Open—V. Redman, N. Simon, J. Hyland
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Just have a little bit of.
Portion from God's Word that I've been enjoying. We've taken this up in our own reading meeting and I've been thinking quite a bit about it lately. It's in First Samuel chapter one. We're all familiar with this portion of Hannah.
And there's just a few verses that I just wanted to go on that has touched my heart very much.
They are familiar with this story.
And on the surface, it's just about a family. It's a family difficulty, family problem. And I'm sure there's not a household in this room that hasn't had some type of family problem one way or the other.
With a father or son or mother or daughter, sibling problems or even between husband and wife. And, uh, so I just wanna talk about just really what's on the surface here? There was a problem with the family.
This man had two wives.
I can't imagine why he had two wives, one is more than enough.
It's well, it's taken my wife 50 years to get me pointed in the right direction. So. But anyway, this this man had two wives and we know the story. One of them had a lot of kids.
And Hannah, she didn't have any. And she was a godly woman. She wanted children to raise before the Lord.
But here in.
In verse 10 it says, And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.
So this thing really bothered her and even her husband tried to console her but to novel she was just all consumed with.
The fact that she was barren and you know, beloved.
In our lives we can be overcome with bitterness. A soul we can be.
Overcome with the difficulties and the problems that we have in our family lives because some things are just out of our control. We just don't have any control of it.
And we forget that.
To go to the God of all comfort, you know, he's the God of all comfort and He's the God of all resources. But if we don't go to him, then they can be little comfort and no resource. And that's what I wanted to point out here.
That Hannah. Hannah was so consumed and so occupied.
With this problem that she had that she didn't go to the source right away as the only one that could really help her and really give her comfort. She wasn't really living in the good of what her name means. Hannah means grace. So she wasn't really in the good of that because she wasn't walking by faith. She was just all consumed with within.
Instead of going to the source. And we can too, can't we?
We can get to a point where our problems seem to be so overwhelming and, uh, unsolvable and a lot of times they are. Sometimes we have kids or we have problems in our, in our family life that just seems to be totally out of our control and there are no workable solutions. Or maybe we have health problems or financial problems. I've been there. Uh.
No job, no income, and you don't see anything on the horizon.
So we can be too much taken up with ourselves, and that's not good. We lose the sense of the grace of God when we're not walking by faith, don't we?
Well, here Hannah, I don't know how long she, she was in this state, this condition and, and she doesn't, uh.
Doesn't say if this was the first time she went to the temple. And the ninth verse it says so Hannah rose up after that had eaten in Shiloh, and after that had drunk. And now Eli the priest sat upon his seat by a post of the temple of the Lord. And here she prays.
Verse 11 She vowed to vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou will indeed look on my affliction and thy handmaid, Remember Me, and not forget thy handmaid.
But will give unto thy handmaid a man's child, and I'll give him unto the Lord all the days of his life. And no, and no, uh, and there shall no razor uh, come upon his head. Then it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord.
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That Eli marked her mouth, and now Hannah, she spoke in her heart, and only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard, and therefore either. I thought she had been drunken. Well, here she not only had.
Persecution and trouble from the other wife. She wouldn't take solance from her husband, comfort from him. Now she goes to the temple to pray before the Lord. She's doing the right thing now.
She's gone to the only real resource before her.
She didn't go to the priest. She wondered, well, why didn't she go to the priest? Well, she knew that Israel was in ruin. The testimony.
Was not good. The priesthood had failed.
There was problems all around.
And we see that today.
There there's we're, we're in a day of the last days. We see the ruin around us and we don't know what to turn to. We don't know where to get the help. But here she goes before the Lord, privately before herself. I like that, you know, sometimes it's good to bring in our brothers and sisters and ask for prayer.
There's nothing wrong with that. We need one another. We need one another's prayer.
I do, but sometimes it's good just to get before the Lord ourselves, privately, in person. Get in that closet and pour your heart out. This is what Hannah did. The priest was there pretty close by. She saw her lips moving and even he didn't have the proper discernment. Sad to say, later on he did a little bit later. But uh, she just poured her heart out.
Privately before the Lord.
And sometimes, brothers and sisters, this is what we need to do. This is what I need to do. I just need to go before the Lord and pour my heart out. The Lord. Lord, I leave it in your hands. It says by and everything by prayer and supplication. Let your requests be made known unto God.
Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Whether we have confidence in our God? Do we have confidence in the Lord to take these things? Well, we were. We're just talking about earlier.
