Turn, turn with me to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. Those of you that have ever taken the platform, do you ever find that the more burdened you are about a message, the more you shake? That's the way I feel. Ephesians chapter four. We read verses one through six and then go over to eleven through sixteen. Ephesians four verse one. Therefore, the prisoner of the Lord bes- bes- I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation to which ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called, and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. Over to verse eleven. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, working according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank thee once again for the time to open thy word, to look into it. We pray, Father, for the guiding of thy Holy Spirit this evening upon us. We pray, Lord, that thy word would go forth as thou, thou would have it to go. We pray, Father, that thou may challenge our hearts this evening, the things that we look at in thy word. Thou would just make us and break us, Father. Help us to be better Christians, to seek to serve thee better. We thank thee, Father, for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, for dying for us, for forgiving us of our sin, making a way that we may have life eternal. We thank thee in his name. Amen. A lot of times we pray for unity. We ask that we would like to have unity among us, in our families, in the church. What are we really asking for when we ask for unity? What are we really praying for? What do we want to see happen? It's what I, it's been on my heart for some time, and it's what I'd like to try to share with you tonight. I have a lot of verses that we'll be looking up. First of all, let's turn to John's Gospel, chapter seventeen. John seventeen. I don't know how I got around to this as I was preparing this message, but something really struck me here as I read through this chapter. Start at verse nine, John seventeen. This is the Lord praying. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. Over to verse twenty one. That they may, that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. It really struck me here, the very first thing that our Lord prayed for, for his own, the end of verse eleven there, that they may be one. And as I read that, that just really struck me that that would be the first thing that our Lord asked for in prayer. But you know, the more I thought about that, to really be one, and we'll, as I said, we'll look through a lot of verses here, and we'll look back in the book of Acts, especially in the early part of Acts when the church first got started, and how they were one in many different ways. And if we are one, it's really an effective witness to the world, and that's what he asked for in verses twenty one through twenty three, that the world may see and believe that thou hast sent me. And if the world can see one, can see unity in the church, they'll know there's something there. It's something supernatural that just can't happen through human effort. Unity. So it really struck me there that that was first on his list, but as I just said, it's, it is, it shows us the primary importance of unity and oneness, being the first thing that the Lord did pray for. You see, also in verse twenty three, he says, I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. And of course, a lot of times the word perfect means to be complete, as it does here. It means to be complete, that they may be complete in one. You know, if we have the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and if he's in the absolute center of our lives, we don't want for anything. It's all there. We could spend a whole night and more just speaking about the things which we have inherited by being Christians. What things have become ours because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, would you turn to Ephesians, where we were, where we read earlier, chapter four, verses three through six there, we'll look at a couple minutes. Ephesians four, verses three through six. He says, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. You know, if there's peace among brethren and sisters in an assembly. That'll produce, to some degree, the unity of the spirit that's spoken of here. And in verses four through six, we have seven things mentioned. One body, one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope, you know, of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, and that baptism there refers to being placed into the body of Christ. We were all baptized into that body when we became saved. One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. Now, I, I sit and I wonder sometimes how it must grieve the Lord as he looks down upon this earth, and from what the church started out to be, the oneness and the unity that started there on the day of Pentecost, and how it has deteriorated some nineteen hundred years later, almost two thousand years later. What that must, how that must grieve the Lord. Hundreds of denominations, literally thousands of divisions. There's divisions within assemblies, divisions within any groups, divisions and divisions and more divisions, which is the total complete opposite of unity and what our Lord prayed for in John seventeen. Just think how that must grieve his heart. Now, how can we achieve unity? What, what, what must we do to achieve unity? Well, you know, it's not really a thing. We just plug in a formula, we do a couple things, and we do a couple things here, and we have it. It's something that really has to be worked at, and what I studied here certainly isn't conclusive. Uh, you could just go on and on on this subject, all over the scripture, all over the New Testament, speaking of the unity and oneness that the Lord would love his people to have. I looked up a number of references that refer to how our relationship should be one with another, in pertaining to unity, how we should act one toward another. I mean, it has to begin with the