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[0:00] We're going to go to Deuteronomy 26, just some thoughts around the Lord's table, around the theme of salvation, of God's deliverance. Deuteronomy 26 from verse 6 and it says this, And the Egyptians evil entreated us and afflicted us and laid upon us hard bondage.

[0:17] And when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terribleness and with signs and with wonders.

[0:35] And he has brought us into this place and has given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. So here we have an account as the folk there are recollecting how the Lord has delivered the children of Israel out from Egypt into this land that flows with milk and honey, into the promised land.

[0:56] And it's got this theme of brought out and brought into, brought out and brought into. And we can see this theme as the theme of salvation really for us.

[1:07] And these keys that are here apply to our lives today. This recounts the exodus from Egypt. They left Egypt, which pictures the world, that lost estate, that place of bondage, and they went to that place of the land flowing with milk and honey.

[1:23] It pictures for us our salvation. Notice when things change. It says here in Deuteronomy 26, as we read verse 6, that they were treated evilly and were afflicted.

[1:36] They had hard bondage. Verse 7, everything changed here. It says that when we cried unto the Lord God. That's when things change. When we cry unto the Lord God.

[1:48] Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's when things change, when we cry unto the Lord. It says we cried out and the Lord heard our voice and he looked.

[2:00] It says the Lord looked there as we read in verse 7. The Lord looked upon our affliction and our labour and our oppression.

[2:12] The Lord sees where we're at. And when we're lost, he sees. We're terribly lost. We're in affliction. We're in labour. We're in oppression. And the Lord sees when we call out.

[2:24] And we can thank him for that. Where we've come from and where we are now. Firstly, note where we've come from. It says the Lord, the Lord heard, the Lord looked, and the Lord brought us out.

[2:38] First essential point here is we brought out. We brought forth, we brought out. He has drawn us out, friends. He's drawn us out. He's plucked us out of Egypt. He's brought us out of Egypt, which represents the world being lost, that state of being astray from God.

[2:55] God saves his people. He takes us out. And it's the ultimate escape story. He likes escape stories. You know, the great escape. This is the great escape. The work of God's salvation is the great escape.

[3:08] It's a tremendous rescue that he's effected for us by the cross. Consider what God has taken us out from. Out of Egypt. The world, the flesh, the devil. Out of harm.

[3:19] We're afflicted there, it says. That the enemy evil treated us. The enemy of our soul has evil treated us. He's taken us out. Out of labor. Out of toil. Friends, the devil is a hard taskmaster, isn't he?

[3:33] You know, he pays wages. The wages are seen as death. The devil pays rotten wages. And he's a slave driver, a hard taskmaster. The Lord has taken us out, it says.

[3:44] Out of distress. Out of oppression. Friends, the godless life is hard labor. It's hard labor. It's hard bondage, it says. And what a picture this is of our salvation. I like how David tells it in Psalm 40 from verse 1.

[3:58] Where Psalm 40, David describes how he trusted the Lord. He said, I waited patiently for the Lord. And he inclined unto me. And he heard my cry.

[4:09] He brought me up also out of an horrible pit. Out of the miry clay. And set my feet upon a rock. And established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth.

[4:22] Even praise unto our God. Many shall see it. And fear. And shall trust in the Lord. Friends, he says. He's brought me up out of an horrible pit. That's sin, isn't it?

[4:35] It's horrible. A horrible pit. Dark, smelly, dingy. Miry clay. He's brought me up. Out. Of the miry clay.

[4:46] So he's brought us out of Egypt. He's brought us up out of the miry clay. And it says when God sets us free. It's like a picture of a man being hauled out of a miry clay.

[4:57] Of quicksand. Of that sinking sand. Out of a horrible pit. David says he brought me up. And he set my feet upon a rock. You know, we're no longer in that sinking sand.

[5:08] We're on the rock, Christ Jesus. Praise God, he brings us out. That's salvation. So how does he bring us out? We read back in Deuteronomy 26, verse 8 it says.

[5:19] He was brought out with a mighty hand. Think of the mighty hand of God. It's a strong hand. It speaks of the power and strength of our God. He's almighty.

[5:30] Our mighty God. He's got a mighty hand. It's interesting when you read about Lot and Sodom. As we read in Genesis 19, verse 14.

[5:40] As the picture there is of Sodom about to be destroyed. As the warning is given of the imminent destruction. And the angels there are pleading with Lot.

[5:52] And it says, verse 14. And Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters, and said, Up! Get you out of this place! For the Lord will destroy this city. He was warning his sons.

[6:06] Lot was urging, beckoning, beseeching, imploring his sons. Up! Get you out of this place! But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law.

[6:16] They thought it was some big joke. It was a bit of a laugh. It was just some kind of a prank or something. And he was disregarded. The warning was disregarded.

[6:27] And verse 15. This is Genesis 19. And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters which are here, lest they be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

[6:41] And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto him, and they brought him forth and set him without the city.

[6:53] They brought him out. Pulled him by the hand. Verse 17. And it came to pass, when they brought them forth abroad, they said, Escape, for thy life look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain.

[7:07] Escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. This was urgent. Friends, judgment is looming. We're not in Sodom, but there's a sense where we need to escape. We need to get up.

[7:19] Get out. Escape for thy life, lest thou be consumed. Get out of this place. But Lot lingered. He dilly-dallied. The place was marked for judgment.

[7:31] But Lot lingered. The angels had to take him by the hand. It's a picture, really, isn't it, of really God's hand takes us out. Sometimes we need God to actually grab a hold of us and take us out.

[7:46] It's his mighty hand that brought Lot out of Sodom. God brings us out of Egypt by his mighty hand. Amen. It's only by the power of God we can be saved.

