Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Isaiah 51 and reading for
our text the latter part of verse 10. A way for the ransomed to pass
over. The whole verse reads, Art thou not
it which hath dried the sea? the waters of the great deep
that have made the depths of the sea away for the ransomed
to pass over. Isaiah 51 and verse 10, the latter
part. This chapter begins with three
sections for which the Lord says, hearken to me. The first is in verse one, hearken
to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Very clear message to those that
seek, those that desire a righteousness that is not their own. They're
seeking that which is perfect and will stand before God. They
don't fall under the condemnation of which Paul says of his people
that were ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own. They are seeking that and they
are seeking after the Lord. Ye that seek the Lord. May I bid to be encouraged in
the Lord, to trust in the Lord, and to look how the Lord called
Abraham, and how the Lord blessed him. Then we have in verse four,
another hearken unto me, this time it is to those designated
my people. Those that know they are the
people of God. Of course, this would have been
addressed to Israel of old, to his people that were brought
out of Egypt. But in a gospel sense, we may
address it to all of those that are the people of God, those
that may be, they have sought the Lord, they have found him,
they have been blessed, they know they are the people of God,
there is a word for them as well. Hearken unto me, my people, and
give ear, O my nation. And he testifies to them. that salvation is sure, the righteousness
of God is near, and that it is an everlasting righteousness. Then we have in verse 7, a word
to those that know righteousness. Notice that each one of these
three portions is centering around righteousness, those that follow
after righteousness. Those that his righteousness
is near and there are those that no righteousness. Harken unto
me that no righteousness the people in whose heart is my law
and to them there's the message that they should not fear men,
should not fear the reproach of men. Now of the people of
God walking uprightly as dear Daniel was, was reproached by
men, and they sought occasion against him, but could only find
it in the matter of the Lord his God. And yet Daniel, he was
not trusting in his own righteousness, though walking uprightly, he
trusted in the Lord. pray those three times a day,
and where was he looking? To Jerusalem, to the temple,
where the temple was, it was broken down at that time, but
that's where his hope was. And may we be found in some of
these characters here, following after or seeking after the Lord,
following after righteousness, rather than knowing that we are
the people of God. and to know that His righteousness
is near, His salvation gone forth, that it is everlasting, it doesn't
change. Once in Him, in Him forever,
thus the eternal covenant stands. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. That does
not change, we change. But the Lord in His salvation
does not change. He does not repent of what He
has done. in years gone by. And so then
if we be found also in verse 7, those that do know righteousness
and whose heart has the law of God in it. May we be these people
here. Well there is then a cry that
goes forth from the church, a response, after they hear this word of
the Lord. And it is, again, seeking that
power and help from the Lord. Maybe that will find an echo
in our hearts this afternoon, because the people of God, right
down through the ages, have known those times when they get so
low, so despondent, so disheartened, so feeling weak in themselves,
and they feel the need, the Lord, to pour forth His power to awake,
as we have in verse 9, awake, awake, put on strength, thou
arm of the Lord, awake as in the ancient days. We may feel
that language suits us for what the Lord has done for us. We
want him to do again, appear for us again and help us again,
restore us again. Now, dear David, in Psalm 51,
praise, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, that may be
our desire this afternoon, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. The eye of the church is upon
what the Lord has already done. It looks back to the time when
Israel was brought out of Egypt, and the Lord redeemed them from
Egypt, and then he brought them out, brought them through the
Red Sea, brought them into the wilderness, brought them through
the wilderness, brought them through the river of Jordan,
and placed them in the promised land. And the church says, that's
what we want. That is what we want realized
in our souls again. Do those same things. They're
like the same God. It seemed impossible. It was
impossible. And Israel of old should have
been brought out of Egypt, but the Lord didn't. and he did it
with a high hand. It seemed impossible that they
should be brought into Canaan to conquer Jericho, but the Lord
did it, and he did it in a mighty way. And so the church of God
has an eye to what the Lord has already done. And I believe all
of the word of God, designed by God for these gospel days,
is to strengthen the people of God, so that they do not need
to say, well, that was thousands of years ago, and that was to
God's ancient people. The Lord is not the same today.
