we'll look at tonight
for a second, one of the verses has to do with that. They've come to this base of
Sinai, and elements of this passage speak of the success of Christ's
substitutionary sacrifice. The makeup of the church is mentioned
here in this passage. And the polar opposites of law
and grace are mentioned in this passage. And like I said, we
may camp here in this chapter for a bit because of the wealth
of the information contained therein. Now the chapter begins
with the children of God arriving at the base of Sinai. We know
what happens at Sinai. In the next chapter, Moses will
be called upon Sinai and he'll stay there for 40 days. and God
will write on the tables of stone the Ten Commandments to be delivered
to the people. Now most people think that is
the law. No, it is just part of the law. That is the law that
condemns. That is the law that says you
are guilty. That is all the law can do. It
was added because of transgression. Where there is no transgression,
no law applies. Only where transgression happens. So when he gave the law, there
was transgression going on somewhere. We know it was at the bottom
of that mountain where they were making the golden calf. And we
find, as we will look, we will see that those initial Ten Commandments,
or the Decalogue as it's called, are only part of the law. Now
some people say, well that's the moral law, and then the rest
of it's a ceremonial law. No, it's one law. The law condemns,
And the Law also, the Law of Ceremony, pictures the ANSWER
to the Law or the FULFILLMENT of the Law in the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That s the Law. That s the whole
Law given here in Exodus and Leviticus as we ll see in our
studies as they progress. Now the first thing that stands
out here in verses three through six is there's a difference set
forth. He says in verse three, or three through four rather,
And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called unto him out
of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of
Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen what
I did to the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles' wings,
and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey
my voice, indeed and keep my covenant then you shall be a
peculiar treasure but first thing he says is you have seen what
I did and he said I want you to tell this to the house of
Jacob or say it to the house of Jacob and tell it to the children
of Israel and in there is a distinction there is a distinction he says
say this to the house of Jacob tell it to the children of Israel Now one of the primary meanings
of the word say in the original language is speak to the heart.
So he says speak to the heart of the house of Jacob. And then
the Lord says tell the children of Israel. The word tell does
not address the heart but suggests relaying information or reporting
or declaring something. So there's a small difference
between these words but it's a big difference in the matter
of the way God deals with things. This may not be seen as a great
distinction, but it speaks to the design and intent of the
preaching or the preached gospel. It could be rightly said that
the children of Israel are the house of Jacob. That's right. This Jacob name was also Israel.
You remember when he wrestled with the angel all night long
in Genesis 32 and chapter 38, the Lord said, Thou in thy name
shall no longer be Jacob. You shall be called Israel, which
means God rules in your life. The way it is worded in your
marginal reading of your Biola prophecy, it means a prince with
God, but it doesn't. It means when you have the word
El, which means God on the end of a word, it means that God
is the author and the operator in that name. So Israel means
God, he is the God of Jacob, or he's the God that rules. And
Israel's made up, we know, of the 12 tribes that are the progeny
of the 12 sons of Jacob. But throughout Scripture, God
mostly refers to Himself as the God of Jacob. Now, He does refer
to Himself as the God of Israel some, and more defines who Israel
is in the New Testament, and we know it is the Church of the
Living God. That is the Israel of God, true Israel. And we know
that the reason for this is that Jacob is a quintessential type
of a type of person, and that is the undeserving sinner whom
God saves. That's why He calls Himself the
God of Jacob over and over and over again. And He's also the
PROTOTYPE of those who are ELECT unto salvation, who are LOVED
by God from all eternity. That's seen in Romans Chapter
9 when the Lord says, This is how election is defined. In Romans Chapter 9, says this
in verse 11, For the children, that is Jacob and Esau, for the
children not being yet born, having none neither good nor
evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand,
not of works, but of him that calleth. It is said, The elder
shall serve the younger. It is written, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. He is the God of Jacob, therefore
he is the God of the elect. He's the God of the elect sinner,
and that's why Jacob is spoken of in that manner. The sinners
that God saves, He saves through the preaching of the Gospel.
