and verse one, Mark sixteen and one. When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome, had bought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? When they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away. But it was very great. And entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted. Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified. He is risen. He is not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go your ways. Tell his disciples, and Peter, that he go up before you into Galilee. There shall he see him, as he said unto you. And they went out quickly and fled from the sepulcher, for they trembled and were amazed. Neither said they anything to any man, for they were afraid. Now when Jesus was risen, early the first day of the week, he appeared first to marry Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that he was alive and had been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared in another form unto two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue. Neither believed they them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth in his baptize shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. These signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents. If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. I just want to bring out a few simple things for the uninformed that theologians can pray while I'm doing. We have a lot of very simple things in this chapter. Things I trust will be of help to us all. The chapter may be divided into four sections. In verses one to eight, you have the resurrection in detail. Then you have the various appearances of the Lord Jesus from verses nine to fourteen. Then you have his commission in verses fifteen to eighteen, and then his ascension verses nineteen to twenty. Mark's account of the resurrection, you would think by reading it, it all happened in one day. We have twenty verses. And yet when you turn over to Acts one and three, Luke tells us it took up forty days. In other words, you have the whole account of those forty days from resurrection to the ascension in a little capsule, twenty verses in Mark's Gospel. Mark takes up one verse telling us about the two on the way to Emmaus. Luke takes up twenty-three verses going into detail. And so how wonderful this one chapter is, and the more you read it, the more full it seems to be. The resurrection given us then in detail in the first eight verses. Notice those words at the end of the Sabbath. The end of the Sabbath. These had rested, these ladies, they had rested throughout the Sabbath day, and early the first day of the week, They come to the sepulcher with the spices that they had been preparing. Here you have the end of the old dispensation, that which the Sabbath was identified with, the law. But here is the dawn of a new day, the day we know as the Christian era, how we thank God that we are in the day of grace and not under law. We're not in the area of the Sabbath. And so as the Sabbath passed and very early in the morning, these women went to the sepulcher. The beginning of a new day. There are three beginnings in your Bible. There's the unbeginning beginning, giving us in First John chapter one and verse one. He says, That which was from the beginning, which we have seen, which we have heard, and our hands have handled, are the word of light. That's the unbeginning beginning. No mind can grasp that. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God. The word was God. When I was a boy, I used to lay awake at night trying to think of eternity. Eternity. Sometimes my mind began to swim. I tried so hard to grasp eternity. Now you can take space. Just think of it. You can go up in this direction. A million miles, a billion miles, a trillion miles, and keep on going. I used to think as a boy there must be a shell around this place. or a wall that indicated the end. But what's on the other side of the wall? What's on the other side of the ship? Can you grasp space? You can't. You can't grasp eternity. Our little minds so subject to things that have beginning and end, we cannot grasp or apprehend eternity. Eternity. Way back. in the beginning were not told when or where God existed. Then you have the beginning of creation in Genesis one and one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. We don't know exactly when that was. That could have been millions and millions of years from the time the earth came fresh from the hand of God and the condition described in Genesis one and one. Plenty of time for the formation of strata, such as geologists tell us, carrying us way back into millions and millions and millions of years. The beginning of creation. Well, I'm not very much interested in the beginning. The way back in the beginning, the unbeginning beginning. I can't grasp that. Nor the beginning of creation. I know God created. We're here. But I'm very much interested in that third beginning. that which was from the beginning, which we have looked upon, we have heard our hands have handled of the word of life. And that word is in the capital letter. He says, Handle me and see on his resurrection morning. Handle me and see. The beginning of Christianity. Christianity began two thousand years ago, approximately. I'm very much interested in this. I can take this in. is concerning a man. The beginning of Christianity. The Sabbath passes, and Christianity begins with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice these three women. Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome. I couldn't help but think when reading about these three women... Where were the three favorite men that the Lord often took with him on special occasions? Peter, James, and John. When he would raise Lazarus from the dead or Jarus's daughter, he took with him Peter, James, and John. When he would go up on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John. When he went into the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter, James, and John. Where's Peter, James, and John now? Here instead of those three stalwart men, there are three women at the sepulcher early in the morning. Evidently they had been busy all night preparing the spices. The last thing at night and the first thing in the morning, it was the Lord Jesus. Notice the last verse of the previous chapter. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph beheld where he was laid. Ah, yes, they had watched all the proceedings. They watched how everything was done when Jesus Christ was put in that tube and how his body was laid, and the stone was rolled. And they hurried home, and they began preparing these spices. They were going to anoint his body. Very early in the morning, we find them coming to the sepulcher. Whom was it? that they sought. They sought the Lord Jesus. It makes you think of the bride and the song of Solomon. Saw ye whom I so loved. She says, I sought him. I found him not. Here is the bride seeking, longing, hungering, thirsting for her beloved. I wondered if that's true of us. Are we hungering, longing, staying for a greater knowledge and a greater intimacy with our Lord Jesus Christ? These women certainly set the pattern and give us an example. I figure it reduces the most of us. That's who they sought. Notice these words, ye seek Jesus. Ye seek Jesus. How fervently we sought him. when we were lost. Before I was saved, I was under conviction for two weeks. I couldn't sleep at night. I couldn't rest in the daytime. I couldn't put my mind on anything else. I want to be saved. My poor heart was heavy laden. I was miserable. My conscience was smitten. Oh, I want to be saved. I want to be saved more than anything else in all the world. But some of you know some of that experience. You were saying like Job, oh, that I knew where I might find him. I'd give anything if I could find him. I'd give all that I possessed if I could be saved. Where can I find him? And finally we did. We found him. We received him. And we were saved. And like many a person has said during my life, I'm saved now, I'm going to get a night's sleep. It's too bad, isn't it? Are we seeking him just as fervently now that we are saved as we sought him before we were saved, an under-conviction? So many Christians, when they get saved, they have found the Lord, then they just rest. Well, I'm going to heaven. My sins are forgiven. I've got everlasting life. This is wonderful. And they give up the search. Do you know, Christian, we should seek him just as earnestly, just as fervently, after we're saved, as we sought him for sins forgiven? Seeking him that we might find in him that which fully meets our heart's desire. and our souls longing. They sought him. It tells you when they sought him in verse two, very early in the morning, first day of the week. One of the other Gospels tells us it began to dawn. I want to say this, of course, there are not many young people here, but how wonderful when Jesus Christ is sought in the dawn of youth. when one is young. They have so much more to offer, the zeal, the energy, the vision of youth. Oh yes, how grand when we're saved young. I was saved at the age of nineteen. I would, to God, I'd have been saved when I was twelve. I wasted some years that I could have used for the Lord. Oh, to find him in the dawn of youth, but then is the dawn of each day. when the mind is fresh because of a night's sleep? Is that when we seek him? Get up early in the morning to read his word and to pray. We often wait till the close of the day and the mind is tired and body weary. We try to read a chapter. We fall asleep in the process. Is that so? The Lord would have us seek him in the morning, give him the best of the day. They sought him in the morning. Where did they seek him? They sought him at the sepulcher. They went to the cemetery. You know, it took a lot for three women to go to the cemetery early in the morning. I don't feel too comfortable going there any time of the day. But here are three women, and they go to the cemetery early in the morning with just beginning to dawn. Very few women would do that today. Yet these three women went. It went against nature. It wasn't natural for three women to get up that early and go into the cemetery while it was yet dark. It was against nature. Let me tell you something. It's against nature for you to get up early in the morning and read your Bible and pray. It's just not natural. The natural man repels against such a thing. It just means this. You've got to take the bit between your teeth and say, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I just think of an instant when I was saved. Of course, I was working in the railway shop. hard work in the boiler department, oh, it was so easy to sleep. But I made up my mind I was going to get up at five o'clock in the morning. But it was awfully hard. I'd wake up and then I'd go back to sleep. The next thing I knew it was seven thirty. Mother called me for breakfast. I thought I'll fix that. I went and bought the biggest alarm clock I could