But they may say, no, these things are written for our admonition. They are written to encourage
us, to help us, to strengthen our faith, to know that the Lord
is the same God, and that we put him in remembrance of what
he has already done. And so this is the message that
is where our text is, that desiring the Lord to awake and to do these
same things and to accomplish those same things that he did
to his ancient people, his typical people, they were a typical people. And so, and I felt this word
upon my spirit, this is a way for the ransomed to pass over,
a way for the ransomed to pass over. And we can picture the
people of Israel at the Red Sea, and no way for them to pass over
through that sea. And yet we read here, art thou
not it which hath dried the sea, the Red Sea, the waters of the
great deep, that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the
ransomed to pass over? The Lord did that. And this is
the picture that is before us. A picture of the people that
were brought out of Egypt, that had attended to the Passover
offering, that the Lord had passed over them, ransomed them through
the blood of the Passover, brought them out, saved their firstborn
alive, brought them out by a high and mighty hand, and then brought
them into and through the wilderness. So I want to look at two points,
the two points really that are here. Firstly, is a ransomed
people. And then secondly, a way for
the ransomed to pass over. Firstly, there is a ransomed
people, a way for the ransomed to pass over. This is how the
people are described that are to pass over. They are not being
ransomed, they are ransomed. A price has been paid for their
release and we read in the word of God that without the shedding
of blood there is no remission. We're familiar in a natural way
with what it is when someone is held to ransom. In our modern day with computers,
with ransomware, we often hear of those that have got in electronically
to the computers and will not release them until a money is
paid. We went to send parcel off to
Holland, in this last week and we're told by the post office,
no, sorry, we cannot give you the postage, you can go home
and do it on your computer, but we've got ransomware and we cannot
do postage for international. My daughter was going to go to
a university in Brisbane, in Australia, and the whole university
got ransomware. And so again, they were greatly
inhibited and she's actually gone to another university now.
Something that's very prevalent in our present day. But we know,
of course, that there have been those in the past that have been
abducted and been told the family must pay a certain money before
they'll be released again. And in the scriptural sense,
when man sinned, Sin entered into the world, and death by
sin. The Lord had already told us what the condemnation should
be. In the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. In the soul that sinneth, it
shall die. And the only way of escaping
that condemnation is to have the debt paid, be ransomed, And
that is what is spoken of here, people that have been ransomed,
that is the price has been paid to set them free. And that price
is the price of blood and it is the price that only the eternal
Son of God could possibly pay. Old Testament saints through
the types and shadows from Adam's day, we may say from Abel's day,
They understood that to be the Lamb of God that should take
away the sin of the world. That there should be, in the
last days, in the coming of the promised seed of the woman, one
that should settle that debt, one that should pay the price,
and one that should then ensure that those people should be set
free. A ransomed people, a people for
whom a death has been paid. for whom blood has been shed. Our Lord, when he came, he came
with this purpose, and he testifies that he came unto this hour,
the hour of his sufferings and of his death. If it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. And he must lay down his life. The scriptures must be fulfilled. Father, have given me a commandment,
what I should say, what I should do. I have power to lay down
my life. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father. And that blood
of the covenant, the blood of the new covenant, the promise
of God is the blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the
true God, and truly man, as truly man as you and I are, and yet
truly God, the same as filled all things, has no beginning
nor an end. Eternal God is thy refuge and
underneath are the everlasting arms. Abraham said to his son
Isaac when he asked, where is the lamb? He knew something was
needed He knew something was missing, the fire, the wood,
but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? In Abraham's answer,
my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. In that sense, he did. There
was a ram caught by its horns in the thicket, and that was
offered up in the stead of his son. But Abraham saw Christ's
day and rejoiced at it. he saw a substitutionary offering,
he saw the Lamb of God, he saw that which the blessing was then
pronounced upon him, from thy seed which is Christ, in thee
shall all nations be blessed. When our Lord came, he not only
paid a ransom, but he paid a ransom for a specific people, Our text
says, they ransomed, as ones that had already been paid. We know that applied to the children
of Israel, but we know that also applies to all of the election
of grace. There is only one place at which
this ransom payment was made. And that is at Calvary. When
the people of God sit round the Lord's table, they may all have
different experiences. They may be young, may be old,
some called early, some called late, some with a deep experience,
some with a shallow, but every one of them had their sins put
away at the same place, the same time, the same way at Calvary. And that is what is being shown
and testified at the Lord's table to the church. This do in remembrance
of me." They're not remembering their own experience, they're
not remembering anything but Christ. And he is set forth and
everyone around that table is exactly the same. None can say,
well, I've been redeemed greater or more prize has been paid for
me or I have some different standing, they're always on the same level.
