Alright, turn with me back to
Exodus 19. Exodus 19. My pastor, I quote
him often because he was such a wise man. faithful preacher of
God's Word. He once said that Scripture is
bifocal, meaning it has two views, two ways to look at it. Sometimes it's trifocal, sometimes
even more. It has a primary meaning. The
first and primary meaning of Scripture Scriptural, I mean
spiritual. The first meeting is spiritual.
And as you know, it points to Christ. It's first and foremost,
primarily, speaks of Christ. All the scriptures bear witness
of Jesus Christ. And that's my job, to find Him
there and to set Him forth and lift Him up and be looked to.
And it's secondary. meaning, literal, the word, the
story is literal, an actual story, just like you admit. And here
in this story, Moses clearly represents Christ. If you entered
into the reading of it, it's just amazing. Last time we met
together, we were reading, I forget, where did I preach from last
time? Somebody tell me. See, I don't even remember. But I
remember thinking, This is amazing. We could just go home after reading
that. So clearly speaks of Christ. And then it's us. It's our story. Israel, that's
us. Moses, that's me. Just a man. People are just people. Look
at verse 3, beginning of the story. Moses went up unto God. The Lord called unto him out
of the mountain. say thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob
the children of Israel tell my people he went up into the mountain
now remember Ephesians 4 says he that ascended is first he
that descended right so our lord who was on high descended into
this earth Like Moses, he was called of God. He was chosen
of God out of the people. He was sent by God, the Son of
God, the Word of God. To whom? Who was he sent to? God's people. Though the whole
world heard and has read and heard the books of Moses, only
God's chosen people Believe, don't you? That God's chosen
people are known by Him and know Him. And that's through preaching
the Word. Now Moses here is such a clear
picture of our Lord who came down to God's people. He's the
only mediator between God and man. I keep telling you this
and it's to remind us that the only person that God speaks to
human beings through is Jesus Christ. God in sundry times and
diverse manners, spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath
in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." He's even called
the Word. Moses was the only mediator between
God and man, the deliverer, the leader, the pastor. Moses was the pastor of the people,
to God's people. Listen to John the Baptist, what
he said of Christ. So the Lord told Moses to come
up into the mountain, receive my word, and then go down and
tell the people from me the word. Listen to what John the Baptist
said of our Lord Jesus Christ. He that cometh from above is
above all. He that is of the earth is earthy
and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. And what he had seen and heard,
that he testified. And it says, God sent him. He
whom God has sent speaketh the words of God. Like Moses. So our Lord Jesus Christ, and
Moses even said that God will raise up a prophet like unto
me. And him you will hear. That prophet, capital P. So that's
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at verse four. It says,
the Lord said to Moses, to tell the people, this is what Moses
was to tell the people, verse four, you have seen what I did
unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagle's wings and brought
you unto myself. You have seen. He said, Moses,
you tell the people what I have done. Remind them what they've
seen that I have done unto your enemies. And isn't that what
Christ did? Look at chapter 14. Go back to
chapter 14. You remember that? Exodus 14. Look at that. So He told Moses,
you tell the people, remind the people what I did unto the Egyptians. What I did and how I carried
you. where I have brought you. Look
at Exodus 14. Look at verse 30. Thus the Lord saved Israel that
day out of the hand of the Egyptians. What is God telling Moses to
pray? Christ's crucifixion. And only God's people have seen
Christ and Him crucified on a cross and what He did. He says in verse
30 here, He says, You've seen how God saved Israel that day
out of the hand of the Egyptians. Who saved? Who did the saving? God did. Salvation is of the
Lord. You know it's of the Lord. God purposed it. Christ purchased it by his own
blood, and the Holy Spirit applies it. It's up to the Lord, 100%.
Salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ. He came and put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. God said, you've seen what I
did by himself. I did this for you. And so have
you, haven't you? You've seen that. I delivered
you. At the hand of the Egyptians,
Christ delivered us from sin, from Satan, to captivity kept. It says in verse 30, Israel saw
the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. Where do we see our enemy defeated?
