Thank you. Let's go to the book
of Exodus this morning. Exodus, and we'll be in chapter
23 of Exodus. Exodus chapter 23. Let's ask for God's mercy Again,
and then we'll look into the message this morning. Our dear Father, by your divine
providence, you have directed our steps into this building. We do give you thanks that we
can again meet for public worship. And we join our hearts to exalt
you this morning. And each of us, Lord, gives thanksgiving
to you for the mercies that you have given to us in Christ our
Savior. As the word of God goes forth
now, Lord, send it forth with that omnipotence, with that effectual
energy to make it bring forth fruit
in all of our hearts. We give thanks for the certainty
of the success of the gospel. Even as our Lord Jesus, by his
death, he was successful in redeeming your people. We ask, O God, that
now as the word of God goes forth, the gospel of your grace, as
this good seed is sown, we ask that you would be pleased to
put it into all of our hearts. O Spirit of grace, would you make our hearts ready
to receive this good seed. We're so fully dependent upon
you, O God. Nothing of any everlasting worth
will come from this service unless you're with us, Lord. unless
you empower the speaker and the hearers to listen to the gospel
of your free grace again. Lord, direct our attention, direct
our faith to the one who came into this
world, who was sent on a mission of grace to save your people
from their sin. May he be magnified this hour. These things we ask in the name
of Christ our Savior. Amen. God has now given his laws to
Israel, and within all the year, they will leave their location
there at Mount Sinai, and then they'll begin their pilgrimage
across the wilderness. Of course, we know it's going
to take them about 40 years to get to the land of promise. During
those 40 years, many people are going to die because of unbelief. Even Moses and Aaron will not
be allowed to enter into the land of promise because of their
outward rebellion against God, when God told them the second
time to avail themselves of a rock. The first time Moses smote the
rock and water came out, and that's the water of life, that's
the water of the Spirit of God. as the water of God's salvation,
which is the result of our Lord Jesus, that rock of God being
smitten for our transgressions, wounded with the sword of justice,
and the water of life came forth the second time Israel becomes
thirsty, and Moses in his rebellion and Aaron right beside of him
They said together, must we fetch water for you rebels? Instead of just speaking to the
rock, which is what God said, you speak to the rock, water
will come out, but rather Moses in a fit of anger, he hit the
rock. Water did come out, but that sad episode of rebellion, and
unbelief. It cost him. He couldn't go into
the land of promise. But of course, Moses represented
the law of God, and the law of God cannot take us into the land
of promise. Only Joshua, God who saves, can
do that. So they're gonna leave in about
a year or so where they're at, and then they're gonna wander
around in the desert, And the desert or the wilderness is going
to be marked with graves, the graves of unbelievers. We read
in the book of Hebrews chapter 4 that many of them, they could
not enter in because of their unbelief. And during those 40
years, so many people died in their unbelief against God, not
believing His promises. but yet the nation of Israel
did safely arrive in the land of promise. Now, before they
leave Mount Sinai, of course, God is going to give Moses the
instructions about the tabernacle in the wilderness, and we know
from our studies in the Old Testament that tabernacle, in fact, every
facet of the tabernacle, It pictured either our Lord Jesus or some
work of our Lord Jesus. And God will say to Israel, this
is where I'm going to meet with you. And we need to understand
that God meets with folks like us. He meets with unworthy sinners
in the Lord Jesus. That's the only place he'll meet
us. Our Savior is the only mediator between God and man. He is the man, Christ Jesus. Now, as they get ready to leave,
and they'll be in preparation here for many months, they know
where they're going. They know the destination. God
had said to Abraham many hundreds of years before this, 430 years
before this, God said to Abraham when he walked in the land of
Canaan, he said, this is the land that I'm going to give your
heritage. Those are your posterity. Those
who come after you, they'll get this land. I give you my word,
God said, and he bounded in a covenant. God said, this is the land that
I will give you. God made that promise to Abraham. So they knew where they were
going. And earlier in the book of Exodus, God said, I'm going
to put a cloud in the sky and it'll guide you. So they knew
where they were going and they knew they'd have a guide. But yet, they still wanted to
know what is the exact route. Have you ever wanted to know
the route that God's going to have you on? We know that His
purpose regarding each of His people is going to be fulfilled
And the Lord is leading you in the route, the path that He has
ordained for you. But have you ever wanted to know
exactly what that path is? Well, let me tell you. If it
were best for you to know, He'd tell you. But He doesn't tell
you because it's not for us to know. It's only for us to walk
by faith, believing His wisdom. that He is directing us in that
road that is best for us. First of all, it's the road of
grace, of course, and it's the road, it's the way of our Lord
Jesus and His bloody death upon the cross of Calvary and His
resurrection, and it's a road that involves everything being
ordained for all of His people all the way to death's door. And then when we step through
that veil, then we enter into everlasting glory. But then again,
the Lord knew the feebleness of the children of Israel. He
knew their weakness. He knew their lack of faith.