people. It has to begin with us, how we treat one another. And I have a list here that I'm just going to read. I'm not even going to mention the verses because it's, it's quite a long list, and I just want you to hear things that we should be doing to one another. We're to be members, one of an- or we are members one of another. We're to love one another. We're to edify one another. We're to be like-minded one toward another. We're to receive one another. We're to admonish one another. We're to care for one another. We're to serve one another. We're to forbear one another. We're to bear one another's burdens. When one person hurts, we're to bear that burden. We're to be kind one toward another, and we're told in the scripture that we're to forgive one another, even as Christ hath forgiven us. We're to submit ourselves one to another. We're to teach and admonish one another. We're to comfort one another. We're to exhort one another. We're to confess our faults one to another. That's a hard one. We're to pray for one another. We're to use hospitality one to another. We're to minister our gifts one to another. And we're to have fellowship one with another. I think I had nineteen of them there, and there's probably more, but that's quite a list. You know, if we each took that to heart and tried to do what the Lord is commanding us to do in those verses, that certainly would be a start toward unity, wouldn't it? Loving one another and caring for one another, exhorting one another, and so on. There's also some negative sides to that, not quite as many, but we're to lie not to one another, we're not to speak evil of one another, and we're not to murmur about one another. Now, that was the first area I was thinking of, that in trying to achieve unity, how we act one toward another, and all those things, that list there that we just went over, is really a place to start. And secondly, when the Lord ascended back into heaven, and beginning at the day of Pentecost, when the church was formed, he didn't just let the church here on earth to grope around, to figure out how they're supposed to function, you know, what each person's supposed to do. God has equipped us, each one of us, with a spiritual gift or gifts. No doubt we have more than one, but really this is God's way of keeping order in his church. To keep a church functioning is for people to use their spiritual gifts. And the area of spiritual gifts really is not to be taken lightly. The day we were saved, God gave us a spiritual gift or gifts. And we are to find out what it is, to build it up, and to use it. And I was thinking how different this is from natural abilities. You know, consider what you do on your own job. You may be very good at it, and it benefits you quite a bit. It may give you a high pay, it may give you a lot of authority, it may give you a chance to teach people. You know, there's just a lot of, uh, opportunities that our natural abilities can produce for us. But that's all really for ourselves, isn't it? I mean, for the most part. I remember one time my brother telling me, he's an engineer, and he told me one time, he said, if you have a four-year degree in engineering, and if you're willing to travel around this country, willing to relocate, said you can practically name your price. Where you, how, what you wanna, where you wanna work, you can practically name your price that you'll be paid, because engineering, see, is in demand, and they want people that are qualified. But how different it is when we come to the things of God and the spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are not to benefit ourselves. Spiritual gifts are to benefit the assembly, to benefit those that we're with, those that we fellowship with. If you would turn with me to Romans, chapter twelve, We'll look at a few verses here, and then we'll go over to First Corinthians twelve. There's basically Romans twelve and First Corinthians twelve are two passages which deal with spiritual gifts, and Ephesians four gives us gifted men for the assembly, and how that all fits together. But in Romans twelve, I think the first two verses of Romans twelve are very interesting be- before you get into the subject of spiritual gifts. The last time I spoke in the evening, I spoke on Romans twelve one and two. I'll just read those for a connection and background here. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Perhaps we should say that it's a, a prerequisite before we start using our spiritual gifts and start doing a lot of service. In verse one it says, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. That's really where we have to start. Lord, here I am. What do you want me to do? And seek to find the Lord's mind on the matter, and just give ourselves totally over to him, a living sacrifice, just as it says there. Let him take control of our lives, and then let him use us in the way he has gifted us. I don't think we can get rid of these first two verses here before we plunge into the area of spiritual gifts. Verse two, really, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Have to get our lives straightened out. Be not conformed to the worldly patterns. We must be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and we must seek to do what the Lord would have us to do. Now, in verse three, speaking about spiritual gifts then, he says, for I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. And really, this verse tells us that as a Christian, we have at least one spiritual gift. God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Now, two things I'd like to notice out of that verse pertaining to spiritual gifts. I was saying a couple minutes ago about how different it is from natural abilities. God may or may not choose to use our natural abilities with our spiritual gifts. Just because a person would be a talented in some field naturally doesn't mean that that's where the spiritual gift is. Then again, it might. But he says here that we're not to think of himself more highly than we ought to. You