Where do we see our sins put away, our enemy? Where do we
see ourselves, this old man within us, killed? On the cross, on the mount. Mount
Calvary, Christ crucified. There you see, we're dead. You're dead. Your life is hid
with God in Christ. And verse 31 says, Israel saw
that great work which the Lord did. You say, what great work?
Putting away sin by the sacrifice of himself on Calvary's tree.
We saw that. We've seen that. And the people feared the Lord.
There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. And
they believed the Lord. And you know what? They believed
His service. You know what? We believe that
Christ is the Lord. That salvation is of Him, through
Him, by Him, to Him, for His glory. He did it all. We believe
that. We've seen it. We've seen Him on the tree. And
we believe He's God's servant and We believe He sent men like
Moses, like Joshua, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul, Peter, Scott,
Henry, and men. And we know them because this
is the message they bring. We believe them. We believe they
are God's men. Go on. Go back to Exodus 19. He said in verse 4, You have
seen what I did to your enemies. I did this. You have seen that.
and how I bear you on eagle's wings. Brought you to myself. They left Egypt by mercy and
grace and by the blood of the lamb. They were brought out of
Egypt out of bondage, brought out into the wilderness. And
what are they doing? What are they going to do for
the next 40 years? Just journey through the wilderness and keep
sacrificing lambs. and worshiping God in the wilderness
as they travel until they finally get to the promised land. He
said, you've seen how that I bore you on eagle wings. I bore you. I buried you. That
means I carried you. Listen. Listen to this. You think
that I bury you. Listen to Isaiah 53. Surely he
hath borne Our sorrows, our griefs
carried our sorrows. You've seen how Christ bore our
sins in His body on the tree, haven't you? I bore you. I bore
in my body on the tree, Christ said, what you would do. God
laid on Him iniquity. You've seen that. Surely He had
borne our grief and carried our sorrows. He was wounded. for our transgression. He was
bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement, our peace,
was upon Him. With His stripes we are healed.
You've seen that, He said. Surely He hath borne our griefs
and borne our sins in His body on the tree. Why? To bring us
to God. Look at our text. It says, I
bear you on eagle's wing and brought you unto myself. Christ
bore our sins in his body, because we can't get to God unless we
have clean hands, pure heart, never sworn deceit, and lift
up our souls. Who can do that? Christ did.
And that's how we get to God, through him. Look at Isaiah 46. Some of you love this verse. Our sister Nancy loves this verse.
She said, you've seen how I carried you. I bore you on eagle's wings
to bring you all the way to God. Isaiah 46, Isaiah 46, look at
this, this is wonderful. It begins talking about these
false gods that they have to carry around. They have to carry them around
because they don't have any hands and feet and they have no hands
but your hand and no feet but your hand, your feet. But God
said, now you listen to me, verse 3, Isaiah 46. You listen to me,
O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel. You're
born by me. You're born, you're carried by
me. You're carried from the womb. The day you were born, I formed
you in the belly. And to your old age, how long
is he going to carry it? When did he start carrying us?
As soon as he was born of God. From the womb. How long is he
going to bear with us? How long is he going to carry
us? All the way to glory. All the way. To your hoary head. I'm looking at, you know, 35,
soon 35 years ago I came here and there wasn't very many hoary
heads in here. Not many almond trees had flourished
yet. Man, I'm looking at a bunch of
them now. A bunch of them. Some of you color it or it would
be great. But he said, I'm going to carry
you all the way. Like that sheep that he found,
he went, left the 99, that's our Lord, left the multitude
of the heavenly host, came down here, here's one, here, there's
one, came down and found each one of them. What'd he do? Come
on, little sheep, follow me. Come on, take the first step.
