In this sermon, the speaker discusses the concept of the body bringing dishonor when it can no longer be controlled or used as desired. He reflects on the sadness of seeing someone with a strong personality and joy begin to lose control over their body. The speaker emphasizes the importance of the inward man, the Christian, who continues to move upward towards God's glory even as the outward man disintegrates. The sermon concludes with a reminder to focus on the things that cannot be seen, rather than the visible and tangible aspects of life.

First of all, the invitation to be with you for this conference, and for the kind hospitality of those responsible for Park of the Palms, and for the worship we have enjoyed with you. I'm sure that most preachers who come here to Park of the Palms probably come alone. Some of them may bring a wife, but I have come with my wife and three children, so that certainly multiplies the number of meals we've enjoyed, the two rooms we have occupied, and for all of those things we wish tonight to express our thanks. Now, as I share with you this closing message in connection with God's purpose to glorify man, I realize that in one short hour we do not have adequate time to speak on the greatness of the subject of our glorification in its bodily form or shape. Even when it comes to the scriptures, one is at a loss just to know where to read, for there are many portions in the New Testament which speak very clearly of this great hope before us. I have chosen just two or three tonight, and we will begin in 2 Corinthians 5. Now, as you look for the portions, let me share with you that in Santo Domingo a few years ago, when we had what we call our frustrated revolution. Perhaps I've told you before that all of the foreign residents of the capital city of Santo Domingo were evacuated by the U.S. Marines. My wife and three children were amongst the last to be taken away by ship, a naval ship, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from where they were able to fly back to your state of Florida. I remained in Santo Domingo with one or two friends, including John Shannon, and during the time when we had our city divided into two sections and when there was a great deal of fighting, in the home in which we lived we gathered together about twelve fellow Christians, including one little girl about five years of age. And one afternoon we had sensed that around our neighborhood everything was absolutely quiet. You felt like you were in a cemetery, nothing moved, there was no sound, and that is very, very strange in Latin America. And then we did hear a sound, and I went through the window, and coming down the street we saw an army tank and a number of soldiers, and they came down, and we were very quiet, no movement in the house, nothing to attract attention. But when the tank came just in front of our home, it stopped. And then it aimed its cannon, it looked like it was coming straight for our home. But fortunately, between where we lived and the next neighbor down the street, there was a vacant lot, and actually the tank was firing its shot down through the vacant lot to some object on the other street behind us. The noise was deafening. We gathered, the twelve of us, in a little center passage in the home, and we lay on the floor. And I remember with great love one of the Latin American Christians, he prayed out loud in a quiet voice one of those prayers that was said in words. Every time there was a moment of quietness between the firing, we would hear a continuation of the prayer. And I remember going into one of the rooms and looking out the window and seeing the soldiers and the guns and so on. And I lay on the floor, and I think for the first time perhaps in my life, I was conscious that all we needed was just one shell, just a little off its direction, and that would bring our house and all of us in it down. I'd never thought before about death in that sense, of something that was very possible that could happen, and I've never had an experience like that since. But it did teach me a lesson that I share with you tonight. I think it is wrong to be obsessed with the thought of death. On the other hand, I think it is wrong not to be realistic and to remember that it is very possible that many of us, while we wait for the coming of the Lord Jesus, may pass through the experience of death. So, to be obsessed with it is wrong. On the other hand, to completely ignore it is also wrong. Now, Paul comes to chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians, down through chapter 4. I know there were no chapters when he wrote this letter, but as you come down through chapter 4, especially towards the end of the chapter, he speaks of the outward man, and he says it is wasting away. Now, that is not the same term that Paul uses in other places. He often talks about the old man. Now, the old man is what each of us were prior to conversion. The new man is what we are after conversion. But when Paul talks about the outward man and the inward man, he has something else in mind. Now, this is not our subject tonight, but let me share with you briefly. The outward man is all that we project to those that surround us. It is not just the body. It is, perhaps, to use our common phrase, all or the wholeness of human constitution. All that we are mental and muscular, practical and perceptive. So, when Paul says the outward man is wasting away, in the case of some, we have often witnessed this, you find that the mind begins to disintegrate. The body remains strong. In that sense, the outward man is wasting away. On the other hand, there are those whose minds are clear, but the body begins to disintegrate. That is