I Bore You on Eagles' Wings, Part 3

Of course, today is the day of Pentecost, and the day when God poured out His Holy Spirit to begin the New Testament Church. So this is the anniversary, if you will, of the beginning of the New Testament Church so many years ago. Those who then received God's Holy Spirit at that time became, in essence, spiritual Israelites. And the point out of God's Holy Spirit on this day is recorded there in Acts 2. It was accompanied by many signs and miracles and wonders. They had the sound that says there of a rushing, mighty wind. The appearance of tongues of fire, resting on each of them. They began speaking and hearing foreign languages, which they didn't speak or didn't know. They heard the apostles speaking in foreign languages, or they heard it in that language. However, the miracle happened to be poured out. But you stop and think about it. None of those were really miracles, at least not to God. They were miracles to those who were there, obviously. But they weren't miracles to God.

They were simply signs that he gave that something new was happening on this particular day. It would be something big, something new.

That links to a centuries-old event that also occurred on the day of Pentecost. I'll go back there to start with, because I want to tie this into the sermon today. Let's go back to Exodus 19, to that centuries-old event that links to Acts 2, when God poured out His Holy Spirit. But on the day of Pentecost, at least traditionally we have it on the day of Pentecost. It doesn't say for sure it was on that day, but very likely it was on that day when God came down on top of Mount Sinai and gave the Ten Commandments. But Exodus 19, I'll begin there, Exodus 19, verse 1, says, in the third month, after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai. There are different people that have proposed where that is, and I'll go into that in just a moment.

Verse 3, Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, and said, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how they were all destroyed when they crossed the Red Sea, and how I bore you on eagle's wings, and I brought you to myself, to meet with God there at Mount Sinai.

Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom, a priest, and a holy nation.

Now, I recently completed parts 1 and 2 of my three-part sermon series entitled, I bore you on eagle's wings, taken from verse 4. Here's the title taken from Exodus 19, verse 4.

I bore you on eagle's wings, to bring you to myself. In part 1 of that series, I showed how Old Testament Israel was miraculously conceived as a nation, and how God conceived Israel as a nation in a very unconventional way. He closed Sarah's womb in order to open Sarah's womb when she was past the age of being able to bear children. He promised Abraham the land of Canaan, and then he forced him out of the land of Canaan into the land of Egypt. He promised Abraham to send us liberty and freedom. In order to give them liberty and freedom, he allowed them to become slaves in Egypt first, and he delivered them out of slavery. Very unconventional way that God brought about and established the nation of Israel. Part 2, I showed the very unconventional way in which Israel was delivered as a nation, and how they were eventually then born as a nation, and how God led them out of Egypt. And Gary, go ahead if you want to put up the... I didn't show this last time, but very brief. No, the other map, the first one, the modern one first. There, this one here. This is a modern map of Egypt. You just want to point out real quickly, of course, all this is Egypt, including what is called now the Sinai Peninsula. This is Israel here. This is Saudi Arabia. This is Jordan Mediterranean Sea.

The land of Goshen was probably up in here, this area somewhere, and they crossed the Red Sea. There are different ideas. I want to bring out the different proposals a little bit here, but some say they cross here at the Straits of Turan, some say it's more right up in here, some even proposed a little bit higher in the Gulf of Lachaba, but somewhere in the Gulf of Lachaba is where they crossed the Red Sea, and the real Mount Sinai is over here somewhere.

So go ahead. That's just one to let you know. That's the modern Egypt, so you've got to get an idea. Let's go to the other one, the topographical map you just had there. The thing that's interesting about this is, now, last time I mentioned that there are several of the proposals, there are several different ideas about the actual route of the Exodus and where they crossed, and if you go to the route of the Exodus, you get a lot of websites that will propose different ideas, but most all agree that Mount Sinai is over here, Jabbalah Law is over in this area here, the mountain of the law in Saudi Arabia.

But as I showed last time, one proposal is that they, John and Nanda Goshen, will be up here, and that they came down on this beachhead here, down here, and across the Straits of Turan, or somewhere right down here, where it's quite shallow. Others propose that they came around down here, around this way, and crossed either here or maybe right here. And I think it's Ron Wyatt. Is that who he is, Rich?

