Restoration

Turn with me, please, to the 23rd Psalm, first of all. I'll look at them in the easiest order it is to find them. The 23rd Psalm.

Verse 1. I have never finished this message yet. I must admit it. I don't have any notes, but it just seems to get longer all the time.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters.

I've often likened that to quiet times with the Word of God. He restoreth my soul. He restoreth my soul.

Now, turn with me, please, to the Gospel of Matthew and chapter 11. I'm not reading in the order that I'm going to refer to them, but in the simplest order to find them. Verse 1. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 11, verse 1. And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.

Now, when John had heard in the prison the works or the workings of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said unto him, Are thou he that should come, or do we look for another who is different, or another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do here and see. The blind receive their sight on the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear. The dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. And as they departed, Jesus began to say. Now, look down at verse 11.

Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. That's dispensationally.

Look with me, please, in the gospel according to John, chapter 1. John's gospel, chapter 1. I'm reading out verse 43. The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee and find Philip and saith unto him, Follow me. Now, Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

Philip findeth Nathanael and saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of or come forth from Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.

Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? And the thought is, From where and when have you come to intimately know me or know me to this depth? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.

Now, chapter 10, please, of John's Gospel. And then that'll be all. No, excuse me.

Chapter 21. And then that will be all. Verse 15.

And there is such a great principle found in these first five words. It could take a meeting in itself. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, Lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.

He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonah, Lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Now, you'll notice the second time there was no more than these.

I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, Lovest thou me more than these? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? Now, it's not he was grieved because he said to him three times, but what he said and the way he said it the third time.

That's very important. I've lost my place. Again, the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things.

Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. I think that'll be all we'll read, and we trust that God will bless it, and I'll just refer perhaps to other portions and passages because I haven't got any notes as to whether it closes or not.

I want to look tonight at the truth of restoration. Restoration. I must admit, and I'm not gauging everybody here by myself, but it is possibly one of the most misunderstood terms in the Word of God.

Restoration. That and the word repentance. A lot of individuals will come back and sometimes after a conference when they haven't been doing so well, having almost a kind of a new drive or a new sense of freshness or a grip of something, they'll turn around and they'll say, I got restored last night, and they did it.

Someone says, well, that's a pretty straight charge to make. Restoration is actually a word for binding up. It implies broken things, things that break down.

And the binding up, though there will be an occasion, something that will stimulate or instigate the initiation of the binding up or the commencement of restoration, but restoration itself is a progressive thing that takes place and the word restoration means to bring it back to where it was again. I looked at the 23rd Psalm and it brings us those words concerning the person of the Lord Jesus. He restoreth my soul.

And sometimes individuals think to themselves, well, that is a particular individual that has done a particular disgraceful thing and has departed to a great degree from the things of God and now they have turned around, they have been repentant to the truth of their condition and their behavior and they are restored. But can I say that really every one of us in some form or other undergo continuously aspects of breakdown. I'm not talking about a nervous breakdown, which by the way is as physical as a broken leg.

I am talking about, for example, when it comes to the man Nathaniel, it's the breakdown of worship. It's the breakdown of a sensitivity or a compassion that's in the soul of a believer. It breaks down.

When it comes to the truth of the man that's John the Baptist, it's a breakdown of confidence. We'll find one of the most confident, competent men in the Bible had a time when he lapsed into a condition where his confidence was shattered and he broke down. And then I want to look at the truth of the breakdown of service because with Peter, it's a man that aspired and even boasted the fact that though all others would forsake the Lord Jesus, he wouldn't.

He was going to be a servant to the end and he finally comes to a point where his service has come to a full stop. He's broken down and service needs to be restored. So it's worship, confidence, and service.

They break down. I remember on each of these occasions you're going to find the Lord Jesus Himself is instrumental or is the source whereby He commences the binding up, the turnaround of circumstances. But I remember a time working at an old house.

I was a sheet metal worker. You know what it's like to work at old houses when you've got to put in the ductwork and the heating system. I must admit this was an old house down in downtown Charlottetown.