All were dead, all were sinners, all were under the curse, all
have been redeemed, all have been redeemed at the same time
at Calvary. The Lord is the lamb that was
slain from the foundation of the world. He said, when Christ
died, now is Satan cast down. The accuser of the brethren is
cast down. He accused them day and night.
He accused the Old Testament saints. They were in heaven,
but no blood had been shed yet at Calvary. But it was upon the
promise that it would. With man, there would always
be a question. Will something happen? He cannot
fulfill that payment. You imagine if you go to a shop
and you say, I haven't got money, but I'm wanting this shopping
trolley. I'll pay you later. You go home, a week or two later,
everything's eaten. It's all gone. There's no price
being paid. But what if we then suddenly
default and we cannot pay? We cannot give it back. The debt
is not paid. But that could never happen with
God. And when he undertook to pay the debt, it is as good as
paid. Nothing can come in between to
stop him paying the debt. And so Adam, Abel, Enoch, all
of those saints, they were brought to heaven on the promise of what
God would do. All the promises of God are yay
and amen in Christ Jesus. But when Christ did die, when
the blood was shed, then Satan has nothing more to say. We read
in the Revelation that there is a lamb in the midst of the
throne as it had been slain, a reminder of that precious blood
that was shed at Calvary. The same really that the Old
Testament saints all set forth in Hebrews 11, they died in faith. believing that he should come,
that they were not to be complete without us in gospel days who
have seen the Lord come or have the full Bible, full testimony
of what he has done. So here he's speaking of the
ransomed as those that not are going to be ransomed, they are
ransomed, those that It is good as done for them, and we know
then, all the people of God that shall ever live, they were all
bound up in that covenant. They are all the ransomed of
the Lord. The Lord undertook to die for
them all. Some will teach, and there's
many denominations, will teach that the Lord died for all men. for the whole world, for every
man, woman and child. Many, many books have been written
fighting against the truth of God, that it is a particular
redemption. Our passage here refers back
to the children of Israel coming out of Egypt. There was a very
distinct difference between the children of Israel and the Egyptians. The children of Israel, they
had to obey the Lord in the time of the Passover. The blood was
upon the doorpost and lentil. The Lord's promise was, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. It was not part in
the Egyptians, part with the children of Israel, part with
the people of God, part with not. No, it was a very clear,
separation between God's people and those that were not. Those
that were ransomed were the people of the Lord. Later on in Numbers
3, you can read, how that the firstborn of the children of
Israel, that they were redeemed by the Levites. They had to count
the Levites and count the number of the firstborn of Israel. And
where there was not enough Levites and there wasn't enough to redeem
them, then the difference was made up by five shekels according
to the measure of the sanctuary to be paid by each one. The teaching
is it is a particular redemption, one for one. One Levi, one firstborn
of the children of Israel, and if there is not, then a price
paid. Not saying it doesn't matter
about the difference, no, it must be exact. And so we're told
in Proverbs, that the Lord loveth a just balance, a just balance,
a just way of the Lord, not a mismatch. You pay exactly what is needed. When David was at the threshing
floor of Arodna the Jebusite, when he numbered Israel, the
Lord had visited them with the pestilence for three days, Then
Aaron said, no, I'll give you the oxen, I'll give you the instruments
for the sacrifice. But David said, no, I will not
take that which I have not paid. And so he would pay the exact
price for that. There must be the payment of
what is demanded. And so the debt that the Lord
paid, he says in John 10, I lay down my life for the sheep. My
sheep, they hear my voice and follow me. He says to the scribes
and the Pharisees, you are not of my sheep, therefore you hear
not my word. I lay down my sheep. Other sheep
I have which are not of his fold, not of the Jews, the Gentiles,
them also I must bring. There shall be one fold and one
shepherd. The ransom is the same. All is
the same in Ephesians. And so it pointed to that which
the Lord did, and he did for a people. That's a name that
he was given. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. They were already
his people, chosen in him from the foundation of the world.
