It really is a pleasure to be with you again in this time of conference and to renew friendships with people many years back and to be encouraged in the Lord. You encourage me, you understand. The concepts that I would like to present with you this week relate to a great hero of the faith a man of the Old Testament who unfortunately is much maligned but I think is one of the greatest heroes out of the book of Exodus out of Genesis rather that wonderful man Jacob now Jacob is a wonderful man for a particular reason and it relates even to the hymn that we have just sung as a prayer I am frequently amazed at the way the Holy Spirit works in preparing our minds. Long as my life shall last, teach me thy way. Where are my lappicasts, teach me thy way. Until the races run, until the journey's done, until the crown is won, teach me thy way. I'd like you to turn to Hebrews chapter eleven, which is a prelude to those very words. Run with endurance the race that is set before you. Run with endurance the race that is set before you. In my normal setting, I'm talking to people who are beginning the race of the Christian life. In this setting, we are talking to folk who are coming to the end of that race. We have just heard of another. And one of the ministries that you have one to another, and that Park of the Palms has as a spiritual ministry, is to provide, in a sense, a haven of rest for those who have run long years of that race and are coming to the end of that race. I am touched that between the last time that I was here and now some have finished that race. And we heard of another who has just finished that race. until the race is run, until the journey's done. The beautiful thing about Jacob, and I'm telling you, do you all ever hear Paul Harvey down here? Does he make it here? He's a Midwesterner, in fact, He on occasion attends one or two of the assemblies in the Chicago land area. I preached with him in the audience a few times at Woodside in Chicago. He's never quoted me on the radio, thankfully. You always have to be frightened when you're quoted. You realize that. But he has the story, the rest of the story, tells you the end that nobody knows about. Well, I want to tell you the end, and then... Tonight we'll get right to the beginning of Jacob's life, and by next Friday the Lord be not come and I be not gone, we will come to the conclusion once again. Here is the conclusion. Jacob peaked. Jacob was his best spiritually on his last day on earth. Is that wonderful? And I think that is the quest before every one of us, before you. And I was doing a little calculating. Some of you are old enough for me to be your last child in the family. Okay? Some of you just make that. The quest that is before us. is to run with endurance, to continue to grow in our Lord Jesus Christ until the end. Here's the verse concerning Jacob in chapter eleven. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshipped leaning on the top of his bedstaff. Do you have that picture? All the boys are gathered around. And we will see at the end of the conference Jacob making great prophetic statement concerning his children, concerning the coming Messiah. But above all that, great and magnificent statements of our great God. As he worships God, As throughout his experience, he had learned more and more and more about the great God of Israel. And in his last dying statements, pulling himself up on the bedstaff, gathering all his energies together, he at that point is a worshiper of God. And that is the highest thing any of us can do is worship God. It is why we were made to glorify God and enjoy him forever. It is what God has done in creation that the heavens declare the glory of God. And the firmament shows his sandy work. And we as creatures and nature in its inanimate way, all is designed to glorify and worship God. And Jacob... And his last day becomes a great worshiper of God. The best he ever was, was his last day. Do you want that as your goal? To be the best spiritually you've ever been before God on your last day. To keep growing in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ until you come to that point. Isn't that a great quest? Long as my life shall last, teach me thy way. Where are my life be cast? Teach me thy way. Until the races run, run with endurance. Until the journey's done. Until the crown is won. Teach me thy way. I was a young man, a masked student, along with some other students in my basement on one occasion in the family room, whatever we call that room. And he said, you know, Mr. Glock, I'm burned down. I said, you're killing me. You can't even be saying that. Burned out, you're eighteen. You've only taken a half a step for the Lord. You can't be burned out. I don't want to hear you say that again. You got seventy-five years in front of you. Then maybe you can say burned out. Now now, he wilted in front of me. I believe in direct counseling, you know. Burned out at eighteen. I can't imagine that, can you? I could expect some of you might say that to me. It's been a long race, hasn't it? There have been a lot of hurdles and difficulties. It doesn't get a lot easier, does it? Syphor said to me, I've got to go home and check my wife. I'll be back for the message. You've been there, haven't you? It's a hard race. Loaded with tests and struggles. And it's an endurance test until the end. But oh, what an experience maturity brings. Spiritual maturity brings in our relationship to Jesus Christ. What stories you could tell. of his faithfulness. Look in your Bibles at verse thirty-two of chapter ten and we'll move into some of these sections this morning in this introductory comment. Verse thirty-two, but recall the former days in which after you were illuminated You endured a great struggle with suffering, partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. For you had compassion on me and my change, and joyfully accepting the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward." for you have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of God you may receive the promise for yet a little while and he who is coming will come and will not tarry now the just shall live by faith but if anyone draws back my soul has no pleasure in him but we are not of