That's how He saves. Now, there are those who say
you can be saved reading the Bible, and I don't discount that,
but I don't have a warrant to tell you that either, because
the Bible doesn't say you can be saved through the reading
of the Scriptures. It says, you're saved through
the preaching of the gospel. That's how God has operated,
and that's the means he has employed, or purpose to use in the saving
of men's souls. Over in 1 Corinthians, when he
talked about the wisdom of the world being set aside and being
destroyed, because men, by the wisdom of the world, could never
know God, in 1 Corinthians chapter one,
He says this in verse 21, For after that in the wisdom of God,
that is, according to God's wisdom and purpose, the world by its
wisdom knew not God, and cannot know God, not by its own wisdom,
not by the wisdom of the world. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believed. Now the world by its
wisdom can never know God. So what does He do? He raises
up men, sinners saved by grace, to tell out the story of God,
to tell out the story of Christ, and God uses that to save men
as He gives them faith to believe. For the Jews require a sign,
the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified,
and to the Jews it's a stumbling block, and to the religious who
believe that their salvation is by works and by doing, they
stumble all over this. When you tell them that Christ
alone is the salvation, this is the way God saves sinners,
not by the works of righteousness. They stumble at that. And to
the Greeks, it's foolishness because the Greeks were looking
for something new and something interesting and something great
all the time. They were seekers of truth, they called themselves.
secrets of truth that's what the word philosophy means comes
from a greek word philo uh... sophos sophia it means uh... loving the truth loving the truth or seeking the
truth so the greeks seek after wisdom wisdom of the world can't
save you but that's what they seek after but unto them which
are called remember what the lord said about election concerning
jacob But according to Him that calls, to them that are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the POWER and the WISDOM of
God. Christ is the POWER and the WISDOM.
You know, we know what it says in Romans, Chapter 10. You are
familiar with this passage, When the LORD said, Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved. But how shall
they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall
they believe in Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
Word of God. The message, the means that God
uses to bring a sinner to Christ is the preaching of the Gospel.
This is the voice of Christ to men. Not men's voices, but the
voice of Christ to men is that Gospel preached. The Gospel preacher
is called to preach the Gospel to everyone. but the gospel is
targeted. It is a guided missile. The target
of the gospel is the elect of God. It's the sheep of God. The
preacher doesn't know who they are. He's not privileged to do
that. One person asked Spurgeon one
time, why don't we preach the gospel just to the elect? Spurgeon
said, we'll paint a yellow stripe down their back, and I'll know
who to preach to. We don't know who they are. So we preach the
gospel to every creature, but God knows who they are, and the
gospel is designed for them Its intent is toward them. That's
what the gospel is. They will, in hearing the gospel,
hear the voice of Christ, and they will follow them. That's
what the Lord said. My sheep hear my voice, and they follow
me, and I give to them eternal life. Now, the remainder will
hear the gospel also. They will hear with their natural
ears. They will hear it. There were those who stood with
Christ. He stood with them face to face and said, Why do you
not hear what I'm saying? They heard what He was saying
physically, but they couldn't hear it in their hearts and in
their minds. because God didn't give them
the hearing, ear, and the see, and eye. But God will seal men in
their doom who hear the gospel who are not the elect. The gospel
does the same thing. The same sun that hardens the
clay melts the ice. The same sun. The preacher gives
the general call. That's what Paul said. He calls
all men to believe. He calls upon all men to repent.
This is the command of God for all men to repent and believe. but the gospel what it's preached,
Paul said, is a victory. What I'm doing here tonight,
I'm not victorious. I'm a nobody. I'm nothing. I had no right to be doing this,
only that I've been appointed to do it. I can't do anything
for you, but what I preach does, when the gospel is preached,
it's always triumphant, Paul said. And it always is a savor
unto God. God savors it. It's a good smell. And he's talking about the savor
of that sacrifice, that sweet-smelling savor to God. That's spoken of
in the Old Testament and also in the New Testament in Hebrews,
that sweet-smelling savor to God. And he says that is a savor
unto God. To some people, the gospel that
is preached, it smells like and it has the savor of life. Life! Life in Jesus Christ. But the
same gospel that is always triumphant when preached to some, they hear
it and they say it smells like death. It means nothing to them.