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee They were always his, but he came to redeem them,
to ransom them from the power of the grave, to ransom them
and to release them and set them free from condemnation. They
ransomed people. And we may say then, for everyone
that is born into this world, that are the election of God,
that are chosen in Christ, they are already described in this
text as thee ransomed, that already had the debt paid. That is the
gospel. Not that there shall be something
paid, it is paid, it is settled, it is done. The Lord's message
on Calvary was it is finished. And that is the message of the
gospel, that when we have nothing to pay, the Lord frankly forgives
all. because the debt has been paid,
it has been settled. It's vital that we do understand
that. You know, when David was convicted
through Nathan coming to him when he had sinned in adultery
and murder, as soon as David fell under that conviction and
said, I have sinned, Nathan doesn't say, I'll go back to the Lord
and I'll find out what can be done and whether you can be forgiven,
He says, immediately the Lord hath also put away thy sin, thou
shalt not die, because David was ransomed, he was redeemed. And the reason why he was brought
to conviction, why he fell under the word, why he was reproved
and not just left go, was because he was one of the Lords and redeemed. I never take the chastening hand
of the Lord or where we are convicted of our sins. as a mark against
us. You know, the more and more I
go on, I remember sins of my youth. I remember the sins since
making a profession. And sometimes it causes great
heaviness and great sorrow. I know where those sins have
been against people and I've obtained their forgiveness and
pardon, yet it still pains my heart that I should have done
it. We need to have a very clear understanding of that payment
and that settlement that our Lord made, that blots out our
sin, that removes them, that covers them. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. We remember it, I believe, dear
David, you know it was said of him, the sword shall not depart
from thy house, And every time Absalom rose up, when that happened
with Tamar, all of the sins, all of the things that happened
in his house, it would have brought back his sin painfully. Yes,
he was forgiven, but he still would have felt those sins. There'd
be something wrong, really, if that wasn't the case. If we could
come thinking, well, our life hasn't been too bad at all. Why
does the Lord hide his face from me? Why am I in darkness? Why am I in this pit? Why can't
I rise above this bondage, this darkness, this restrained path
that I'm walking in? You know, when we look at that
path and we look at our life and think, well, we can see why.
But the Lord has not dealt with me as my sins have deserved. It's good to us to, even if we're
like with dear Job, that had all those things happen, all
those things, and his dear friends, I said, that's the reason why.
No, it's sin in your life, it's things you've done wrong, and
he gets no comfort from them. But then he says, I know that
my Redeemer liveth, and he shall stand at the latter day upon
the earth. Yes, he knew that. He knew also
that when he died, though after my skin worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself and
not another, though my reins be destroyed within me. He had
clear views of the Redeemer coming, he had clear views of the resurrection
of the dead and of himself personally, and yet it was in the midst of
such discouraging dark providences, and where his friends were pointing
Eurus in that, you've done things wrong, you've not acted right,
God was not taking that line. And in due time, he vindicated
them, he appeared for him, and he helped him. How many of us
here, our comfort, our refuge is that Christ has died, that
he has redeemed us, and we know that our Redeemer lives. We know
that that debt is paid. We know that what Christ has
done can never be erased, never can be obliterated. The ransom
of the Lord is a term describing the people of God, bound up in
his covenant. Their sins laid upon him at Calvary. For now we must come to the other,
Because our text says a way for the ransomed to pass over. So first we have a picture of
the ransomed church of God. We're told that they must pass
over and there must be a way that they can pass over. What
does it mean? Well, the great thing with the
children of Israel was that they should escape the bondage in
captivity of Egypt. That was the first thing. They might be ransomed, the blood
might be shed, but they need to be set free. And you know,
with all of the nine signs that went before, they weren't set
free. But when that blood was shed,
they immediately were set free. And so we might say, well, isn't
the very payment of the ransom the immediate first thing that
is bound up with them being set free? They pass over. It is,
it is bound up with them. But we know in the experience
of God's people, the word says that we know that we have passed
from death unto life because we love the brethren. Passed
over from Satan's dominion to Christ's dominion, from the world
to the church. The word of God speaks about
those that are without and God's people that are within the church
have got to live lives that They're not a hindrance to those that
are without. And all the time there is the
picture, a very clear demarcation between the church and the world. The same as what the children
of Israel said, we cannot offer the sacrifices in Egypt, we must
be separated. The same as why the word says,
come ye out from among them, touch not the unclean thing,
I will receive you, you shall be my sons and my daughters.