Ron Wyatt proposes that I think they crossed right about here, where there's a natural land bridge there, and there's even he had a documentary even showing where there's cherry wheels and things there, so that's a very likely possibility. The thing that's interesting, and I almost hesitate to point this out, I've thought about it for a long time, because we always traditionally believe that they crossed the Red Sea on the last day of Unleavened Bread.

If you stop and look at it, though, and think about it, it's kind of unlikely in a way. Now, the only thing we have in the Bible is that from Mount Sinai to Kaddish Barnea was 11 days journey. That's in Exodus, I mean Deuteronomy, I think, chapter 1, verse 2. Well, the real Mount Sinai is down here somewhere, Jabbalah laws.

Almost all the scholars will agree with that, that they'll look into it or objective. Kaddish Barnea, they don't know for sure, but some proposals up in this area here. The one I had here says maybe it's more closer up in here, but if it's 11 days journey, say from here, right up to about here, and this is all, it's easy, this mountain's here, but it's right this side is all more wilderness here.

It'd be easy to go up there from Mount Sinai to Kaddish Barnea, this route right along here. Well, if this is 11 days journey, say from here, right up to here, in this area, then it's got to be more than 11 days journey from here, all the way down to here, or from here, all the way down to here. It's got to be more like a 20 days journey. I don't know, I don't know how long it took, it doesn't say, but I'm just saying, you know, there's a possibility it might have taken more than six days to get from the land of Goshen to where they crossed the Red Sea somewhere along the Gulf of Aqaba.

Very likely, as Ron Wyatt and his documentary right around in there, possibly. So anyway, that's okay, Gary. You can take that off. We'll go on, because the main thing is what the spiritual lessons we can learn, not just interesting to think about and speculate on, and again, all we can do is speculate, look at the evidence, and maybe draw our own conclusions. But at any rate, as we know, and we'll put it up again just for a second, Gary, just for just the last half of a second, if you've got it there, he led them out in the wrong direction because the land of Canaan was up in here, which is where Israel is today.

This is Israel right here, this modern Israel right here, border modern Israel. But the land of Canaan was up in here, where Israel is. The land of Goshen is over here. So the straightest way, obviously, is to go right from there, right across here, the way of the Philistines, through the land of the Philistines here, and right up to the land of Canaan. But he went the wrong direction.

He went south. He either went this way, or very likely, he went down like this. He went the wrong direction. That's the main point I want to make. That's good. Thanks, Gary. He led them in the wrong direction, and then he allowed Pharaoh and his armies to pursue them to where they became trapped with no appointed way of escape. And either you, whether you go to the states of Tehran or you go up to the Gulf of Aqaba, where Iran, quiet, has evidence that they crossed.

Either way, you're hemmed in by the mountains and by Pharaoh behind you, and you've got no way of escape. You couldn't go back the way they came, and they couldn't go forward. They're blocked by the sea in the mountains. They're hemmed in.

And they couldn't go forward, and they couldn't go back.

Then, at the end of their 50-day journey, their countdown period to Pentecost, they finally arrive at Mount Sinai, which is undoubtedly Jabbal al-Laz in Saudi Arabia, to meet with God in all probability on the day of Pentecost to receive the Ten Commandments. And God had, indeed, borne them on eagles' wings every step of the way. Taking them in a way they could not have taken themselves, and causing them to maybe soar at the heights that they could not have imagined possible. But on the day of Pentecost, so many, many centuries ago, on the day of Pentecost that we're looking at when God gave them the Ten Commandments, as we know, that was not the end of their journey. It was only maybe a pause or an interruption in their journey. I'm going to put it that way, and I'll explain what I mean in a moment, but it was kind of an interruption in their journey. And, you know, you think about it was easy for God to get them there the way he did, even though it was totally illogical to us, humanly speaking, but it was easy for God to get them there. What were miracles to Israel were just infinitesimally small manifestations of the power of God.

So, but they seemed like miracles to Israel, but to God they were just very small portions of His power. But to complete Israel's journey was going to require something additional that was even difficult for God to get them really to the end of their journey where they needed to go. And we're going to get into the spiritual aspect of it. It required something that was even very difficult for God. You might say, well, why would anything be difficult for God?