those who draw back to perdition but of those who believe to the saving of the soul The author of Hebrews says, call to remembrance those things in the former days. My son does a good deal of speaking nowadays. I'm in a transition time my life. People are saying, you're John Glock's father instead of to John, you're Dave Glock's son. And that's a wonderful transition for me. I want to tell you that. He talks about the generations. I haven't speak to my worldview class, Christian worldview class at school, and he talks about the different generations that we have experienced. Your generation is the generation of the builders. You did it all. Tom Brokow has a book out right now, a good book. on that generation that built us, that fought for the liberty we enjoy, that worked hard for their families, that were honest and trustworthy, the greatest generation. And in secular society, that is the case. It was the greatest generation. Yours was. In the Christian world, that's true as well. If I'd asked you just to remember the former days in which you worked, do you know the kind of things you'd tell us about? You'd tell us about putting together this great ministry here at Park of the Palms. Others would talk about putting together a Mass Bible College or the camps that serve us so well. That's what you can talk about. We did those things. We built the chapels. We even paid for them. Right? You're the builders. Hard work ethic. Committed to God. And we could just listen, and it would be beneficial to listen to what your generation, what you have done in your commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. Recall the former days. I remember when Mel and I were teenagers and Ernie Woodhouse was leading singing at the Baltimore Conference. And it was only recently hearing of Mr. Tatham's death that a song came back to me that we sang there and it must have impacted in my life. Oh, give me Samuel's ear to obey your voice. And some way or another, that generation passed on to me in a conference time that Melzi and I had planned in our growing up spiritually years that our God requires obedience in our day-by-day life. And your generation preached that. And I heard that. And I responded to that in my life. You are a generation that could be followed in your commitment to God. But now it's remembering time, isn't it? I know in times of old age people say we live in the past. The past seems so much better in so many ways. And you want to know something? It was. It was better. The world was not so much with us. The problem is that sometimes when we come to the time of remembering the past that the author of Hebrews tells us to remember even here, we stop growing. And that's never an option for a believer in Jesus Christ. It is absolutely true that the outward man perishes. Have any of you noticed that? The outward man perishes. I talked to Mark Ernie's son periodic, I say, how are your folks? And he said, my dad's headaches. Outward man perishes. We have senior moments. You know what that is? We forget. Outward man perishes. But the inward man is renewed and grows. And you know God in a way that my students cannot know God. Because you've walked with God a lot of years. You can be a worshiper in a way that a young person can never worship. Because you have known the true and living God. And have seen him work so dramatically in your lives over the years. You have seen him faithful in those deep trials. You have come to understand the love of God that is there to sustain you when the most loved person in your life is no longer with you. A lot of you have come to understand that. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in a way that a young person can never know it. because you can call to memory those former days and understand the great working of God even to this moment. And you give testimony to that in the way you conduct your lives and remain faithful to Jesus Christ. You see why you're such an encouragement to me? You've taken steps that I haven't taken yet. I've seen my parents take them. And I've seen the faithfulness of God in that. But we have not experienced that yet. Call it to remembrance those former days. But even to those people who can call to remembrance the former days, the author said, you have need of endurance. One of the things my mom and my dad on occasion would say to me in their old age is, I wish the Lord would take me home. What good am I? I'm such a burden. Many of you ever said that? Thought it? They'd say to Melzy, my father especially after mom had gone home to be with the Lord, he'd say to Melzy, pray that the Lord take me home. She said, that's not my prayer. That's God's business. Sometimes old folk don't think they're needed. That the kids have forgotten them. The grandchildren hardly know them. What's the point, Lord? Well, the point is this. You can enter into the part of the Christian life in a specific way that we have not yet entered. you can come into those areas of life that are the essence of relationship with God. And some of you have done this in enduring in the Christian life. Two ladies were very good friends of my wife and myself early on in Aramaic days when I was a student there. Anita Hessebroke and Mae Boyd promised when we graduated that they would pray for us every day in the ministry that we were going to have. And for lots of years, all the rest of the years of their lives, they entered into a unique relationship with God of being godly women of prayer. Now, you know, that's not... out there working on the front line anymore. It's not providing food for the men where they're building the chapel or up there cleaning the camps or working hard at vacation Bible school and all those kind of things. They're the things we remember. That's all service. And service is fine. But in mature years, we enter into the very presence of God. and sustain in prayer the great work of God around this world that's the essence of a spiritual relationship with God that I am one who prays for his great ministry and we can endure in prayer and we can endure in in meditating on the Word of God because you have a wealth of experiential knowledge of the Word of God. And you bring to the Psalms the things that I cannot and the younger