get. And I put it right beside my bed. And when that thing went off, you thought it was the city clock. But I leased over and I cut it off. First thing I knew it was seven-thirty. I'd gone back to sleep. Well, I'll fix that. And I put it right over in the corner, the furthest corner from my bed. And there happened to be the hot air vent coming up. And it opened on my sister's bedroom side as well as mine. I put it right there. So it went off the next morning. I had to jump out of bed and this time I wasn't going to get back in. But I heard some complaint from another source. My sister, why, she couldn't understand it. She's why it ran off in my ear. What do you mean waking me up that early in the morning? Nature doesn't like it. Nevertheless, I stuck with it. It wasn't pleasant, but I was determined I was going to get up early and read my Bible and pray. They went to the cemetery very early in the morning. But you know, as on this occasion, Love will take risks and make sacrifices. It's hard, especially when you get older. It's hard to get up early and read. But they're the precious times. That's the time of the day when your mind is clear and rested, and you can really get something out of the book. They were worried about something, these women, as they went toward the cemetery. says, Who shall roll us away the stones? They were concerned about that big stone in the front of the sepulcher. Do we ever worry about things in the future or possible obstacles, barriers, troubles, bridges? I haven't crossed any of those bridges yet that I worried about ten years ago. They're still in the future. We never seem to get to these bridges, yet we worry about it. But you know it's wonderful that the Lord, he knew these women were feeble. They couldn't budge that big stone. Three men, muscular men, couldn't move it. And the Lord knew these women in their frailty. They couldn't move the obstacle. And so he dispatched an angel to go and roll back the stone. When the women got there, all their worryings were useless because the stone already was rolled away. How often the Lord does that put us? We worry about places, we worry about persons, we worry about events in the future, we lay awake at night, we bite our fingernails, worrying about a certain day. And when we get there, things just turned out better than we ever dreamed. The Lord had gone ahead. He knew that circumstance, that experience was too great for us. He said to Elijah, the journey is too great for thee. And he rolled away the stone. And so when they got there, the stone was rolled away. You know there are some stones we can roll away. And there are some we can't. In the Lambeth of John, The Lord Jesus, when he came to raise Lazarus from the dead, he says, Roll ye away the stone. If you want to see me demonstrate my power, raise Lazarus from the dead, you roll the stone away. And they did. And the Lord Jesus displayed his power. Now there are certain stones that we can roll away. One might be called unbelief. There are things we can do, and there are things we can do. If we do the things we can do, He'll do the things we can do. For instance, you can read your Bible, as we've already been exhorted. You can pray. You can witness. Maybe you can preach. You can give out tracks. You can bet it. Here are things you can do. He'll do the things you can do, for He will save. He will bless, He will protect, and He will provide. But He will not save, He will not bless, He will not protect, He will not provide, unless we do our part. When we do what we can do, He'll do what we can do. Can it be we're tying His hands because we're not doing what we can do? They saw a young man, it says. How wonderful, likely the angel that Matthew speaks of, that rolled back the stone that was sealed, guarded, and sat upon it to show his utter disdain of the Roman government. A young man is there. Youth is always associated with the Lord Jesus. He's the lamb freshly slayed. Fair as the morning, beautiful, and fragrant as spring, a young man. Yes, the Lord Jesus, in immortal youth, we shall be like him in that day. A young man was there, a type of the Holy Spirit, undoubtedly. He took the things of Christ, and he showed them unto these women. He sympathized with their search. He says, ye seek Jesus. He knew what was in their heart. Ye seek Jesus. And this young man was in perfect sympathy with their quest. And so is the Spirit of God. If you seek Jesus, you have the sympathy, the aid, the assistance of the Holy Spirit. How happy the Spirit of God is when he sees a young person. seeking the Lord Jesus. He knows your burden. He knows your desire and your exercise. He says, ye seek Jesus. And how sympathetic he was to their seeking him. I wonder if he's sympathetic with what you're doing and where you're going at times. Is the Spirit of God sympathetic? But, oh, if we get into this blessed book, if we spend time on our knees, if we're witnessing for Christ, the Spirit of God is so sympathetic, so in harmony with what we're doing, he'll help us. He'll help us. He leads to occupation with Christ. He says, he has risen. He seek Jesus. He has risen. He's not here. And so he leads them to occupation with the one that they love, and they come, came, to seek, and to find. You know, there are two important facts that form the foundation of our Christian faith. And here they are, they're very simple. And that's this. He was dead. He is alive again. All the foundation of the Christian faith rests upon these two facts. He was dead. He has