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[0:00] Well, as we look then at this 19th chapter in the book of Exodus, mindful that we're making our progress through from chapter 11 now on towards all that is in chapter 20.

[0:13] The opening verse of this chapter tells us that Mount Sinai was clearly not the intended location when the Israelites first were told that they were to go three days journey into the wilderness to sacrifice unto the Lord there.

[0:31] Now, those in the Scalpe congregation will know that we've looked at this aspect in previous chapters when it came up. It says in the third month when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai and that they encamped there that same day.

[0:49] But, you know, when the Lord first spoke to Moses, when he described what he was to say to Pharaoh, for example, in chapter 5, verse 1, This same description is what the Lord had said to Moses in chapter 3, at verse 18.

[1:21] They shall hearken to thy wants, and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say to him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us, and now let us go, he beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.

[1:38] And people tend to read these things and then assume that what is meant is that Mount Sinai is somehow three days' journey away from Egypt. But, of course, that's not the case at all.

[1:49] And God doesn't say that it's the case. In chapter 3, at verse 12, when he says to Moses, Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee.

[2:00] When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. But he doesn't say that that's the three-day journey. We just tend to assume that that's what was meant.

[2:11] It's one of these things that people think that we read in the Bible, even though we don't like there being three wise men, which, of course, the Bible doesn't say that there were, that the angels sang to the shepherds outside Bethlehem, doesn't say that they did.

[2:25] That Jesus was born in a stable, doesn't say that he was. But we think we know the Bible says these things because it's in our mind and imagination. And sometimes when people are trying to deconstruct Exodus, and they say, but Mount Sinai isn't three days' journey into the wilderness, so that can't possibly be right, it can't possibly be true.

[2:46] God doesn't say anywhere that it is. He doesn't say that Mount Sinai is the three days' journey. In fact, more likely the three days' journey is simply the shores of the Red Sea, where we find them encamped in chapter 14, at the beginning of the chapter there, where, having come out of Egypt then, we read, speak to the children of Israel that they turn and encamp before Beharihoth, between Migdal and the sea, over against Beelzathon, before it shall ye encamp by the sea.

[3:16] See, that's more like three days' journey. And there the Lord intended them to be, as it were, ready for when Pharaoh came after them. Now, technically, theoretically, at that point, they could simply have held their feast to the Lord, as they had asked for, and then, perhaps, theoretically, could have turned and gone back into Egypt, and fulfilled all that they had asked of Pharaoh.

[3:40] And I'm quite sure, when we look at the later chapters of Exodus, we can see that some of them would have been very glad to go back into Egypt, because everything they knew was there.

[3:51] But rather, what the Lord intended was to bring them to that place, and then draw them across the Red Sea and into the Sinai Peninsula.

[4:02] Because bringing them there, and then bringing Pharaoh after them, which then closed off one route to them, God then opened the only way that they could go.

[4:14] We might say he sort of painted them into a corner. He closed off the option of going back into Egypt. He closed off the option of going even back again into the desert, because Pharaoh's army was there.

[4:28] They had to go the way that the Lord opened up for them, or rather, they had the option of choosing that, or the alternative is simply death.

[4:39] Likewise, when they went through the desert and they had nothing to eat, if they didn't like the manna, of course, they complained about the manna later on, they could eat that, or simply starve to death.

[4:50] If they didn't like the water from a rock, they could drink it, or simply die of thirst. And if they didn't like the quails, they didn't have to eat them. They just die of starvation again.

[5:01] If they choose not to fight against the Amalekites at Rephidim, they just die. You see, time and again, we are, as it were, painted into a corner by the Lord, who wants us to go a particular way.

[5:14] But we always have an option. But the option almost certainly results in our undoing, in our perishing, in our dying. And you would think, well, nobody's going to choose that.

[5:25] But you'd be amazed how many people do choose that. You'd be amazed at how many people would choose, rather, to turn away from the Lord and embrace the darkness of death.

[5:39] In Proverbs chapter 8, we read at verse 36, If we hate the Lord, the only means of life and salvation and of opening a way before us, then the only thing that is left to us is death.

[5:59] If we don't want life as it is in Christ, all that remains to us is a lost eternity and eternal death. So that's the first thing that this opening verse tells us.

