Greetings, friends. Exodus chapter seven and verse five. We have another instance where the Lord used that term to describe himself. I am, I am, am the Lord. In verse five, he says, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. When I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them. Now this was way back at the beginning of the world's history. At least it was fifteen hundred years before Christ, according to biblical chronology. And at that time the Pharaoh of Egypt was against the children of Israel. They made them slaves and made them work with hard bondage. and they brutally handled and treated them. And the Lord said, I have come down to deliver them. And he says here that they will know that I am the Lord. Yes. Pharaoh did not believe in the Lord. He said, who is the Lord that I should serve him or that I should obey him? Who is he? You see, at that time... There were very few in the world that actually knew anything much about God, but the children of Israel did know, and they were the ones that were being under, they were put under, they were made slaves, and they were brutally treated. God says they were his people. He chose them out of the nations of earth to be his very own. and he's going to deliver them now. But he says, Egypt will know when I deliver them. Ah, yes. They would know. And how would they know? Because the eldest of every family was going to be taken that very night in which God would deliver Israel, the oldest in the family would die if they were not sheltered by blood on the doorposts and the little of the door. So in all of the Egyptians' homes, there was blood on the door wherever the Egyptian people were. If the household was too small for the lamb, then two households could go together and slay the lamb, but they all needed to stay inside the house or else they would die. The destroying angel would take them. So they would know, oh, yes. In a very definite, solemn, very solemn way they would know there wasn't a house in which there was not one slain, one dead. God holds the strings of life and death. God gives us birth. Yes, and birth starts us into life, and life leads us into eternity, and eternity receives into death, and death takes us into eternity, and eternity... receives us either to glory or despair. God holds the strings of birth. He is the one that causes us to be born, and He holds the strings of death when they fall. Oh, my friend, the Lord did come down, and He delivered Israel out of Egypt, as we all know the story. across the Red Sea, through the wilderness, across the Jordan, into the Promised Land. But, my friends, the fact that he took the whole nation of Israel out of Egypt is a very, very remarkable matter. And we read that not a hook was left behind. Every last one of them went out. There wasn't one Israelite left in Egypt. That night... when the Lord delivered the children of Israel. Those that were sheltered by the blood, they were inside, and the blood was on the door and the lintel outside, so that when the destroying angel came through, when he saw the blood, God says, When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and you'll not let the destroying angel come in. I'll pass over you. and not let the destroying angel do his deadly work. So they were safe and secure when they were sheltered by the blood. This tells us only, friends, of salvation for the soul right now, in this day of the church, even, this day of grace, when we can have salvation for nothing, we can have it by receiving Christ as our Savior. When we acknowledge our guilt as sinners and that we are sinners, we acknowledge that before God we are sinners. We repent of those sins. Then we see and realize in our own hearts and souls that on the cross he bear all those sins that belong to me and all of those sins that belong to you as an individual. He bear them in his own body on the tree. And those who do so trust him and believe in him, we become, as it were, a nation for God. As the children of Israel became a nation for God, fifteen hundred years before the Savior came, we are not called a nation today, but we are called, in the New Testament, the church, the body of Christ. And every true believer in the Lord Jesus for salvation is a part of that church. Regardless of where they are, who they are, they are a part of that church that the Lord Jesus said, I will build. Upon this rock himself, I will build my church. And so we have that great group of people in the world today that belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. They are the mystical body of Christ on earth. Israel... was the great nation that God said was his nation, his people, that he would protect them, that he would bring them out. He would deliver them from the taskmasters of Egypt, and he would bring them out with an high hand, a stretched out arm, his own hand, stretched out against the enemy, and for bringing the people of Israel, Out of that land. Now that land is a picture of this world. And the enemy is a picture of Satan. It's a type of Satan. The world is where the church is right now. That part of, that's foreign to the believer, foreign to the Christian, the evil part of the world. The Christian does no part in it. But the stretched out hand of God removed the entire nation of Israel out of Egypt, which speaks of the world. Now when we come to the New Testament and we find that the truth about the Church, which is the mystical body of Christ on earth, then we find that the Lord is going to come and redeem them, the Church, out of this world, this present world. This present evil world, the Scripture says. What a picture, friends. The stretched out hand of God delivered Israel from the power of Egypt, the world of Egypt, and the hand of the Lord is going to deliver the church one of these days out of the hands of this world. This world is antagonistic to the church. This world that mocks the church, that mocks the maker, that mocks the Savior, that brings the Savior down to their own level, that he was just a man and not God at all. That part of the world that's evil, that's against God, that is set in their heart, no God. Oh, my friends, one of these days, God's going to prove his word. God will make his word sure. He will fulfill his word. And while the Egyptians didn't believe that they'd ever, that the children of Israel had ever escaped their power, oh no, they were slaves. They were bond slaves. They would never be delivered out of Egypt. And the world today, that's at the thought that the Lord Jesus is going to descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. And the dead in Christ are going to rise first. They scoff at resurrection. We die, and that's the end of us. And our bodies go back to the dust of the earth from once it came. That's true. But God says he's going to raise that body. Whether it's saved or unsaved, he's going to raise the saved persons first. And perhaps a thousand or more years later, every unsaved person's body will be raised. And their soul will be reunited. at the great white throne, in empty space, in space, which is empty, there is the great white throne, and there will be sent for lost eternity, according to your Bible and mine, the Book of Revelation, chapter twenty. But the saints, the saved ones, those who know the Lord Jesus as Savior now, and a part of his church, with a stretched out arm, is going to raise them up out of this world, the dead in Christ arise first as their body. And those who are alive and remain at that given moment, that instant, will rise to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And there will not be one person in the church. There will not be raised. There will be no person saved, no saved sinner left in this world. No Christian, no believer. will be left in the world. Oh, my friend, when that shout is made, will you go? Not unless you have trusted Christ as your Savior. We thank the Heavenly Father that are going to deliver the church out of the hands of this world in thine own great power, thine omnipotent power, for thou art the Lord. We pray that many will trust the Savior while they may, while it's time, and before the Lord comes. We pray for our country. the rulers, the authorities, the lawmakers, and the courts, and all of the governors of state, our president, the vice president, the mayors of cities, whoever is in authority, and we who form this citizenry, that we may live an exemplary life and trust a Savior for ourselves, that we might be a part of that great body, his church, to go when the call comes. the shout and the voice of the archangel. We pray in the name of the precious Lord Jesus, our Savior. Amen.