the outward man wasting away. Now, it is a process which is common to all mankind, Christian and non-Christian. Just because we know God does not mean that we will be spared that experience unless the Lord Jesus comes first. What makes us special, and I speak tonight not with pride but with sincere thanksgiving, is that we have, besides the outward man, what Paul calls the inward man, which is being renewed day by day. Now, the outward man, beginning with youth, begins the long decline which, in the normal course of life, ends in death. When we are born again, the new creation, the inward man, begins that climb, if you like. I the word is inadequate, but that upward-forward movement which will never stop until we reach the presence of God and we stand beside the Lord Jesus in his glory. So, the natural man, as this process of the outward man disintegrating, as that takes place, he moves more and more into the narrow confines of death, followed by judgment. The Christian, the inward man, well, he's like a lamp. He goes on and on in that upward movement until he reaches the visible, tangible glory of God. So, having talked about this, Paul says at the close of chapter four, don't concentrate on the things that can be seen. Concentrate on the things that cannot be seen, for the things that can be seen, including our own bodies today, they are temporal and they are passing. We are to concentrate on the things that are invisible because they are spiritual, and because they are spiritual, they are eternal. Now, having said all that, Paul comes face-to-face with what we call the prospect of death. Again, just before I read these verses, I'd like to emphasize tonight that when you read the Bible, you will never find that the Bible minimizes the importance of death or the overwhelming catastrophe of death. In other words, God had a great purpose for man. We talked about it Saturday night. God, who is the God of glory, made man for life, vitality, creativity, and glory. When man sins, the wages of sin is death. That is the ultimate insult to the creative work of God when he made man. He never made man. But because of sin, our human race must face the possibility, the prospect of death. And so, in the Bible, when death is talked about, it is referred to in Job as the king of terrors. It is referred to in the New Testament as the last enemy that will be destroyed. So Paul begins in 2 Corinthians 5, and this is what he sings, For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle, this tent, were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. In that verse, whether we like it or not, Paul speaks of the fragile impermanence of our body. We are not here forever. He uses the term tent, and I think he has in mind the camp life of the Israelites when they traveled through the desert. They have their tents. They could be collapsed in a moment and taken on and put stable or permanent about the camp life of the Israelites. We bought for Jimmy, when we lived down here in Gainesville two or three years ago for his birthday, we bought him a small tent, and we had many happy times putting up the tent and taking it up. It certainly is not something permanent or stable. So when Paul uses the term, he is emphasizing through the use of this word how fragile and impermanent is our present situation. In contrast to the tent in the Old Testament, you have the temple that was solid and permanent. You remember about Abraham? It is said that Abraham, together with Isaac and Jacob, they dwelt in tents, but they were looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. So again, you have the contrast. There was nothing permanent about Abraham's situation. His thought of permanence was anchored in God and the city that was coming, which had foundation and comes from the hand of God. Now, this tent, this earthly body, it may be destroyed. Thus we read, we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved. So that's a real possibility. We have just come from the home of Mr. and Mrs. Thacker, and they have shared with us an experience we knew nothing about, where in their own family in recent months, one they loved was suddenly taken. The experience they have gone through as a family, we as a family are going through now. You see, the tent may be dissolved. It is very possible it may happen in old age, it may happen in youth, but the tent, it can be destroyed, dissolved. This is the same word the Lord Jesus used when he said, you see all these temple buildings? Do you not? Truly I say to you, there will not be one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. Now, that's the same word. And as the temple was destroyed, so our earthly bodies are susceptible to destruction. Now, Paul faced that possibility. He didn't face it in the natural course of life. He faced it in the possibility of shipwreck, in the possibility of dying in a dungeon, of the possibility of being put to death, or of the possibility of being beheaded. These were all of the dangers that surrounded Paul, so he speaks from personal experience. But when we face up to this, we read on in verse one, we have a building of God, and house not made with hand, eternal in the heaven. Now, I want you to think of that phrase going back to the opening words, for we know. What do we know? That we have a building of God, and house not made with hand, eternal in the heaven. Now, the contrast is obvious. What awaits us is something stable and eternal. Now, there's a technical phrase in verse one. Perhaps you are familiar with it, that phrase, the second last phrase, and house not made with hand. Now, that doesn't mean that our present bodies were made by hand. This term is used of those things