And so in the message this morning, God is going to send to them,
he gives them his word, I'll send you my angel. Here's the
title of the message, God's messenger or God's angel and his commission. God's angel and his commission. Now look with me in Exodus chapter
23 and look at verse number 20. God says, Behold. Now that's
a word to get our attention, isn't it? Behold. Be amazed. Be alert. Chapter 23 and verse
20. Behold, I send an angel before
thee to keep thee in the way. and to bring thee into the place
which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will
not, that is, if you provoke him, he will not pardon your
transgressions. And then here's a tremendous
statement. God says, for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey
his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy unto
thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine
angel," watch this, and I'll just read the first part of the
verse, for mine angel, don't you love the Lord's shouts, Mine angel, again a capital A,
mine angel shall go before thee and bring thee in. I love that. God says, I'll send my messenger. I'll send my angel. I'll send
my representative. I'll send my ambassador. He'll go before you, and He will
keep you, and He'll bring you in to this
land that I have prepared for thee. He shall go before thee,
and He shall bring thee in. Now, the question is, who is
this angel? Well, this angel is not a created
being. There are many of the angels,
there are many angels who exist, both good and bad, elect and
fallen. God made the angels and they
observed the glory of his first creation. In fact, the scripture
says that they all join their voices together and they praise
God as they beheld his creative glories. And then a third of
the angels, they fell. They followed Lucifer. Each of
them rebelled individually. But God reserved for himself
two-thirds of the angels The elect angels is what they're
called. The reason they didn't fall,
the reason they're not going to be turned into everlasting
darkness as will be Lucifer and the one third of the angels that
fell with him. The reason is because God kept
these from falling, His elect angels. God has many created beings that
we call the angelic host. But this is a different angel.
This is an angel who is worthy of this capital A. This is the Creator himself.
This is the Son of God. He is, you see, God's messenger. He is God's representative. He
is God's ambassador to the sons of men. Here is our Lord Jesus
in pre-incarnate form. Here's an important statement.
He is not an angel by nature, but he is an angel by office. You get that? He's not an angel
by nature, that is, being one that God has made. No, no, no. He is the eternal God. from everlasting
to everlasting thou art God. He is the eternal Son of God.
Solomon says in the book of Proverbs, when all things were made, He
was there beside the Father. In fact, we read in John chapter
1 that all things were made by Him and without Him was not anything
made that was made. So he is not an angel by nature,
but he is an angel by office. The office of the ambassador,
the office of the representative sent from God, the office of
the messenger that our Lord has commissioned into this world. This messenger, this representative,
this ambassador has been commissioned by God to save his people from
their sins. Look with me in just a few verses. Look at Isaiah chapter 63. Isaiah chapter 63. There are
numerous passages that I could go to to establish the identity
of this angel with a capital A. I'll direct you to this one
for certain. Isaiah chapter 63. Look at verse nine. Isaiah 63 verse nine. In all
their affliction, he was afflicted. You remember what it says in
Hebrews, the second chapter regarding our Savior? He was tempted in
all points as we are, yet without sin. In all their affliction, He was
afflicted. And the angel of His presence,
the angel of His presence, He saved them. In His love, this
angel, in His love and in His pity, this angel redeemed them. And He bare them and He carried
them all the days of old. This angel, this messenger of
God's presence. That word presence I pointed
out to you before means face. Here's the angel of God's face.
This is the angel who stands in the presence of the eternal
God because he is the eternal God. He's the second person of
the Trinity. And he stands face to face with
God. Who can stand face to face with
God? We read in the Scriptures, God
said, no man can see My face and live, no mere man can but
the Son of God, the Son of Man. eye to eye with the Father. He's
the angel of God's presence. He's the angel of God's face.
He is himself the angel of God's countenance. He's the brightness
of the Father's glory. He is the express image of His
person. So that to see this angel, to
see this messenger, to see this representative, to see this ambassador
that God has sent is to see God face to face. This is the angel of his face.