That we have a great high priest who's ever there making intercession for us. Well, intercession is A2 way St. We need to confide in the Lord. We need to go into His presence. And sometimes we may not know how to pray exactly as we should, but the Spirit of God will will make intercession for us. And how wonderful it is that we can come boldly into the throne of grace to find help in time of need.
We have full access if we are a believer in Christ and all how he delights the heart of God and how he delights how he delights the Lord Jesus. To have our private communion before the Lord to go their independence and weakness, unable to to to take care of the problem ourselves and just say Lord, it's too big for me. So Hannah does this.
The priest here thinks she's been drinking.
Then she says, Oh no, I'm just.
She says here.
First of 15 and Hannah Anthony said no my Lord, I'm a woman, a sorrowful spirit. I have not drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Well now he understands that she's just was pouring her heart out before the Lord.
And notice this one thing here.
That struck me that the priest says, will you go your way, and the Lord grant unto you your request? He didn't know what she prayed for, but he had the sermon now that to grant her what she was in bitterness, but he didn't know that.
And so notice the difference between verse 10 and verse 18. And this is really what I had on my heart to talk about in verse 18. And she said, Let thy handmade find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. What transpired between verse 10 and verse 18?
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She came under the the goodness and the resource of the grace of God and this is what we need. Our brother Jim always prays that that we need fresh grace every day and that's what we need. We need to draw on that fresh grace because the pathway our journey is too difficult for us. We need to feed on the Word of God and let the Word of God dwell in our hearts.
And absorb ourselves with that, the word we need to be on our knees every morning. Let's not just run out. Let's just have get on our knees and say, Lord, the journey is too great for me. I, I, I need your grace and we have sufficient grace. Paul says that his grace is sufficient. The Lord said, my grace is sufficient for thee.
And how do we do that? Where we walk by faith. That's how we come under the good of the grace of God.
She came in on the good of that because she believed the Eli, she believed the priest, and she walked, She started to come under the good of the grace of God by faith. That's the channel. How we can draw on that grace is by faith. And what did that produce in her heart worship. We see that later on, she rose up early in the morning and washed it before the Lord. You know, dear young people and all of us, this is what produces real worship, is when we're walking in the good of the grace of God and it's by faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please God.
And so Hannah, her whole continents changed.
Her whole attitude, she believed God. She hadn't received a son yet. She still was without a son, but she believed God. And we can do great things for the testimony of the Lord Jesus when we just believe God by faith and walk and that goodness of that grace. So I would encourage us that if there's a problem that's overwhelming us and that's a daily thing, things that are out of our control, let's just get before the Lord.
Let's draw on that grace, which is more than sufficient for our needs, and let's continue to trust the Lord and have confidence in Him and walk by faith that He can bless us in every pathway, every step of our way. That's how we're going to be kept. That's how we're going to be true worshippers if we're walking in the good of the grace of God.
I too have drawn encouragement from this portion in First Samuel, and I trust, without detracting from anything that's been said, I would like to take it up in a collective way the other side of it. And so we had before us the personal side.
The family difficulty, but there is a collective side to this story as well.
And so we might liken what happens in this first chapter to what happened to many of you and I about two days ago. We got into our cars or planes and we went on a journey and we were heading to a conference. And so this little family, they're on a journey to go up to Jerusalem to to Shiloh, where the Tabernacle of the Lord was to be found.
And they were going in effect for a conference, if you allow me to use that very loosely.
A feast of Jehovah. What was it like at Shiloh? Well, let's look at the 2nd chapter. And our brother already brought out some of the characteristics of what it was like in Shiloh.
And.
Let's just read in the second chapter in the 12Th verse. Now the sons of Eli were the sons of Billio. They knew, not the Lord.
Let's look at verse 16.
So they were profane.
Verse 16, or verse 15 we'll read. And before they burn the fat, the priest servant came and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to rose for the priest, for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but roar. And of any man said unto him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and then take as much as they so desire. Then he would answer him, Nay, but thou shalt give it me now, and if not, I'll take it by force.
They were greedy. They had no sensitivity as to the fat, which was Jehovah's. That was sacrilegious, and if they people didn't do what they told, they would take it by force. Then let's read in verse 22. Now Eli was very old and heard all that his sons had done to Israel and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation. Not only that, they were immoral. Just picture for a moment that scene.
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Put yourself there, you know, it's very easy to read about these things and umm.
Not them, really, Not let them really have their full force of effect upon us. Think of where Elkanah and his two wives were headed. Why bother? Why bother?
Because let's look at Deuteronomy 12.
12 and verse five. But under the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name.
There, even unto his habitation ye shall seek, and thither thou shalt come. There was one place in Israel where the Lord had put His name, and it was to that place that this little family went up. With all the declension, with all the falling away, with all that was going on, there, this faithful family still went up to that one place.