The individual journey was interrupted, and I'm putting it this way, for about 1500 years, I'm going to say. I've got to tie this into the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 when God poured out His Holy Spirit. That's when the real spiritual journey began, isn't it? So the individual journey was interrupted for about 1500 years until the Day of Pentecost when God poured out His Holy Spirit to give birth to the spiritual nation of Israel, to spiritual Israel, if you will. And we are now on a journey with spiritual Israel to the real mountain of God, which is the kingdom of God, God's kingdom, an eternal life, and God's kingdom to live with God forever. We're not being led by a pillar of cloud by day or a pillar of fire by night. We're being led by God's Holy Spirit.

And our journey is different from ancient Israel's journey in that our journey requires more than just miracles from God. I mean, it's a miracle that we have God's Spirit and the miracle that our minds are open to understand it, but it requires more than miracles to complete our journey.

If all it would require for us to complete our journey was just a miracle from God, then God could get us there. We'd have to worry about it. But there's more to it than that. Our journey requires something that's even very difficult for God. Well, I want to look at it from that point of view today. Now, ancient Israel's journey was from slavery to freedom, but you need to stop and think about it. They never got there. They never made it. I'm talking about ancient Israel. They never really became free. You might have thought they became free. Didn't they get out of Egypt? God did deliver them out of Egypt. He destroyed the Egyptian. He destroyed their armies. But, you know, you really analyze and think about it. They never made it to freedom. They never were totally freed. You might say, well, why not?

See, there was one final step Israel had to take before her real freedom could be realized. And that final step was very difficult even for God to accomplish. It's still difficult for God to accomplish today as we were on that same journey, but in a spiritual sense.

So today, then, I'm actually going to complete the series today. I'm tying into the day of Pentecost and the meaning of Pentecost, but today in this final sermon and this three-part series, we're going to look at the final step of our journey to freedom, to the freedom of receiving eternal life in the kingdom of God, which is, of course, all the purpose for God giving His Holy Spirit next to when the New Testament Church began. And we'll look at the one thing that was and still is difficult for God. Again, it was easy for God to deliver Israel out of Egypt physically. But I'll tell you what was difficult when you look at it. What was hard for God to do? Even going back to ancient Israel, now, looking at it from that physical perspective, the thing that was difficult, it was difficult for God to deliver Egypt out of Israel. That was another matter. Delivering Israel out of Egypt was easy, but delivering Egypt out of Israel, that was another matter. So the title of my sermon today is, I bore you on Eagle's wings, part three. Delivering Egypt out of Israel. And that is a matter that ties into the spiritual meaning of Pentecost and receiving of God's Holy Spirit. Now, first question I want to ask, and we know that Israel left Egypt, but did Egypt leave Israel? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Or did Egypt stay with and remain in the Israelites? You know, how long have the children of Israel been slaves in Egypt before being delivered? Well, we don't know for sure. They had been used as slaves since before Moses was born. We know that they were in slavery and crying out for deliverance because of the oppression of slaves at the time Moses was born and before Moses was born. Don't know how many years. And we know Moses was 80 years old before God then used Moses to deliver Israel out of Egypt. So they were slaves all during the life of Moses from the time he was born to age 80. And prior to that, so they had been slaves in Egypt for at least 100 years or more. 100 years. Basically, one entire generation of Israelites were born and raised in slavery. That's all they knew.

Jewish tradition thinks it might have been over 150 years. We don't know for sure, but it was at least over 100 years and probably most of them were one generation that they had been slaves. So all that that one generation of Israelites knew, had ever known or experienced, was slavery. Think about that. It's all they'd known. With the exception of Moses, I would say, because Moses, he was raised in Pharaoh's household. He had a wonderful life. He was raised right there in Pharaoh's own household until he gave all that up to go be with the Israelites and become a slave with them. But he hadn't grown up in slavery. That was not his mentality. He was about the only one that hadn't. But all the other Israelites, all they'd ever known, all their lives was slavery. Now, I want to stop and think about that. I want us all to think about it, because that's a very, very dangerous situation. Why? Because several things can happen when that becomes all you've ever known your entire life. Number one, that's all you've ever known.

That's normal for you. It becomes normal. Being a slave was normal.

It became normal to them because all they'd ever known or ever experienced their entire lives. And you can make analogies today. I mean, some today were born into or who then grew up in a very abusive, maybe family situation, abusive household. For them, that becomes normal.

