If you would take your Bibles
and let's go back to the book of Exodus. I've still got some
things I want to show you here concerning Passover and we'll
be dealing again this morning and again this evening from the
book of Exodus and I'm going to begin at the end of chapter
12. of Exodus. Let's ask for God's blessing
upon the Word. Our Father, we ask again that
you would bless our moments that we spend together. We desire
to honor our God, to exalt our Savior. We all recognize our feebleness,
our weakness, actually our inability to do anything spiritual apart
from the spirit of grace. And therefore, God of heaven
and earth, we beseech you to send your spirit, and may the
spirit of truth, may he deal graciously with each
of us. Oh, God, wake us up to see that
we are rapidly heading toward eternity, and we must be washed
in that blood of the Lamb. Deal with us in grace. Deal with us in pity, Lord, and
in compassion. The Word says that you know our
frame, you know that we're dust. Lord, there isn't anything to
us. We would never amount to anything if you left us to ourselves. We are fully dependent, Lord,
upon your grace that you gave to your people in the Lord Jesus
before you made this world. And we ask you to be gracious
to us this morning as we open the scriptures. Bless those who
know not the Savior. Oh, God, teach them the gospel
that God saves through the satisfaction of your justice in the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wake us up to see our neediness. May we flee to Him. from the
wrath which is to come. Lord, bless your people. Indeed,
we have by your grace embarked upon a journey that will land
us in everlasting glory. And each step has been measured
by you, marked out by you, and ordained by you. so that all
of our paths will ultimately lead us to glory through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And all along the way, we need
you, Father, just as the Israelites who were redeemed by blood as
they left Egypt. Lord, they needed you every step
of the way. We bless you that due to your
faithfulness, those of your people landed safely on the other side
of the Jordan River in the land of promise, that land flowing
with milk and honey. And we trust you to do the same
for us. And now as we meet this morning,
we do so dependent upon you. We ask you to bless us through
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. And we ask these things in His
name and for His sake. Amen. Let me read to you the
last verse of Exodus chapter 12, verse 51. And it came to pass the self
same day, that the Lord did bring, that is, he forced them out of
Egypt. He did bring the children of
Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies. Now in the chapter
13, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, sanctify that is set
apart. unto me, all the firstborn, whatsoever
openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both the man and beast,
it is mine. And Moses said unto the people,
remember this day. By the way, if you go back earlier
in the chapter 12, that was the beginning of the year for them.
God gave them a new beginning. And our beginning, really, we
begin to live when we live by the grace of God, when we live
by the power of the Spirit who regenerates us and makes us alive
in Christ Jesus, that's when we begin to live. Up until then,
we were dead. But anyway, he says, remember
this day in which ye came out of Egypt out of the house of
bondage. Notice these next few words,
for by strength of hand, the Lord brought you out from this
place. There shall no leavened bread
be eaten. Here's the title of my message,
Exodus by Strength of Hand. As we read through the Old Testament,
especially the stories about the children of Israel, and in
particular about this exodus and all that was involved in
bringing the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage, we've got to
remember that these things were not merely recorded. to keep an accurate history of
the children of Israel, although it is an accurate history. There's
no inaccuracies in the Word of God, and all the things that
happened to the children of Israel, they actually happened. Nothing
is invented, nothing has been fabricated, nothing in the Word
of God is fictional. This is a historical record that
God the Spirit gave to Moses and he wrote this record right
at the end of his ministry in his 120th year, the last year
of his life, just before God took him up on the mountain and
then God took his life and took him on to glory. This is an accurate
historical record, but it is more than that. If you would hold your place
here and go to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and I wanna show
you that these things that happened to Israel, which we are reading
about, we've been studying about here the last, what? a couple
of weeks or so in our Sunday morning and Sunday night messages,
these things that happened to them did not happen to them only
for their sake or only because of them. These things that happened
to them were for the admonition and the instruction and the warning
of people who live today, for folks like us. In other words,
this passage over here in the book of Exodus concerning the
gods taking Israel out of Egyptian bondage and then delivering them
from the hand of Pharaoh and leading them through the Red
Sea and across the wilderness into the land of promise. It wasn't just written so that
we might know the things that happened to Israel. Those things
happened to them certainly for their purpose, for the purpose
of God regarding them, but those things that happened to them,
they happened to them for our sakes. Now look here in 1 Corinthians
10. And I'm not going to read all
of the first 11 verses, though you would do well to read those
sayings whenever you have a few moments
to read. But look at verse number six,
because he's talking about that Israel was an example to us. So verse six, now those things
or these things were our examples. In other words, they're illustrations. All the things that happened
to Israel are illustrations for us. We need to learn from them. To the intent, watch, to the
intent that we should not lust after evil things. You see, God
brought them out of Egyptian bondage, and then he took them
through the Red Sea, and then they begin their journey across
the wilderness, but they lusted after evil things. In fact, they
often said to Moses, they said, we wish we were back in Egypt.