Where the Lord had put his name.
The brother said he didn't know why Al Qaeda had two wives and I I enjoyed his explanation, but I have often wondered if he didn't have two wives because Hannah was barren.
And so he had another wife who had children. He had that which would carry on the name that would get the inheritance.
But you know Hannah, there was that personal grief with Hannah, but there was also a spirit with Hannah that is just extraordinary.
What does Hannah do?
Does Hannah say I'm thankful I don't have children that have to grow up?
In the confusion that's going on around us.
No, Hannah's solution to the problem is to ask the Lord for a child.
To ask the Lord for a child. And so in verse 11 she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid and Remember Me, I will not forget thy handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life. Her solution to the problem was, Give me a child that I can give back to thee.
And in the family aspect of it.
We can apply that very personally, the children that are ours.
Is that our desire to give them back to the Lord?
You know, we look around us and we can get very discouraged so easily.
And we can give up and not want to go on. And, you know, at the Hannah went up to this conference. You know, sometimes there are individuals at a conference which, umm, we've had conflict within our life and it can make things awkward. Well, Hannah took her adversary with her.
It wasn't the shoes of it going to meet her there. She came along with her.
But none of this mattered to Hannah because she wasn't looking to these things, as has already been brought out.
But.
Another thing I just want to point out in verse 11, she prays and says O Lord of hosts.
This is the first time that we have this reference, this title in the Scriptures, the first time, the first time it's ever used. It's used by a woman, the Lord of hosts. And what does the Lord of hosts mean? Where we can look at Psalm 24?
And verse 10.
So I'm 24 and verse 10 it says who is the King of glory, the Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. So the one to whom she prayed was the King of glory, the one who had everything in control.
You know, sometimes we don't think God has things in control.
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And sometimes we don't see the hand of God in things.
And that's very normal.
And I, I was just struck this morning and who could not be struck in the last couple of days? This family that lost their little boy. You know, that's something now that is permanently a part of their family, permanently a part of their family. It can't be undone. Sometimes you wish you could roll back time and change things. You can't. And sometimes it's, it's often being pointed out, the tapestry. We don't understand the design or the pattern that God is weaving into it.
But one day we'll see the other side of it, and we'll see everything that God has allowed in our lives, that's of him woven in there to produce what He.
Wanted to produce in our lives. So sometimes we don't understand the circumstances in our lives. And Hannah prays to the one, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of glory, King of glory. He is the Lord of hosts. You know, I often think of if I haven't. If you want to know what the Lord of hosts means literally, I suppose you could say it means he's the general of his army.
In Second Kings is a little picture of that.
The second Kings in chapter 6.
We have a the story of Elisha.
And a servant of the man of God. So we'll just read 2 Kings 6. And again of verse 15. When the servant of the man of God was risen early, had gone forth, behold, and host compassed the city, both with horses and with Chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not, for they that be with us, and more than they that be with them. And Elijah prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see.
And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and Chariots of fire round about Elisha.
There we have, I believe, a little picture of the Lord of hosts. And so there is one.
Who is in control?
And it's to him that Hannah prays, and she asks for this child.
And in verse 22 we find we could read the whole thing, but I won't for the sake of time that the Lord grants Hannah her request and she takes and, and and again, what does Hannah do? Verse 22 But Hannah went not up. She didn't go up initially. She said until the child be weaned and then I'll bring him that he may appear before.
The Lord and there abide forever. In verse 24, when she had weaned him, she took him with her, and three bullocks, and 1E for a flower and a bottle of wine, and brought him into the House of the Lord in Shiloh. And the child was young, and they slew a Bullock, and brought the child to Eli. And she said, Oh my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood before thee, praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me the petition which I asked of him. Therefore also I have I lent him to the Lord.
As long as he liveth, he may be lent to the Lord, and he what she and he worshipped the Lord there and then. In the next chapter we have Hannah's prayer of Thanksgiving, which is truly a remarkable prayer.
Because it ends well with just a couple of things to take from it.
First of all, she doesn't describe anything to her own self. She gives her rejoicing rests on the fact that God is her salvation and end of verse one. Because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord.
In verse three again we find the Lord is the God of knowledge and by him actions away.
We can let things rest with him, but it ends with the adversary of the Lord.
In verse 10 shall be broken to pieces, and out of heaven shall he Thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed. And that word anointed in Hebrew is.
Literally his Messiah, his Messiah. So I just share those few thoughts the the collective side of this and how to we can be encouraged no matter the day in which we live.