that are beyond our full comprehension in the presence of God. Let me give you one illustration. But when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, and then in brackets, not made with hand. Now, here's the key. That is, not of this creation he entered once for all into the holy place. Thus, in Hebrews, in connection with the heavenly tabernacle, the phrase not made with hand simply means it is heavenly in contrast to that which is earthly. Now, our present body belongs to this planet. It belongs to this atmosphere. It is temporal and earthly. We have a house, a building that comes from God, not made with hand, which means it is heavenly and spiritual, eternal in the heavens. So with this in mind, I would like to go back to that opening word again in chapter five, verse one. We know. I don't know if you've read very many of J. B. Phillips' writings. He was a man that translated the New Testament in contemporary English. He also wrote a number of booklets. One of them is called The Serendipities of J. B. Phillips, and you may know the meaning of the word serendipity. It refers to coming across something unexpected which is very pleasant and wonderful. It is not a word that we use in our common vocabulary, but he had a little article called The Serendipities of J. B. Phillips. Things he came upon unexpectedly in the scripture that were so wonderful, and one of them is the authority that the apostles had when they thought and wrote and spoke about our coming blessings with the Lord Jesus, and this is what he said, J. B. Phillips. It is the authority which stabbed the spirit brought away. Paul and John wrote because they knew. The Christian revelation was not to them a tentative hypothesis, but the truth about God and men experienced, demonstrated, always alive and powerful in the lives of men. Now, notice how often Paul says, we know, there's no doubt, there's no uncertainty, that if this body should be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Well then, if this is true, is there any light in the scripture that would give us some indication of what that body will be like that awaits us? Well, I think when you bring up this matter, you must go back and remember the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Maybe you have noticed, as I have, how Paul will say, for instance, in 1 Thessalonians 4, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then we have hope in death and hope after death. But it all rests on if we believe that Jesus died and rose again. 1 Corinthians 15, Paul begins with the gospel, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture, was buried, rose again, was seen of many witnesses, and then he was received up into glory. Now, on that firm foundation, Paul moves down one of the most glorious avenues of the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 15, and he speaks of our coming glory. But there is no ring of truth to 1 Corinthians 15 if you have any doubt about the dense, burial, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus Christ. So we must go back and remember what happened to him. Now, when we do this, we sometimes use the term the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus. I don't want to wander tonight, but you remember in Colossians there were what we call the Colossian heretics, and they had great theories about the fact that God was transcendent. That, of course, is true. That God is so holy, well, that also is true. But then they took it to an illogical conclusion, and they said, because God is transcendent and holy, he could never come down and touch man, for man dwells in a body. Body is matter, matter is evil, thus God can never come and touch a man. Now, that is a very derogatory concept of the body. Paul destroyed the whole heretical apparatus when he says in Colossians chapter 2 that great verse, for in him, in Christ, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And that last word destroyed the Colossian heresy. God came down and took upon himself our humanity. That includes our bodies. There is nothing evil about the human body. I remember that Martin Luther, I saw his film, and of course I've read the biographies of Martin Luther. In the monastery, St. Augustine Monastery, he used to take a little rod and would beat his back and his body so intensely and so forcefully that he would finally fall unconscious and collapse on the floor of his little cell. The reason for this was a misunderstanding of the importance and the place of the body. I don't know if it is that we have misunderstood Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7, where you read that God formed man out of the dust of the earth, and then God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Some have misunderstood that to mean that God made a house, a body, and then God breathed into the house man, who is a soul. Now, man is not a soul inhabiting a body. Man is an ensouled body, for the totality of man is spirit, soul, and body, and we must never think of the body in a derogatory sense. So, you can think of many truths, just one that I share with you. The spirit of God indwells those that belong to God. Thus he comes and makes his home in us. That includes our bodies. You remember the Lord Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I and my Father will come and make our home in you. Now, that includes the totality of man, spirit, soul, and body. I remember reading a sermon by J. B. Watson, one of the great Bible teachers in England some years ago. He preached this sermon in London on the subject of the Trinity, and as he came to a close, he spoke on the great mystery of God, and this is what I read. God is transcendent. God is beyond and above our highest thoughts. There are things about God that we have no understanding. If you could totally understand God, then God would be smaller than you are, and I personally thank God tonight that God is transcendent. He is greater than we are. You come to the Bible and you find the great mystery of the Incarnation. The transcendent God becomes God manifest. So, when you come to the Gospels and you watch the Lord Jesus eating and drinking and working and teaching and doing miracles and in a wedding service and weeping, you are watching God, for His name was Emmanuel, with us gone. But J. B. Watson added, God transcendent, God manifest, but that's not enough. What each of us needs is what he calls God experience, when the Almighty God, wonder of all wonders, comes into our lives, into our hearts, into our minds, and He makes His home in us. So God indwells us today by the presence of the Spirit of God, and that gives great dignity to the human body, which is part of the totality of man. Well, then, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the perfect man, went to Calvary and He died, and He was buried. Now, I know you've heard this many times, but may I emphasize tonight, He really and truly died. On our drugstore bookshelf for the last two or three years, there has been a book, not as popular now as it was a year or two ago, called The Passover Plot, another modern attempt to talk away the reality of the death of Jesus Christ. But He really died, and He was really buried, and three days later, He rose from the dead. Now, this brings us face to face with the body of resurrection. I would like simply to say to you that God did something in history. God did something in a certain place in Jerusalem. He did a certain thing. He brought back from the dead our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He did it at a certain time. It was done on the third day. Thus, the Lord Jesus becomes the first-begotten Revelation 1, or the firstborn, Colossians 1, from the dead. He is the first-risen of a new humanity, and all those that belong to Him are going to share in His glory, and that includes the glory of His risen, glorified body. So, when He rose from the dead, there are two basic things that I want to share with you. The first is this. He rose in a substantial body. It was the Lord Jesus that said, "'It is I myself. Handle me and feed.'" In other words, He was not a spirit. He was a total man, spirit, soul, and body. So He said, "'It is I myself. Handle me and feed.'" He invited the disciples to see His hands and His feet. He asked for, and He ate broiled fish. Women held Him by the feet, Matthew 28, and also He lifted up His hands in the act of blessing. And you remember that precious experience when He talked to Thomas, and He told Thomas to put His fingers into the wound in His hand, and His hand into the wound in His son. So the Lord Jesus rose bodily from the grave. Having said that, and let me say it once more, He rose in a substantial body. I must add that He rose from the dead in a body that belongs to a new order. For the Lord Jesus did things that He never did before. For instance, in a room, perhaps not exactly like this, but with the windows closed and the doors closed, He appeared in the midst. Now, He did not do things like that before. You remember when He went with the two down the road to Emmaus, and then, compelled by the two, He went into their home, and they sat around the table, and they had their evening meal, and the Lord broke the bread. And in the breaking of the bread, He made Himself known to the two from Emmaus. And they saw Him, and they recognized Him, and they knew who He was, and He was gone. So though He rose from the dead in a substantial body, it was a body that belonged to a new order. And so He could say, and I do not correct this tonight, I make this simply as a suggestion, He said to those two on the road to Emmaus, While I was yet with you. Now, He was with them, and yet He used that rather awkward term, while I was yet with you, in the sense that He was with them now in a way that He had not been with them before. There was a difference. So when you come to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, though it may seem to be a contradiction, you have established two things. Continuity. He rose from the dead in a substantial body, but you also have established discontinuity, for it was a body that belonged to a new order. And so our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ could make His glory known to people like Stephen, to one like Paul, and yet He could withhold it from the two that went with Him down the road to Emmaus. There are things about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and His body that the keenest, most influential mind, sanctified mind, have never fully been able to understand. And that ought not to present to each of us a problem tonight, because He rose in a body capable of passing through the universe to sit at the right hand of the Majesty on high where He is tonight, and in that new body of glory we await His coming. Now, I want to take you to a second portion just briefly, because in this portion, in Philippians chapter 3, you have in the closing verses the climax to Paul's personal testimony. Let me share it with you. Philippians chapter 3 and verse 21, "...who shall change our..." Now, we must not use the word body. That is not true of our human body. That may have been an old English word, but the accurate word is lowly. "...who shall change our lowly body, that it may be fashioned like unto His body of glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." So His body is referred to as a body of