He put her on his shoulders. And then what did he do? He carried
it all the way home. He said, look, I've found my
sheep that was lost. I've brought her all the way
home. I'm going to carry you all the
way. He said, I've borne you on eagle's
wing. I didn't choose that title because
it was catchy, though it does get your attention. It just sounds
wonderful, the whole thought. And it's true, though people
can't really substantiate it much, but it is true. Some bear
witness that eagles, some eagles do indeed carry their young on
their wings. This, our Lord said, I have carried
you on eagles' wings. An eagle is one of the most wonderful
and majestic, beautiful creatures God has ever made. There's none
like it. Number one, an eagle soars high
above this world, doesn't it? None higher. No bird flies higher
than an eagle. High above. Soaring high above. No creature higher. Well, that's
our Lord, isn't it? High and lifted up. Our Lord. And He shall indeed lift us up
high above this earthly place. One of these days. An eagle is
no creature on earth that has the vision of an eagle, is it?
We talk about eagle eye. And that's a fact. Just look
at some of these stories of eagles, and you'll see that eagles are
a mile up in the sky. A mile. You can see a mouse on
the ground. Now that's vision, isn't it?
Well, his eyes behold, and his eyelids try. He sees everything. He's omniscient, knows everything,
all seeing. There's none more seeing than
the eagle and our Lord. His eyes behold his eyelids try. The eagle, none more beautiful,
no creature more majestic. I love the bald-headed eagle. Look at their eyes. Look at their
countenance. Serious, aren't they? No foolishness there. Look, they're
just glorious, aren't they? Glorious. Majestic. What do eagles
stand for? Liberty. Why is it that man chose
this bird as an emblem of liberty? Because none more free than an
eagle. They nest way up on the top of
the highest mountains, on the top of the trees. No predator
can soar that high. They're high above everything,
everyone. And they're at complete liberty. Well, didn't our Lord say, if
the sun shall make you free, You shall be free indeed. He said, I bear you on eagles
wing. I'm going to take you all the
way to glory. He's the only one that can. We know we're not only on his
wings. He's not only going to carry
us all the way to glory. We're under his wing. I love
when this happens. I've been reading through the
Psalms and just Yesterday morning, I came to Psalm 17. And I was still unsettled on
the message, whether it be Psalm 133 or Joshua 2 or Exodus 19. And I read Psalm 17 and came
down to this verse. It says, Keep me as an apple
of thy eye. Hide me under the shadow of thy
eye. Under His wings. That's it. Under the shadow of Thy wing.
Under His wings. Our Lord said this two or three
times in the Gospel. He said, How oft would I have
gathered you as a mother hen doth gather her brood under her
wings. But He said if so many, He would
not. How about you? I want to be under His wing,
don't you? Safely abide under His wing. Safely abide. Is that where you want to be?
I've told you, yes, but some of you haven't heard it. I know
for a fact someone hasn't heard it. We had some chickens years
ago. And one time during a terrible
storm, we had a nice little chicken house for them. And they had
curtains on the windows, curtains on the windows of the chicken
house. It was spotless. One time I went in there and
said, you complain about these curtains, you're in the frying
pan. But anyway. We loved those chickens. We cared
about those chickens. We built them a nice home, comfortable
home. And I went in every night to check on those chickens, make
sure they're all in their roosts underneath. I want them all home
safe. They're my chickens. I want them
home safe. Well, there was a terrible storm
out there that night. And one of our favorite chickens,
see, it just hatched two little bitties, two little babies. It
just hatched them. I knew it. I saw it. She wasn't
in the house that night. Storm. Fierce storm. So I went around and went looking
for her. Now, what's one chicken? That's my chicken. What's two
little bitties? They're my babies. And I promised
those chickens I'd take care of them and their babies. By
the way, I never ate one of them. OK, so I went out looking. And
I found her, the mother, under the tractor as she was hiding
under the tractor up here. And I went out there and I picked
her up and I said, where are your babies? Where are your little
babies? I can't find your babies. Where
are your babies? Tell me where your babies are.
And all of a sudden, those two babies fell out. They were under
her wings. They fell out on the ground.