It was probably about 120 years old. And I thought to myself, I even told one of the older carpenters there, I said, you know, they're wasting their time. They're trying to restore this place.

You ever hear them talk about that with a house? They're trying to bring it back to former glory. And I said, they're wasting their time. They should just tear it down and build a nice bungalow.

It would be a lot easier to put the forest air heating in it. I remember this particular carpenter, Billy West, when he turns to me and he says, Peter... And he was an older man, by the way. He was a carpenter still working at 75 years old at that time.

He said, all that this place needs is a master's touch. Now, he was referring to himself. He was a pretty good carpenter and he knew it.

And he wasn't afraid to tell people. So I still walked away. I put all the ductwork in and I had to come back a little later to put the grills in.

But I thought to myself, it's over. It's done with. That house is a house of former glory.

It will never be what it was. They're wasting their time. They're wasting their money.

It won't be brought around. And yet, I remember a time when I went back to that house to put the final grills in it. And I must admit, I never saw it in its original state, obviously.

I'm not quite that old. But when I looked at it at that time, they had even refinished all the baseboard and all the trim around the windows. They'd gone with plaster, the original type of plaster that was used and made those plaster moldings in the ceiling.

It was absolutely beautiful. And I had to admit, I didn't tell Billy, but I had to admit that that place, by the hand of a keepable man, had been turned around and progressively, ultimately, finally brought back to its former condition, if not better. That's what I'm talking about tonight.

I want to talk about something that will turn things around, that break down. And it will bring them back to their former condition, if not better. You know, when it comes to the truth of this man by the name of Nathaniel... Now, I'm going to say this.

I've said this before. Maybe somebody has heard it before. But that doesn't matter.

I remember one time I was preaching with Mr. Albert Ramsey. And I got up and I made a statement like that. And I remember him saying to me afterwards, don't flatter yourself.

Your message wasn't that great that they remember anything. So, I mean, that's always a little conflicting. It gives you a little confidence.

Anyway, this particular man, Nathaniel... I know we sometimes sing with the children, you know, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. And that's supposed to be a gospel chorus? No, it's not. The Lord Jesus never called upon dead sinners to follow Him.

The calls that you have in the Scriptures to individuals, whether it was Levi, whether it was Peter, whether it was James and John, were called to be apostles. They were men that were called to a service. They were already believers.

They were reached under the ministry of John the Baptist. And you read your Bible and read, he preached a very thorough gospel anticipating the coming of Christ. And he identified the person of Christ.

And individuals finally left John, realizing that the one he has told us about, the one we've been expecting, is here. So these were saved men from another dispensation incorporated into the present dispensation. And when he turns around, he says, follow me.

Or in Peter's case, they were saved men already called to a service. So when we have Nathaniel, it's not the thought of the salvation of this man. Here was a man that was saved.

As a matter of fact, Philip didn't have to come to him and say, you know, you need to be born again. And we're born in sin. And our condition is such, if we die as we are, we'll be in hell.

You know what he came and said to him? He's come. The one that Moses and the prophets declared would come, the one we've been expecting, the one we've been looking for, he's come, he's here. And you think Nathaniel would say, it's finally happened, he's here, where is he? Take me to him right away.

But you know what he says? Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? You can't get much more negative than that. You know, we get to a state where our ministry, our lives, our lives are marked by a great degree of negative activity, negative thought. We don't expect anything good to happen.

Even go to have gospel meetings and someone says, don't get too excited because nothing's going on around here. God in His mercy. I happened to be in a place not too far from here.

A man told me, he says, you know, really, he says, I appreciate you brethren coming, but don't get your hopes up too high. We haven't seen too much blessing for a while. I want to tell you, there's a very good number of individuals reached and saved in those meetings and some of them are in the assembly today.

But we can tend to get into the frame of mind where we're negative. Where the vitality and the enjoyment, that positive note of expectation is gone from our lives and it affects our worship. Come on, brethren.

You know what it's like to get on your feet and just simply revert gospel messages to prayers and you rise to your feet and you say all the right things and you're as insensitive and as unaffected as can be. It's just a form. And it's empty.

