VanRyn, Carroll: Week Of Meetings 05 ~ Let Us Hope and Love

The path I take from day to day, so often rough appears, but when God leads, I love the way, and joy outweighs the tears. God's ways are best ways, I've found it so. Where'er he leads me, there I will go, and never question when comes the test, for I know. So I will trust and follow still, even though hard trials may come, so gladly yielding to his will, and soon he'll lead me home. God's ways are fast ways. I've found it so. Where'er he leads me, there I will go, and And never never question. question when comes the test, for I know always God's ways are best. Turn, if you would, again to the tenth chapter of the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter ten. Our brother Woodhouse was mentioning that brother Jim was going to sing the bass. I don't know if he heard about the Scotsman named McTavish, who thought he was a very good bass singer. In fact, he dreamt one night that he died and went to heaven, and he was singing in Saint Peter's heavenly choir. And, uh, there was a thousand first tenors and a thousand second tenors and a thousand baritone, and McTavish was the only bass. And Saint Peter began them on the first song, and he got through the first phrase, and he said, hold it, hold it. He said, quiet on the bass, easy on the bass there, McTavish. So, I don't know if, if that's the category that you're in, brother Jim, but, um, at any rate, you're the bass. I'd like to just mention one other thing before we get into our message this evening. Some of you, I know, get our little paper called Letter of Encouragement. Looks like this, and uh, my dad sent this out for fifty seven years. He started sending it to shut-ins many, many years ago, and uh, before he went to be with the Lord, he asked my brother and I if we'd carry it on, and so we've been carrying it on for the last six and a half years. It comes to you without charge, and if any of you would like to have it, it takes you about ten minutes to read it, and its purpose is to encourage you along the way. I know you get lots of things to read, so you may not be interested, but if you are, if you'll give me your name and address and zip code so that I can read it, we'll be glad to send it to you. I always like to mention that my brother writes it on the even months, and I write it on the odd months, and he always felt that was self-explanatory, why I wrote it on the odd months. At any rate, we're going to read now from Hebrews chapter ten verse twenty three. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Now, as you know, we've been speaking on these portions in Hebrews that say, let us. Some have called it the lettuce patch of the book of Hebrews. And, uh, our last one was in the twenty second verse, where it says, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our body washed with pure water. That let us in the twenty second chapter deals with faith. It, of course, encourages us to worship as well, for it begins with the nineteenth verse, where it says, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our whole hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. It spoke of fullness of faith. You and I can come into his presence, having been washed by the word and made right because of the knowledge of him from the word by faith. And now we come to the twenty third verse, and although the word here in the twenty third verse is let us hold fast the profession of our faith, most believe that it should be let us hold fast the profession of our hope, our hope. And in the twenty fourth verse, we see love, and so in these three verses, we see those three blessed, um, companions that Christians have in life, faith, hope, and love. We get the blessing of hope, of course, by faith it says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope, it could read. I like to say, let us hold fast the profession of taking God at his word, because hope in the word of God is not some vain hope, but it's taking the promises of God. It's really trusting in the promises of God. We could say, let us give diligence to the fullness of our hope, to the fullness of taking God at his word. You know, in life, we think more often of hope as, um, something that, that is a kind of a, a thing that may happen. But in the word of God, that's not so. In the word of God, we take God at his word, and it really means, um, taking and trusting the promises of God rather than some vain thing. In life, we often hope for things that we may get. I like to tell about one little boy. I went over to a friend's house one Christmas, and I was, the f- the father was going to get me something. He had to go back in the house, and I was in the garage. That's where I'd found the father, and his little boy was there, and it was just a few days before Christmas, and I said to him, what would you like to have for Christmas? And he said, well, I want to have a bike. And I said, well, do you think you'll get a bike? He said hidden under over there underneath that cover. You see, he didn't have anything. He knew what was going to happen. He, I guess his father didn't know he had it over there, but at any rate, he knew. And you know, that's the way it is for us. It should not be wishful thinking for us. When it says hope in the word of God, it means that it's something that you and I can take God at his word for. And you notice it says you and I are to hold fast. We're to hold fast the profession of taking God at his word. As we said earlier, we can all be professional people in that. We can be professional in taking God at his word. And I want to encourage each one of you to make a profession of having a confession of taking God at his word. You know, it's nice to see those who trust God. You know, that was a tremendous blessing in my personal life to see how that my mother trusted God, how that my father trusted God. And you know, I've often thought in my own life what a blessing it is when you take God at his word and you trust God, you have a particular problem, and you commit it to God and to God alone, and you see the answer come, and you know who it came from. You see, if I have a financial problem and I happen to share that with you, you may feel that the Lord laid it on your heart to solve my financial problem, and then I'm never sure whether the Lord solved my problem, whether you solved the problem. The Lord