Now let us learn from their mistakes. This is what the apostle Paul
is telling us. Let us not lust after evil things
as they also lusted. And he says in verse seven, neither
be ye idolaters as they became, as were some of them. As it is
written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up
to play. That was when Aaron made a golden
calf for them. And so they participated in idolatry. Now we can learn from that. We
can learn from that which happened to them because of that. God
judged them because of it. And many of them died. But then drop down and let me
just read to you in verse 11. Now all these things happened
to them for examples or examples. Now watch it, and they are written
not just as an accurate record of the things that happened,
though it was an accurate record and is an accurate record, but
those things are written for our admonition, for our instruction,
and for our warning, to warn us, to teach us. So as we read
about the things that happened to the children of Israel, remember
this, that those things that God has put in his word, by his
spirit are not just to remind us of the things that happened
to a nation in the Middle East called Israel. And you say, well,
it's a very interesting story. No, it's much more than that.
The reason those things are written, and watch it, the reason those
things actually happened to them, was for our benefit, that we might be admonished,
that we might be warned, that we might be awakened, that we
might know the very truth of God, which is to be believed,
and that we might avoid the wicked errors of Israel. So as you read the things that
happened, like during the Exodus, as God took Israel out of Egyptian
bondage, as you read those things, you've got to remember this,
the reason those things happened to them was for this purpose. One of the purposes was so that
in 2020, on August the 30th, People gathering in 13th Street
Baptist Church, according to the purpose of God, might be
admonished, don't make the mistakes that Israel made. Otherwise,
the same thing's gonna happen to you that happened to them.
Well, what happened to them? Well, indeed, God did bring them
out with a mighty hand. By the very, very strength of
God, they came out of Egyptian bondage. But everybody age 20
and over, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, when they
came out of Egyptian bondage, all the rest of them, two and
one half million people died in the wilderness because of
disobedience. This is written to warn us. If you don't want to be destroyed,
if you don't want to wind up in hell like so many hundreds
of thousands of Israelites did, then don't do as they did. Avoid their mistakes. Avoid idolatry. Look to the only sacrifice for
sin, and that's the Lord Jesus. and seek the face of God. And
for those of us who are the people of God, don't murmur. You notice
what he says in verse, back up to verse 10. Neither murmur ye,
as some of them also murmured, and they were destroyed of the
destroyer. They murmured. They murmured
about the providence of God. All these things that happened
to them, they murmured, they murmured, they murmured. Mr.