risen. Even Christ himself emphasizes these in Revelation. I am he that liveth I was dead. I am alive forevermore. And everything depends on this. You go to the cemetery today, here lies so and so. Born such a date, died such a date. That's the end of the story. Not so. Christ's epitaph. He rose again. He has risen again. He's alive forevermore. How wonderful it is then to know that he is risen. Here is Mary Magdalene, out of whom the Lord cast seven devils, seven demons. My, she's having the experience of the seven heavens on this Easter morning. She's meeting the one who had cast the demons out, and she's the first to meet them. How wonderful. The first to meet them. on that resurrection morning. All these others, there are seven cases of resurrection in your Bible. They returned to corruption. Lazarus had to return to corruption, although the Lord raised them from the dead. Jarius's daughter, the young man, raised from the dead, but they had to experience death. They returned to corruption. There's only one that didn't return to corruption. And in Acts It tells that it was the Lord Jesus. He could not corrupt. It was impossible for him to corrupt. He's the incorruptible one. And so we find the women, and they found the one they sought, the incorruptible one. He is alive. You know, he tells us where he is not, the young man does. He says he is not here. He tells us where Jesus Christ is not. And I'll tell you this, the Spirit of God will tell any Christian where Christ is not. You open a novel. It may not be a very good one. And if you're an exercised Christian, the Spirit of God will tell you right there and then he is not here. He is not here. Think of going to a saloon. And I heard recently of a man and his wife. They had frequented the saloon every weekend for eight years. And you know she was a Christian? But a backslidden one. And she came all the way from Wisconsin down to Albany, and the Lord restored her. And what a change. And when she went back home, her husband, he wasn't sympathetic. He got so mad. He threw the Bible against the wall. And three weeks ago, he got saved. And they're both on fire for the Lord. But she admits I was a Christian for eight years and never missed the salute. on the weekends of those eight years. She never did anything other than drink beer, but the Lord knows that's bad enough, especially in the saloon. Mark, can I think of a Christian drinking beer? Of course they don't do that in Greensboro. He tells them where Christ is not. Yes, you go to the races on Sunday. and beaches on the Lord's day. And if you're an exercised Christian, a voice in the saddle, you will say, He is not here. And there's no need looking for him there. He's just not there. No trying to patch it up and get a little ease for your conscience by going to a little church down at the beach on Sunday morning for an hour. You didn't get a thing out of it. He is not here. And you know he's not there. Let me come closer. He's not in that modernistic, socialistic, worldly church with its program and ritual. Many Christians are discovering today He is not here. He's just not here. The Spirit of God will make that plain to any exercised Christian. Why seek ye the living among the dead, we read here? for Christ is alive. He is not here. But he also tells you where Christ is. Just as the angel on this occasion told me through him he's not here, he told them where he was. He is risen. And how wonderful that same blessed spirit of God will tell us where Christ is. He's in heaven. He's at God's right hand. He's our great high priest. He's our intercessor. He's our advocate. And oh, how wonderful when Christians walk into a place, and I trust all the assemblies, have an atmosphere that would be inviting to any Christian that comes into their midst. And they feel the presence of God where two or three are gathered together in his name. He's in the midst. And I trust that he can come into our assembly, and there's such a sense of the presence of God that a hungry, thirsty Christian can say, he's here. He's here. I heard his voice. I fed his presence. My soul was fed. He's here. My how real the Holy Spirit can be. He'll tell you where Christ is not, but he'll tell you where Christ is. I'm not going to tell you where this happened, although two or three here know where it happened. There was an event being held at a certain church. It was over in Winston-Salem. Well, I might as well tell you the whole story. Mrs. Chapel's father was the chairman of this occasion. They were having one of their feasts, love feasts, for the dedication of one of Mr. Crouch's churches. They were going to lay their cornerstone. Well, Mrs. Crouch asked me if I would go and attend them. Well, I said, maybe. I tried to hedge around her. I didn't want to go. But anyway, I said, yeah, possibly I will. Well, I finally went out. I waited until it was late, and I thought most of the proceedings would be over. But I got there just in time for their dedicating in the Vichy The preacher went up, there were about fifteen preachers there, and Bishop Foal was there, and each one went up and took this hammer out of the hand of Mr. Crouch, and he blessed the stone in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And I was away at the back, peeping through the shoulders of two individuals. All of a sudden, Mr. Crouch says, and we're glad to have in our company a young preacher by the name of Lester Wilson. What doest thou hear, Elijah? I fell out of place. You just can't do it. Well, I'm not saying