She was hiding those babies in that fierce storm. under her
wing. And I cried. I said, that's where
I want to be all my days. The storms of life. How about
you? He's not only going to bear us
on his wings, but while we're here in the storms of life, under
his wing. Under his wing. He said, I brought
you all the way to God. All the way to God. And for this reason, Christ came
down to bring us, it says there in our text, bring us to himself. Bring you unto myself. Who's
that? God. Well, Christ, yes. The one and
the same. So he says in verse five, go
tell the people if you obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant,
then you'll be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. All
the earth is mine. If you'll obey my voice, keep
my covenant, you're my peculiar treasure, you're my people, everything
and everyone belongs to me. I'm Lord and creator of it all. It all belongs to me. Hear my
voice, obey me, believe me, keep my covenants, you're my people. Isn't that what Christ did and
said? He said, my sheep hear my voice. They won't hear a stranger. They hear my voice. And we're his peculiar treasure,
purchased. That's what Peter wrote in 1
Peter 2. He said, you're a royal priesthood,
a peculiar people, a holy nation under God, purchased by him. A treasure. You know what? God's
people are a treasure to Him. He paid a great price for them.
They weren't worth anything when He found them. They were worthless.
But He paid such a great price now, because of the price He
paid for them, they're now invaluable to Him. You think about that. And you know what? He's a treasure
to us today. Moses, it says, esteem the reproach
of Christ, greater treasure than all the riches of Egypt. And
so it is with God's people. They are a treasure to Him. And
you know what? He's a treasure to them above
everyone and everything. Then in verse 6 he said, You'll
be priests unto me, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. What
does that mean? The holy nation, that means that
people dedicate. Holy means dedicated, consecrated
to God. Holy always applies the thing
to God. They're not holy things, but
people to God. Consecrated, dedicated for God. Earthly things, man. Holy things
to God. You're going to be a holy people
unto me, a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, God's sons, who is
king, that makes us his family and priests. The Levites, the
priests in the Old Testament, their life, their whole life
was spent ministering about the tabernacle, about the temple.
That's what they did. 40 years in the wilderness. What did they
do? They worshipped God and took care of the tabernacle, cut wood,
cleaned dishes, emptied the ashes, helped Moses and this and that
and the other. Their life was spent around the
worship of God, around the tabernacle and the temple. And that's God's true people.
This is not a part of their life. It is their life. They're priests. Christ is their life, and the
worship of Christ is their life. It's not a one-day-a-week thing.
It's an every-day-of-the-week thing. You hear me? Christ is
their life. Christ came down and said, I
have come that they might have life. What is that life? Him.
And you can't separate Him and them. You hear me? They're married. Wherever he
is, she is. wherever they are where you want
to be it's your life priests i'm not the only one minister
here i'm not the only minister in here every one of god's true
people are ministers in here that's why christ came look at
keep reading go down in verse verse seven so moses came and
called for the elders of the people and our lord called disciples
didn't he called prophets, apostles, pastors, and teachers laid before
their faces all these words Moses told them. What were they to
do? Tell the people. And look at verse 8. All the
people answered together. All the people answered when
they heard the word of the Lord. They said all that the Lord has
spoken we will do. They confessed. We believe you. We believe the
word you've spoken to us. And that's what we'll do. We'll
keep your covenant. We'll follow you. Isn't that what all of God's
people do? When they hear Christ's voice,
His gospel, they follow Him. And what happened? Moses returned
the words of the people unto the Lord. He went back to the
Lord and told, this is what your people said. They're going to
follow you. Thy people shall be with Him
in the day of His power. What's His power? Christ. The
gospel. Look at verse 10. The Lord said
unto Moses, Go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow. Let them wash their clothes.
Why did Christ come down here? To defeat our enemies. To defeat
our foes. To give us life. Make us His peculiar people.
His treasure. Purchased people. And He came
down here to sanctify us. set us apart, make us holy, a
holy people unto God. Well, how did he do this? You
know this. You've read these scriptures.
You know these scriptures. By his will, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Didn't our Lord say, For their
sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified.
He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness, and redemption. So our Lord said
to Moses, sanctify the people. And our Lord said to Christ,
sanctify the people. And we're sanctified by Him.