That becomes normality. That's all they've ever known. They've never seen anything else to compare it to, never experienced anything else. Which is why, unfortunately, some girls who grow up in that kind of a household, they'll end up marrying someone like that.

Why? Because that's normal. And they don't see the warning signs. They might be dating somebody. They never see the warning signs because whatever warning signs there are, that's normal to them. That's what they've grown up with. So it becomes very dangerous when something that's wrong like that becomes normal. In addition to becoming normal, the second thing that can happen is it can become unacceptable. You accept it. What seems normal eventually becomes acceptable, especially when it involves an entire nation or an entire society, which it was in the case of Israel.

After at least a hundred years or more of slavery in Egypt, you see the abnormal, maybe as painful as it is, it can become normal. And what would otherwise be totally unacceptable becomes acceptable.

I dare believe that Satan knows that process very well.

It's the course that Satan is now taking the great country we now live in. It's the course we're on. Think about it. Satan's the one that's bringing it about, but he knows that. Because in our society right now, think about it. The abnormal is now becoming normal, and the unacceptable is now becoming acceptable.

There's a very grave danger in that. The greatest danger of all, what is that? What happens once the abnormal becomes normal, and once the unacceptable becomes acceptable?

Once that happens, think about it, once that happens, everything gets reversed.

Evil can become good, and good can become evil. It has happened in ancient Israel, and is prophesied by—I'm going to quote this, because she can write it down and look at it later—but it's prophesied for ancient Israel. In Isaiah 5, verse 20, Isaiah 5, 20 says, "'Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.'" See, that's what happens when the abnormal becomes normal, and the unacceptable becomes acceptable.

So remember that this 50-day countdown period symbolizes—well, see what it symbolizes—symbolized for ancient Israel, symbolize their journey from slavery. God took them out of slavery to deliver them to freedom. He gave them freedom.

Now, what can happen after a long time of being in slavery, and then all of a sudden be given freedom? Has happened to ancient Israel.

What is the greatest danger of being in slavery for a very prolonged period of time?

Well, the greatest danger is this. Slavery can be viewed as freedom, and freedom can be viewed as slavery.

You know why? I mean, how's that possible? How can slavery be viewed as freedom, and freedom be viewed as slavery? How is that possible? Well, very simple. Think about it. A slave has no personal responsibilities or accountability except to his master. He just does whatever his master tells him and requires of him. A free person, on the other hand, has to take responsibility in a personal way and has to take personal accountability. You have to set goals. You have to plan your life. You've got to make sacrifices. You have to determine how you're going to accomplish those goals.

You've got to work at it, whether physical or spiritual. But with slavery, there's little or no personal responsibility. The master, whoever that master happens to be, takes care of all those things for his slaves. With freedom, there's personal responsibility and personal accountability. With slavery, there is neither, other than whatever the master says. So the greatest danger of slavery, then, is that when there has been little or no requirement for personal responsibility or personal accountability, that can seem like freedom. Because you have to worry about anything. The master is taking care of all of it for you. That can seem like freedom when it's really slavery in disguise.

Freedom from personal responsibility and accountability is not freedom. Slavery. Slavery to a master, whoever that master might be. And that master can be an individual, or it can be a government or a state. Think about it. Think about what's happening here in our country today. The reverse can also be true when personal responsibility and accountability suddenly become requirements. That can seem like slavery. Being in slavery for a prolonged period of time can be very dangerous because the abnormal can become normal and the unacceptable can become acceptable. And worst of all, slavery can seem like freedom, and freedom then can seem like slavery. To where evil becomes good and good becomes evil. And we see that's what's happened today, even in our society. We see that process taking place. And that is what happened to ancient Israel. They wanted to go back to Egypt almost immediately, didn't they? After being delivered out of Egypt. They wanted to go back. They'd been delivered out of Egypt, but Egypt had not been delivered out of them. They wanted to go back to Egypt almost immediately. Let's go to Exodus 14.

Exodus 14, beginning in verse 9.

So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army. They overtook them camping by the seaside and so on. And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid. The children of Israel cried out to the eternal. Then they said to Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die here in the wilderness?

Why have you so dealt with us to bring us out of Egypt?

Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better to serve the Egyptians than we should die here in the wilderness. In other words, what they're saying, we'd rather be slaves than to be free. We'd rather be back in Egypt.

See, Israel was on their way out of Egypt, but Egypt was by no means out of Israel.

Egypt was still very much a part of their mindset and their heart set. Their hearts and their minds were still set on Egypt. What about after they crossed the Red Sea and were actually out of Egypt altogether? Let's go to Exodus 15 and begin in verse 22.

So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and then they went out into the wilderness of Shear, and they went three days into the wilderness, and they found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Marah, which means bitter. And the people complained against Moses and said, you know, hey, what are we going to drink?

What are we going to drink? In other words, what they're saying, think about it, they're saying, who's going to take care of us? Who's going to give us water to drink? Who's going to provide for our needs? Who's going to solve our problems for us? They had a slave mentality.

Those are my part of them. Exodus 16, verse 1. And they journeyed from Elam and all the congregation of the children of Israel, and they came to the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, and the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, O, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, or that we sat by the pots of meat, and we ate bread to the fall, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. What in the world are we going to eat?

Chapter 17, verse 1. Then all the congregation of Israel set out on their journey from the wilderness of sin according to the commandment of the Eternal, and they camped at Rephidim. But there wasn't any water to drink. Therefore the people contended with Moses. Moses was their leader. Moses, when are you going to take care of us? They contended with Moses and said, give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, well, why do you contend with me?

Why do you tempt the Lord?

You know, Moses was the only non-disfunctional person there, and he was the only individual who had not known a life of slavery. Chapter 17, verse 3. And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses. Not against God, but against Moses. And they said, why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So Moses cried out to the Eternal saying, what shall I do with this people? They're almost ready to stone me. See, the original lives could not seem to be able to figure out anything or do anything for themselves. They couldn't bring themselves to take any personal responsibility. They had been slaves in Egypt for so long that they'd become totally dependent in their mindset. Not on God, but on a human leader. They had to have some human leader to do that. And they had to have some human leader to do that. But on a human leader, they had to have some human leader to take care of them. And when the human leader couldn't take care of them, they blamed it on the human leader, on Moses.

He couldn't fill their needs and they bitterly complained. They now preferred slavery to freedom and they wanted to go back to Egypt.

See, God had delivered Israel out of Egypt, but Egypt is by no means delivered out of Israel at this point. Now, notice the attitude and the mindset of the Israelites one whole year later. Let's go to Numbers 9. This is a whole year later, after they've been delivered out of Egypt.

They've been wandering around for a year now in the wilderness. Numbers 9, verse 1, Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the first month of the second year after they'd come out of the land of Egypt. Has their mindset changed? It's been a year now.

Verse 2, let the children of Israel keep the Passover at the pointed time.

So it's now a whole year after they've been delivered out of Egypt. Chapter 11, verse 1 of Numbers. Numbers 11, verse 1. And when the people complained, it displeased the Eternal. For the Eternal heard it and his anger was aroused.

Let's go down to verse 4.

Now the mixed multitudes who were among them yielded to intense craving. So the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who will give us meat to eat? Who's going to take care of us? Who's going to vie for our needs?

Because we remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic. But now our whole bean is dried up.

There's nothing at all except this manna.

Same thing every day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. All I got is manna.

Do we realize what they're saying here?

They're saying before, when we were in Egypt, we had lots of choices. That's what they're saying. We had lots of choices. We could eat whatever we wanted to.

Now we can only have one choice. All our choices. We've only got one choice. Just this manna. That's the only choice we got.

Why did you take away all of our choices? We ain't freely in Egypt. Again, do we all realize what they're really saying? Basically, they're saying in Egypt, we had freedom.

In Egypt, we had freedom of choice.

Now what was the reality? The reality was, no, they didn't at all. No, they didn't. They were slaves. They didn't have freedom of choice. Slaves didn't have freedom of choice. He has to take whatever the master gives him and do whatever the master tells him. See, they were slaves, but they still had that slave mentality.

And they could only eat, you know, they could only eat what their masters told them, and loud, and so on. They worked for their masters, and they were controlled by their masters.

It was a very evil system of slavery that they'd been delivered out of. But now, evil seemed good all of a sudden, and slavery seemed like freedom.