[6:11] The third month, it's three months' journey, they get to Mount Sinai, not three days into the wilderness. That's just the shores of the Red Sea. The second thing we see here at verse 2 is that if this is Israel just encamping now, there Israel camped before the Mount, then it means that the events described in chapter 18, which some of you will know that we dealt with last week, chapter 18, Jethro's legacy amongst the Israelites of encouraging Moses to appoint ruling elders and judges over tens and fifties and hundreds and so on, and bring the really difficult cases to Moses, that that legacy of Jethro's, that took place only after they had got to Mount Sinai.

[6:57] Because if we look back at chapter 18 at verse 5, Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the Mount of God.

[7:09] So here they are already at Mount Sinai when Jethro and Zipporah and Moses' sons arrive. But, so what we have described in chapter 18 is, if you like, a looking forward in the narrative.

[7:22] It's describing something that hasn't, as far as the storyline is concerned, yet happened. But sometimes the Bible does that. It describes events in advance, just like sometimes it describes events in flashback.

[7:37] If you think, for example, about the narrative of the death of John the Baptist, the events surrounding the death of John the Baptist are told as a flashback. And to that extent, they interrupt the narrative of Jesus dealing with the disciples of John the Baptist at that point.

[7:54] Because it's necessary to convey that information at that point. But it's effectively a flashback. It's not told at the time when it happens. Sometimes God tells things in advance in his word, and sometimes he tells them by way of flashback.

[8:11] So that the narrative is not interrupted. You might say, well, why would God do this? Why wouldn't he just wait till chapter 19 comes along and then give us the story of Jethro and the setting apart of the ruling elders and the judges?

[8:26] Why doesn't he just do it at the point in the story when it comes up? That would be the logical thing to do. Well, I would suggest to you that by keeping the events of Jethro's legacy and the appointment of the ruling elders and judges in their own separate chapter before chapter 19 begins, because it's an important chapter in its own right, then what God is doing is twofold.

[8:55] First of all, he is preserving the integrity and, if you like, the importance of that vital development in the governance of the church and state of Israel.

[9:09] The appointment of ruling elders and judges over the different groupings of people and numberings of people was a vital development in the oversight and the governance of Israel, whether as a church or as a state.

[9:23] So that had to be narrated. It had to be given its own importance. And secondly, without it being overshadowed by what was coming, secondly, we might say, if we can say it reverently, that the Lord is clearing the decks.

[9:39] He is just clearing a space, as it were, to clear out of the way in order to make ready an uninterrupted narrative, building up to one of the most central and important events in the entire Bible, arguably the most important incident in the entire Old Testament, at least.

[10:02] That is the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. This chapter, 19, is intended to focus, without distraction, on the preparations for that event.

[10:15] Chapter 19 is not the giving of the Ten Commandments, but it is intended to focus upon the preparations for that integral event in the history of God's people.

[10:26] And if that had been sort of given and then the legacy of Jethro had been kind of swallowed up or drowned out by the importance of these preparations, then the Lord's people would have been the poorer for not having in clarity and with the self-contained integrity everything that was important in these respective chapters.

[10:49] This chapter, 19, is about the preparations for the giving of the Ten Commandments. So it's important in its own right. Well, why would God bother? Why would God do that?

[11:00] Spend so much time on the build-up? Why does he just cut to the chase? Go straight into the Ten Commandments? That's the important thing, surely, isn't it? Why does it just get straight to the point?

[11:11] Well, you know, do you do that? Do I do that? You know, does anyone do that? You know, if you've got something that's going to be one of the most important events in their entire lives, do they just jump right in with both feet?

[11:26] Or do they just decide to pick up the bag and say, oh, I'm off on this journey around the world or whatever. Oh, I think I'll get married tomorrow. Let's just go ahead and do it. Or do they make preparations? You know, your wedding day is one of the most important days in your life.

[11:39] You know, do you just jump to it and say, let's go, let's get married today? Or do you make preparations? Do you go and get the registration certificate in order? Do you book the hotel?

[11:51] Do you have rehearsals with the minister in the church? Do you invest your own resources into making the day special? Do you send out the invitations? Of course you do.