that it was bad company, but I just tried to be deceitful about it. But there are a lot of places today that I'll tell you I would have a very guilty conscience to have anything to do with it. And I hope they never call on me to pray. I'd hate to be a hypocrite and ask the Lord to bless them, because I couldn't honestly ask the Lord to bless such proceedings. The Spirit of God tells us where Christ is not, but He tells us where Christ is. He's a wonderful guy. You notice they got a great commission. Go your way and tell. Yes, they told of what is in Christ, and that implies victory over sin, death, and the grave. They got a precious promise. He goes before you. Go and tell my disciples and Peter that I'm going before them into Galilee. There shall they see me. He gives them the person, he calls out a person, Peter. and the place, Galilee, there shall he see him, a person and a place. How nice we can fill this in. The Spirit of God says, You go. Go tell my disciples and Peter. Put your name in there. Lester, Mary, John, Jack, he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall he see him. He's singing out of place. He's going to meet you there. Now you go. Just like Abraham, he went out not knowing whether he went. He goeth before you. Can you think of anything more comforting than that? Where are you going next week? Where are you going next month? Where are you going as you get up in the morning? Can you honestly say you're going where he can accompany you, where he can meet you? He goeth before you into, name it. There are lots of places He won't go with you, too. He says, He goeth before you into Galilee. There shall ye see Him. I'm going to tell something else pertaining to the Piedmont. When I came south thirty-five years ago, I came to Raleigh, with Mr. Nugent after being two and a half months up in Canton, North Carolina. I leaned on Mr. Nugent, one of the most broadly men I ever knew. He not only was like a brother, he was like a father to me, and the morning he got up and went back to Clayton or to Canton because of his wife's condition physically. I was left alone. I felt as though I'd lost everything but my salvation. I'd leaned so much on Mr. Nugent. I got up that morning. I didn't know what to do. Mr. Nugent had left in the middle of the third week of meetings, and I had to finish them. I did, but we closed on the Sunday night. Then a building opened up down in Clayton, sixteen miles from Raleigh, a church building. We investigated it. We were able to use it. But I was writing, Mr. Nugent, every day, Mr. Nugent, hurry up and get down here. There's a possible building that we can use for meetings. Get down as quick as you can. He'd write back, saying, the way wasn't quite open. So we set the date for the meetings. And the brethren in Raleigh were getting up the car. And the sign, I said, now put on those cards, Mr. Fred Nugent. and Lester Wilson. Don't put my name on their loan. But the cards were printed without Mr. Nugent. So we started the meeting. But I don't mind telling you I was literally scared to death. I had no confidence. I was afraid. I didn't want to have those meetings alone. I wanted some human prop, someone to lean on. The Saturday before those meetings started, I was walking up and down in the front room of Mr. and Mrs. Chapel's home. And day to this day, no one else knows, what I was going through. I don't know whether they know what I'm going to tell you now. The day before on the Friday, I picked up a book out of Mr. Chapel's library, The Fountain of Life by Surveil, and I fingered through it. It was a little too deep for me, about two hundred years old. I put it back. The next day as I walked up and down the front room, ringing my hands, I can't face a campaign alone. I can't do it. A voice said, read that book. I went over and picked it up, and as I did, a leaf, a track fell out, and I've got it to this day. A track that I prized next to my Bible. I didn't bring it because it's so yellow. and worn out by reading, but I got a copy of it. And as that track fell on the floor, I picked it up and I looked at it. I don't mind telling you it changed my life. And this is it. Child of my love, fear not the unknown moral, dread not the new demand life makes of thee, thy ignorance doth hold no cause for sorrow, since what thou knowest not is known of me. Thou canst not see today the hidden meaning of my command, but thou the light shall gain. Walk on in faith upon my promised leaning, and as thou goest, all shall be made plain. One step thou seest. Then go forward boldly. One step is far enough for faith to see. Take that. and thy next duty shall be told thee. For step by step thy Lord is leading thee. Stand not in fear thy adversaries counting. Dare every peril save to disobey. Thou shalt march on all obstacles surmounting. For I the strong will open up the way. Wherefore go gladly to the task assigned thee, having my promise needing nothing more. And just to know where ere the future find thee, in all thy journeyings, I go before thee into Galilee. That was good for Clayton, and in that series of meetings that lasted five weeks, five weeks, fifty-one professed to get saved. How many will turn up in heaven I am not prepared to say, But many went. And then it resulted in three years around Raleigh. Then to Winston. Then to Greensboro. Then to Burlington. Then to Silas City. Then to Durham. Then to Sanford. And that little pole stuck with me through it all. And down to Auburn. He goeth before. O Christian, tuck this away