You don't sanctify yourself. He sanctifies us. And when we
wash their clothes, we're washed. You're justified. You're sanctified. You're washed. In what? The blood. What can wash away our sins? Nothing but the blood of Christ
and the water of His Word, which is the blood. And look at verse 11. He said,
Be ready against the third day Why? The third day, the Lord's
coming down in the sight of all the people
upon Mount Sinai. Didn't our Lord, didn't all the
scriptures tell us that Christ came to live and Christ came
to die? And on the third day, He would
rise again? Didn't it say that? He did, didn't
it? Just like He said. He came down. He went up. He's coming again. He's coming down again. He did. Now look again with me. Okay? So this is bifocal. This is Christ
in it. This is Christ. Who can Moses
represent here but Christ? Christ. Okay? Preeminently. Primarily. Moses. But Moses is just a man. Like me. He's a sinful man. He's a sinful man. He's just
a man. He was an unbelieving man before. He was a heathen. He was 40 years old. He was an
idolater. He was a heathen. He was a sinful
man when the Lord found him. But the Lord chose him. The Lord
called him. The Lord sent him. To who? God's people. God's people. God's chosen people. What did
He send Moses to do? Preach this message all through
here. Go tell my people. Thus saith
the Lord. This is what the man of God is
sent to do. God spoke to him and he was to speak to them.
What? The Word of God. The Word of God. Look at verse
7. And so Moses came and called
for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all
these words which the Lord commanded him. My job. is to preach God's Word. That's
it. That's it. One time I stopped at the bank,
and I forget if it was a holiday or something, Christmas or Easter
or something, and a woman teller said to me, what are you doing
today, visiting? Going to the hospital to visit or getting
ready for Easter? I said, no, I'm going to go sit at the study
and read God's Word and prepare to preach the Word. That's what
I am, a preacher, and that's what I do every day. You come
to the bank, you sit and count money. I go sit at my desk and
prepare the word to preach to the people. That's what I do.
That's my job. So that's what he said. You call
the people and you lay before them, before their faces, all
the words which the Lord commands you. And verse 8 says, All the
people answered together said, All that the Lord has spoken
We'll do. We'll do. We will. You know, they confessed. And I preach the gospel. I tell
you, to confess the Lord in Believer's Baptism down over in 2 Peter. 1 Corinthians 10 says all the people
were baptized under Moses and in the sea, in the cloud. Every
one of the people. He uses that word baptized. Is
that important? Every one of them. Every one
of these people said, what you tell us to do, that's what we're
going to do. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I'm
telling you to do. That's what I'm telling you to
do. Every time I stand up, I'm bringing you God's Word. Now
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He that believeth in what? In his baptism shall be saved. And at Pentecost, 3,000 people
heard Peter preach. And every one of them was baptized.
Every one of them. And they continued like priests. from then on. Their life was
the worship of God. That's what I tell you today. God told me to tell you. Now
look at verse 9. He said, and Moses returned the
words of the people unto the Lord. I pray for you. I pray for you. In verse 9, the
Lord said to Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, You
know, I preach in part. We see through a glass dimly,
a cloud. I don't have all the answers.
I did when I was younger. You ask me anything. Now I don't
want you to ask me anything. No, I do, but oh, I tremble. And I only go to God. Lord, I
don't know. Please tell me. And so the Lord said to Moses,
and he speaks, but it's in a dark cloud, that the people may hear
when I speak unto thee and believe thee forever. Are they going
to believe a man? You know, many of those people
actually believe that man, that sinful man. God sent that man. And they followed him, many of
them. Many of them. They believed Him. They followed
Him. They trusted Him. Many of them didn't. They turned
against Him. Moses never turned against Him.
They turned against Him. In the beginning, nearly all
of them were saying, oh, that man that God has sent to us,
how blessed we are. And in the end, some of them
were saying, they called Him, that fellow. That's what they did. They said,
that fellow, we don't know what's happened to this fellow. Isn't
that sad? It's a sad fact. But many of
them believed that this was God's man, and they followed him. Moses
never got over the fact that the Lord called him. And he was
the meekest man on earth. The meekest man on earth. What's
that mean? He didn't want the job in the
beginning, and he didn't want it in the end. But he had the
job. They're going to believe you.