[12:01] You make all these elaborate preparations well in advance. Likewise, if you're going on a major journey, you make sure you've got your passports and your plane tickets, you've packed all your bags, you've got everything that you need.

[12:15] You make preparations. And the more significant and important and life-changing the event is going to be, the more careful the preparations have to be.

[12:27] So we do that with something that's important. You do that with something that's important. So God does that too. This chapter is about the preparation for the giving of the Ten Commandments.

[12:39] God makes preparation for this monumental event and the preparations of what this chapter is all about. That's why chapter 18 had to be dealt with first and dealt with separately.

[12:54] And just as, you know, by the time a wedding takes place, for example, take that as an example, the respective parties have seen something of each other already.

[13:05] They know about their respective qualities, their patterns of behaviour, and especially the way that they are in regard to those to whom they intend to make such a serious commitment.

[13:17] So it is with God. So we read in verse 4, You've seen how I behave.

[13:33] You've seen my power of destruction. You've seen my power of salvation. The way that I am in judgment. The way that I am in mercy. God has made himself known.

[13:44] The people of God and the ruling God have got to know each other a bit during this time of both the plagues in Egypt and then the Exodus itself, the coming out from Egypt.

[13:58] Just as people who are going to make a serious commitment to each other, they have to get to know each other first. So God says, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bear you on eagles' wings.

[14:10] Now, that means they were lifted up. Lifted up above the problems, above the most of the plagues, above all the difficulties that were set in their path. It doesn't mean that the difficulties melted away.

[14:23] It doesn't mean that they didn't have to battle through them. They had to do that by faith. And they had to trust in God and go forward. But he lifted them up, through and over these things.

[14:34] If anyone was to ask, You know, What kind of animal would you choose to be? Then if we had to think of a land animal, we might think of something big and powerful, like an elephant, or more likely a lion, or a panther, or something like that.

[14:48] If we had to think of a bird of the air, what would you most like to be? Most people would probably think, I want to be an eagle, because there's no creature greater in the winged birds of heaven than the eagle.

[15:03] And the Lord likens his dealing with the children of Israel to the care of an eagle, the way that he bears them. On many occasions in Scripture, we think, for example, of what he says in Deuteronomy 32, verse 11, And as an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him.

[15:31] That is Israel. And there was no strange God with them. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields, and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, butter of kine and milk of sheep with fat of lambs and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats with the fat of kidneys of wheat and thou did strength, the pure blood of the grape.

[15:58] All the riches of the earth and nature the Lord provided for Israel. He cared for them. And we remember, of course, what the prophet Isaiah says, They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.

[16:12] They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. And they shall walk and not faint. So the Lord deals with the children of Israel in a way that the eagle lifts her young up and over the different obstacles, the ways in which he provides for them, the way in which he has cared for them and looked after them.

[16:36] So there's been this, if you like, getting to know stage for the Israelites and the Lord. We'll come back to verse 6 in a short while because verse 6, if you like, is really the key verse.

[16:50] Verses 5 and 6, you could say, are the key verses in this entire chapter. The reason for all these preparations, the reason for the exodus, the reason for the settlement in Canaan and all God's works with the descendants of Abraham and the children of Israel is because of what we find in verses 5 and 6.

[17:10] That's why the commandments are given to this nation as opposed to any other nations under heaven. You shall be a peculiar, that old-fashioned word literally means, not strange or odd, it means unique.

[17:24] You'll be a peculiar, unique treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

[17:35] These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. So that's the key, the key point, the key verses in this whole chapter. But we'll come back to those verses in a moment.

[17:47] I'd like us to see how Moses goes up the mountain, speaks for the Lord, and then comes back down again. And he goes up first at verse 3, and then he comes back down again at verse 7.

[17:59] And I think we should understand that everything that is related up to verse 14 is also encompassed in that trip back down again, speaking to the children of Israel. Then he goes up again at verse 20, and then he comes back down again, verses 24 and 25.

[18:15] So there's two particular trips up, speaking to the Lord, receiving his commands to the people, and then coming back down again to them. So that when God actually speaks the Ten Commandments in chapter 20 to the assembled Israelites, I think we have to take it it's all the people that hear them, and not simply Moses up on the mountain.

