Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel
The King of the whole world, and Governor among the nations; and in a peculiar manner King of Israel, that nation being a theocracy; and especially King of spiritual Israel, or King of saints, be they of what nation they will: and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts;
who redeemed Israel out of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and would again redeem them from the Babylonish captivity, and the whole Israel of God from sin, Satan, and the law; which he was able to do, being "the Lord of hosts", of the armies above and below: I am the first, and I am the last;
the first cause and last end, of all things in nature, and providence, and grace; all things are of him, through him, and from him; all things were made by him in creation, and for his pleasure they are and were created; and all things are disposed of in his providence for his own glory; and he is the first in reconciliation, justification, and salvation, and all are to the glory of his grace: or this is a periphrasis of his eternity, who is from everlasting to everlasting, without beginning or end, the Alpha and Omega; the same is said of Christ, ( Revelation 1:8 Revelation 1:11 Revelation 1:17 ) , and all the other characters before mentioned agree with him: and besides me there is no God:
all others are only gods by name, not by nature, mere nominal fictitious deities, not real ones; and it is to the exclusion of these from the rank of deity, these words are said; but not to the exclusion of the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit, who, with the Father, are the one true God.
Our prayer must continually be that the church will grow and prosper and be a shining light in this world that brighter days will yet come for her.
The great mission of the church is to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth.This is the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ which He is now in the process of doing through His Church.
Some think our work is almost done and soon we will be taken away to be with the Lord. Yet, this seems premature to believe. Our mission is to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. There seems that there is much work yet to be done when only a small percentage of great nations like India and China know Christ. Other nations have even smaller percentages of Christians. Also, there are great nations that once acknowledged Christ that have turned away from Him as a people. They need to be recovered for the gospel. There is so much work yet to be done that we must press forward and not give up.
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