See, slavery had so permeated their way of thinking that to them, slavery was freedom, and freedom was slavery. When you analyze them, think about it. Numbers 11, verse 10.

Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent. And the yank of the eternal was greatly aroused, Moses also was displeased. So Moses said to the eternal, verse 11, Why have you afflicted your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight that you have laid the burden of all these people on me?

Did I can see these people, Moses says? Did I beget them?

You should say to me, carry them in your bosom as a guardian carries a nursing child. These little people, like they're babies out here. Like I'm not taking care of a bunch of babies.

To the land which you sordid their fathers. Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? Moses says, verse 13, For they weep all over me, saying, Give us meat that we may eat. I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me, Moses says. So it's getting the best of Moses.

See, the nation of Israel was totally dependent, and they wanted Moses to take care of and provide for all their needs.

And it's getting the best of Moses.

They were looking to God, they were looking to a human master to take care of them. They were totally dysfunctional when you think about it. They couldn't seem to take the first step towards becoming responsible for themselves.

They were adults, but they were all as dependent, as it says here, as a nursing child.

And again, like we said, it's beginning to get the best of Moses. Because Israel was out of Egypt, but Egypt was not by any means out of Israel. They were still enslaved to their own dependency, and they were enslaved to their own way of thinking.

They were still enslaved to themselves, if you will.

And actually, they were actually refusing the freedom that God was offering them, because they couldn't see it.

They couldn't take it in.

They were too immature, and they were too dependent on a human master to handle everything for them. They couldn't handle freedom, because freedom requires personal responsibility and personal accountability. And it requires dependency on God, not any human master.

So Israel left Egypt, but Egypt, by no means, left Israel. So then the next question is this.

I'm going a little bit over time today, but that's okay. It's the day of Pentecost. We have nowhere to go anyway. We've got lots of food out there waiting for us.

Let me ask this question. How could God then deliver Egypt out of Israel?

What kind of a miracle is that going to require? How can God accomplish that? And why would that be difficult, even for God, to do? Why would that be the one thing that was and still is difficult for God to accomplish?

You know, we've often looked, as we look at the lessons during these days, this time of the year, between Passover and Pentecost, we often looked at how God delivered Israel out of Egypt, and how he delivered them out of slavery and out of sin. But how did God deliver Egypt out of Israel? How did he deliver slavery out of Israel? And there had that mentality.

See, accomplishing that was very difficult for God for a couple of reasons.

What two things, two overall things, made it difficult for God to deliver Egypt out of Israel?

And all the Egypt entailed out of Israel. Well, when you thought the thing about it required, it didn't require more than just God to do it. God could deliver Israel out of Egypt physically all by himself, by his power. But to accomplish, deliver some Egypt out of Israel requires participation of two parties.

God had to play a role, and Israel, in our case, spiritual Israel, all of us, we have to play a role as well. Now, when God delivered Israel out of Egypt, he was delivering them from certain death. Think about it. If they tried to go back, or if they had not been delivered out of Egypt, they would have been dying as slaves. And what if the nation of Israel had died as slaves in Egypt? There'd be no remembrance of them today. That'd be it. They'd never become a nation. Their history had been gone. They'd been wiped out right there. That's what happens when you die. When you die in time, your memory basically fades. Not from God, but from everybody else. See, what Israel would have done, if they'd remained in Egypt, they would have lost their national identity.

That would have died.

Which, against the ultimate consequence of death, when a person dies, they eventually lose their identity, and they're forgotten. After something, they're not generations, unless they've really made an impact on their names written in history, which is very few, that's the case. So Egypt, in a sense, symbolized death as well.

In Christ's ultimate deliverance, then, you go and take it to the spiritual side of it now, Christ's ultimate deliverance from death is like Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. And, of course, that's the ultimate journey we're on, is a journey to deliver, be delivered from death to be given the gift of eternal life. And to complete that journey requires participation of two parties, it requires participation of God, and it requires our participation, and both are very difficult for God.

Both those requirements are very difficult. See, God's participation in that process, to deliver us from death, was very, very difficult for God. Why? Because God had to pay the penalty to release us or deliver us from death. He had to pay the penalty for that. Christ had to suffer and die in our place, as God in the flesh. Why was that difficult for God? Well, let's just turn, couple scriptures, let's turn to Luke 22.