You recall reading in John chapter 14, after our Lord announced
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Philip then said, Show us the
Father. Manifest to us the Father, and
it sufficeth us. That'll be good enough. That's
all we want. That's all we want. That's all
we desire. Savior, hear us eleven men. Judas is now gone. Here are 11
of us, and we followed you, but we want to see the Father face
to face. And if we could do that, we'd
be satisfied. And Jesus said unto him, Have
I been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not known me?
Don't you know who I am, Philip? Don't you know my identity? Don't
you know the One who is speaking to you? And how can you possibly say,
show us the Father? He that hath seen me, hath seen
the Father. We read in John 1, the Word was
with God and the Word was God. Always. He's always been with
God. The same was in the beginning
with God. This is the angel that wrestled
back in the book of Genesis with Jacob. He wrestled with Jacob and he
changed Jacob's name to Israel. Thou art a prince with God, thou
hast prevailed with God. And he called the name of that
place Peniel. For I have seen God face to face,
that's what he said. And guess what? My life is preserved. I'm not dead. You see, to see,
to look upon God in His eternal glory, the invisible God, to
be in His presence, to be consumed, is to be consumed with this fire,
the fire of God's presence. but to see God in the face of
Jesus, our Lord, our Savior, that's salvation. That's salvation. And so hear the words of the
prophet of God who quotes our Lord, look unto me and be ye
saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God. That's our Savior. I am God. Look to me. This angel then stands face to
face with God and none can do that except one who is equal
to God. How do we know that this angel
is God? Psalm 106 verse 8, jot it down,
I'll quote it for you. The Scripture says, He saved
them for His name's sake. He saved them. This angel is
no ordinary messenger from God. This is the angel of the covenant. This is God's ambassador to sinful
people. For this angel is the Savior. He's the Savior of sinners. And
He's the one who redeems. He redeemed His people by the
blood of the cross of Calvary. And He's the one who bears us. He's the one who carries us safely
all the way to everlasting glory. Little wonder then that Jacob
in Genesis chapter 48 and verse 16, he referred to Him as the
angel of redemption. That's who He is. He's the angel
of redemption. Literally, He is my kinsman redeemer. That's who this is. And those
of you who are familiar with the book of Ruth, you know who
the kinsman redeemer is in that portion of Scripture was Boaz,
who redeemed Ruth and Naomi and married Ruth. Our Lord Jesus,
He's our near kinsman. He's bone of our bone. He's flesh
of our flesh. He is our near kinsman and He's
able to redeem. The question is, is He willing?
Oh, He's willing for the Father sent Him from glory to redeem
us by the blood of His cross. He's frequently mentioned in
the book of Genesis. Look back in Exodus. I won't go back into Genesis
and show you the times that's used there, but this angel of
the Lord, but Exodus chapter three. And this is a very familiar
portion of scripture to you. Exodus chapter three. Verse one. Exodus chapter three. Verse one, now Moses kept the
flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he
led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the
mountain of God even to Horeb, which is Mount Sinai. And the
angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of
the midst of a bush, And he looked, Moses looked, and behold, the
bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses
said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the
bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he
turned aside to see, God called unto him, God called unto him. Who's in the bush? The angel
of the Lord. And now the inspired writer of
Holy Scripture, Moses, being led by the Spirit of God, says,
God called to him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses,
Moses. And he said, Here am I. And this messenger, this heavenly
messenger, God said, Draw not nigh hither. put off thy shoes
from off thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy
ground. And then this angel identified
himself. I am the God of thy father, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses
hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God. Who is this angel? He's God. He's God manifest in
the flesh. And if you would, let me send
you to another reference, and this is right at the end of the
Old Testament, the book of Malachi. Malachi chapter three. And I
just want to establish this. I want it to be burnt into your
minds and into your hearts, as it were, as to the identity of
this angel of the Lord. Malachi chapter one, chapter
three, excuse me. Chapter three, verse one. Once
again, this verse begins with a behold. Behold, I will send
my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me. Well, who's
the speaker? Well, it's the words of Christ.