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To to go on in faithful obedience to the Word of God.
Not in our own strength, not in our own strength, but as He gives us grace and strength to do so.
I'd like to go to a New Testament portion in a moment. Let me just say in connection with what has been said, we won't turn back to Samuel that it's striking and I'd like to follow this through with a New Testament scripture. But it is striking to find as you go on in the story of Samuel, Hannah and Samuel, that eventually God gave her a child, a man child, and in keeping with the promise she made in her prayer.
She brought him up to the temple and dedicated him to the Lord and to His service.
And it's interesting, you can trace it out, but you'll find that three times it says of Samuel as a child that he ministered before the Lord. You say, could that be the lamp of God was going out, The sacrifices were abhorred, the priesthood was defiled, things were in utter ruin and weakness. There was immorality as has been brought before us. But I think it's so encouraging that Samuel as a young child, not as an old man, it's true.
But later on we read his life. He went on and served the Lord very faithfully as a judge in Israel his whole life.
But it is remarkable that even as a young child, three times, I say trace it out. It's beautiful, demonstrated before the Lord. And the Lord gave Samuel special revelation even as a young boy the night he spoke to him and called his name, Samuel. Samuel. But now with that in mind, I'd like to go to a portion in Luke's gospel.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 12.
Luke's Gospel chapter 12 and verse 35.
Let your loins be gird about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.
When he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh he may.
They may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching.
Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet.
And will come forth and serve them. I suppose most of us, if not all of us, are familiar with the.
Little expression WWW. We know that it stands for World Wide Web and most of us use it perhaps every day for business or other purposes. But I'd like to speak of three things in these verses that we have read that start with www.and it really ties up a great deal of what has been said in these meetings and in this meeting, this particular meeting to previously.
Because we find here we have three things waiting.
Working and watching and I'd like to just mention them very briefly, but before we do that, it's very interesting. And this will take us back to what our brother Nick brought out in his address earlier this weekend.
He says in verse 35, Let your loins be gird about, and your lights burning, and ye yourself like unto men that wait for their Lord. You know what we had before us the need to be established in the truth, the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, that which was laid down, that foundation laid down by the New Testament writers. Paul himself being the wise master builder. And he says here let your loins be gird about. Now if we were to go to Ephesians chapter 6.
We would read there in connection with the armor of God, that we're to have our loins gird about with truth.
So that's our strength. We had it in the previous reading meeting in connection with the young men. What is our strength in standing in the evil day? How are we going to go on and be preserved? It is to be, I say, well grounded in the truth of God. Not just to read it, not just to take it up in meetings like this, but to take it in and it becomes a very part of us. And so we're to have our loins gird. And you'll notice this is the first thing.
Because this is what is going to give stability to everything else that follows.
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I'm thankful for Christians who love the Lord. I know many of them. I throw my arms around many of them every time I see them.
But what you find is that there is often instability in different parts of their lives.
Both in a practical way and spiritually, because they're not well grounded in the truth of God.
This is the foundation. This is what's going to keep us from drifting.
With every wind of doctrine and I want to encourage each of our hearts to take up the Word of God.
Search the scriptures, the Lord Jesus said. And so we need to not just casually read the word of God.
We need to search it, we need to compare it, we need to take it in, we need to feed on it, Job said. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. And the enemy is busy, perhaps like never before, to undermine the truth of God and subvert the souls of the Saints. That's why and I, I, I just challenge you to sometime go through the two epistles to Timothy and find how often we had some of it before us in these meetings. But how often?
He stresses the need for sound doctrine or teaching, and it is always that which is which heads a list of two or more things. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. And what's the first thing?
For doctrine because we cannot have proper correction.
An instruction in righteousness and so on if it isn't based on sound teaching.
Paul said, thou hast fully known my doctrine, and that was the basis for his manner of life and his purpose and the other things that he lists there. And so we need to have first of all our loins gird about.
And then it says, and your light's burning. Because if our loins are gird about with truth.
If we're seeking to stand and walk in the truth of God as it has been revealed to us by divine inspiration, then there's going to be proper testimony. Then we are going to be bright lights in this world, and God has left us here for that purpose. That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as light in this world. Are we going to leave these meetings and shine as lights in this world?
We can only properly shine as lights in this world in the measure in which that which has been before our souls these days has become a reality, that we take it in that we walk in it. And Jude, when he wrote of appalling days of apostasy, giving up of the truth, he said, When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me that I write unto you, and exhort you that she earnestly contend for the truth.
We need to earnestly contend for the truth that we might be bright lights shining in a Dark World.