Well, see, this is difficult for God. Of course, Christ was God in the flesh, and He's the one that had to deliver us by making the ultimate sacrifice to pay that death penalty for us to suffer and die on our behalf, and that was difficult. Luke 22, verse 41, and He, Christ, was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed up there in the Mount of Olives on that eve of the Passover. He said, Father, if it is Your will, take this cup from Me!

This is difficult. Christ knew what a difficult sacrifice it was going to take.

If it's Your will, take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done. Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthened Him, and, being in agony, verse 44, He prayed more earnestly, then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

So the first step in delivering Egypt out of Israel was to deliver Israel, a mankind, from death.

And that required the participation of God.

And Christ, as God in the flesh, then had to suffer and die for us, which is extremely difficult even for the Son of God, as He took the verses to show. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.

Was it also difficult for God the Father?

Let's go to Matthew. Matthew 27. Matthew 27, beginning in verse 35.

Then sitting down, they kept watch over Him there.

They put over His head this accusation written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and the other on the left. And those who passed by, blasting Him, wagging their heads, and saying, You destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself if you are the Son of God. Come down from the cross.

Save yourself. Dropping down to verse 43. Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing.

Verse 43. They said, He trusted in God, let Him now deliver Him. He trusted in God. Notice what they said in verse 43. He trusted in God, let Him, and let God deliver Him now. If He will have Him, think of that. Let God the Father deliver Him. If He will have this wretched guy, if He will have Him, for He said, I'm the Son of God. Let Him deliver Him if He didn't even want to have Him.

Let God deliver Him now if He will have Him. And that was the most insulting statement in the history of mankind.

If you're God up there, if you're up there of God, Father, look at this wretched person. Look at this traitor. If He's your son, if you deliver Him now, then why don't you deliver Him now? If you'll have Him, if you'll even have Him, in the wretched condition He's in.

Wow! What an insulting thing to say to God the Father.

It's a direct insult and challenge to God the Father. But it appears from what Christ said next, that God the Father had to turn away, because He couldn't bear what was happening.

Verse 44, "...even the robbers who were crucified with Him, reviled Him with the same thing, from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, from about noon to three in the afternoon, it was darkness all over the land. And about the ninth hour, about three in the afternoon, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama, salbaktini, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? God the Father had to forsake Him. He had to turn His back. Christ had to undergo that all alone. It was so painful for God the Father, He couldn't bear it even watch. He had to turn away.

He had to let Christ bear that on His own.

So obviously, it's very painful and very difficult for God the Father as well, to have to turn His back on His only begotten Son. At the time of His Son's greatest need, the Father had to turn His back.

That was the first step toward delivering Egypt out of Israel. First, Christ had to suffer and die for us, as God in the flesh, and then God the Father had to turn the other way. And that had happened without intervening, even though He had the power to intervene.

But what was Israel's participation?

You know, ancient Israel, they had to follow God, even when it didn't make any sense. But even after being delivered and completely out of Egypt, and even after Pharaoh and his armies had been destroyed, even after death was behind them, so to speak, as it is for us, spiritually speaking, even after all that, Israel still had a problem.

What was their real problem? See, the real problem wasn't external. The real problem was internal.

And the real slavery was internal.

They were still enslaved to their own carnal minds. They were enslaved to their own selfish way of thinking. And to their own lust and desires. And they were still enslaved to themselves, even after being delivered out of Egypt. See, their outward circumstances had changed, completely. But changing outward circumstances doesn't necessarily change or resolve inward problems.

That's more difficult. Which leads to the second thing that made it difficult for God. God could deliver them out of Egypt in the form of Jesus Christ. He suffered and died for us to deliver us from death. But God himself could not change our hearts, can he?

Which is where the real problem is. In fact, God himself said that was a real problem with Israel, didn't he? Deuteronomy 5, verse 29. I'll just turn there and read it real quickly. Deuteronomy 5, 29. God said, Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep my commandments that it might be well with them and with their children forever. But changing the heart, changing our way of thinking and responding requires our participation along with God's participation. God can't do that all by himself. It's one thing God can't do for us.