They're going to hear from me. And they're going to believe
you. And Moses told the people, this is what the Lord said. This
is what the Lord said. Now look at verse 10. The Lord
said unto Moses, Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow
and let them wash their clothes. Go get them ready. Moses, go
tell the people to get ready to meet me. Prepare them. Prepare them to come and meet
their God. This is not just any other day.
This is holy. It's a holy day. The day of the
Lord. And this is not any other place
or any other thing that we're doing. We're not to look like
or act like or conduct ourselves just like we do every day. No,
this is a special day. And the Lord, Moses, you go tell
these people to set themselves apart, to get ready, to meet
me. And I tell you all the time,
recently somebody said, I'm not getting anything out of his preaching.
That's what they say. They're not here right now. Well,
here's my question. What do you bring to put it in? If you don't bring an empty vessel,
if your vessel is full of the world and junk food and all that,
no, you're not going to get a thing in. If your mind's elsewhere,
you're not going to get a thing. If you stayed up all night Saturday
night, you're not going to get a thing out of the message anymore.
If on the way to church you are more interested in receiving
texts on your phone than reading the text from God's Word, you're
not going to get anything. If all you think about is what
you're going to do after it's over, before it, and after it,
and don't give any preparation to come into the presence of
God Almighty to hear His word, which is a life and death matter,
you're not going to get anything. God's not going to give you anything.
He's not going to give you anything. Why should He? It's preparation, though. Preparation. We don't treat this like any
other thing. He said, where two or three are gathered, I'm going
to be there. That means physically, not virtually,
physically. Get up, put your clothes on,
wash your clothes, prepare your clothes. Does that matter what
you wear and how you conduct yourself? I'm coming down to meet with
them. My, my, my. How would you prepare
yourself? if you were going to go visit
the king. Well, that's what he tells us.
This is a privilege. This is a high honor. For the
Lord to grace us with his presence, we don't deserve it. How are
we going to approach this? How are we going to treat this?
What are we going to do before we get here? What about when
we leave? Oh, if you hear from him, you're
going to be talking about him. like the Queen of Sheba. Man,
when she came to here, she came a long way. Most of us don't
travel very far. It's no real sacrifice to come
hear this gospel. Do you know how far our Lord
came down? What's a little drive in our
air-conditioned or heated cars and leather seats? Come on. You get ready then. You prepare
yourself. And you come. I'm coming too.
I'm coming in. Be ready. In the sight of all
the people on the mountains. Mount Zion. That's where the
Lord meets His people. Every time. He's promised brothers
and sisters. It's just Sunday and I'm the
same old man. You're the same old people. But our Lord doesn't
use figures of speech. He doesn't exaggerate. He said
where two or three are gathered, I'm there. Boy, I want to hear
from Him, don't you? I really do. I want to see His glory. I want
to see His face. I want to hear His voice. I need
it. I need Him in His presence, at His right hand, pleasures
everywhere. The Lord brought us out of Egypt.
Why? To come and sit in this heavenly
place and hear His voice. Man, I'm getting out of bed.
And I'm going to get myself ready. By God's grace, I'm going to
get myself ready. I'm going to come meet the Lord. How about
you? That's for me at my house. That's what we're going to do.
That's what he told me to tell you today. OK? Be ready. Look at this. This is wonderful.
We turn to Hosea 6 with me. I'll close Hosea chapter 6. This is marvelous, marvelous,
marvelous. He said, be ready. I'm coming
down. I guess the third day. Third day, I'm going to come
down to the side of all the people, Hosea chapter 6. You know, Peter wrote in 2 Peter
3, he said, don't be ignorant of this one thing, that a day
is a thousand years and a thousand years is a day. Remember that? Third day, how significant is
that? Our Lord was in the grave for three days and he rose on
the third day. How significant is that? This earth is 6,000
years old, right? God created the heaven and the
earth in six days. On the seventh day, what did
he do? Rest. It's over. It's all over, all
right? All right? When the Lord came
down to this earth, it was 2,000 years ago, right? Two days. We are entered into the 7,000th
year right now. In 2000 or somewhere thereabouts,
unbeknownst to most, we're in the 7,000th year. We're in the last days. He came
two days ago, and on the third day, he says, I'm coming down. And everybody's going to see
me. Somebody laugh with me. Listen to Hosea 6. Come, let us return unto the
Lord. Hosea 6.1. He hath torn, he will heal us. He hath smitten, he'll bind us
up. After two days, he'll revive
us. In the third day, You're going to live in his sights.