And who's he referring to? by this messenger, John the Baptist,
right? So we all know that. And the
Lord, whom ye, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,
even The messenger, and this word is translated several different
ways, even the messenger of the covenant, the angel of the covenant,
the representative of the covenant, the ambassador of the covenant,
whom ye delight in, behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of
hosts. John the Baptist will prepare
the way for him and then this messenger of the covenant. What
covenant? The covenant of grace. The everlasting
covenant. The covenant made by the divine
three. When they covenanted together,
and actually it's always been this way, they entered into a
covenant together for the salvation of a multitude of people who
will fall in Adam, but be raised in the Son of God. And this messenger
of the covenant, he agreed to take upon himself the form of
a servant. and be made in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin. He will in the flesh, He will
condemn sin by His own death upon the cross of Calvary. Who
is this? This is the Lord Jesus. This
is the angel, the messenger of the covenant. He is our ambassador. This is
our representative in the covenant of grace. You see, way back in
eternity past, when there were no years, there were no centuries,
there were no millenniums, there was just eternity. The vastness, that time without
beginning at all, There existed only God. God in the glory of
His person. God in the magnitude and in the
perfection of Himself. And even then, we had a representative
there. We had someone who stood for
us. One who vouched for us, one who
said, I will save them, I will redeem them, I will call them,
I will quicken them, I will justify them, and I will glorify them.
Father, trust them to my care. That's our Lord Jesus Christ,
the angel of the covenant. He represented us and our eternal
interest. He chose us unto salvation. He committed Himself to be our
Savior and Redeemer. And as you go back to our text
now, you'll read once again these words. Verse 20, God says, Behold,
I will send. He's sent by the Father. He's
sent by the Father. I will send an angel before thee. Let me give you a few things
here quickly. Number one, the angel was sent of God to go before
his people. He was sent of God. Here in his
love, not that we love God, but he loved us. And what did he
do? He sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And
that's just a big word, propitiation. which means he's the satisfaction
of divine justice. Everything God demanded of you,
you who don't deserve anything from God, everything God demanded
of me, I don't deserve anything from God either except death,
judgment, and hell. But Christ was sent to be our
propitiation, to satisfy every demand of God, so that grace
saves through righteousness. Not at the expense of justice,
not at the expense of righteousness, but with the justice of God's
full agreement. And the justice of God says,
Amen to our salvation. because the justice of God was
satisfied and honored. A law of God was fully upheld
and the penalty for breaking that law was honored in the death
of our Lord Jesus. God sent him. You notice that
the words are, I will send an angel before thee. He was sent before us into this
world to face everything that we'll ever face. There's nothing that shall ever
befall you who are the people of God that hasn't befallen to
our representative. He faced them all and he did
so honorably in a manner glorifying to the Father. He was sent before us into death. into death. He died under the
judgment of God. His death was the penal satisfaction
for the sins of his people. So that our death is not punishment. No, not at all. It's promotion. That's what our death will be.
The deaths of God's people will be promotion to glory. And he
was sent before us out of the tomb in his resurrection. He's the first fruits of them
that slept. Because He lives, we'll live. The Scripture speaks of our bodies
in death as being like that which is sown
in the ground, like seed sown in the ground. This body is sown
in corruption but raised in incorruption. Paul says it's sown in weakness,
but raised in strength. It's sown in dishonor, but raised
in honor. Why? Because of this angel who
was sent before us. God sent him in the grave, and
there his body lay. And after three days and three
nights, he came forth. And our bodies, they're going
to be laid in a grave. Something's going to happen with
his body. It may die due to an explosion. Can't even find your dust. I
don't know. But at the resurrection, he'll find your dust. Because
he redeemed us soul and body. This angel was sent out of the
tomb because of his victorious redemption, and our bodies will
be sent out of the tomb because of his redemption. The Lord Jesus,
he ascended back to glory. He's gone before us into heaven.
He's our forerunner. Think of it this way. Jesus,
our forerunner, has entered into heaven, entered into the promised
land. And there he has staked a claim
for us. There's a man in glory. There's
a man in heaven. Who is he? He's Jesus Christ,
our Lord. And I'll tell you, he brings
all of his saints into that glorious abode right into his presence. and we shall join him someday.