[18:36] But again, we'll come to that. What we see at verse 10, the Lord said unto Moses, go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day.

[18:51] Now, the third day, of course, has huge significance, as we remember that not only does God reveal himself on Mount Sinai on the third day after he gives the warnings to them, but also it's the third day after the crucifixion of Jesus that he rises again victorious over the grave.

[19:10] The third day is always a highly significant day in Scripture, with its parallels here with the resurrection of our Lord. But it also says that they are to wash their clothes.

[19:21] Now, I think, okay, well, why would they go through all that? Well, again, you and I, we do that. If you've got a special dinner coming up, at a special event or party, you'd change your clothes.

[19:32] You wouldn't just wear your jeans and your sweatpants or your hoodie or whatever to go to a special dinner event, evening event. You'd put on special clothes. You'd put on your good official evening clothes or whatever it might be.

[19:45] If you've got an interview, a job interview, you'd dress differently again for that. If you're going away on holiday, you'd dress differently for your more casual clothes. Again, so we would put on different changes of clothing depending on the situation or the event that we were coming to.

[20:02] But they didn't have, if it were a full wardrobe, like we've got. What could they do with the clothes that they had? They could make them the cleanest and the best that they could. They all washed their clothes so that even if they couldn't choose from a vast array of different changes of clothing, they could still give God their best.

[20:21] They could still be prepared and they could still be washed and clean and made ready. Now, of course, washing your clothes outwardly and presumably their bodies as well before they put the clean clothes on, that doesn't change the heart inside.

[20:36] But it symbolizes that need for cleansing. That which is outward, which we can recognize with the senses, is meant to point us to the inner reality, the deeper truth.

[20:52] And time and again, throughout Scripture, God uses the visible outward symbols to indicate the deeper, inner spiritual reality and truth.

[21:04] He does that with the sacrifices. He does it with the Old Testament priesthood, with the incense that rises up as the symbol of prayer, the clouds of which ascend up towards heaven.

[21:15] He does it in the New Testament when Jesus breaks the bread and pours out the wine, says, this is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you. Now, he doesn't mean literally these are those things, but he means that you partake of these physical elements to point you to the deeper spiritual truth.

[21:36] Likewise, the water of baptism doesn't make us all that much cleaner than we were physically, but it's to indicate both the anointing with the Spirit and the washing away of sin.

[21:48] So that which is outward and physical points ultimately to an inward reality. So it's the symbolising of that which is to be cleansed and to be holy.

[22:00] Likewise, again, in verse 15, where he says, be ready against the third day, come not at your wives. Don't engage in conjugal relations and marital relations.

[22:11] No, there's anything wrong with that. These things, in the context of marriage, are sanctified and holy and good and blessed of the Lord. So, but even that which is honourable and that which is good and clean and sanctified is for now for this occasion and various other, you know, particular sacramental occasions that are mentioned in the Scriptures.

[22:35] There are times when the Israelites are told to abstain from these things so that they may focus the more clearly upon the one thing needful, upon the Lord himself.

[22:46] And even Paul in the New Testament says that, you know, husbands and wives might refrain themselves from one another that they may give themselves to fasting and prayer, that they come together again at the end of that period without any distraction.

[23:00] So, there are times when it is right even for that which is holy and blessed of the Lord to be postponed, to be abstained from so that the ultimate lover of their souls, the ultimate love and loyalty of their lives can be focused upon without distraction.

[23:21] You know, every marriage where God is most important and more beloved even than the earthly love of our lives, such a marriage is built on the ultimate secure foundation.

[23:37] There is only meant to be one person. If you're married, there's only one person you should love more than your husband or wife and that is the Lord. He must always come first and if he does, then your marriage or your relationship will be on a secure and firm foundation.

[23:54] If he doesn't come first and we think that we're being somehow more good and loving and romantic by putting our spouse first in our lives instead of God, that's just idolatry.

[24:06] That's making a God, small g, out of somebody who isn't one. That's just idolatry, pure and simple. So even that which is holy, even that which is sanctified, is for a time to be abstained from so that the Lord can be focused on without distraction.