You're going to bear us on eagles' wings, all the way out of sight. One time I was watching an eagle
in Rocky Mount. There was an eagle flying down
the middle of Rocky Mount, Virginia, of all places. What in the world
was an eagle doing in Rocky Mount? I was driving down Main Street
and looked over my head, and it was an eagle. All white head,
and it was flying down the middle of Main Street. I thought, why
is that eagle here? I'll tell you why. For me. For
me to see. And I watched him as far as I
could. And for a long, I watched him soar, soar, soar. So finally,
he completely, I couldn't see him anymore. He's gone. He soared. He soared into God. I couldn't
see him anymore. And that's our Lord. And we're
waiting on it. He said, you being of Israel,
don't stand gazing in the heavens. This same Jesus shall so come
in like manners you've seen. And every eye shall see them. And in Isaiah 40, let me tell
you this. Let me quote you this. In Isaiah
40, he told me to comfort you. And the very last verse in Isaiah
40 is this, they that wait on the Lord are going to mount up
like on wings of eagles. They're going to run this race
and not be weary. They're going to walk and not
going to quit. I need to hear that, Kelly. He
told me to run this race. How? Looking unto Him. He told me to walk by faith,
and I am. How? Following Him. By his grace,
like Enoch, I'm going to walk on into glory. And let me quote
this. Let me tell you this story in
closing. This is good. Robin, you'll love it. There
was a bird that built, Robin built a nest on our house. And
any bird or any creature that comes anywhere near our place,
it's protected. It's found a refuge. This house,
our house, birds build nests all the time. We won't touch
them. They need to feel safe. Well, this robin built this nest
way on the highest part of our house, up under the downspout
and under the overhang, right there. High, really high, about
at least 25, almost 30 feet up. She built this nest. And I watched
her every day. And then finally I saw three
or four little heads stick up in the nest. Three or four little
heads sticking up there. And I watched her go and get
food and come back and feed them and go and get food and come
back and feed them. I love that, don't you? I love it. All right,
well then I saw those heads really sticking out of the nest. And
after a while, there's three of them on the edge of the nest. Fledglings, you know. They can't
stay in that nest. They've got to go. By the way, in Deuteronomy 32,
it says, I stirred up the nest like an eagle. You can't stay
in the nest. You've got to fly. Well, these
birds have never flown before. They're scared. They're afraid. It's a long drop. If I leave
this nest, I'm going to fall. Oh, no. No, no. Well, lo and behold, I came back
one morning, and all of them were gone. And I looked around. They weren't
on the ground. They were safe. They mounted up on wings. They'd
gone. They'd flied away. The Lord gave
them wings to fly. They didn't fall. They flew. Well, this one little
bird stayed on the edge of that nest for like three days. I know. She's scared. Robin, she's scared. What's going to happen to me
if I leave this nest? I'm going to fall to the earth.
No, no, no you're not. Come on now. What's going to happen to you
when this is all over? What's going to happen to you
that believe and trust the Lord Jesus Christ? That He came down
to us with this gospel and sent a man to preach this good news
to you, to comfort you, comfort you, my people, and tell them
to trust me, to keep my covenant, keep worshiping me all the days
of their lives. While the whole world is after
this and that and the other, you tell them to keep my covenant,
keep my gospel, keep coming to hear me, keep coming to do this
good. You just wait. You'll see. I'm coming for you. And you're
going to mount up on wings of eagles and fly right into the
face of God himself. And boy, I think I hear that
little bird every now and then singing. It's true. It's true. It's true. It's all true. Trust him. Only trust him, Lord. He will save you. That's what
I'm here to tell you.