They do not want anything to do with it. They back away from
it. They are repulsed by it. They are offended by it. And
so they walk away from it. But it is the same gospel. The
preached gospel is what does the work. The preacher gives
a general call. He tells and informs and reports
and declares and publishes the gospel to everyone like Moses
was told to do to the children of Israel. Tell them, report,
make this report, declare and publish. And the Lord takes the
same message that the preacher says and speaks to the heart
of the elect. Say to the heart of the house
of Jacob. The God of all grace makes the
general call of the gospel effectual. It's not a different message.
It's the same message. I don't make it effectual. I
just preach. I like to cast the bread from the waters. I shoot
the arrow at a venture in the air. I don't know who it's going
to hit or if it's going to hit anyone the way I would like it
to hit them. But I know this, that arrow has
a destination and has a target and that target is the elect
of God. The God of all grace makes the
general call of the gospel effectual to the house of Jacob. And this
is how this begins. And then the second thing to
notice in our text is what it is to preach the gospel. What is said to the house of
Jacob and told to the children of Israel. What is the report?
What is the report? It is a report of what great
things God has done. That's always what the gospel
is. It says in verse 3, Moses went up in verse 4, it says,
You have seen what, this is what you tell them, You have seen
what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles'
wings, and brought you to myself. is a report of the great things
of God, is a report of an accomplished salvation by God through the
blood of the Lamb. Now, what he did is the subject
that is first addressed. The language is metaphorical.
He says, I bore you up. Firstly, you knew what I did
to Israel. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the plagues. he's talking about the blood
of the lamb, he's talking about bringing them out, he's talking
about opening up the Red Sea and drowning the whole army in
the Red Sea. He's talking about these things. You saw what I
did to Israel. So the gospel is first of all
a report of what he's done. Remember when he set Moses in
chapter 33 in the cleft of the rock? He says, you can't see
my face because no man can see my face and die. That's metaphorical
language too. He said, but you can see my hinder
parts As I walk past you, you can see my hindrance. What's
he saying? You can't see what I'm doing, but you can see what
I've done. And this is what we report in
the Gospel. See, the Gospel is a report. It's a published report.
We report what God has done. The language I said, Eagle's
Wings. Eagle's Wings are often employed to represent the parental
care or saving and nurturing of the eagle's offspring and
thus the saving and care of the Lord's people. This is how he
describes it. It's not unusual to find that
in scripture. Let me give you a few examples. Turn over to
Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse
9. Here he talks about Jacob. He
says, For the Lord's portion is his people. What a wonderful
statement. You think, well, the Lord owns all things. He's owned
the cattle on a thousand hills, the sun, moon, the stars are
His. He made them all. They all belong to Him. The earth
and the fullness thereof and all the inhabitants thereof belong
to Him. And He says, His portion, what does that mean? His portion,
what does it for Him? I don't know what else to say.
That's common language, but that's what, what does it for God? What
His interest is, where His love is invested. His portion. is his people, is his people. The Lord says, Jacob is the lot
of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land,
and in the waste howling wilderness. He led him about, he instructed
him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth
up her nest, flutterth over her young, spread abroad her wings,
taketh them, bareth them upon her wings. That's what an eagle
does. The eagle gets over a nest, and I've actually seen this happen.
Once these guys in nature, they study these eagles and think
how an eagle will get over the eaglets in its nest and just
completely cover them up with their wings. You've seen a hen
do that with her chicks when it's raining outside. Cover them
up with her wings. Flood earth over them. Make sure
they're all right. Check them out. Take them up
on her and bury them on her wings. This is what he says. this is
what i did for you this is what i did for you senator saved by
grace i bore you up on eagles wings oh and isaiah chapter forty and isaiah chapter forty verse
thirty one He says, But they that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not be faint. This is what happens to those
who trust in the Lord. They mount up on eagles' wings.