saith the Lord Almighty. They separated people, a peculiar
people, a holy people unto the Lord. And there is a way that
the Lord does this. And that is in the calling of
his people, in the quickening of his people. And it is pleased
God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And the preaching is the preaching
of the cross, it is the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
Paul said, I determine not to know anything among you, save
Jesus Christ and him crucified, and it is through that way that
they are brought out and released and separated and delivered from
the world. The Lord says, I have given them
thy word and the world have hated them. They are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. But there must be a time for
every one of God's children to be separated. They pass over. They do not remain in the camp
of the dead, but they are brought over. And in the way of the children
of Israel, that time, they were brought out with a high hand.
Clearly, they went out. They marched out of Egypt. But then they came to the Red
Sea. And that's what this is referring
to here, an obstacle that was before them that clearly needed
to be opened up. You know that Red Sea, it proved
the death of their enemies, it proved life to themselves. It
was after they brought through that, they sung the song of Moses. That was the clear, Deliverance. That is where they could really
praise God. They didn't praise it the first
night, they didn't praise it the moment they left Egypt's
borders, but when they went through that Red Sea, then they did.
And you read the same in Revelation. Those in heaven, they shall sing
the song of Moses, for they are truly redeemed and set forth. And the way I see it is where
a people of God is clearly loosed and set free in a decisive way,
in a clear way, that is clearly shown whom they are and who they
serve. The Lord says that, whosoever
loveth father or mother, brother or sister more than me is not
worthy of me, is taking up the cross and following the Lord,
is entering clearly into the wilderness way, clearly to be
the people of God, and led forth with the fiery cloudy pillar
by night and by day, they were brought into the wilderness to
walk through this world as the people of God. And it was the
Lord that did that, for it brought a very decisive and clear change
in their lives. And that will be so with everyone
of God's children. You know, it was said with Joshua,
it was said with Moses of the Mount, when they'd had the golden
calf, who is on the Lord's side? And there was to be a very clear
separating. Many times we haven't, through
the word of God, no, as it were, sitting on the fence, or no,
half in one cabin, half in another. The Lord says he cannot serve
God and mammon. He will serve one or the other. And the Lord opened that Red
Sea, and the Lord brought them through, and the Lord delivered
them, and the Lord destroyed their enemies, and the Lord gave
them a song and deliverance. That was a blessed time, a marked
time for them, a way for the ransom to pass over. Many of
us in our experience, we can see what the Lord has used. how
he's used the ministry, how he's brought things in providence,
that has brought things to a point, that has brought us to have to
make a stand, and to clearly show that the work of God is
in us. I remember when the Lord began
working in my home, in the Welsh Mile, always quiet at the time,
And when I started, because of my parents, it was, and I had
said that I wouldn't do anything, go to any performances on the
Sunday, their interpretation was, as long as it didn't clash
with church services, then I could go. And so, again and again,
things came up, and they said, well, it's in a church, that
must be all right. And this doesn't clash with your
chapel service, that must be all right. And so in the end,
I got stood up before all of the choir, 40 members of the
choir master, and he said, Roland, he said, is it you that won't
do anything on the Sunday, or is it your parents? And at that
time, the Lord was working my heart. It could have gone either
way. And I stood, and by the grace
of God, I was able to say, no, it is me. I don't want to do
anything on the Lord's Day. I want to go to the House of
God. And that stopped everything. They didn't ask me, they didn't
pressure me anymore. And in the end I had to part
from them, willingly, because I couldn't go along with some
of the things they were doing. And we remember times like that
and other times where there is to be a clear separation and
things that the Lord uses to bring us clearly in his way. I'm brought again to baptism
and profession and to joining publicly the Church of God. The Lord dealing with our spiritual
enemies within and without, a way for the ransomed to pass over
Then there is the idea as well, once they were through that Red
Sea, they had the wilderness journey, that's when they were
given the law of God, that's when they were given the manna
from heaven, all of the things the Lord's dealings with them
through that time. And you might say, this way for