glory. Now, you need not turn to this verse, but I want to read to you one verse from Revelation about the great new city. And I read from Revelation 21 and verse 23, "...and the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it." So you raise the question, why? And the answer is given, "...for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." Now, some translations, most translations, translate that last phrase, "...and the Lamb is the lamp thereof." Now, Philippians 3, the last verse, makes reference to the body of glory that belongs to the Lord Jesus. In the new city, there is no need for light. Why? Because it is lighted by the glory of God, and the Lamb, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is the lamp thereof. Thus, His body is a body of glory in which the glory of God is manifested and revealed, and it lightens the new city referred to in the Revelation. Now, in Philippians 3, as you read down that chapter, you can't help but notice how overpowering, how overwhelming is the desire of this man called Paul to know the Lord Jesus. He knew Him initially outside of Damascus. He grew day by day in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, but he has what I sometimes call a holy impatience to know Him and to see Him as He really is. And as Paul comes down through the chapter, he comes to verse 21, which would seem to imply that we will never really know the Lord Jesus in His fullness, in the brilliance of His glory, until our bodies are changed. And then we are going to know as we are known to this, and that will be for each of us a great moment of glory. Now, as I close tonight, we have just a few moments left, and I cannot omit, naturally, 1 Corinthians 15. So turn with me as we close our service and read just two or three verses about our bodies, our new bodies, our transformed bodies. Paul says, beginning in verse 42 of 1 Corinthians 15, "...so also is the resurrection of the dead." Now, it would be very nice to read more of the chapter, but let's break in at verse 42. Paul has established the truth of the resurrection. He has illustrated it by things from nature, but now he leaves the illustrations behind, and he comes to the actual contrast between our present body and the coming-changed, glorified body. Verse 42, "...so also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption." Now, that refers to our present body. You see, and I speak very kindly tonight, our present bodies are perishable. They are capable of disease and death. I've already shared this with you, but I talked yesterday with my brother Bob, and he said to me, Jim, he said, You remember two weeks ago, I have four, three brothers, there are four of us, and we went out just about two weeks ago, a night or two before I left Vancouver, the four couples, the four boys and our wives, and had a wonderful night out at a restaurant, an intimate evening, the four, the eight of us together, for a very close family relationship. And Bob says, You remember that night just two weeks ago? Well, he said, You'd hardly recognize Bill today. You see, the body that we have is sown in corruption. It is perishable. It is capable of disease and death. Now, having said that, we read the last part of verse 42, "...it is raised," that is the new body, "...it is raised in incorruption." In other words, one of the great truths about our new bodies is that they are imperishable. They are immune to all disease, decay, and, of course, death. They are incorruptible, immortal. So the present body is sown in corruption, but the new body is raised in incorruption. Verse 43, "...it is sown in dishonor." Now, my brother Bill, and you'll bear with me tonight, Bill, of the four of us, has always been the most outgoing, a strong personality, not in the sense of domineering, but in the sense of joy and of optimism. And it is very sad to see a person like that begin to think that he can no longer control the body. Many times as a pastor I have sat beside those who are sick and near the end of their lives, and I have witnessed how sometimes a man or a woman with great strength of spirit, character, personality, will do the utmost to make the weakened body respond to the desires of the mind and the heart. For one of the greatest tragedies of our human situation is to come to that moment when the body brings to us dishonor, for we can no longer use it, control it the way that we would like. So we feel disgraced and humiliated. Well, the body is sown in dishonor, but Paul adds, "...the new body, it is raised in glory." That is, the new body has the supreme divine approval. There is no dishonor, no disgrace, no humiliation. And so in that coming day we will stand in the presence of God, and our bodies will bear, so to speak, the seal of the divine approval. Paul goes on in verse 43, the latter part, to say, "...it is sown in weakness." Now, I don't know how you take that. I think that in the moral and spiritual sense. Many times, as Christians, we know that our bodies have not responded as they should to the will of God, and we have experienced our weaknesses in the body. But, Paul adds the last phrase of verse 43, "...the new body is raised in power." So that in that coming day of our glorification, we will have a body that will perfectly and fully respond to the will of God, and we will do with delight and joy all the things that are in harmony with God's will. And then finally, Paul says in verse 44, "...it is sown a natural body." Now, that simply means that the body we have now, if it goes through the experience of death, that body belongs to this planet. It is an earthly body, and so it is sown a natural body. The new body, it is raised a spiritual body. Now, don't