[7:59] Humble yourself under that mighty hand today. Recognize the mighty hand. Friends, it says that this hand of our Lord was pierced for us. Think of those hands of our precious Lord.

[8:10] Those hands that laid down on that word and were nailed for us. They're the hands we're talking about today. That hand that was outstretched to us. Humble yourself and find that hand today.

[8:21] The Bible says this hand of our God is that from which no man can pluck us out. How did he bring us out? With a mighty hand. And also it says with an outstretched arm.

[8:32] He brought us out with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm. In Isaiah 59 verse 1 it talks about the arm of the Lord. It says it's not shortened that it cannot save.

[8:44] God's not got some kind of a restriction upon that hand. His hand can reach the furthest and the darkest and the deepest of dungeons and draw you out out of the most horrible pit.

[8:57] Out of the most miry clay. Out of the foulest gutter of sin and iniquity and wickedness. God's hand is not shortened that it cannot save.

[9:09] And you might feel, Preacher, you don't know what I've been through. What I've done. All my past. All of the things I'm ashamed of. All of my guilt. His hand is not shortened that it cannot save, brother.

[9:21] His hand is not shortened that it cannot save you, sister. His hand is not shortened that it cannot save. And so his arm has power to protect or to punish.

[9:33] You know, we hear about the long arm of the law, L-A-W, but God's arm is longer. The long arm of the Lord, L-O-R-D. Our Lord Jesus truly reveals the mighty hand, the mighty arm of the Lord.

[9:46] In Isaiah 53 verse 1 we read, of course, Isaiah 53 tells us of the suffering Messiah. And it starts in verse 1.

[9:56] Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Jesus is the arm of the Lord. In effect, our Lord Jesus is that redeeming power, his mighty arm, the mighty arm of God that reaches to the foulest, to the furthest.

[10:12] Jeremiah 32, 17 it reads, Our Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee.

[10:23] It's interesting, this theme of the stretched out arm, the outstretched arm. Where were his arms outstretched? It was the cross, wasn't it? That's where his arms were stretched out, his outstretched arms.

[10:36] You can trust in his arms today, the arms of Jesus. The arm of flesh will fail you, as the song goes. And there's that theme in Scripture of, you know, the have no confidence in the flesh, that the arm of flesh is weak.

[10:50] But the arm of the Lord is mighty. And the arm of the Lord is not shortened, that it cannot save. And so it's quite a recurring theme, the stretched out arm. As our Lord stretched out his arms at the cross, he brought us out.

[11:04] And it says, as we read in Deuteronomy 26, it talks about he's brought us out with some things. It says with great terribleness. Now, of course, in the Old English, it's talking about that fearfulness, of that awe, of that awesome sight that it was.

[11:18] He brought us out with that great terribleness. You know, the cross was something terrible. It was something shocking and gut-wrenching. The cross, it was a fearful sight, an awe-inspiring sight.

[11:32] If we could imagine, if we were on that hill of Calvary, we could see the terribleness of that act of man to smash the nails into his hands and feet.

[11:43] That was a terrible sight, an awe-inspiring sight, the cross of Calvary. And it says he's brought us out. When we think, as we today, he's brought us out. He's given us new life, new birth.

[11:54] He's brought us out. He's brought us out. That miracle of the new birth, that's the most wonderful miracle of all, is the wonder and sign of a new birth.

[12:05] He's brought us out with the wonders, it says there in Deuteronomy 26. You know, we think of the amazing sequence of events that brought the Pharaoh of Egypt to his knees.

[12:17] And we know the wonders, the blessing of judgment averted because of the blood on the doorpost and the lintel, the blood of the lamb. Just like the children of Israel, we are brought out.

[12:28] He's brought us out, it says, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm. So we've seen, firstly, where he's taken us from out of Egypt. We've seen how? With the mighty arm, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm.

[12:42] And then think, where are we going to? The Lord has brought us into. He's brought us out and he's brought us into. Here they were in the promised land, and they say, Deuteronomy 26 verse 9, and he has brought us into this place, and he has given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.

[12:58] Here are the children of Israel, they're rejoicing in the goodness of God, in God's mighty work. They've known the result of God's deliverance. And here we are today too, as on the other side, as it were.

[13:11] We're not in Egypt, we're in the promised land, figuratively. We're saved, we're delivered by God's mighty hand and his outstretched arm. And here we are today, we're looking back on God's redeeming work.

[13:24] Remember, friends, today, we can remember today, we've been brought out and we've been brought into. Amen? That's salvation, isn't it? 1 Peter 2 verse 9, at the close of it it says, that he's called us out of darkness and into his marvellous light.

[13:41] Think of the many blessings we have as saved people today. Most of all, the priceless gift that we've received, the undeserved pardon that he's granted, the precious promises to every believer.

[13:52] Remember, this land, for us, there is the promised land. Israel has got a special place in God's heart, but the promised land is yet to come, in a way, isn't it?

[14:05] The promised land. The promised land. The better country. The better home awaiting. It says of this land that it was the land that flows with milk and honey.

[14:16] We could think figuratively, spiritually, you know, for every believer, we've got God's wonderful love and care for us. He's lavished upon us. It's overflowing. Flowing with milk.

[14:28] We could think how he invites us to come and dine with him. Flowing with milk and honey. There's a sweet, precious feasting here. It's a gospel feast that we have a table spread for us.

[14:39] The abundance of God's care for us. He's lavished such abundance upon us. Think of the blessings of salvation, of the feast that is prepared, of the invitation extended, and of the great supper that we're invited to.

[14:55]  Thank you.