Which then is the second reason why it was wasn't still as difficult for God to deliver Egypt out of Israel. Because it requires the full, willing, voluntary participation of each individual. But I think even there, God will bear us on eagle's wings and take us where we couldn't go ourselves and help us to accomplish what we couldn't accomplish by ourselves. But that ties in really directly to the meaning of this day of Pentecost. Let's go to John 14.

John 14, verse 15.

Christ said, this is part of the process of, you know, having Egypt delivered out of us and having our hearts changed, which is something we have to participate in. But here's what Christ said to do, how you can do this. This is the process you have to go through if you're going to have that change take place inwardly.

If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray to the Father, and He will give you a helper, that He might be abided with you. Verse 18, I will not leave your friends, I will come to you, I'll give you the help you need. Verse 26, the helper, the Holy Spirit, from the Father will send. It will teach you all things, and to remember, it's all things that I said to you. But what is the primary help that God's Holy Spirit can give us? What will that help accomplish in us that requires both God's participation and our participation?

Let's go to Hebrews chapter 10 quickly. There's two verses, Hebrews 10 verses 15 and 16. This is what the Holy Spirit will help us with, that God can't accomplish by Himself. It takes our participation. But the Holy Spirit is going to help us. The Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, after He said before, this is the covenant that I'm going to make with Him after those days. It says, eternal. This is what God spirs to help us to accomplish. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds, I will write them.

That is the only way we can ultimately be liberated, and the only way we can complete our journey from Passover to Pentecost. We must have God's laws and God's love written in our minds and in our hearts. And that requires our participation.

We have to do that.

What is the number one thing we must strive to do in order to have God's laws written in our minds and on our hearts?

What do we have to do? God tells us what we have to do.

God can't do this for us. We have to do it. It's recorded in John. Let's go back to John again. John 13. We're very familiar with this. John 13, verses 34 and 35, where Christ said, I knew commandment I give you.

And that was not new. In the sense, God told us way back. He said, you've got to love your neighbor as yourself. But now Christ says, did you love one another as I loved you? You have to have the same love for one another Christ had for us and demonstrate the way Christ demonstrated it for us.

That you also love one another. And by this, all we'll know that you are my disciples. You have that kind of love for one another. You have the same love for one another that Christ displayed toward all of us. Now, Christ did his part. He loves us to the end by suffering and dying for us. He conquered death for us and bore us on eagle's wings, if you will. All we have to do is yield to God's holy spirit by loving one another as Christ loved us. So God's laws and God's love can be written on our hearts and in our minds. That also requires another step that we have to do that God can't do for us. It's very difficult. That God's difficult for God because he can't do it for us. We have to participate. Includes also forgiving one another as Christ has forgiven us. As it says in Matthew 6, verses 14 and 15, if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. So we have to do that. We have to be willing to forgive others as God has forgiven us. In order to have our hearts changed. In order to complete our journey.

So God's Holy Spirit is the spirit of love and forgiveness. And God will help us by doing... He'll do His part if we'll do our part. But we have to participate and do our part as well. So that then will conclude this series, even though much more could be said. But the main thing to remember is this. Once Israel was delivered out of Egypt, that was not the end of their journey. They still had to have Egypt. And the ways of Egypt delivered out of them, in order to ultimately meet with God and to live with God. Of course, the same applies especially to all of us spiritually. Once God has called us out of the world, we must still have the world and the ways of the world delivered out of us. And our hearts have to be changed.

Because that requires the inward working of God's Holy Spirit. By learning to love one another as Christ loved us. And by learning to forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us. And that is really what this Deut Pentecost is all about. It's about being changed inwardly. So God's laws and God's love and God's forgiveness can be written in our minds and on our hearts. Because that is the only way that Egypt can be delivered out of Israel. And the only way God can bear us on equal's wings to bring us to Himself so we can become a kingdom of priests and His Holy Nation.

And again, one final time. Let's go back to Exodus 19. It's the only way this scripture can be fulfilled. Again, I'll just conclude here with Exodus 19, verse 4.

You've seen what I did to the Egyptians. I got rid of them. And now I bore you on Eagle's wings and I brought you to Myself. But if we can learn to love one another as Christ loved us. If we can learn to forgive one another as God has forgiven us through Jesus Christ. Then God can bear us on Eagle's wings and He will bear us on Eagle's wings and bring us to Himself.