Now, this has to do, I believe, with perspective. An eagle flies
high, way up in the sky. And he says, My people, they
trust me they rise above this in their minds and they look
down at this world and see by my grace that everything is happening
is according to plan and purpose and will work for their good
and for his glory this is what Paul said to the Philippian church
when they were going through all kinds of trouble he said
don't worry this will eventuate in your salvation I don't understand
most of what's going on in the world today, and to be honest
with you, I'm terribly disturbed by most of what goes on in the
world today. Terribly disturbed by it. It hurts my heart and
plagues my mind. It shouldn't because I trust
the Lord, but still it does. But I know this, in those moments
of clarity, when I can actually rub two cogent thoughts together,
I know this, that whatever's happening out there is for the
good of God's people. and for the glory of his name's
sake. Why? Because he's mounted me up on
his wings and given me a perspective of what this world is all about
and what's going on in this world. And in Revelation chapter 12 verse fourteen, and to the woman
were given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into
the wilderness and to her place where she is nourished for a
time and times and half a time from the face of the serpent.
This is the protection that God has given to His people. He said,
I carried you out on eagles' wings. Carried you out of Egypt
on eagles' wings. And notice well that this was
a solo act of God. it is entirely what he did and
it is he who bore them up on the wings of eagles the lord
is the sovereign in salvation nobody saved egypt but the lord
moses didn't save them he led them because the lord said you
stand out in front and walk where i tell you to walk but he didn't
save them Aaron didn't save them they didn't save themselves the
lord did it and so it is in salvation and the report of what he has
done involves the reason and result of what he has done. The Lord says that he has brought
his people to himself, look at the last phrase of verse four,
and brought you unto myself. Brought you unto myself. You
will not find that the Israelites invited God into their heart.
Nor will you find that Moses had a meeting where he stood
at the front of the congregation and had them come down front.
The Lord said, I did this, I took you out of that place to bring
you to Me, to bring you to Myself. Over in Deuteronomy chapter 6,
in rehearsing this very fact, Moses writes in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and
verse 23, and he brought us out from thence, that is from Egypt.
Look at verse 22. The Lord showed signs and wonders
and soar upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, upon all his household before
our eyes. He says, you've seen what I've done. And he brought
us out from thence that he might bring us in. He brought us out
to bring us in and give us the land which he sware unto our
fathers. And the Lord commanded us to
do these statutes and so forth for our good always. The Lord
brought us out. to bring us in. The prophecy
concerning Judah and Genesis was this, ìTo Him shall the gathering
of the people be.î In Isaiah 11 and 10, the word concerning
Christ is, ìHe is the Ensign, or the Banner, and to Him shall
the Gentiles seek, and their rest shall be glorious.î Again
in Isaiah 45, ìThe Lord swore that men would come to the Lord
Jesus Christ.î The Lord, as the Good Shepherd promised to gather
His sheep into one fold, He says, ìI have this from My Father.
I lay down My life for My sheep, and other sheep have I which
are not of this fold.î Them also I must bring, and there shall
be one shepherd, and one flock of sheep. And the Lord said in
our text, I brought you to myself. I brought you to myself. Over
in Isaiah chapter 43. Verses 3 through 7. He says, For I am
the Lord thy God. the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Sheba for thee. Why? Since thou wast precious
in my sight. Now it's been honorable, and
I have loved thee. Therefore will I give men for
thee, and people for thy life. Fear not, for I am with thee.
I will bring thy seed from the east, gather thee from the west. I will say to the north, give
up, and to the south, keep not back, bring my sons from afar,
and my daughters from the ends of the earth, for every one that
is called by my name, for I have created him for my glory, I have
formed him, yea, I have made him." In 1 Peter chapter 3 and
verse 18 it says, Christ suffered once the just for the unjust
to bring us to God. The just for the unjust to bring
us to God. Thus shalt thou say to the house
of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen what
I did to the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles' wings,
and have brought you to myself. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name.