Spurgeon said the word murmur is one of the oddest words in
the English language. It doesn't even sound good, murmur. Murmur, a repetition, murmur. Because that's all we do is murr
and murr. And God not pleased with that. So as we begin the message and
go back to Exodus now, chapter 12, remember these things were
written by Moses, not just as an accurate record. Now it is
an accurate record, there's no question about that. But these
things that happened to national Israel, they came upon them as
examples and illustrations to us. And of course, the greatest
illustration of this is that we need to learn this. The only
way out of bondage is by the bloody sacrifice of the Lamb. That's the most important thing
to learn. And we learn also that the way
out of bondage is by God's strength, not by ours. the record that God has left
us of their redemption by the blood of the Passover lamb, their
deliverance by the very hand of God. their pursuit by the
Egyptians, their safe passage through the Red Sea, the drowning
of Pharaoh and all of his mighty armies, all of these things that
were set forth on paper by the hand of Moses as he recorded their successes
and their failures, they were actually recorded for us. Now, God help us to profit from
that. We need to profit from what's
been written here in the Word of God. Now, as we go back and
remember the Exodus, by Exodus we mean the bringing out of the
children of Israel, out of Egyptian bondage. I want us to remember
two things. Number one, their deliverance
was fully dependent upon the father's of the firstborn doing
as they were instructed. And we've gone over the Passover,
and so it isn't needful for me to be repetitive about all the
things that led to the killing of the Passover lamb and the
application of the blood, but per God's instruction, each father
took care of everything. That's one of the first things
you need to remember. Per the instructions of God,
regarding the firstborn son, he did all of the things that
were necessary to make certain that his firstborn son was safe,
was safe. After all, God said, I'm coming
through Egypt. I'm coming through Egypt. So
he said, you, if you don't want your firstborn son to die, well,
no, I don't want my firstborn son to die. All right, dad, here's
what you do. This is for the father. You pick
out a lamb according to my instructions, a male of the first year without
any spot, without any blemish. Dad, you do that. or what's firstborn
doing? He's over here watching. And dad, you get a basin and
you get the hyssop and you take a knife and cut the throat of
that lamb and you catch the blood. And then dad, after you catch
the blood in the basin with that hyssop, then you go outside,
not the firstborn son. The firstborn son isn't active
in this. This is not his work. This is
not his duty. This is not according to the
purpose of God and the promise of God and the commands of God
for him to do these things. Dad, what do you want me to do?
Just want you to sit right there. I'm gonna take care of everything.
And dad goes outside and he takes some hyssop and he dips it in
that blood. He puts it on the lentil. That's
that big board across the top where the two side posts are
joined to it. Put blood up there and put blood
down both posts. Don't put it on threshold because
that'd be a trample on the blood of Christ. Dad did everything. You think about it. Dad chose
the lamb. Dad inspected the lamb. Dad approved
the lamb. Dad killed the lamb. Dad took the blood of the lamb. Dad went outside and he put the
blood on the lintel and on the doorposts. Here's the point. The firstborn
was not a participant in this. He's a spectator. And if you want to understand
the way God saves a sinner, understand this, in this redemptive work,
in this work of reconciliation, in this work of making us right
with God. We are not participants. We are spectators. The one who
participates or the one who actually does the work is God the Father. He's the one who's laboring for
us. The spiritual picture is beautiful. The role of each father in Israel
pictured God our father. You see, Moses was a father. Did you know that? Moses was
a father at this time. He had two boys. He had Gershom
and Eleazar. Gershom is the firstborn. So
Moses, he had to do this himself. He not only gave instructions
to all of the elders of the house of Israel as to how they're to
go about picking a lamb, choosing a lamb, identifying the right
lamb, and then putting the lamb up for inspection, and then killing
the lamb, catching the blood, taking the blood outside, put
it on the lintel on the doorpost. He not only gave instructions
to them, he had to do it for his own firstborn son, who was
Gershom. Moses did it for himself. He's
not exempt on this. Had Moses not shed the blood
of the lamb of the first year, innocent, without spot, without
wrinkle, had he not shed the blood, Gershom would have died. Everything's dependent upon the
work of the father. And that's the way it is in redemption. God chose the Lamb. He even says
in Isaiah chapter 42, Christ is His elect. God chose the Lamb. Who is the one appointed for
the sacrifice? Who is the one who would be,
as she sang right out of Isaiah chapter 53, who would be smitten? for our transgressions. Who is
that one? It's the Lamb of God, Christ
the Lord. Who chose Him? Who picked Him? Who anointed Him? Who ordained
Him? God the Father did. And God the Father sent him for
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting
life. God sent him, in due time God
sent him. And then God inspected him. There's
a beautiful statement there in Isaiah chapter 53. There are
many beautiful statements in Isaiah chapter 53 as far as that