know, we, in our jobs, things that bring us a lot of pleasure and fulfillment in the world through natural abilities might have a tendency to make us puffed up or to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. But when it comes to spiritual gifts and it comes to serving the Lord and it comes to serving one another, then we're submitting one to another, as we read in that list, and we're serving one another. And this should be the goal then. So it's not anymore, you know, we have, we can't think more highly of ourselves than we ought to, but it says to think soberly, to be wise in the way we think, and to be wise in the way we use our natural gifts. And this is what he's telling us here in verse three. The section we're in in our Wednesday evening Bible study in Matthew twenty, I think a verse that applies here, the Lord said, whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. I think that goes quite well with us when we're serving the Lord. We're serving one another as well. And there's none of us that are great, that we may be over people. But what it means to be great, you see someone that's great or someone that's chief, you see a person that's serving, you see a person that's submitting to the others. Now notice in verse four, it says, for we, for as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office. We see here that we have many members in the body of Christ, but we see that it's only one body. And that oneness again speaks of unity. Many members, but there's only one body. We read in the second half of that verse that all members have not the same office. We read in first Corinthians ten verses sixteen and seventeen that we're one body, and we're all partakers of one bread. We read in first Corinthians twelve twelve to fourteen that we're one body, but we're many members. And that particular phrase is used quite a bit, actually, in, in telling us that the body of Christ is made up of many, many members, yet it's only one body. It's only one body. Perhaps one of the greatest evidences of the oneness of what salvation can do is between the Jew and the Gentile. We really can't imagine in this day and age what the hatred was between a Jew and a Gentile. But yet, we read verses in Galatians and Ephesians especially, how it says that the middle wall has been broken down between them, and that the Jew and the Gentile are one. And it doesn't matter what... what they were before they got saved. When they became saved, it made them one. And that's really a tremendous evidence of what the power of God can do and the Spirit of God can do. I think, uh, of an interesting story with Peter. I think it's in Acts ten or eleven when he, uh, had to go, he was called by the Lord to go to Cornelius and to witness to him and also to a lot of other Gentile believers. This was the first time that the message of salvation had gone to the Gentiles. Of course, Peter was a Jew. And in verse And in chapter eleven verse seventeen, Peter came back and he gave kind of a report to his fellow Jews. And, well, we'll start at verse fifteen, Acts chapter eleven verse fifteen, And as I began to speak, that is when he was speaking to the Gentiles, as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them as on us at the beginning, that is at the day of Pentecost. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now listen to verse seventeen and eighteen. For as much then as God gave them the same gift as he did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus, what was I that I could withstand God? And he's kind of apologetic. What could I do? God was pushing me forward. But listen to verse seventeen now, these other Jews. When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. That was really foreign to their mind, that God would deal with Gentiles. But that's what happened right here. This was the place where it started to happen. Then God also, God hath also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. And that is really an evidence of the power of God and the unity that can result from it, that the Jews and the Gentiles were made one. Now back to Romans. So we see that, first of all, in the area of spiritual gifts, we're not to think more highly than we ought to of one another, but we're to use those spiritual gifts in submission and in serving one another, and do it wisely, do it discreetly. We also see that each person has at least one spiritual gift at the end of verse three. God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. We see in verse four that we're many members, but we're one body. We see that we don't have the same office. Now, if you would turn with me to First Corinthians chapter twelve. First Corinthians chapter twelve, keeping in mind that we are many members, but we are only one body, and that we have not the same office. First Corinthians chapter twelve, verses four through six go hand in hand with that thought. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God who worketh all in all. So we see there, there are different, there are diversities of gifts, many different gifts, you know, depending how you want to count them, you might come up with different numbers, anywhere from nineteen to twenty nine or somewhere around there. Spiritual gifts, depending how general you want to be in dividing the gifts, but it's all the same spirit, the very same spirit that baptized us into the body of Christ. That very same spirit hath given to us spiritual gifts. Verse five, there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord, and diversities of operations. So I find this very interesting because it's hard to do something, you think of anything that you do when you have a number of people doing it, when people are doing different things and different functions and different operations to keep the thing in unity and to keep it in oneness and to keep it flowing toward the same goal. And it's not easy in the church either, is it? We're all members of that same body, yet we all have different gifts, and it's hard sometimes to keep