He always goes before the people as our leader. He leads us. He leads us. David began the service playing
a song about the Lord leading us. He leadeth me, O blessed
thought, O blessed thought. He leads me. Oh, words with heavenly
comfort fraught. Whatever I do, wherever I be,
still tis His hand that leadeth me. Isn't that wonderful? This
is the angel. Look what he says of Him. The
angel will keep thee in the way. He'll keep you in... Listen,
He is the way and He'll keep you in the way. He puts you in
the way, in the way of grace. in the way of salvation. And
he'll bring you to the ultimate destination. Watch it. Into the
place that I have prepared. You remember what our Lord Jesus
said to his disciples, I go to prepare a place for you. And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. And you know what I'm going to
do? I'm going to receive you. I'm going to receive you. I'm
going to receive you. I'm going to receive all of my
children unto myself. He's leading us all the way my
Savior leads me. What have I to ask beside? Can
I doubt His tender mercies? Who through life has been my
guide? heavenly peace, divinest comfort,
here by faith in him to dwell. For I know whate'er befalls me. Jesus doeth all things well. I don't know what's going to
befall me, but I know he's leading me. He may lead me to the sick
man, He may lead me to be eaten up with cancer. He may lead me
to heart disease. He may lead me into the path
of an oncoming vehicle, and I'm taken home to glory. But whatever
it is, whatever it is, it'll be all right. It'll be all right
with you, people of God. And here's the reason. The angel
of the covenant The angel that God has sent before you, he's
gonna keep you. He'll keep you in the way. And he'll bring you to the place
that he's prepared. But then he says this in verse
21, beware of him. And the word beware can be a
word of warning. Beware not to provoke him. If
you read in Hebrews chapter 3, many of the children of Israel
as they traversed the wilderness, they provoked him to anger. They
died in unbelief. But the word beware can also
mean observe him. Keep an eye on him. In fact,
I'll give you a little Interesting word lesson here. In verse 20,
the word keep. And in verse 21, the word beware. In the original, it's the same. How does the Lord keep us? He
keeps His eye on us. He watches over us. He never
takes His eyes off of us. He is the God of omnipresence. My dear beloved friend, brother,
sister in the Lord Jesus, He watches over you as though you
were the only one of His elect in this whole wide world. He
watches you like that. Now, you keep your eye on Him. That's the lesson. He keeps His
eye on you. Now you look to Him. Believe
Him. And obey His voice. Obey His
voice. Don't provoke Him. Let me tell
you something about this angel. Look at this next phrase in verse
21. For He will not pardon your transgressions, the privilege
and the power of either pardoning your transgressions or not pardoning
your transgressions is in His hand. He can forgive and not
forgive. You remember who this angel is.
You remember what was said in the New Testament. Who can forgive
sins but God alone? Only He can pardon. And then the Lord said, My name's
in Him. You better respect this angel.
You better love this angel. You better worship this angel.
In the book of Revelation, John fell down before a created angel,
and the created angel said, Oh, don't do that. I'm just a servant
of God like you are. But this angel, he's God Almighty. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to himself. Now what about disobedience?
If you obey me, if you obey me, are we then to draw this conclusion
that the mercies of God and the grace of God are conditioned
upon our obedience? No, we're not to draw that conclusion. Because in the book of Romans
chapter 3, it says, if we believe not, he's still faithful. In fact,
let me just read that to you. Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter
3. Look at verse 3 if you want to
look at it real quick. For what if some did not believe? Shall the unbelief, their unbelief,
make the faith or the faithfulness of God without effect? Can our
disobedience, can our lack of faith ruin the purpose of God? God forbid. God forbid. You know, this purpose of God,
promise of God, that seems to be conditioned upon their obedience. It's really conditioned only
upon the purpose and the promise of God. Because God made a promise
to Abraham. I'm going to give you that land.
I'm going to give you that land. The land you're standing on,
I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to give it to you.
notwithstanding the disobedience of people. The purpose of God cannot be
disannulled. It cannot be frustrated by man's
disobedience. In fact, the Lord says this. I jotted down a reference here
somewhere. Let me see if I can find it. Listen to this reference, I'll
just read it to you. Psalm 106, verses seven and eight. Our fathers understood not thy
wonders in Egypt. They remember not the multitude
of thy mercies, but provoked him at the sea, even the Red
Sea. Man, that's disobedience. Nevertheless, he saved them for
his namesake. that he might make his mighty
power to be known. Well, what about this obedience,
Jim? What is it? I'll tell you what
I really believe it is. According to Romans chapter 16,
verse 26, it's the obedience of faith. You know how we honor
the law of God according to the last verse in Romans chapter
three? We believe the Lord. We believe the Lord Jesus, who
himself honored every jot and tittle of God's law. And in him,
we've kept the law. We trust him. We believe him. Tell you something else about
this messenger, I'll give it to you real quick. Look at verse
25. He shall serve the Lord your
God, and he shall bless thy bread and thy water. I will take sickness
away from the midst of thee. Why, he's the great physician.