will bless you for what you've done. But, you know, it's wonderful when we have trust in God and we commit the things to him and we rest in him. And when people see this in your life, they see the things happen in your life, and they see how that God supplies your need. I often think of, of, um, the Queen of Sheba, when she came, it said that she saw the provision that Solomon had for his servants. She saw that the way they were dressed, and she saw the way they were fed, and she saw the way they were cared for, and she was so impressed with Solomon. And you know, people are impressed with Christians when they see how God cares for their needs and answers their prayer, when you and I, by faith, trust in him. The next chapter of Hebrews tells us what I'm sure you all know, and that is that faith and hope go together. In verse one it says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for. You see, faith accepts the promises of God, and hope, as it were, examines and rejoices in the treasures which faith has accepted. Now, let me again remind you that in our lesson last time, we began reading at verse nineteen and we saw that we entered into the holiest. When we go into the holiest, it puts us in fellowship with God, and when one is walking in fellowship with God, it can but follow that one will live in hope. You see, when I'm walking in fellowship with God, I realize the strength of God. I realize the power of God. I li- realize the companionship of God, and I love- realize the love of God. And I can't help but realize that God is going to take care of his promises. You know, you see that in your children and your grandchildren, don't you? Sometimes I like to kid with my grandchildren, and and they, we'll have made them some promise about when they come up to visit us, when they come, and then I'll say, oh well, I wouldn't be able to do that today. And they say, oh, I know you're kidding, Grandpa. You see, they know that you love them, and they know that you care for them. Why? Because they've spent time in your presence, and they've seen the manifestation of that, and they have no problem trusting in your promises. And when you and I spend time in the holiest with Christ, when we spend time in the holiest, we have no problem in trusting in the promises of God. And so God would have us to enter into the holiest, because this then for us is the true entrance into the joy and reality of the Christian life. And the apostle, having brought us into the very presence of God, he would have us see what Christian perfection is. He says we need to practice the profession of laying hold on the promises of God, of taking God at his word. I like the story of the little girl who was sitting on the, on the front step of her house with her friend, and she was counting her, her bank account. She had, um, nine pennies, and she counted those pennies, and her friend said to her, how many pennies do you have? She said, I have ten. And her friend said, well, let me count them. And she counted them. She said, you only have nine. She said, no, I don't, I have ten. She said, you only have nine. She said, I do not, I have ten. Daddy said when he came home tonight he was going to give me a penny, so I have ten. You see, she trusted explicitly in the word of her father. And you and I, we can trust in the fre- in the word of God. Never forget that the entrance into the holiest is only the beginning. It's there that we learn that all blessings come from God, that all guidance comes from God, that all power comes from God. It's in his presence that we learn these things. We may learn them slowly. I'm a slow learner about those things, and maybe you've been a slow learner, but we learn them as we spend time in the presence of God. And another thing we learn is we learn to be humble. For we learn that all of these blessings of God, all these wonderful things from God, come not because we deserve them, but because he loves to give them, and we by faith lay hold upon these promises. And it should do another work in our lives as well. When one has his or her heart filled with hope, we find something else in this life. We find that we like to talk about it. You know, my grandson, our oldest grandson, was up and he wanted a new glove, and he told me about that new glove, how it was and how he'd seen this glove and so forth. We finally went. He had gotten some money for his birthday and picked out the glove, but he told me all about that glove. He had seen that glove, and he was so much in love with that glove. He told me all about it. And when you and I are in the presence of God and we, we know him, then it's our privilege and our joy to confess him day by day, and that will glorify God, the exercise of our trust and hope in him, our faith in him, both in the way we walk, and I think that's so important. I want to stress that, because sometimes in the ministry you get the idea we're talking about things that you have to say, but I think it's so important that you stress it's the things that you do so many times that manifest the fact that you know the presence of the Lord. It has been suggested that the greatest betrayer of our Lord, betrayal of our Lord, was that of Judas. We could perhaps forgive him for betraying the Lord, but he did it under the cloak of love. He betrayed the Lord Jesus with a kiss, and yet often in our lives we betray the Lord by not holding fast without wavering. We betray him oftentimes by not taking him at his word. You know, the Lord so wants us to take him at his word. As I read the word of God, there's only one thing that God is going to reward us for in that coming day, as far as I can find, and that's for faithfulness. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. The Lord wants us to be faithful day by day in taking him at his word and laying hold on the promises. Let us hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering. You've heard that story, I'm sure, of the man who was hitchhiking down the road and carrying a large bag, and a man stopped to pick him up. And he got into the man's wagon alongside him, and he put this large bag on his lap, and the man said, why don't you put the bag in the back? He said, oh, I couldn't do that. You've been so kind in carrying me, I couldn't ask you to carry my bag. Well, you know, that's the way we do oftentimes with the promises of God. God has said that he's going to carry us to the other side, and he's going to meet all of our needs. And, you know, we're so thankful that God has saved us, we can't ask him to do these other things. And God loves to do these things. We say to God, you've done so much, I can't ask you to do any more. But we're to, it says, to hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering, for he is faithful that's promised. How much better when we hold the fast, hold fast the confession of our hope, for then we'll speak for hi- him. For we're told that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, and we give expression to our confession of our hope, and our hope is a blessing to others. Again, I think so often of my mother, again, in this regard, and some of you knew the story of my mother and dad. They were missionaries in the Bahamas when all of us were born, and in nineteen twenty six, the year before I was born, there was a terrible hurricane in the Bahamas, and it wiped out every home on the island where we lived, including our home and my grandparents and my uncles and so forth. And my folks lost everything, including a little baby, a six-month-old, almost a six-month-old little girl. And when my mother saw that, she said, if that's the value of things, I'll never put any, have any love for things. She said, I'm going to seek with my life rather to lay hold on the things of eternity. And she did. And it was a great blessing to us children in our lives and people that she came in contact. I never heard my mother have any desire for the things of this world. Her desire was always for eternity and for people, for that's the only thing that's going to eternity. You know, if you want to send any treasures on to glory, you've got to send them by people. There's nothing going to heaven except people. That's the only thing that's going. You know, sometimes they say, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. People say, um, how am I going to get my treasures to heaven? The only way you're going to get them there is through what you do for others. The Lord said, in as much as you did it unto one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it unto me. It's only people that are going to glory, and we give expression to the confession of our hope when we rest on the promises of God, and God is glorified, and man is blessed. This verse is often quoted without the last phrase. It's often quoted this way. It says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith or our hope without wavering. And they leave off the last part that says, for he is faithful. That promise. Not we are faithful, but he is faithful. God gives great promises. He's a great promiser, and he will fulfill all those promises. You and I do not rest in dreams, we rest in the sure word of God. We need not be overcome with fears, for he is faithful. I've illustrated that many times this way. You know, when my children were young, I used to like to, when I'd come home from work, to take them out for a little walk. And I'd say to the children, now, do you want to go with daddy for a walk? And they'd say yes. They'd be maybe eighteen months old or, or a little le- or a little older, and I'd say, okay, put your arms around daddy's neck and hold on tight, and daddy will take you for a walk. And they'd put their arms around my neck, and they'd hold on tight, and then I'd put my hands in my pocket like this, and I'd go for a walk. Is that what I did? No, that isn't what I did. I put my arms underneath them. And you see, they never fell, not because they were faithful in holding on, but because I was faithful in holding on. And God says to you and I, he says, let us hold fast the profession of trusting in the promises of God. Why? It isn't our holding on. It's because he's faithful. It's because he holds on and makes the promises so real and blessed in our life. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. And then in verse twenty four it says, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Let us consider one another. First, I want you to notice that the period is not after provoke. Let us consider one another to provoke. It says to provoke unto love and to good works. I thought I'd get that out of the way. You remember our brother A. P. Gibbs, he used to love to quote this little poem, to live in love with the saints above, oh, that will be grace and glory, but there's love to show to the saints below, that's a different story. You know, many times we, we have a, a opinion that this says, let us provoke. But it says that you and I are to provoke unto love. So now we have the three, faith, hope, and love. We had the fullness of faith in which we draw an eye in verse twenty two, and then the confession of our hope in taking God at his word, and now we come to love. As faith is followed by hope, so hope is followed by love. It is suggested that this outlines for us the thoughts that will be covered in the next three chapters here in Hebrews. First, in chapter eleven, we see that of faith. Verse one says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it the elders obtain a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. And then this chapter, this eleventh chapter, which is that great ch- faith chapter, goes on to speak of many individuals. It first of all gives us something of the scope of faith in its description in those first three verses, and then it goes on to speak of individuals who followed God, of Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and so forth. And then it gets down to that thirteenth verse, and it says, and these all died in faith, not having received the promise, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them, and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country, and truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned, but now they desire a better country, that is in heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. It says they saw the promises, they believed in the promises, they embraced them, and they confessed them. And this is what faith should do for you and I. It should cause us to live lives that manifest the fact that we take God at his word. Not having seen each of the promises, we're still inclined to believe God because he's been faithful. He's been faithful to us. In the last of that chapter, verse thirty two begins by saying, and what shall I say more? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah, and of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection, and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn, sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Oh, the power of God in faith. I like that thirty fifth verse. It says, women received their dead raised to life again. Women received their dead raised to life again. You see, when we have faith, we don't have what we can do, we have what God can do. When we put our trust in him, we have the power of God. Fear says God may fail me. Faith knows he keeps his word. Hitherto the Lord has helped us. Doubting now would be absurd. And faith too makes us realize that it's none of us, but it's all of Christ. Have you ever thought about the blessing into which you've come when you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? You can say that you're saved, and you're on your way to heaven. What did you do for your salvation? What did you do for it? Have you ever thought about that, dear saint of God? What did you do to be saved? You did nothing but put your trust in Christ. You did nothing but receive the gift from him. God has given us the gift of eternal salvation. And when you realize that it's all of God, it's a wonder, the blessing of the fact that I am on my way to heaven, not because of anything I've done, not because of any worth of my own, but simply because I put my trust in the eternal Son of the eternal God. Realizing my need, I come to him and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And when we realize this, I think it makes it easier to rest in his salvation day by day. You know, sometimes I hear people tell me that they're afraid that they might fall from grace. How can you fall from something that you never earned to begin with? How can you fall from grace? It was never anything you earned to begin with. It was always grace. It was always God's unmerited favor to you. How can you fall from that? If you did nothing to earn it, how could you lose it? If God says it's a gift, and you know how wonderful to be able to trust in that. I love that portion. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. And then in the twelfth chapter, in the first fourteen verses, we see the patience of hope. Let me read just a couple of the verses. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin, and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. And now in the twelfth verse, wherefore lift up the hands which hang down on the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. We see that we learn to run with patience, keeping our eye on the goal, trusting in the promises of God, that if we lay aside the things of no value, God will use us in the things of great value, and we will one day be blessed as we keep our eye on him. To run with patience the race. I often say the race is not a hundred-yard dash, it's a relay race. You run and you pass the baton, and your children run and they pass the baton, and they run and they pass the baton. It's a race that goes on throughout the whole of your life, and it requires patience. I don't know if you've ever taken one of these little packets of seeds that shows a pretty little flower on the packet of seed, and when you open up, there's little tiny seeds in there, and you take them and you plant them in the ground, and when your children are real little, if you ever do that with them, you plant them in the ground, and they say, well, what are you doing? And you tell them, and you show them the picture, and that's how the flower looks. Well, you know when they want to see the flower? The next day. They come out the next day and they say, where's the flower? And you say, well, it takes a little time. You see, they're not very patient, and that's the way it is with us. But you know, the Lord says that there's coming a day when we're going to be just like him. He said, it does not yet appear what you shall be. Those little seeds, you can't tell what they're going to be. It does not yet appear what you shall be, but we know that when we see him, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And we're being conformed day by day into his image. And many times the things that we ask God for in this life, they take time. They take developments in our life, and so you and I are to run with patience a race, keeping our, our relationship with him in such a way that we're trusting him day by day. How often it's true in our relationship that we ask for something, and it takes a long time in coming. You know, men have been praying for the coming again of the Lord for nineteen hundred and eighty seven plus years. The apostles thought he was coming in their time. The Thessalonians thought he was coming in their time. That's why Paul had to write that beautiful passage in First Thessalonians telling that the coming of the Lord was going to come with a shout and so forth. They were concerned because some of the saints were dying, and they couldn't understand why they were dying if they're going to reign with Christ. They thought he was coming back in their lifetime. But you know, he is going to come. Sometimes the Lord takes a long time, but all of his promises are sure, and amen. And it could be yet this year. And then in the thirteenth chapter, it speaks of love and good works. In the thirteenth chapter, verse one, let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. And then if we read, beginning with the thirteenth verse, let us go forth, therefore, unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. And to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey, obey them that have the rule over you. Submit yourselves, for they watch for our, for your souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly. But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Our text in the twenty fourth verse said, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works. Let us consider, let us prove. We are to prove that which has been made available to us by our love and our good works. It has been suggested that verses twenty three and verses twenty and verse twenty four are verses that are kind of like joining a club, and the entrance fee is nothing, but the annual dues are everything that we have and are. It's true that when you and I first seek entrance into the holiest, the thought is mostly of