in your heart. He goes before you. He'll meet you there, and you'll enjoy his presence. They went out quickly. They went out quickly. After that commission, go your way and tell, and one could speak much on his guidance about going before us as to the pillar of cloud, the fire of the ark, and so on, but we'll let that go. They went out quickly. The king's business requires haste. And if they had to go out quickly then, how much more quickly we should act today. When the coming of the Lord is so near, you've got a commission. He wants you to fulfill it. They went out quickly. Here's the Magdalene, and she carries her message. And how did it get received? If you were to read this whole chapter, again, you would discover this. Her message was not received, and his free appearance by incredible unbelief. The two in the way to Emmaus didn't believe it. The alone didn't believe it. On three occasions, in this very chapter, three of ten appearances of the Lord Jesus. They believed them not. They believed them not. They believed them not. What unbelief. And I'm going to tell you something. Even though this poll thrilled my soul and gave me courage that I didn't have before many times, I've been just as unbelieving as I was ten minutes before I read that piece of book. The human heart never changes, never changes, and it means a constant, day by day, contact with our Lord Jesus Christ through His Word and through prayer to maintain that ability to press on. and to experience his presence and his blessing in all of our efforts. Just think of the incredible unbelief of these men. They believed her not. They believed them not. But Mary, she knew it was true, even though they didn't believe. Mary knew it was true. And you'll notice she wept, a broken and a contrite heart. finds it easy to believe God. It's not difficult for a broken and a contrite heart to believe God's Word. Did you notice what he says? He rebuked them. He abraded them for their unbelief and hardness of heart. I'm glad he didn't abandon them. He abraded them for their unbelief and hardness of heart. And this is the thing I could hardly get over today in reading this chapter. These very men who wouldn't believe the testimony of Mary and of the eleven, after they had actually seen them, they wouldn't believe it. And yet he turns around and he commissions them to go into all the world and preach the gospel. The Lord understands, doesn't he? you wouldn't have thought I wouldn't have done it if I saw such unbelieving men with such evidence before their very eyes and they wouldn't believe it you think I would commission them and trust them with such a message but the Lord Jesus he says going into all the world these unbelieving men I say this Christian we have nothing to brag about or boast about we're unbelievers in so many ways. Unbelieving believers is right. Even after a victory, a triumph, unbelief from surging to the fore, and it's only as we stay in fellowship with God and read His word from day to day can we keep that horrible, hateful monster, unbelief in subjection. Only then can faith triumph. And so we find them At the end of this chapter, verse twenty, with this we close, and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word which shines following. Amen. With the Spirit of God in our hearts, with the Word of God in our hands, with the Christ of God, our helper and high priest, seated at God's right hand, We can go forth. They went forth. And the Lord working with them, but I want you to notice this. The Lord is working with them if they worked. They must have been working, or the Lord wouldn't have been working with them. And there's no need you or me sitting at home and singing, Rescue the Perishing, with our feet up on the fireplace. Souls going to hell. It's when we get out and move and do something we can depend upon the Lord working with us, confirming the word with signs following. I was going into those signs. These signs shall follow them that believe. You know what happened. The hand of snakes, they drank poison, they spake in tongues, they raised the dead, and so on. Well, I thought this when I read that, I know someone will tackle me after the meeting about this. What about those signs? All I can say is, I've been preaching for thirty-five years, and by the grace of God, many have been saved. I haven't had one who got saved in my meeting speak in tongues yet, or handle a snake, or drink anything poisonous, or speak in tongues. if they had out of question that they were saved. Now, are you saved or are you not this afternoon? You don't do any of these things. Yet you say you're a Christian. And yet the Bible says these signs shall follow them that believe. These signs belong to the beginning of the church. I don't think they're applicable to us today. The three signs I look for when I preach the gospel is conviction... conversion and a change, a changed life. And they're all the signs you need to worry about. Never mind these other things. They had their place in God's program as miracles accompanied Moses, the beginning of the age of law. Medicals accompanied the age of grace at its commencement. But as the word of God was printed and put in the hands of the Christians, those miracles ceased to be. And the signs we look for today when we preach the gospel is conviction, followed by a good, healthy, solid conversion, and then a definite change in the life of that individual. May these scattered thoughts on the resurrection be of some help to you and to me in the days ahead.