[24:26] And so we see then these verses 16 on to 20. We see here a fraction of the power and the awesomeness of God. We've got the mountain quaking and with the smoke and with all the outward fire and the visible signs that are frightening to the Israelites and they are frankly terrified by it and with good reason.

[24:49] We don't see in our day, we don't recognise this element of the fear of the Lord, the dread of the holy because when we were to come into contact with it, if we were to come into contact with God in all his dreadful, that's in the sense full of dread and awe and majesty, if we saw him as he really is, we would just die on the spot.

[25:17] But God in his mercy comes to us not as he is in the power of his majesty and dreadful might, he comes to us in the person of his son, Jesus Christ, somebody like us yet without sin.

[25:31] He comes in the person of a little baby and then he grows into a child and into a man like us and he lives the kind of life we live yet without sin and he offers up that perfect life once and for all upon the cross.

[25:47] This is how God reveals himself to us because he loves us so much. But what he shows himself to but for the Israelites here is just a little fraction of his power.

[26:00] He's showing a wee bit of something of the dreadfulness of his majesty and the awe of his power and the fearfulness that there is here.

[26:11] And it's not a bad thing to have a healthy dose of the fear of the Lord. It is a healthy and wholesome thing to recognise that God is awesome.

[26:25] God is one before whom we should bow down in worship. God is dreadful. He is one who if we were to be his enemy would be absolutely terrifying but whom Christ has made to be our friend because he has come between us and the Lord and reconciled the two.

[26:47] That's what we read about in Ephesians chapter 2. You can read that for yourself in your own time. But as we see this fearfulness of the Lord what is God's purpose here?

[26:59] Why is he bringing this nation of runaway slaves to the foot of Mount Sinai? Why is he going to give them his law and his commandments? Well we come back again to what we read in verses 5 and 6.

[27:10] You shall be a peculiar that is unique treasure unto me above all people for all the earth is mine. I could have chosen anybody I wanted.

[27:21] I could have chosen any nation I wanted but I chose you. I could have loved anyone that I wanted but I loved you. This is the amazing thing that every redeemed sinner has to somehow come to terms with.

[27:34] God could have saved anyone in all the world but he saved you if you're his. God could have forgiven the sins of anyone but he chose to forgive yours. God could have passed you and me by easily but he chose to save us if we're in Christ.

[27:50] And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Holy in the sense of set apart. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

[28:02] What is their ultimate purpose? Now the purpose of a priest was to intercede between the people and the God who was worshipped.

[28:12] The priest became a sort of go-between. He offered up sacrifice. He became a representative of the people to God and a representative of God to the people.

[28:24] So he became almost their kind of mini-mediator. One who came between the two and who represented the one to the other and vice versa.

[28:35] Now as with priests being those who interceded as it were for the people to God and represented God to the people so likewise kings ruled over the people of course on God's behalf because all power the powers that be are ordained of God.

[28:52] And this kingdom of priests was that illustrated to the Israelites that God was their king and their function was what? Their function was to represent God the living God the true God to the rest of the world so that in all the world in all the nations of the world God would be represented in the midst of them by a chosen nation a peculiar in the sense of unique priesthood of people who were to represent him to the world and would be as it were the representatives of humanity to him and for him of course this is ultimately fulfilled perfectly in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord who represents God because he is God the son to us as humanity and he represents us as humanity to his father he is the perfect God man and Israel as a people are if you like a prefiguring a foreshadowing of this great relationship but of course this is what also Christians are called to be this was the

[29:59] Old Testament church being this representative nation the only means by which other nations other Gentile nations would hear about the living God would come to know the living God and likewise they were the means by which God would reveal himself to these other nations now Peter says the apostle Peter in the New Testament that that's what the New Testament church is meant to be as well that's what you and I are meant to be 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9 we read and Peter is really referencing the statement of God in Exodus 19 he says you are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a kingdom of priests a holy nation a peculiar unique people that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light which in time past were not a people but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy now of course he's quoting there from the prophet