He's the great physician. He does heal physically. I'm
thankful for that. But there's another kind of healing
I'm much more interested in. That's spiritual healing. How
is it that he heals us? By his stripes. With his stripes,
we're healed. With the stripes that he endured
upon the cross of Calvary. So the Psalm says, he healeth. all thy diseases. You know that
leprosy disease that you've got? He healed it. He healed it at
the cross. But now watch it. Pay attention. Look at verse 26. This angel
is the destroyer of all who oppose him or his people. Verse 26,
there shall nothing cast their young nor be barren in thy land,
the number of thy days I will fulfill. I will send my fear
before thee, and I will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt
come, and I will make thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. They'll
run, they'll run. The enemies of God's people,
he has promised himself, they're his enemies. He says, I'll have
vengeance. I'll destroy. In fact, he says
this in verse 28. He says, I'll send hornets before
thee which shall drive out the Hivite and the Canaanite and
the Hittite from before thee. Hornets. Now, hornets might drive
a family out of their house. It'd drive me out. Tom, if I had a nest of hornets
in my head, it'd drive me out of my house. It might even drive
people out of a village. But those little creatures, in
the hand of the angel of the Lord, he can send them forth. He would send them forth, as
it were, to all of the enemies of Israel in the land of Canaan. And he says, I'm going to drive
them out, and I'll just use hornets. I'll just use hornets. You see,
all of creation is under his authority and control. He'd just
send them hornets and sting them and drive them out, and it did. But this is interesting too,
and I'll give you this in closing. You know, those of us who are
the people of God, we have enemies in this world, but the biggest
enemy we've got is the enemy within. It's our own sin. And of course, there's the enemy
of the devil. There's the enemy of the world.
And the Lord doesn't just conquer these enemies that are within
us. He doesn't just conquer them all at once. No. Look at verse
29. I will not drive them out from
before thee in one year. lest the land become desolate
and the beast of the field multiply against thee." God said, Lord,
I wish you'd take care of all my enemies. He's not going to
do it all at once. No. Look at verse 30. By little and
little, I will drive them out before thee until thou be increased
and inherit the land. Little by little. Say, why doesn't
the Lord take all my enemies away immediately right now? In order to cultivate faith,
to drive us to the face of our Lord. Here's how it's going to happen,
little by little. I wish all this would go away,
little by little. That's how God, Our Lord, the
angel of the covenant, doesn't get in a hurry. All things move on his timetable. And even the full overthrow of
our enemies. I know he conquered our enemies
by his death upon the cross of Calvary. But those enemies are
still troublesome to the people of God. And our own flesh is
troublesome. But little by little, little
by little, they'll be conquered. As for us, as he continues to
say, just continue to worship the Lord. He'll preserve us. Hey, he never
promised a flower-strewn pathway to glory, but we'll get there. We'll get
there. All of the elect people of God,
all of the redeemed of the Lord, we're going to get there. Be
patient. Walk in faith. Believe in our
Savior who leads us all the way. All the way. Let's pray. Thank you, our Father, for the
angel of the covenant. That great ambassador, the representative
of the covenant of grace, that one who has gone before
us, you sent him before us. You sent him into this world
before us to live a life of perfect obedience to your law, and then
you sent him before us to die for our sins. He entered into
the darkness of death. He went before us. He went before
us out of that tomb, too, reminding us that someday, though we will
die, though these bodies, unless the Lord Jesus comes back soon,
these bodies are going to die. They're going to corrupt. And
at our death, our souls will go on to glory, bodies buried
to await a glorious resurrection. As he went before us in resurrection,
so we shall follow him in resurrection glory. Someday we will have a
glorified soul and a glorified body. And until the day that
you take us home to be with you, we rejoice that this angel that
you sent before us, he keeps us. He preserves us. He watches over us. The eye of omnipotence and the
eye of omnipresence is always upon us. Oh God, thank you. Thank you. He keeps us and someday he will
bring us He will seize us. He will take hold of us. Yes,
He will fetch us into the land that He has prepared for us.
And in that everlasting day, we shall praise Him without fail,
without weariness, singing, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, who
has redeemed us unto God by His blood. Bless all of these who've
heard the Word of God. Make it effectual to each of
us. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being the angel of the covenant.
In the Savior's name we pray, amen.