misunderstand that phrase. It is still a substantial body, but it is a body adequate and equipped for the new Jerusalem, or if you like, for heaven, for the presence of God. It is our eschatological body. Not a body for this planet, but a body for that atmosphere, that place we call and refer to as heaven. So as we think of those we love, and perhaps as we think of ourselves, we go on with the confidence that if this earthly tabernacle is dissolved, we have a house from God, a building made without hand, eternal in the heaven. I'm not going to take you back to 2 Corinthians 5, but I want to add this note of joy and optimism as we close tonight. Paul knew that it was very possible that he would go through the experience of death. Paul had no fears, but you can see as you read 2 Corinthians 5 that what Paul wanted was to be here when the Lord returned, so that our mortal body would be swallowed up in the wonder of the new, transformed body. There are three sets that you can establish, and the first is this, to know the Lord is a great and wonderful experience now. To be absent from the body and in the presence of the Lord without a body is an even greater experience, but the greatest experience of all will to be in the Lord's presence glorified spirit, soul, and body, and that's what Paul wanted as he longed for the coming of the Lord. Now, in the purposes of God, that experience was not granted to the apostles, but it may be that some of us sitting here tonight will never go through the experience of death, but will see the Lord Jesus as he returns from heaven, and we will be caught up and transformed, and so will we ever be with the Lord. I have this closing thought. At the end of Philippians chapter 3, when Paul says that the Lord will change our lowly body, and fashion it like unto his body of glory, he goes on to refer to the power of the Lord to subdue all things unto himself in the purpose of God. Now, we leave to one side the cosmic implications of that phrase, and we bring it down to the personal application tonight. Christ has the power to bring each of us in the wholeness of our person, spirit, soul, and body into complete and full harmony with himself, just as he has power to subject all things in that coming day. Now, when that happens in our personal, individual case, then all failures will be passed, all limitations will be over, and then in glorified bodies we will have the capacity to know the Lord Jesus in a sense that we can never achieve now. And so we look forward to his coming, and we await our full and eternal glorification. I want you to take your hymn books, and as we close tonight, we'll sing a verse or two of hymn number 10. I think this is an appropriate hymn, though it may not refer specifically to our theme, but it gives honor to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, through whom all that we have talked about will be possible. And as we sing this hymn, hymn number 10, we will stand and sing verses 1, 2, and 4, and after we sing verse 4, I would like to ask Mr. Willie to commend us to God. Hymn number 10, we will stand and sing verses 1, 2, and 4. A future, is there a future for man? And we thank thee thou hast proved to us from thy word this weekend that there is a glorious, glorious, magnificent future. For all those who put their trust in Jesus Christ, without thy beloved son we would be lost forever. And that awful sentence about which we've been listening this during these last days, the soul that sinneth it must die, the wages of sin is death. That awful sentence must have been passed upon us for all eternity. But we thank thee that thy beloved son came down into our sphere, and at the place called Calvary thou didst deal with this whole question of sin in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're not only saved, that's wonderful, but we thank thee Lord thou hast given us a glorious, wonderful future in thy beloved son. And we owe it all to him, and we bow at his feet tonight in adoration and worship and praise. And to him of whom we've been singing, who sits upon the throne adored and magnified, to him we say be glory and dominion and majesty and power forever and ever. We thank thee that we shall parallel the existence of God in a glorious eternal atmosphere, when these bodies which are so rebellious today, and these wills of ours that are so rebel against thyself, will be utterly submitted to thee. And in that glorious day these bodies will then do thy will. O Lord, how we long to do this now, but we seem to be held back because we are here in an earthly body. But we thank thee in that glorious day when the past will be done with and forgotten and put behind, and we shall be transformed, and this lowly body shall be conformed to the image of thy son. We thank thee for this future, we thank thee for these studies, we thank thee for our brother to whom thou hast revealed these wonderful truths, so that he might give them to us. Help us, Lord, to be better men and women as we separate tonight. And now we lovingly commend to thee our beloved brother and his brother and his brother's wife and family in this hour of sorrow and trial. Be with them and bless them. And those who have to travel, Lord, there are many who have to travel tomorrow, leaving us. We pray, Lord, go with them, and we ask that the savor of these meetings might go with each one, and our lives might bring glory to thy name. We thank you for another wonderful conference at Park of the Palms, and if the Lord Jesus be not come, we look forward to more days of joy and rejoicing and glory in our days. Dismiss us now with our blessing and receive our thanks. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.