[31:03] Hosea but all that God is doing throughout this salvation history he is bringing in souls to himself bringing souls into his chosen people and that's what the new testament church is doing it's bringing now in the gentiles into this chosen nation of God it's not that the Israelites have ceased to matter it's that we all in a sense become honorary Israelites we are grafted in like the wild olive branch into the original shrub of God's planting we are to be the continuation of this kingdom of priests we are to represent God to this world and we are to represent the world to intercede for the world to God we are to be the living representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ just as the Israelites were to be the representatives of God in the Old Testament you see for many people as the phrase is often cited we may be the only

[32:06] Bible they ever read we may be the only Christian that some people will ever know and what they see in us that relationship to God if they see it as a living reality they may come to want to know more if we just show forth a witness and an example that is completely and totally worldly and inconsistent and unlike what we ought to be as followers of Jesus it will turn people just right off some people will be turned off anyway because they are enmity with the Lord but sometimes it will be our failings that put people off and that is a blame that we have to bear and repent of but we are to be the representatives to them this kingdom of priests in Revelation chapter 1 verses 5 and 6 and we read unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever this is the

[33:09] God who has called us this is the God who desires us to be this kingdom of priests now you might think yeah okay well where does that leave the people of Israel has God just finished with them now well I would suggest to you that scripture teaches that he hasn't yet finished with them in Jeremiah we read in chapter 31 from verse 35 thus saith the Lord which giveth the sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night which divided the sea when the waves did all roar the Lord of hosts is a thing if those ordinances depart from before me saith the Lord then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever thus saith the Lord if heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done saith the Lord now these things haven't been done these things cannot be measured these depths cannot be plumbed therefore God still has some purpose even for physical

[34:17] Israel what is that purpose well Paul says in chapter 11 of Romans he says in verse 25 and 26 I would not brother that you should be ignorant of this mystery lest you should be wise in your own conceits that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in and so all Israel shall be saved as it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob now of course no person whether Jewish or Gentile is ever going to be saved outside of the Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah of Israel but in him all those who trust and believe can and will be saved now this was the purpose of ancient Israel was to be if you like the vessel through which the Messiah would be brought to be that peculiar unique people that kingdom of priests that representative nation and then the

[35:18] New Testament church took that on now it's not as we say that God dispensed with this people of Israel but rather who did the Gentiles hear the gospel from they heard it from Jewish believers the first Christians were all Jews the apostles were all Jews it's not that all the Jews rejected their Messiah it's just that the number who believed and accepted him was a tiny number but from that tiny number of believing Israelites the good news of the gospel went out into all the world and the proportion of the Gentiles that believe it's still a tiny number but from that tiny number the good news of the gospel continues to go out to all the world and if that tiny number of Jewish believers was the means by which the gospel was first sent out into the world there are those who believe that these scriptures teach us that the day will come when the fullness of the Gentiles has been fulfilled that the Lord will then undertake huge numbers of conversions amongst his people of the Jews according to the flesh and use their conversion to their own

[36:28] Messiah as a huge means of ingathering multitudes around the world and they become effectively a missionary race now we don't know exactly when or how about what means or if God should do things exactly in that way we are not privy to how he intends to unfold or unlock the mysteries of his work but what we do know is that he intends for us to be the means of bearing and bringing the good news and the witness of the living God to others in this world in the places where he has positioned us and placed us there he intends us to be a living witness and an influence for him just as he intended the Israelites to be his living witnesses to the reality of the living God amongst all the nations of the world that's why he called them out that's why he brought them to Mount Sinai that's why he gave them his special laws that's why he preserved them as upon eagles wings and

[37:34] I would suggest to you friend that if you are in Christ this is why the Lord has preserved and kept you unto this hour and if you're not yet in Christ then this is the Lord's invitation to you to come and receive and believe and be part of this peculiar treasure this unique people this kingdom of priests because as Peter said once you are not a people once you weren't part of this unique body but now you can be because of what Christ has done now you can be part of God's great plan for humanity which is to gather in men and women and boys and girls from all corners of this globe and all places and all communities including that in which you live including those who are your neighbours your relatives your friends he intends them also to be invited that which he had as a purpose for Israel he also has as a purpose for you and me if you will receive it

[38:39]  God's plan God's purposes are always perfect and that invitation is to you and me also if we will accept and receive and believe in the living God salvation to know God shall give heaven and true that is where essent to me