And we're cold inside. And that warmth, that vibrance that marked our initial commencement our beginning, our former days is gone. And there's a negativity, there's a coldness that has crept into our experience where we don't expect much.

A complacency. And here's a man that really should have been leaping with joy when he heard the truth. He's here.

John's ministry has come to pass and the man we've been looking for is here. Come and see him. And Nathaniel can turn around and say, Oh, can any good thing come out of this? You talk about a form of despondency that creeps into our experience.

Yes, we can get up and pray and preach like troopers. And we're as cold inside as dead crabs. You know the wonderful thing about this is He does go to the Lord Jesus.

And as He's coming, the Lord Jesus sees Him coming and He simply says to him, Behold, in His hearing an Israelite in whom is no guile. He makes a statement concerning Him. And then the obvious response of Nathaniel is this.

He says, Where and when do you know me from? I love these words. He says, Before Philip called thee unto the fig tree, long before. They're not related experiences.

That's the term. Before the experience of Philip coming for you, remember that time when you were alone under the fig tree and something happened so intimate that the only two that knew about it were you and God. And that term, I saw thee, doesn't just mean I glanced upon you.

Have you ever heard a person turn around and say, The doctor will see you now. It's like an appointment fulfilled. I saw thee or I responded to thee.

You know what he did? He took him back to a particular occasion to a particular moment to a particular experience. Now here's a man that's incredulous. Here's a man that's cold and he's gotten distant in his experience and his worship has gotten down to the point there's almost, there's nothing.

Now listen to him. Thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.

Do you know what he realized? Only two people knew that experience. Me and my Lord. This is my Lord.

I love this truth. You know why? Not only do I love the truth that I will never forget in my experience, the moment when God in His mercy dealt with me and saved me, but I thank God for this truth. Christ will never forget it either.

It was as important to Him. He could simply say, In your case, way back that time during the Gospel meetings, when you were alone in your room, I saw Thee. For that time when you were sitting there in the middle of the meetings in the tent, on the edge of your seat, recognizing the truth of your need, I met Thee in all Thy sins.

And each one of us recognizing the truth. Do you know what He was really doing? He was bringing them back to His experience of salvation. He was bringing them back to the moment when He was reached and saved.

A real, clear experience. And when he begins to think about it, you know, do you ever stop and think about what happened there? What happened back there? You know what it was like when we were back then? I remember one time, Doug McLeod, he's a brother in the assembly I'm from. He's very good for me.

He's one of the men that came to me with the Gospel. I've probably given Doug, he's one of the elders in the Charlestown Assembly, more headaches than anybody. But I love him dearly.

And I remember the first time, I remember, they call it after you came out of the clouds. Came off cloud nine. Can I tell you something, brethren? I don't believe we ever had to come off cloud nine.

This preaching that you've got to get eventually down to the point where it's humdrum and get away from the vitality and the enjoyment of it so it's something you just take for granted, it doesn't have to happen. More than that, it shouldn't happen. And I got to the point where I was just, it was empty.

I just wasn't enjoying it. I wasn't enjoying the hymns I was singing like I used to. I wasn't enjoying the truth as I heard those men.

I wasn't even in the assembly yet. I heard them worshiping and the preaching. I wasn't enjoying it.

It was empty. Now, come on tonight. I want to talk heart to heart here tonight.

It was empty. I was just enduring it. I wasn't enjoying it.

And I called up this dear man and I said to him, Doug, it's just not the same. It's changed. It's not the same.

Feel that way? It's not the same anymore? I'll never forget what he said. He said, salvation rests alone on the person of Christ. It never changes.

But he says, there has been a change, Peter. You've changed. You've changed.

Because the night that God saved you, you were real. You were real. And he said, you've lost that reality.

You've become somebody you're not. Who are you anyway? And he said, in order to enjoy a real salvation and a real Savior, you have to get back to being real. And the Lord Jesus brought him back to that experience when there was no pride and there was no politics.

We weren't concerned about playing games. We were real. For once in our life, we were real.

The Lord Jesus took him back to that moment to a real salvation. And that man's heart literally overflowed. He said, Thou art the Son of God.

Thou art the King of Israel. That's where worship comes. Getting back to reality.

I remember dear brother Robert Ramsey used to say to me, look at this clock. He used to say to me, Peter, I've been in a series of gospel meetings, you know, and sometimes I'd tell how I got saved when he started. And then he'd say two weeks later, tell how you got saved tonight.

I said, I already told last night. Never mind. Tell it tonight.

Well, sometimes as I got a little bolder, I'd even say, why? But I normally did what he said and I wish you were still here. I'd do what he said. He'd say, Peter, you're losing the reality.

You're just preaching sermons, son. Get back to reality. He said, you need to tell it more than they need to hear it.

Sure enough, as I began to tell it, you remember that night, that day, you go back and your thoughts, everything else becomes so vague and so distant and worship seems to be so spontaneous. That's what the Lord Jesus did. He just simply took him back.

He took him back. You know what they taught me today? They taught me today that preaching about how you got saved is kind of an immature thing in Gospel work. Well, if it is, you call me junior.

I can't think of anything that is more nonsense. The Apostle Paul in the book of the Acts three times referred to his experience. And the greatest men I've ever heard preach, at least if they haven't told how God saved them, have referred in some degree nightly to their experience of salvation.

And here was a man that was cold and incredulous and distant and the Lord Jesus took him back. He took him back to his beginning. He took him back to that time, that experience, and that man's heart just warmed and worship flowed.

God helped us to get back. When it comes to this man, John the Baptist, John the Baptist was a great man. John the Baptist was the man that heralded the Lord Jesus as the Messiah to the nation.

As a matter of fact, he would be the fulfillment of what was preached in John chapter 10 when he said concerning the door, the porter opened unto him. That the door was the Scriptures by which and through which Christ was introduced or should have been recognized by the nation. John the Baptist was the porter that opened the door and introduced Christ to the nation.

And of course, the nation rejected him. And here is that man that stood up and preached so clearly, fearlessly, a man that said concerning himself, I love these words, I'm just a voice, never seeking place, just recognizing that he was an instrument to be used of God for the glory of God. A great man, a great preacher, one of the greatest preachers that I've ever led apart from the person of Christ himself.

And now he's in prison. And now he sends a message. Do you know what his message basically is? Have I made a mistake? I thought he was the Christ, but was I wrong? You know what's happened? This confident man that preached with such competence and confidence, his confidence is broken down.

There's time when some of the greatest, most faithful of God's people will get into circumstances and their confidence will be shaken and even begin to break down and crumble. Christ never fluctuates, but faith does. You know what he was thinking to himself? Here I am in prison and I was heralding the King.

And like most of the nation, not recognizing the dispensation between the two great advents of the return and the initiation of the coming of Christ and the dispensation that we're living in, he thought they were one. He thought that the King would be received, would be enthroned, and that he would be seated with the King. He thought to himself that that's God's program, that's God's purpose.

And he was faithfully heralding the truth of the Kingdom. That was essentially the character of his gospel. And all of a sudden, he finds himself in a prison, in a dungeon.

And he begins to think like this, if I was preaching the right thing, if I was doing what God wanted me to do, why am I here? Why am I going through this? Surely God must have something against me. I must be mistaken. I must be wrong.

And he's shaken. The likelihood of you being in a penitentiary or in a dungeon cell for the gospel is very remote. But when God's people get into trials, individuals begin to say things like this, I really believed the assembly was the place I was sure.

But if I'm really supposed to be in God's assembly, why am I losing my family? I really thought that I should be witnessing. But if me going forth to witness for God was the mind of God, why are my loved ones still without Christ? If I'm in the mind of God, why is my health broken? Why am I in a bed I'll never revive from? Why am I going through this dungeon experience? Have I made a mistake? Am I wrong? My confidence is shaken. I'm broken down.

And he doesn't need us to say, they're there. It'll be over soon. You'll get out.

He didn't get out. He died there. You realize the trial you're presently in, you could be in it until the Lord takes you from this scene.

It's a wonderful truth that God is able not to deliver only from trials, but delivers in trials. What are you going to do for Him? And he sends word to the person of the Lord Jesus, I love this. You know when the Lord Jesus, other men, when they were full of confidence, self-confidence, you know what the Lord Jesus said to them? Oh, you have little faith.

They needed that. Everyone's bones are backbiting. They had left that.

They had seen from the Scriptures the truth of being gathered unto the name of the Lord Jesus. They had two girls. Their two girls were both in their early 20s, both professing to be saved, both had married.

And when Mom and Dad left, the girls turned around and said, no, you're doing the wrong thing. More than that, they said, you're doing something that we can't condone and you're hurting the family and until you leave the assembly, what they call the gospel hall, we don't gather to gospel halls. We gather to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our buildings are gospel halls. We're going to have nothing to do with you. This couple would pray and I must admit, I'd go into their home.

We'd get down to pray. Yes, Annie would pray with us too. It was in her own home.

It wasn't in the church. We'd pray. I'll kneel down.

I'd read a passage. She turned around and she was one of those kind of people that would always try to encourage you and give you a lift and share something she'd been reading that day. It's nice to meet sisters like that.

Sister, what were you enjoying today? If I needed a bit of a lift and I asked you to share it with me, could you share something with me today? Or is that just for the men? It's nice to have something you can share today. You had to have got it for yourself to share it with somebody else. Anyway, finally one of the grandchildren that loved them dearly as did all their grandchildren, a boy about nine years old, that came to Sunday school for a while until the parents strictly forbade it.

By this time, they had left any semblance of a church at all, had nothing to do with what they called now religion, proved the emptiness of their own profession. The nine-year-old grandson that meant so much to them and used to love to go to listen to the gospel with Granny and Grandpa was diagnosed with leukemia and he was dying. They called me and asked if I could get in to see him and I couldn't.

The parents had forbidden it. I couldn't get in. They had forbidden the grandmother and grandfather to go anywhere near him.

You couldn't get near him. Even though at one point when they were in the hall and you were on the other side of the hall and he was crying out, please tell Granny to come in, tell Granny to come in and they weren't allowed in. And he died and I never got to see him.

Two weeks later, I went to their home just brought by and they were very concerned and very exercised for their grandchildren and their daughters and I've never seen them shaken. When I went in to that home, I saw, so I'll never forget, I saw the two of them sitting there with their heads down. Finally, Annie had to leave the room.

She couldn't even sit up. She had to leave the room. All she could say was, I don't know what to believe anymore.

I feel so let down. I don't know what to believe. Do you ever feel that way? Brethren, do you ever feel bitter because you feel like God has let you down? And I just sat there for a minute and I realized this is no time for a long visit.

So I got their little guestbook and before I left them, it's nice to write in a guestbook. In their guestbook, they always wanted a verse. They always wanted you to write a verse.

Either write it out if it was small or at least write where it's found. And I just wrote a piece of a verse I had been reading that day in Isaiah chapter 55. It goes like this.

And great shall be the peace of thy children. And I wrote it down. I no sooner got home than the phone rang.

It was Eaton Frail on the phone. Here's what he said. He said, Brother Peter, thank you.

He said, We just came out of the room. We felt so low. We were just having to browse through our guestbook.

And we saw the verse you'd written. Now brethren, that wasn't from my mind. That was of God.

I'm not taking any responsibility for anything that was done there. But they said when we first left where we were going and our family turned on us, we got that verse from God 14 years ago. And great shall be the peace of thy children.

And when the family finally cut us off and they wouldn't let us have anything to do with them, we got that verse again. Great shall be the peace of thy children. And she said, You know something? Here we were to the point we'd given up.

And our confidence was shattered. And the verse came back to us. The verse came back to us.

Great shall be the peace of thy children. She said, You know what it really was? God was saying this. Don't lose sight of what I have told you.

Show them again. And when your world seems to fall apart and the bottom is falling out of your life, you go back to the very truths that essentially gave you confidence as to where you're going and where you were in fellowship. The very truths from the Word of God that have been the vibrant backbone and strength of your life.

And look at them again because they haven't changed. They haven't changed, brethren. She said, Go and show John again.

And you know what happened to John the Baptist? He died in that prison. Things didn't improve. But I have no doubt he died with this confidence that this is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

He died in total confidence, not shaken, having seen it again. Oh, the Word of God. When your confidence is broken down, some believers get into doubt when their confidence in their salvation is broken down.

You go back to the very Word that gave you confidence in the beginning. It hasn't changed. And it never will.

You know, the Lord Jesus sometimes dealt with individuals very severely because they needed it. There's always a warmth and a gentleness in them. But when it comes to John the Baptist, wouldn't you say this was his weakest moment? Sure he would.

His lowest moment when his faith had ebbed. He wasn't on the mountaintop of expectation. He was in a valley of doubt.

And at that very moment, listen to what the Lord Jesus said about him. Born of a woman. There's none greater than John the Baptist.

You know, at times when you think that you've brought dishonor and God must be fed up with your wavering and your worrying and your concern, that he doesn't see it like that. You know why? He knew what John was going through. He knew what he was experiencing.

He knew what they were praying. He knew what they were praying. I remember one time to do with the children.

We were going through a real hard time. I realize the Lord's people are going through hard times. And the trials are as adverse and unique as the individuals that are having them.

But we got to the point where she's not here tonight, but my dear wife was. It's the only time I ever saw her knocked off her feet. She's taken some pretty hard stuff.

I couldn't take it. Sometimes it's easy to just kind of walk away and close the bedroom door and kind of shut it out. But she doesn't shut it out.

She's in it all the time. Finally, she got to the point where I, nothing I could say could cheer her. Nothing could seem to lift her up.

She was broken down. Her confidence was broken down. And somebody just sent a little letter.

I had a brother send me a little letter. It's been a help to me. Thank you, brother.

When she opened that letter, there's just a part of a verse. Here's what it said. We love you, Maxine.

Just wanted to ask this question. Is anything too hard for the Lord? You know, I came home from meeting that night, brother. It was posted with those little magnets on the refrigerator.

He notes underneath it, in capital letters about this thing, the word, and oh, no. Nothing's too hard for the Lord. When our confidence is beginning to break down, when we're shaken, let's get back to the Word of God.

Let's get back to the Word of God. Because His Word is sure. And we can have confidence, not in ourselves, but in the Word of God.

In the Word of God. Go, and show John again. Brethren, I've got about three minutes to do Peter.

I can't do it, so I'm not going to try. I'll just have to file this unfinished again. Our Father, we bow before Thee, and thank Thee for the Lord Jesus.

Thank Thee for the person of Thy Son, His love for us, His understanding, His compassion, His empathy. Not only the truth that He is a great Savior, whereby we've been delivered from judgment and fitted for Thy presence, but He is our great High Priest and is able to administer us and to secure us in all the trials that we go through through the Word of God. So we pray Thee, Lord, that Thou would remember Thy people here this evening.

They're individuals that are here. We're all, to some degree, by time shaken, sometimes to the very core of our confidence. And yet we thank Thee that we are encouraged, exhorted to go back and to review again the great truths that will never, never change that initially and ultimately gave us confidence and will never lift us up.

We thank Thee for Thy Word. Where would we be without it, the great resource of it? And pray that we might take advantage of this blessed book and it might be used for the restoration that we so greatly need and the breakdown in our experiences that we might go on for God in a way well pleasing to Thyself. Lord, help each individual here.

Lord, help each home represented here. Help each assembly represented here. Glorify Thyself through Thy Son in Thy people in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. Now, we'll just sing. Ah, we're a little early.

Not now that I prayed, but we're pretty close to being early. We'll sing number 454. The Lord's my shepherd.

I'll not want He makes me down to lie. In pastures green He leadeth me. The quiet waters fly.

454.