ourselves. We hardly realize that there's hardly anyone else on the road, just us and our Lord, and we think of what God and Christ are going to do for us and are doing for us. And then as we spend time in his presence, we begin to realize more and more that there are others on the road. There are others beside us. We realize that we can enjoy blessed fellowship with them. We realize that we can show love and care for the needs of our brothers and sisters. And we realize that we can worship with them, one who loves them and loves us. And then we realize that there are others without, who need to come in, and we realize it's because of his love. And as we get into his love, we realize that we need to share that love with others. We tell them concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we consider one another, as our text asks us to do, we find that others are blessed. You see, you and I cannot enter into the holiest in a spirit of selfishness. The same spirit that says consider Christ Jesus says consider one another. We can't go into the presence of God and be selfish. We must be a blessing to others. And it says we're to consider, we're to provoke unto love and good works, and this is the aim of the church. It's the aim of the Christian. Everything that would hinder love should be set aside, and everything that can promote and improve the love res- relationship with Christ and with one another is to be taken up and looked at and studied and made a part of our life, and we're to do good works. It is the assurance of the love of Christ in us, the knowledge of the daily walk with him that causes us to do good works. When we realize what God has done for us, we will in turn allow his love to flow through us to others. It's not a command, it's a suggestion. Let us consider one another to provoke to love and good works. These three uss, let uses in verses twenty two, twenty three, and twenty four will cause the thoughts of verse twenty five then to be true in our life, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. I heard my son speak for the first time some years ago, and he used an illustration which I've heard since. I hadn't heard it up until that time. Perhaps you've heard it, of a man who was a piano tuner, and he took a tuning fork, and he tuned a hundred pianos in the area. And he said, now, if we were to take that hundred pianos and put them all on one stage and have them all played at the same time, they'd all be in tune with each other because they were all tuned to the same tuning fork. And that's exactly what's true of you and I as Christians. You see, all of us that are in tune with the Lord Jesus Christ are in tune with one another. We're in tune with one another because we're in tune with him. When we're in tune with the love of Christ, we'll be in tune in a lovely way, one with the other. And the inward man will cause the outward man to operate as to the desire of the inward man. This will be seen in the assembling of ourselves together. That's what it says. As we are drawn into the holiest in faith and hope and love, so we'll be drawn into active participation of meeting together. We have a personal duty to be faithful, to care for others, to encourage and to exhort others. And really, that word exhort is like cheering people on. They're getting near the finish line. It's the people who stand at the finish line and say, come on, come on. And we're to encourage one another. And what's your heart's desire? Is your desire to encourage others in the things of God? Is your desire to fellowship with the Lord's people, to fors- not forsake the assembling of yourselves together? That's the way it should be with us. And it says so much the more as you see the day approaching. You remember years ago in England, they had a contest, and the contest was this. They wanted to know, they wanted s- e- e- everybody wanted to, to write an essay on what was the shortest way to London from a certain place out in the countryside. And the winner was just two words, and it was this, good company. Well, that's the way it is with you and I, isn't it? You and I that know Christ are on our way to glory, and we're in good company. We're with those who love Christ, who know him, and may we enter into the wonder of that blessing, and may we not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. The journey with Christ in fellowship with his people is the shortest way to heaven. May we learn to live every day in just such a fellowship. Well, my wife and I would like to thank you for the time here. We've enjoyed it very much. The only problem with conferences always is that you, you get close for a few days, and then you have to say goodbye. And I often think of that hymn, with friends on earth we meet with gladness, while swift the moments fly, but ever comes the thought of sadness that we must say goodbye. We'll never say goodbye in heaven. We'll never say goodbye, for in that land of joy and song, we'll never say goodbye. It's been our joy to be with you. Some of you we may never see again in this world. We pray that we'll see every one of you in eternity with him. Our gracious God and Father, we thank thee again for the privilege of gathering in thy presence. We thank thee for the wonder of the eternal salvation which has been made ours. Words cannot describe it. Thoughts cannot comprehend it. We know that thy ways are above our ways, and thy thoughts above our thoughts. But we thank thee for this tremendous sixth sense which thou has given us, which thy word calls faith. We can take thy words and appropriate them. We can take thy promises and make them ours. We can take thy presence and walk with thee because of this faith which thou has given us. We thank thee, our God and Father, as we walk through this life, that we never walk alone. And we ask that thou would take these thoughts that have been shared from thy word. We ask particularly that thou would take thy precious word and make it very real in the lives of each of thy saints here at this place. We ask thy blessing on Park of the Palms, and for the week that lies ahead, we ask now that thou would part us with thy blessing, take us to our homes in safety, give us a good night of rest, and we will give thee the honor and the glory and the praise for all that is done and has been done throughout this weekend, as we ask it in his worthy and precious.