everything flowing toward one path, toward one goal. We read in First Peter four ten, it says, as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same gift one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Now, when you think of stewardship, many times you think of giving money. Be good stewards with your money. Be good stewards with your time. But that verse tells us to be good stewards with, with, with what God has given us. How he has gifted us. We're to be good stewards with that as well. As I said earlier, when we started this section here on the spiritual gifts, this is not a thing to be taken lightly. God has gifted, and God expects service from his people. Now jump over to verse twenty two there in First Corinthians, chapter twelve, verse twenty two. He says, nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow the more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. Sometimes we think that there's parts of the body that aren't necessary, and you may feel that way, and I may feel that way at times, that what we do doesn't really matter. It's not important. If that's the way they, we feel, these two verses should uplift us, because what we do in the body of Christ matters, especially if it doesn't seem to be noticed by people. I believe that those kinds of gifts will receive great rewards, because sometimes it's hard to serve in that capacity. But God says, upon these we bestow the abundant honor. Verse twenty four, he says, for our comely parts have no need, but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked. And that doesn't mean that that part's inferior to one another, or that the person that ministers a spiritual gift which doesn't seem to be as great as other gifts, it doesn't mean that they lack anything, that they're inferior. It just means that they're not noticed maybe twice as, twice, quite as much. But God notices, and God says these gifts are important. Let's face it, people that pray in their closets, people that have a tremendous faith, and people that give, people that minister, people that serve, those things aren't readily seen, are they? In fact, if you look through the gifts, most of the gifts really aren't things that are seen openly. It's things done in secret, or that people aren't going to notice. So, as we read in back in Romans, if we think that we're so important, I think the verse in Romans would tell us different, because that says that we're not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. Yet on the other end, if we think that what we do isn't important, these verses here in First Corinthians twelve twenty two and twenty three tell us that we surely are important. But what I think is tremendous here, verse twenty four, God hath tempered the body together. You know, when, when we start or we have a, a local assembly like this, we don't just throw people into it and choose people to do this and choose people to do that. You know, vote upon everything. God hath tempered the body together, and that word tempered means that he has mingled us together. He has harmonized the body. God's in charge of that. He knows what gifts should go where. He knows what needs to be done. And God has gifted us as such. Whatever's needed is here. Now, verse twenty five, This is done that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another, and whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. You see, nothing we should do, or nothing we do in the body of Christ should be done alone. If one of us suffers, we all should suffer. If one of us does something which should be honored or should be rewarded, then all the members should rejoice with it. That's what it says here. And this is just the point of unity. Unity means that everyone is involved, that every part of the body of Christ functions according to the way God has gifted. And that's really what Paul's saying, if you would read verses fifteen through twenty one. He likens it to the human body and the different parts of our body, how they have a function. I mean, some parts of the body don't seem to have that great of a function, and they're not even noticed, yet they have a tremendous function. And so it is with the body of Christ. But whatever one does, it should affect, and really it does affect the whole body, whether we think it does or whether we don't. And there's one verse in Romans chapter twelve verse five. I'll just read it. You don't have to turn to it if you don't wish to. It says, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another. Every one of us are members one of another, and that really means, that literally means that we are dependent upon one another. That's what it means, that we're members one of another, we're dependent upon one another. And that's really the way we should operate, to be dependent one upon another. So the first area which we should look at is how we deal with one another, how we function one toward another, how we care for one another and serve one another, and all the things that we read earlier. Secondly, unity is achieved by how we use our spiritual gifts and how we serve in the capacity that the Lord has given us to serve. Now, another way that we'll achieve this unity, or really, it's easier to look at the, the scripture and see what oneness in an assembly really does, what'll happen. And we have this in the beginning part of the book of Acts, when the church was first formed. We read in Acts chapter one verse fourteen that they all continued with one prayer and supplication. We read in Acts two chap- verse one that they met in one place, and in Acts two forty four that they were together. We read in Acts four twenty four that they lifted up their voice to God in one accord, which is really a, a beautiful illustration of worship, lifting up our voices in one accord to God, praising him in worship. Acts chapter two verse forty two, we read that they had a singleness of heart. Acts chapter four verse thirty two, we read that they had one heart and one soul. In Acts chapter fifteen verse twenty