goes. But one of them goes like this,
he shall grow up before him. Before who? Before God. That's talking about the incarnation
of the Lord Jesus. he shall grow up before God,
under God's inspection. Just like God told Moses and
all the fathers of Israel, you choose a land, put it up for
four days for inspection. And our Lord Jesus entered into
this world and he lived some 33 to 34 years under the inspection
of God. For he's got to be He must be
qualified. He must be sinless. He must be
without blame. He must be free of all transgressions. God chose him. God sent him. God inspected him. And God killed
him. And I know there were people
involved, the devils involved. Judas was involved, the Sanhedrin
was involved. They all lifted up their hands
against the Lord Jesus, but ultimately God put him to death. That's
what the scripture says. In that passage in Isaiah chapter
53, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Who bruised him? God did. In that song that she sang, the
deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke that justice gave. That's what the hymn writers
said. You see, the soldiers put the
nails in his hands and the nails in his feet, they had beaten
him, they'd put the crown of thorns on his head. But all of
those things were just physical, physical things, which were indicated,
which are indicative or to indicate to us the severity of the punishment
of God, because we could not see his soul sufferings, right? We couldn't see that. Nobody
could see that. But it was his soul's sufferings,
as Luther said, that was the soul of his sufferings. But his
sufferings deep within him was indicated or illustrated by the
sufferings of his body. Who put Jesus to death? The Father did. The Father shed
His blood. And in this way, God can be a
just God and a savior. Because God sent this soul that's
in it that shall die. There's gotta be death. Behold
justice at the cross of Calvary. Behold the judgment of God. Behold
the anger of God against sin. The wrath of God against our
iniquities. He kills his own son because
all of our sins were made to meet upon the head of our scapegoat,
the Lord Jesus. And God dealt with him in vengeance. God took the sword of his justice
and thrust it into the heart of the son of God and twisted
it. God put him to death. Moses killing that lamb for his
son, Gershom. It was a picture. It was an illustration. of what God would do hundreds
of years later to the Lamb of God to put away sin. The role of each father in Israel
pictured God, our father, who killed his son, the Lord Jesus.
Who shed the blood of Jesus? God did. God did. It was for his eyes. It was to
satisfy his justice. God had said to Israel, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. And then there's the
lamb. So we know every father in Israel
pictured God the father. Well, what about each lamb? And back to the beginning of
chapter 12 here of Exodus, Exodus chapter 12, you'll read about
a lamb, and then it graduates into the lamb, and then finally,
your lamb. And you see the graduation there.
You see the, how it, the increase of value as it were to each individual
Israelite house. You pick out a lamb, then you
take the lamb, and then it becomes, it's your lamb. It's sort of
the way it is with the Savior and us. We see him as a lamb. And then you see he's the lamb
who took away sin. And then God brings you to believe
him. And you say, he's my lamb. He's
my lamb who died that I might live. You think of that firstborn. the
firstborn as dad is doing all this. And he says, dad, why are
you doing all of this? I'm doing this so you'll live.
That's why I'm doing it. And our Lord Jesus, the Lamb
of God, we say, why are you enduring all of this? Why is this happening
to you? Why all of this suffering? Why
the bloodshed? Why the curdling cry, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why, oh, why do you endure
all these things? And the answer comes back, I
do it for you. I do it for you. so that you
will live forever. He's the Lamb of God. And then the firstborn, the firstborn
pictures all of the elect of God of all the ages. Go with
me to the book of Hebrews, if you would. And I'm gonna read
you first of all, I wanna read something out of the 11th chapter,
and then I'm gonna go into chapter 12. But I just wanna read something
to you about Moses, about Moses. Look at Hebrews 11.23, Hebrews
11.23. And those of you who are familiar
with your Bibles, of course you recognize Hebrews 11 as being
the faith chapter. Some might call it faith's hall
of fame. It's a glorious portion of scripture
illustrating the necessity of and the wonders of faith, of
believing God. Verse 23, Hebrews 11. By faith, Moses, when he was
born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw
he was a proper child. And they were not afraid of the
king's commandment. By faith, Moses, when he was
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. esteeming the reproach
of Christ, greater riches and the treasures of Egypt, for he
had respect under the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured his
seeing him who's invisible." Watch this, through faith he
kept the Passover. He had to keep the Passover because
he had a firstborn son that he wanted his life to be spared,
Gershom. So through faith, he kept the
Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed
the firstborn should touch them, come into their house and bring
grief to their house. So he put the blood out there.
By faith, they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land. When
the Egyptians are saying to do, they were drowned. Moses was
a man of faith who did all of these things according to the
word of God. Thus his firstborn son was saved.