And then he says, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord. You know, I have again, I know many dear believers, dear children of God, they're part of the family of God. We, I love them dearly. We have partakers of the divine nature. We're going to spend eternity together. But you know, I find often there is instability in many Christian lives because they do not understand and appreciate the truth of the Lord's coming.
The enemy has been busy in recent years to bring in a lot of confusion as to the Lord's coming, His coming for his Saints, His coming with his Saints, the rapture versus the Kingdom, and.
You've heard it all, and I believe if we're going to have stability in our Christian lives, we must open this book and read and take in as God has given it to us, the truth of the second coming of Christ. It needs to be established in our souls. I say this is what is going to give us ballast and stability, and it is what is going to give us the proper character of those who are left here.
As a testimony in this world, as those who wait for their Lord. We sang at the beginning of this meeting and it's really what brought this portion to my soul. What will it be to dwell above? And brethren, what will it be to dwell above? We think of what will it? What was it to be here? Wonderful privilege to have this little sanctuary, but we often referred to as a little Elam or Oasis along the wilderness journey. And if it was wonderful and refreshing to be here.
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What will it be to dwell above? Are we as those that wait for their Lord?
Do we have this truth before our souls on a day-to-day basis? Because when he speaks of it in John's epistle, he says everyone that hath this hope in him purifiers himself even as he is pure. The appreciation in our souls and the waiting for the Lord Jesus to come has a purifying practical effect. And so that's the first W.
But there's another W here that's perhaps not quite as obvious. And that's working. You say, How do you get that? Because he addresses servants. Blessed are those servants. And when we think of servants, we think of service. We think of working. And while we wait for the Lord Jesus to come, he has a work for each one of us to do, just as he had for Samuel, as difficult and dark as the days were in Israel.
He had a ministry for Samuel and everyone of us here as we wait for the Lord Jesus to come.
And as we leave this room in a few moments, let's remember he has a little work for you and he has a little work for me. He has servants. You know, one of the things that the Queen of Sheba noted when she came to the court of Solomon were his servants. She noticed the sitting of his servants. That's the privilege we've had today of sitting in the presence of our Solomon this weekend, to listen to his voice, to remember him in the breaking of bread, to be occupied with his qualities.
With his beauties, with his glories. But then she noticed something else in that portion.
She noticed when they went out, she saw his servants standing. Happy are thy servants that stand continually before thee. They went out standing ready to do the work and service the bidding of their, of their master, of their King Solomon. And as they stood there ready to serve, they were happy servants. And that's what He wants from each one of us. He's given us that little ministry to fulfill, no matter how young or how old we are, And He wants us to serve with joy.
And if we are truly enjoying the truth of God, if we're.
Seeking to be a bright testimony in this world if our hearts go out to the person of Christ.
Then there's going to be joy in our service, not just mundane humdrum tasks that we fulfill from day-to-day.
But like Solomon's servants, standing with a joy and a happiness in service.
But then there's something else in that 37th verse. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find.
Not waiting, but watching. You know, there's a difference between waiting and watching. I'm going to repeat a little illustration that I've sometimes used in this regard because when we were children growing up, we had a home. My parents had a home on a busy highway just outside the town of Smiths Falls. ON and facing the highway was a big plate glass window in my parents front room and on a day when we were expecting guests.
Particularly guests that we as children enjoyed having in the home. We weren't just waiting for those guests to arrive, we were watching. In fact, we would ask my mother or my father which direction are they going to come from? Are they going to come from Smiths Falls direction? Are they going to come from Perth from the West or from from the east? From the West, I'm sorry. And we would be told, well, they're going to come a certain direction. And every once in a while you would find us children at the window.
And what were we doing? We were watching. Sometimes we count a few cars as they came over the hill and around the bend, and then we'd go back to whatever we were doing and maybe mom would have some chores for us to do in preparation. But it wouldn't be long until we had a few moments and we were back at the front window. And I often think, are we watching for the return of our bridegroom like that? Are we watching for the Lord Jesus? Yes, we need to be waiting. Yes, we need to be working, but we need to be watching.
And wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if the Lord Jesus came and you were in the midst of really watching, maybe saying in your heart, Even so come Lord Jesus, and all of a sudden he came. Don't you think there might be just a little special understanding between his heart and yours, a little extra thrill or joy when you meet him on the cloud that you were looking up, so to speak, that you were watching for him? And so I say we have three WS here.
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Not World Wide Web, but something that really takes us out of this world, brethren.
To be waiting, to be working and to be watching. He's going to come at any moment.
He's promised three times on the last page of His word. Behold, I come quickly. May the response at the end of these meetings be Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus.