[0:00] Let us read God's Word in the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 24. The last chapter of Luke's Gospel, and we'll read from verse 13.
[0:20] Let us turn now to the portion of God's Word we read together, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 24.
[0:39] And we'll consider together this passage which we have read from verse 13 down to verse 35, the account that we have of the appearance of our Lord after the resurrection to the two on the road to Emmaus.
[1:09] Now, in looking at this passage, just one or two things by way of introduction.
[1:25] First of all, to note that this was an appearance of our Lord, probably the third one.
[1:37] First of all, to the people, to the women and the other disciples who met him on the way to, they were going to tell what the angels had told them at the grave that he had risen.
[1:48] Then the appearance to Mary Magdalene. Then probably this appearance, though it is possible that he may have appeared before this time, without these men knowing it, to Peter.
[2:03] They were going to hear that later on that day. These two men set off from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a journey of about seven miles. They were walking.
[2:15] And as they walked that distance, we read that they were discussing together the things that were closest to their hearts. They were talking of all these things which had happened in Jerusalem that day.
[2:33] It may be, as some people do say, it may be, in many respects, sad that they had deemed it necessary to leave Jerusalem at all because the Lord had told them explicitly to wait in Jerusalem.
[2:49] And it is possible that when the reports of the empty tomb were circulating, that these men ought to have stayed where they were to see if these wonderful reports could be confirmed.
[3:07] On the other hand, one cannot but sympathize with their feelings and their desire to perhaps leave a city which was thronging with people and to enjoy the quietness and the peace of a seven-mile journey together so that they could talk with one another of the things which were so close to their hearts.
[3:38] Of course, we do know that they were coming to wrong conclusions. We shall see about that in a minute. But the important thing is that at least they were exchanging notes, comparing one's interpretation with the other's interpretation of events.
[4:02] And as some of you already know in this gathering tonight, it is a wonderful privilege in life to have someone, someone close to you in the Christian faith with whom you can discuss things maybe that you cannot discuss with anybody else.
[4:22] It is a wonderful privilege to be able to compare notes and to share your thoughts about the things that are closest to your hearts.
[4:34] And it is very often the case that the Lord in his wonderful providence, in his graciousness, in his goodness, even at the very outset of a person's spiritual pilgrimage, when you become interested in things of God, and when the gospel begins to assume a meaningfulness to you that it didn't have before, it is wonderful how God in his goodness always seems to provide someone with whom you can feel close, to whom you can feel close, and in whom you have confidence enough to share the things that are most meaningful to you now of all things.
[5:25] And in that sense, at least, one can sympathize with them, and one can understand their desire, just to get away from it all for a minute, to talk together of these profound things.
[5:43] And while they were talking, the Lord himself drew near. Now it seems that his appearance here was quite sudden. There are some who claim that the Lord must have been walking behind them for a distance, and probably caught up with them as they walked and as they talked.
[6:02] But we are not told that. I think that we are warranted to understand from the account that his appearance here was quite sudden. And again, as with Mary Magdalene, they didn't recognize that it was the Lord.
[6:16] And as you read the narratives that you have in the Gospels of the appearances of the Lord after the resurrection, I'm sure that you will be intrigued by the number of times that the disciples and the friends and the associates of Jesus didn't recognize him after his resurrection.
[6:39] And I'm led to believe that what I said here at Fortnac on connection with Mary Magdalene's inability to recognize the Lord at the grave, mistaking him for the gardener, was associated with a view that, and it's only a view that I suggested, a view that I mentioned to you, which is current amongst some expositors, that it was her tear-filled eyes that kept her from recognizing the Lord.
[7:10] You know that when your eyes are full of tears, it's difficult for you to see at the best of times. But that's only a view, and it's not a view that I subscribe to myself. And I think that some people mistakenly understood from what I said that that was why Mary did not recognize the Lord.
[7:26] All we know is this, that their eyes, the two and the two amazed, their eyes were holden. There was something about the appearance of the Lord after the resurrection which made it difficult for them to recognize him as the one they had known before his death.
[7:45] In other words, there were qualities about the body of the Lord after the resurrection that weren't in the body or with the body prior to his death.
[7:57] What these qualities were, we don't know. All we know is that he was able, after the resurrection, he was doing things, he was able to appear, he appeared suddenly.
[8:11] And he could vanish suddenly. We know that on one occasion he did that during his ministry as well. But that was for a specific purpose. But there is no doubt that, as the old theologians used to put it, it was the same body yet different.
[8:27] And similarly, the resurrection body of all people will be different to the natural body.
[8:41] It will have qualities which make it different. What these are, we just don't know. But there was something about his presence by which they were not able to recognize him until he revealed himself to them.
[9:01] So it was with these two on the road to Emmaus. But as we hone in on them, I would like to consider with you tonight, very briefly, three points about them. First of all, their burdened or their sorrowful mind.
[9:17] Secondly, their enlightened understanding. And thirdly, their burning hearts. First of all, then, their sorrowful or their burdened mind.
[9:31] Now, their sorrow stemmed from this. That they were unable to understand what had happened in connection with the death of Jesus Christ.
[9:49] They were genuine disciples, genuine believers, genuine followers, whose hope and whose trust was in him as their savior. But here they are now, three days after his death, having heard rumors that the grave was empty.
[10:11] Rumors from some women confirmed by two of their own number, namely Peter and John. And yet, they were unable to accept, unable to fasten on to that as a ground of their hope.
[10:29] All their thinking was in the past. They were rooted, as someone put it, their hopes, unfortunately, were rooted in what had happened to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[10:45] And they made that very clear when he drew near and he asked them, what are these things that you're talking about as you walk along this way and are sad?
[10:57] And they were astounded that anyone, that anyone in Jerusalem, that anyone in that area couldn't have known what had happened in Jerusalem.
[11:09] And you know that this is the case with many people, people who come on the ends of the gospel, when the gospel becomes new, when they are filled with it themselves, they're surprised, astounded that other people don't know what they know.
[11:27] They're amazed that people haven't seen what they've seen. And they're even more amazed that people can't believe what they've believed. And as they try to tell them the things that are so meaningful to themselves, it's as social greatest a point of discouragement to them that no one seems to understand what they have themselves.
[11:50] Well, that was something like these two men felt on the road to a maze when Jesus asked them, what are you talking about? What is the problem? Why are you so sad? And they said, you must be a stranger.
[12:01] You can't have heard of these things. And how have you not heard of these things? It's what things? And then they began to unfold the story. And as you see them, with a very sad heart and a very burdened mind, under a cloud of depression and sadness, notice the very exalted views that they have of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[12:29] They know that he was from Nazareth, Jesus, the saint of God, the Savior. They knew that he was a prophet who declared the mighty word of God.
[12:45] And they knew that he had done wonderful things in the name of God. They knew that he had been condemned to death and they had been crucified unjustly.
[12:58] And they had trusted at the same time that he was the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Deliverer of Israel. And as someone put it, I think it was Bishop Rilo put it like this, the only star in their dark firmament was this.
[13:16] Moreover, this is the third day since these things were done. It seems as though lodging somewhere in their subconscious had been the teaching of Jesus concerning his resurrection from the dead on the third day.
[13:36] And that hadn't been altogether swamped in their minds by the events of these days.
[13:46] It was still there, but it was almost buried. And even the reports, as they say, of the women and some of their own company, the disciples, that the grave of the sepulchral was empty.
[14:00] Even the fact that some of them had seen a vision of angels who said that he wasn't there wasn't sufficient to deliver them from their sad circumstances.
[14:17] You see, the problem with them with the sepulchral, they were looking at things purely from their own point of view. And they were unable completely to understand the work in the outworking of God's plans.
[14:31] It was the very opposite of what they had expected to happen themselves. You see, when they committed their way to Christ as a saviour, when they became his followers, they never entertained the thought that he would be taken from them by death.
[14:49] Never entered their mind. They wouldn't allow it. People themselves wouldn't allow that thought to invade his heart. That won't happen to you, he said. Even if I have the stand between you and death, you won't go to death.
[15:02] And that was the very one whose life and whose death and whose resurrection was the ground of all their hopes and yet they couldn't square their thinking with God's way of saving them.
[15:17] And that was why they were sad. It was the very opposite of what they had expected themselves. Now, if you look at your own life, you will find that that is not altogether something which is alien to yourself, that kind of thinking.
[15:40] If you go back to the Old Testament, you remember there was a man there called Naaman, a captain of the Syrian army, who was told that the only way of deliverance from the dread disease of leprosy which he had contacted was to go to Elisha the prophet and to do what was told him.
[16:00] And Elisha told him to go and wash in the Jordan seven times and he would be delivered from his leprosy. But you see, Naaman was furious. Things just didn't, that's not, that wasn't the way he expected things to work out.
[16:14] He had his own idea of how he was going to be cured from this leprosy. And you see, it just didn't square with the man of God's views. And it was only when he was persuaded to obey that he did what he was told and he was delivered, healed from the disease of leprosy.
[16:34] Even with me, very often, what happens is this. When things don't work out the way that we expect them to work out, we become depressed. We become rather burdened and cast down on our minds.
[16:49] And our sky becomes pretty, pretty cloudy and pretty dark. We just cannot seem to extricate ourselves from the circumstances that prevail.
[17:01] And very often, our very circumstances become an obsession. And we cannot think of anything else. And when someone asks you, what's the problem?
[17:16] What's wrong? Why are you so sad? You're amazed then that the person who asks the question doesn't know what you know yourself.
[17:28] You're amazed that he isn't able to understand that because of your circumstances, you are quite correct and quite right, in being sad.
[17:46] Now, of course, I don't know what circumstances may be in that person's life here tonight that may leave him or her feeling like that.
[17:57] But you know that there are many things in life which bring their own disappointments to us. There are many things which find us tonight maybe with a burdened mind.
[18:17] And you know, there can be very simple things. Very simple things. Let me give you an example of the kind of thing that happens. Perhaps, and this happens from time to time, I remember once at a gathering of students, someone illustrating this kind of thing was an example which I'm sure many people here can understand.
[18:50] He was telling a story of a young man who was in a particular congregation, small congregation, where things were going exceptionally well spiritually and where he was enjoying the gospel himself and where he was pretty active in that particular congregation.
[19:13] Then in the providence of God, he had to leave. And he went somewhere else. And he had to, he began to worship in a place which was very different from the one that he had left.
[19:25] A place where he knew no one and where he was asked to do nothing. And where the message itself was very different to the one that he had heard before.
[19:37] And his spirits sank. And his mind became burdened and he became quite depressed with the situation.
[19:49] So that's a very simple thing brought on purely and simply by change of circumstances in the providence of God. Moving from one place to another and leaving behind all that was so, all that made up so much of a spiritual contentment and a spiritual satisfaction.
[20:08] and he plunged. How many people here tonight make too much of their circumstances? How many of you are affected in your moods and your attitudes by what happens, by the things that happen in your life?
[20:30] Things change and you tend to change with them. And you lose much of what made up so much of your life at a particular time.
[20:45] And then you come to the conclusion that things are working against you. You come to the conclusion that things can't be right with you. And this is the way things are at the moment.
[20:59] And then there are other examples where if you look around God, if you look at the world in which you live, the town in which you live, you seem to think that the, and there are times when you're justified and think like that, that the enemy of the gospel seems to be getting its own way in so many, in so many, in so many instances.
[21:20] And the gospel seems to be being pushed further and the cause of Christ being pushed further and further and further into a corner. And the people who are opposed to all that the gospel stands for, those who are opposed to righteousness themselves, who have no love for the cause of Christ and who make no bonds about it, they seem to be getting things all their own way.
[21:45] And when you look at circumstances, your mind tends to sink. just because you're coming to your conclusion, you're reading them in your way, we thought, they said to him, we expected things to be different, we thought that things today wouldn't be the way they are, we thought, we thought, we thought.
[22:12] And all their thinking centred around their own ability to interpret God's providence in their lives.
[22:24] And I think there are many people like that, people who find the providence of God almost incomprehensible. they tend to sink under the weight of it all.
[22:40] Well, it was to that kind of situation that Jesus entered at this time. It was to that kind of mind that he spoke and he spoke in very strong terms.
[22:51] We'll look secondly at their enlightened minds. He said unto them, all fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?
[23:06] And beginning at most and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Now there are one or two things about this.
[23:19] First of all this, as I said earlier, it looks as though the Lord came into their presence suddenly. It seems as though they were almost surprised by his appearance.
[23:33] Note that there are people here tonight like that. People into whose lives the Lord came quite suddenly. It came as a great surprise to themselves and probably even more so as a surprise to others that the Lord came to them at all.
[23:51] But the wonderful thing is that he came. With others, of course, the Lord comes, if I may put it like that, not suddenly but gradually.
[24:01] But the thing is this, the wonderful thing is this, that it has the same effect on everyone, whether he comes suddenly or whether he comes gradually. Notice what happens. the moment the Lord's word, the moment God's word begins to be explained to them and applied to them by the power of the Spirit, light begins to dawn and the heart begins to burn.
[24:30] And that's what happened with these two men. Jesus spoke to them and he spoke to them very, very strongly. he said to them, oh fools and slow of heart to believe.
[24:47] You see, this was what was behind their sadness and their depression. That they just weren't, that they weren't understanding the word of God aright.
[25:00] It wasn't that they didn't know it. They did know it. But they weren't understanding it. They were so slow. It was as though he was saying that they were refusing to accept what the word of God was saying to them.
[25:15] The Old Testament which they had plainly declared that Jesus would suffer and die and rise again from the dead. Even if they had no other chapter but the 53rd of Isaiah, it was sufficient to bring that before their minds.
[25:33] But they were slow to believe these things. They weren't trusting these things. Look at all the privilege that they had. They had the Old Testament.
[25:45] They had the testimony of the women who came from the grave. They had the testimony of the angels who had said that he had risen. They had the testimony of the two of their own disciples who had been to the grave and had seen it empty.
[25:58] But they couldn't accept any of these things. It seems as though they wanted more. And how many people here may be like that, refusing to accept the testimony of the word of God.
[26:17] The greatest message the world has ever heard, Christ died and Christ rose from the dead. It's as almost, it's almost as though it's a story and a news that is too good to be true for them.
[26:36] Well, Jesus came to them and he said, this is your folly, this is why you're making a mistake, that you aren't believing what the scriptures are saying to you and saying to you plainly.
[26:50] And then they had this most wonderful privilege of all. Beginning at Moses and all the scriptures, he expounded unto them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
[27:08] What a sermon this must have been. He of whom the Bible testified, explaining the Bible himself.
[27:19] would have been. What a wonderful sermon, what an expositor. Jesus must have been.
[27:32] He expounded unto them in all the things concerning himself. Now, just as we leave this point, we must have look at this.
[27:47] There was a theme that he directed them to. If you were going to give a title to the sermon that Jesus preached to the two men, it would be this, a two-fold necessity.
[28:03] The necessity of his sufferings and the necessity of his ascension. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and ought not Christ to have entered into his glory?
[28:17] Now, someone may say, why the emphasis to these two men on that one theme on these two points? The necessity of his sufferings and to death and the necessity of his ascension to the right hand of God the Father.
[28:33] Why? Because this is what's at the very heart of their salvation and at the very heart of the heart of mine. Jesus, in other words, had to die. This is the very heart of the Bible. He had to die. There was no escape from death for Jesus. Once he took our nature, once he took our sins upon himself, he had to suffer and to die.
[29:03] He had to die because the wages of sin is death. He came to suffer and he came to die. Otherwise, my friend, there would be no salvation. He took our sins upon himself and he had to suffer the punishment due to us for our sins. He had to suffer the abandonment, the alienation of God, the curse of the law, the curse of God, the wrath of God.
[29:32] He had to suffer theorrhoof. And that is what he had to suffer the sinners. He had to suffer death. In all its awful intensity. He had to. There was no escape for him. And this is what he told the man on the road to him, you look at the Bible, he says. And the Bible tells you that if man is to be saved the Son of God must die. He must.
[29:54] he must and then he says look at your bible and you see there another necessity that the son of man must be exalted it isn't just that he has to suffer but he has also to enter into his glory where there are some people who take on these words that sometimes somehow somewhere after the resurrection jesus went up to glory and that the appearances of jesus after resurrection were therefore appearances of his when he came down from glory to appear to men and women during 40 days that's of you personally i find it difficult to subscribe to it but in any case we do know that the only account we have of the ascension is the one at the end of this chapter and at the very beginning of acts written by the same man look but leaving that to one side the necessity of ascending up into glory why that necessity why was it essential for jesus to go to heaven after the resurrection well of course the bible tells us he had to go for example so that he could send the holy spirit to the world because without the holy spirit there would be no converts there'd be no salvation you've got a bible tonight so have i god's way of salvation is clearly declared in the bible but you see what you and i need as we come to the bible is the power of the holy spirit to apply that truth to our hearts it's like the light that is shining out with us like these lights in this church night they're they're from they're shining as well from the outside that's the way the bible is but you and i need the light of the spirit to shine within and that is why every time you read the bible you should pray oh god send thy spirit with thy word give me an understanding of the truth help me to see wondrous things in thy law never read the bible that breathing a prayer heavenward for the spirit and that is why he had to go to heaven to send the spirit into the world so that men and women will be saved in the world so that men and women will be sanctified and made like themselves in the world he had to go to sit at the right hand of god the father as our great intercessor he pleads he prays he intercedes for people all the time we don't know how but the intercession is there and he had to go to heaven to prepare as a forerunner for us remember this is one of the great themes of the apostle in the hebrews we have a hope he says as the anchor of the soul now hope goes within the veil and it it it it lays hold it latches on to christ who is there as our forerunner and as our high priest if he wasn't in heaven tonight what hope would we have of being kept by the power of god unto salvation if he wasn't in heaven tonight what would feed you hope that you will be in heaven he is there as the forerunner and as surely as he entered in he has given assurance that you who believe in him will enter in together with that he had said and it was necessary to go there to prepare heaven for his people and isn't it strange that he should say these words because you know from the bible that heaven heaven has always been there it's a place of god's habitation it's the kingdom prepared for the people of god from before the foundation of the world and yet he says i go to prepare a place of course he had to ascend and that was the preparation the entrance of his glorified humanity into heaven for his people christ had to suffer christ had to enter into glory and he takes passage after passage from the old testament and he explains these passages to them in all the prophets every single passage that of the old testament spoke of concerning himself in his sufferings and in his ascension and in his session at the right hand of god and high he explained to them all the way for seven miles to him have you ever walked seven miles you walk at a leisurely pace and you know you can't walk too fast when you're talking you can understand the time that it took them to cover that distance and all that time he was speaking to them all that time talking from the bible and all that time their heart was burning this is the final point the enlightened understanding the word of god sinking in accompanied by the power of the spirit enabling to see the necessity of his sufferings and the necessity of his ascension and as the word did its and as the world did its business with their mind and with their heart their hearts burned within them now as we look at this final point just this you know that they had this experience and they didn't realize it that's the first point it was after you see when they came to the maize and when they were going to i don't know what house they were going to stay in they stopped let's assume that they stopped at the door that's people who you know when you're walking three of you and you're going to a certain place you go to a house well you tend to stop at the gate at the door anyway so they stopped and he made as though he was going to carry on beyond the house and they constrained stay with us stay with us because they said and this is interesting stay with us because it's getting late now that's interesting i want you to notice that because there's a reason for that just in a minute it's getting late and it'd be far better for you to stay with us here tonight so they went in and as is customary they had something to eat it was just an ordinary meal it wasn't the sacrament of the lord's supper it was a meal and the custom was that someone there would take bread a piece of bread and break it and then say the grace jesus said the grace and it was when he was saying the grace that they realized who it was he revealed himself their eyes were opened and they knew and he vanished out of their sight oh what a wonderful thing this is for people to know the lord in their presence for people to know the lord in the means of grace and it was a means of grace the lord himself said the grace to them further in the presence and just when he left them that they were happy they said you know you can almost see them watching one another and just the words forming on the lips that was the lord of course it was the lord did not her heart burn within us while he talked with us on the way and while he opened unto us the scripture you see they had had the experience but they didn't realize that they had it do you know what that is to feel to feel something and not know that you are feeling it not realize that you're feeling it until afterwards you know that's the way some people are in conversion for example under the gospel they come to church and they sit and let's assume just now that someone comes to church and this has happened you know someone comes to church and not long after the service starts i remember speaking to some man sometime some time ago and he told the story of us going to a church one day and he sat down so as he knew he wasn't seeking the lord but he hardly had hardly sat when the spirit of the lord began to deal with him in the pew and he had no clue what was wrong with him he had no clue what was happening to all he was aware of was this wonderful sensation within himself and then the service began and the more the service went on the more it was doing business with his heart and the more he was responding it was afterwards he realized what was happening in his life and so there are times like that people come and you know they don't realize this themselves only after when they look back on this that they see it how often it has been that people come to church and it's a spirit of god blessing the word to their heart that moves their heart to respond to the gospel oh they think that it's the minister who's changed or he's changed his approach or a style or something no the change is in them but it is only as they look back that they realize what was happening to themselves so it was with these two men their hearts burned within them in response to the truth do you love the gospel my friend and i may use the word i know some people don't like it being used in the pulpit doesn't matter do you enjoy the gospel have you reached a stage in your life now when the word of god is becoming meaningful to you feeding your soul giving you a delight in your heart and the things of god moving your soul and your thought godward aware from this world and from the pastimes and the pursuits and the pleasures of this life which used to fill you that's what the gospel does as thomas chalmers called it the power of a new affection it puts other things out and it brings so many good things in do you know what that is to have that heart burning when the gospel becomes meaningful to yourself well that's what they felt and this is now why i told you to notice that they constrained him to stay because it was so late as they sat let's make a picture of just now sitting at the kitchen table the two of them and they say that was the lord what a wonderful experience that was on the way to remember what he was saying remember that text remember that passage in isaiah remember when he explained wasn't that wonderful isn't it wonderful that he came to die and isn't it wonderful that he's going to heaven for us isn't it wonderful that he's alive and that he has brought this life to us isn't that wonderful and they sit at the table and they say look we can't stay here so they got up and off they went again all the way back seven miles to jerusalem at the same time you see before they knew who it was stay with us and they said yes it's too late to go any further but once he left them they couldn't stay themselves they had to go they had to get up and this is what the gospel always does when it is blessed to the heart it moves you to action and to activity you've got to go you've got to tell you can't hold this news to yourself oh you've got to you've you must impart it to someone you must share it with other people late so what you know there are people here tonight they know what it is late at night to be constrained to leave their home and to go somewhere else where people are gathering and talking about the things of the lord oh i know that there are other people who find fault with them the christian should be doing far more than sitting of course he should than sitting and talking about the things of god of course and some critics talk as though the christ were doing nothing else but that and i often wonder myself if at the day of judgment this community is going to discover that the people who are thus being criticized did far more in it and for it than those who do the criticizing i wouldn't be one bit surprised as a matter of fact i hope that that's the way to turn out and i'm sure it is oh my friend let me say this to you if the power of the spirit of god does business with your soul you've got to go out and you've got to associate yourself with those for whom it means so much they got up and off they went back these seven miles with this message that they had seen the lord he was made known to them in the breaking of bread see them they arrive in jerusalem they go up probably to the upper room where the disciples were meeting probably that's where they were and they pushed in the door and they're not able to tell a thing because they're mad immediately by a message themselves the disciples are there and the moment the two from emmaus come in the disciples interrupt them and they say we've wonderful news for you the lord is risen indeed and has been seen by cephas you see it's almost as though they were beaten to it by the others and then they burst in with their own news oh yes we know he has risen he was with us on the road to emmaus and he had a meal with us and he made himself known in the breaking of bread you know that if it be the case with you the lord has given you something to tell that the lord has saved your soul and the lord has come with light and life and love and power into your heart if the lord has delivered you from your spiritual malaise and spiritual depression if he has fired you with spiritual enthusiasm and spiritual desire let people say what they will about you but you know this you must associate yourself with those who have a similar message to tell it's natural it is not you've heard the same birds of a feather flock together well my friend i know that there are people who will fault you and there are people who call you a fool and an ass and many other things just for leaving one company with the desire that you have to get into the other but it's quite quite an order and quite in accordance with the scripture that those who love the lord who have seen the lord who have heard the lord and who have felt the lord in his power will want to get with those who have a similar testimony to give what have you to say tonight about what the lord has done for you have you got a message to tell you got a testimony to relate can you say what's a poet of old will talk of all he did and said and suffered for us here below the path he marked for us to tread and what he's doing for us now when our eye of hope is dim will trust in jesus sink or swim still at his footstool bow the knee and israel's god our help will be thus as the moments pass away we love and wonder and adore and hasten on the glorious day when we shall meet to part no more what a wonderful thing to talk about what the lord has done for you what a nice would be for you tonight if you were to go home and burst through your door and say cost what it may listen till i tell you what the lord has done for me is that your position tonight as the end of your life do you know what it is is to have your mind enlightened your understanding enlightened and your heart burning under the power of his presence and of his love and to respond like the psalmist what shall i render to the lord for all his gifts to me let us pray oh do thou bless our souls make thyself known in the power of thy saving grace touch us oh god in our hearts that we too may respond to thee and to thou grant that our souls may rejoice in the revelation of thy grace and of thy love we bless thee for thy presence and we thank thee for thy help and we pray now that thou dost go with us we thank thee that though the two and the two mayors though they lost thy presence physically they didn't lose it spiritually thou didst give them the promise that i was given to all who have thee that thou would never leave them nor forsake them have mercy upon us and part us with thy blessing forgiving our sins for jesus sake amen