five, we read that they were of one mind. So you can see the oneness of the early church. One prayer and supplication, one place that they met, they were together, they were one in worship, they were in singleness of heart, they had one heart and one soul, and they had one mind on things. They were together. Their goal was to witness to the world, and they did it, and they had tremendous results, which leads to the last point. What is the result, then, of unity? If we function as we're to function, we use our spiritual gifts within the local body. If we are one, as the early church was one, and we really get together on the things, what our goals are, and what we want to do, what we want to see happen. And if we really serve one another and do to one another, as we read in that list earlier, what'll be the result? Well, the result, of course, will be unity. I'd like you now to turn to Ephesians chapter four, the verses that we started out with, that we read. We're starting at verse thirteen. The result of unity. God hath placed gifts in the church, and God has placed gifted men in the church. We read that in verse eleven. He has placed gifted men in the church. Verse thirteen says, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So we see, first of all, that we'll be made perfect, we'll be made complete. That's what unity will do. And again, it's completeness, it's not total sinless perfection. It is a completeness. And we see in verse fourteen that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, by which they lie and wait to deceive. So we see that while we're producing maturity because of unity, you're also eliminating immaturity. Now, of course, there always has to be a certain, a certain level of immaturity due to young believers, or whatever the case may be. But you see, that should eventually change. A young believer grows up in the things of the word and becomes mature in the word, or is maturing. It's an ever-going process. But we see that unity helps in that area also. Thirdly, in verse fifteen, it says, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things who is the head, even Christ. You know, we can't begin to take in with our human minds the Lord Jesus Christ in all his fullness, and all his glory, and all his power. But yet unity helps that. Because as we function in unity, as we operate in unity, God is blessed, and God blesses us. We read in verse sixteen, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love. And that verse is just loaded with things. Pick out three of them. We see that unity will produce a body that is fitly joined together. Number one. unity will produce a body that is fitly joined together. Secondly, we see that every member of that body must work to their capacity to ever produce that situation. It says, by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part. Each one of us as individual members of this assembly right here in York must function to our capacity in serving the Lord here to ever produce this unity, to make this body fitly joined together and function as it ought to. And we see thirdly that the body, the body will be edified of itself in love, and something I failed to mention when we were back in First Corinthians chapter twelve, if you were going to read into chapter thirteen, First Corinthians, we can minister our spiritual gifts all we want to, we can serve the Lord all we want to, and if it's not done in love, we might as well forget it. That's basically what First Corinthians thirteen says. If our gifts are not ministered in love, they're nothing. We might as well not even do them. We just make noise. But we see here that unity, when it's, when it's functioning correctly, and it's a thing of the Lord, as he would have it to be, they'll be building up in the body. And of course, there's love all the time. Love is the key. But love is not something that, that can be readily defined. Love is. Doing all the things that we've been talking about here tonight. That's true love, one for another, to serve. There's a verse I'd like to read in closing. In Psalm one thirty three verse one. it says, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. I'll read it again. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. I don't think there's anything the Lord wants more than to see his body, the church, function in absolute total unity and oneness as they did back when it was first formed. If we function as we ought to, as we read in John seventeen earlier, we'll be a witness to the world, and the world will see that there's something different. The world will believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he has come to save those people. You know, divisions and strife in a church is a definite stumbling block to the world. And how would you feel if you were looking at a church and you wanted to see unity, but that's not what you saw? You didn't see them functioning the way they should be functioning. So we see when this does happen, when we have this kind of unity that is in accordance with the Word of God, and that's a key point also. Brother was talking to me right before the meeting. You can have all the unity in the world, but if it's not based around the Word of God, you have nothing there either. So unity based around the Word of God, according to how he, how the Lord would have us to function, will be an effective witness to the world, and souls will get saved. It's demonstrated in the book of Acts, and it's demonstrated today too. Souls will get saved. But perhaps most the, the most important thing about unity and functioning together in oneness, I'd like to read a verse, First Peter four eleven says, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. The chief aim of the Christian should be to glorify God, and we can do it in many different ways, but we can rest assured on one thing, when God is glorified, there'll be blessing. When God is glorified, there'll be blessing. We have that promise in his word. I'd like to close this evening with the hymn number five thirty one.