Now go over to the 12th chapter. And let me show you how the firstborn
of Israel represented the people of God. Hebrews chapter 12. Look at verse 18. Chapter 12
and verse 18. For you are not come to the mount
that might be touched and that burn with fire, nor unto blackness
and darkness and tempest, the sound of a trumpet, the voice
of words, which voice they that heard entreated that the words
should not be spoken to them anymore. For they could not endure
that which was commanded, and if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight
that Moses said, I exceeding fear and quake. And God says,
now you're not coming to that kind of mountain. What mountain
are you talking about? Mount Sinai. God said, don't even touch
that mountain. Oh, that mountain brought fear
to all of the house of Israel. It shook, there's earthquake,
it belched forth smoke, lightning, thunder, all of this, the sound
of a trumpet, the voice of God, and we're scared to death. Now,
the Lord has the writer of the book of Hebrews tell us, listen,
you're not coming to the law. You're not coming to Mount Sinai.
You come into the mountain of grace. So he says in verse 22,
but you're coming to Mount Zion. You're coming to the mount of
the habitation of God. You come to the city of the living
God. This is not a fearful sight.
Coming to Mount Sinai, your knees knocked together, but you're
not coming to Mount Sinai. People said, you know, I think
we need to go back to the days when we hang the Ten Commandments
on every school house wall. The Ten Commandments kills. People
don't understand the Ten Commandments. Mount Sinai filled the Israelites
with fear. They were scared to death. The
law will kill you. You don't want to come to Mount
Sinai. You want to come to the Mount of Grace. That's where
you need to come. And this is what we're reminded
of here. You're coming to Mount Zion under the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable company of angels,
to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn. We're the church of the firstborn.
You know, in the Old Testament, there was the laws that had to
do with the firstborn. The firstborn, he became the
priest of the family. You know, all of God's people,
all of God's people, the firstborn were all kings and priests unto
God. And I tell you something else,
the firstborn got a double inheritance over the rest of the kids. Well,
all of God's people are the firstborn. So we get infinitely more than
we can even calculate. Oh, how blessed we are to be
the firstborn. We're people of the highest rank.
And you see that firstborn there in Israel, like Gershom, Moses'
firstborn. He was so blessed. While he would
grow up and he would receive a double inheritance. And until
the time of the giving of God's law, he would be the priest in
the family. And you and I, who are the firstborn
of God, each of us is a priest. Isn't that marvelous? You don't
have to go to a priest, go sit behind some There's a
curtain, there's a sliding whatever, and there's a guy on that side
and you confess your sins to him. Hey, he can't help you. Actually, that's quite vile.
Quite vile, that's quite devilish. You are a priest and you have
access to God himself through the great mediator, Christ Jesus
the Lord. and you have infinite inheritance,
measured only by God himself. You're the firstborn, you're
a people of the highest rank. You're priests unto God and infinitely
blessed with a glorious inheritance reserved for us. So, here's the father, Here's
the lamb, here's the firstborn. And the picture is obvious, which
brings me to my second point, and I'll go quickly. The deliverance
of the firstborn was fully dependent upon the faithfulness of God
to fulfill his promise. As we go back to Exodus chapter
12, And I'll repeat the words that
I gave you last Lord's Day morning in verse 51. And it came to pass. And it came to pass, just like
God said. And it came to pass. Why was it that God brought Israel
out of Egyptian bondage? Well, I told you last week it
was because of a covenant that he made with Abraham. You see,
before any of these folks were ever born, God entered into a covenant with
Abraham. And the Lord said to Abraham,
I'll bring your people. Your people are gonna go into
a land of strangers, but then I'm going to bring them out.