the ransom to pass over, The Lord has a way through this world
for his people. In Hebrews, we read that they
confess that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth. And
they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country,
a city to come. And that will be the case of
all the people of God. This world will be a wilderness
to a living redeemed soul. that there is a way for the ransomed
to pass over him. A way that the Lord will lead
his people forth by the right way that they might go unto a
city of habitation. And it's a better thing to watch
the Lord's hand. And may it be this afternoon
that some of you here can look back And you can think of how
the Lord has made a way here and there, provided a home, church,
husband, wife, how he has delivered from temptation, delivered from
sins, provided, blessed your soul, fed your soul, instructed
your soul, brought you to faith, maintained that faith, The Lord leads in the way. You
think of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. One thing to be brought out to
the city of destruction, another thing to be brought to the celestial
city. And all his book, it rehearses
all the things that were done in that way, a narrow way that
leadeth unto life. Few find it, because wide is
the way, broad is the way that leadeth unto destruction. But
there is a way. And the Lord knows that way and
he leads his people in that way. A way for the ransom to pass
over. May we have clear views on that.
His track I see, the narrow way I pursue to him I view, or dear
Paul, let us run the race that is set before us, looking unto
Jesus. Or the words of our Lord, I am
the way. The truth and the life, no man
cometh unto the Father but by me. A way for the ransomed to
pass over, to view this world with all its billows and its
debts and its trials and its difficulties like a sea. And
we pass from one side to the other and brought, then he bringeth
them, so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Now the
children of Israel at the other end of their wilderness journey
had another river, another need for the Lord specifically to
enable them to pass over into Canaan. Rahab, she remembered
and her people remembered what had happened 40 years ago at
the Red Sea, and they were fearful and afraid. No doubt the children
of Israel, the younger ones had been told of it, well, some of
them would have remembered, but those older ones, of course,
had perished in the wilderness. And all of those that were 19,
they wouldn't be able to remember back. There would have been some
of them there that would have been 50, 58 or so, and they could
remember back from the 18, 19 and what had happened coming
out of Egypt. And the Lord made it way. Very similar way, of course,
this is not a sea, this is a river, so it doesn't need to be divided,
it needs to be stopped up and then it continues flowing. And
what that must have been for those in Jericho to see the same
thing happen again, but how strengthening it must have been for the children
of Israel. And this time, the ark is made,
the beautiful tithe of Christ, and they see that go before them,
see that go into the river and stain the river And though far
off at the start, by the time they got to it, it was so close. The Lord says, in my Father's
house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. Where I am, there ye may be also. A way for the ransomed to pass
over death, pass from this life to the next, they pass spiritually
from death unto life, and now they must pass through death
and lay this mortal in the grave, the soul released to return to
God, awaiting that glorious resurrection where they shall be forever with
the Lord. A way for the ransomed to pass
over is a better thing to see how the Lord makes a way. I can
think back, many of my own parents and the dear people of God, and
how the Lord has brought them to the end, how the Lord's appeared
for them, how he's blessed them, how he's kept them, they've endured
unto the end, and he's brought them safely to be with him at
last. May that be our desire, and that
that God that is the same, who has redeemed at Calvary, He brought
us to know it and to separate us unto himself and cause us
to pass from death unto life and now brings us through this
life's journey. Will at last find a way, make
a way for us to lay down this mortal tabernacle and to be forever
with the Lord. May the Lord bless us with faith
in the Lord to do this for us. what he has done and what he
will yet do. For he is the same God, and this
is what the church here have an eye to. The same God that
appeared for Israel of old is the same for us, the same in
gospel days. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday
and today and forever. Paul speaks of the church in
the wilderness. They drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. May we
oft drink at that fountainhead and then know that truly he hears
the way and he is bringing us through that way and will lend
us safe with him at last. The Lord add his blessing. Amen.