God dealt with one man on behalf of millions of people. And that
reminds us of the covenant of grace. God dealt with the Lord
Jesus Christ on behalf of millions and millions of people. God entered
into a covenant with him. I will be their God. I will be
their God. They will be my people. Their
sins and their iniquities, well, I remember no more. These are
God's covenant promises. And according to that covenant,
all of the Israelites who dwelt in Egypt were liberated. They all came out. Not a one
was left behind, not even the bones of Joseph. Joseph had said
before he died back in the book of Genesis, He said, I know,
I believe God is going to take our nation into the promised
land. So when you leave Egypt, and
it wouldn't be for 400 years, when you leave Egypt, take my
bones with you. And guess what? They did. because
Joseph believed God. God said, I'm gonna give you
a land flowing with milk and honey. And Joseph said, that's
where I want my bones to be buried. And I believe what God has said. So make sure don't you leave
Egypt without digging up my bones and taking them with you. And
he was embalmed according to the Egyptian method. And when
Israel left, they took his bones with him. He believed God. He
believed God. He and two and a half million
Israelites left Egypt. And they did so because of the
work of God. The work of God. Not one was
left behind. And I'll give you this. They
all came out exactly the same way. by blood. And listen, if God is going to
deliver us from bondage, he'll bring us all out of bondage one
way, through the grace of God and the redemption that is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And not one of God's people is
going to be left behind. I love the writings of Brother
Toplady, Augustus Toplady, who wrote Rock of Ages, among many
other hymns. He was a tremendous preacher.
He was certainly a valiant soldier of the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. But he wrote another song, which
we actually have it in that folder that's in front of you, but it's
called How Vast the Benefits Divine. And one of the lines
in that song goes like this, not one of all the chosen race, but shall to heaven attain. Partake on earth the purposed
grace, and then with Jesus reign. And I'll tell you, all those
that Christ redeemed, he's gonna bring them out of Egyptian bondage. He's gonna bring out of Satanic
bondage of the bondage of the world. He's gonna bring you to
himself by sovereign grace. He saves us. You know, with the
children of Israel, self-deliverance was an impossibility. And I'm telling you, self-salvation
is an impossibility. Oh, that God would do a work
of grace for you. I'll tell you one more thing
about that firstborn son. I'll tell you what he did do. He didn't choose the lamb. He
didn't inspect the lamb. He didn't kill the lamb. He didn't
put the lamb's blood out on the doorposts and the lintel. But
I'll tell you what he did do. He did do something. After all
that was done, as a result of all that being done, you know
what he did? He feasted on the roasted lamb. You know what that is? That's
faith. Christ said, eat my flesh, drink my blood. Spiritually,
that's figurative language. You feast on me. Oh, that we
might feast on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll find that,
He satisfies the hunger of our souls. And in Him, there's life
everlasting. I'm gonna go right back to Exodus,
actually in the chapter 13, deeper in the chapter 13 tonight, and
we'll continue with the idea delivered by the strength of
God. And then I wanna talk about how
that, God said about a certain animal, an animal unclean, God
says, if an ass, firstborn of an ass, God said, that's mine.
You can redeem it, but if you don't redeem it, you kill it. And I'm telling you, we're as
dumb as a wild ass's coat. That's what Job said. And it's
up to God as to whether he saves us or kills us. That's sovereignty right there.
That's the subject we're going to deal with this evening. Well,
may the Lord bless His word. Let's bow our heads. It is with thanksgiving, Father,
that we speak to you again and thank you for the Lamb of God,
Christ the Lord, who took away all the sins of your people.
He is your Passover Lamb. You chose Him. You anointed Him. You sent Him. You commissioned
Him. You gave Him a work to do. You
put Him to death. You shed His blood. and you sprinkle
that blood upon the hearts of your people by the power of the
grace of the Holy Spirit. We thank you, O God, for your
work, the work that you have begun, you're continuing to do,
and you will do so to the day of Jesus Christ. We're yours,
we're yours forever, we're yours to be kept by your power and
by your grace. And Lord, by the strength of
your hand, you have saved us and we're yours. Help us to walk
before you as people who love God, as people who are citizens
of glory. Let us not be too concerned with
things going on here since this is not the place of our citizenship. We're of a spiritual nation.
We belong to God. These things upon this earth
really have very little to do with us. This is just the place
of our sojourn. We're going home someday. We ask that you direct our steps
and we thank you for the promise that you're doing just that.
And Lord, keep our eyes always focused upon the Lamb of God
who took our sins away. Bless all who are here. Bless
unbelievers with faith. Bless your children with confidence
in Christ. These things we ask in the name
of our beloved Savior and for his sake. Amen.