generation cannot because you know the Lord is your shepherd. You understand that. And you bring to the Word of God all the experiences of those faithful years of walking with God. That's the mature, spiritually mature Christian relationship. You bring the thing to God that He wants above all things. In John chapter four, when Jesus is addressing the woman of Samaria. He said, God wants something. Do you know what God wants? God desires worshipers. Alfred Gibbs, you know that name. Great little book, Worship the Christian's highest occupation. And it is. It's the very best thing we can do for God. and you can worship in a way that others could never because you have walked with God in this passage verse thirty eight after addressing this concept don't lose your confidence before God don't think you have come to the end of a purposeful experience and because you are a senior citizen, but understand the very essence of our relationship with God, of prayer and thanksgiving, meditation on His Word, communion with Him, and worship. This is your whole scope of operation, of mature Christian communion with our great God. recognize that he calls that the just living by faith. He quotes that great verse out of the book of Habakkuk that's quoted three times in the New Testament. It's quoted in Romans. It's quoted in Galatians. It's quoted here in Hebrews. The just shall live by faith. The book of Romans, the emphasis is on the just. In the book of Galatians, the emphasis is on by faith, not by works. In the book of Hebrews, the emphasis is on living, living, living by faith. We keep on living by faith until the races run, until the journey is done. From that there is no retirement. We live by faith. Yes, there is more than one kind of faith in the Bible. There are, in fact, three kinds of faith in the Bible. Three kinds of faith, only one of which is saving faith. There is that faith that recognizes the truthfulness of the facts, cognitive faith, intellectual faith. It said in the book of John, many of his disciples believed him, but he would not commit to them because they had no light. Strange contradictory statement, isn't it? They believed these people who were following him about, believed that he had done miracles. They saw it. They didn't say it didn't happen. They believed it happened. Cognitive faith. In James there is a thing called emotional faith. Even the demons believe and they tremble. No demon is saved. They believe. There are no atheistic demons. And they're afraid of the future. They have the charts. Lord, do not condemn us to the pit ahead of time. Send us into the pigs. You remember that little debate. They understood. They tremble. In the Gospel of John, there is a particular formula where there is faith in Jesus Christ. That is volitional faith. That is faith that acts. That is faith that produces works. That is the kind of faith that James has in you when he says, faith and works go hand in hand. Can that kind of faith emotional faith save a man the answer is no it cannot we do not work in order to become believers but because we are believers we work we live by faith we are not of those who draw back we are those who go on and endure in the things of God and that is not a verse just for the eighteen year olds in my class at school It is a verse for the eighty-year-olds in this congregation. Until the race is run, until the journey is done, I will worship God with all my heart and mind and soul and strength. I will meditate on the word, thy word, have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. I will pray to God as a prayer warrior. I will be that person involved in the essence of a spiritual relationship with God. I will be a praying person. I will be a worshiping person. I will be a person in the Word of God. I will be in communion with my great God and my Savior, Jesus Christ. Until the day is done. Until the journey is done. You see, mature Christians, you can do those things in a more concentrated way than those of us involved in so much service. Do you understand that? I can get so busy serving the Lord. that I don't have a lot of time to worship and pray and commune and meditate on His Word. And these things are the essence of spiritual maturity. And as senior citizens, your very schedule, the beauty of life in this area, is that I can do the things, you can do the things of mature Christian experience without a lot of the hindrances that I may have and the younger generation surely has. You have an opportunity to run the last leg of this marathon race in the strongest way possible. You know, last night I was shocked that so many of you were here. How many of you were here at the concert last night? Look at that. That was enough rain to keep any teenager away, wasn't it? I was on the phone the other day to Phil Leverence, elder statesman in Minneapolis, and it had snowed up there, something fierce, snowed in our area. You all remember what snow is? And in our assembly, my wife is the oldest person. Melzy's the oldest. I'm the next to the oldest. She's older than I am. She's already sixty. I'm not. I got a few months left. I hear you don't talk about sixty down here. That's youth. Sorry. I thought to Phil, I said, well, Phil, how's the weather up there? Oh, he's terrible. I said, well, we've canceled prayer meeting tonight. He said, well, we're going to have ours. Oh, my. Yes. That's endurance. Commitment. Spiritual maturity is what is involved in that. You see, you have such a habit of doing the right thing. It doesn't matter if it's raining three inches, snowing ten inches. There's a strength that you have that is a product of living those years for God. But it's not over. It is not over until the race is run. Until the end has come. And we grow in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jacob did that. He comes to his last day. pulls himself up on his bedstaff. Do you see it? The last physical energy he has. And he does what man is designed to do. He is a worshiper in spirit and in truth. My whole challenge for you and for myself in this week is in our senior years to continue to grow in the essence of Christianity, prayer, communion in the word, worship, thanksgiving, to continue to grow in our personal relationship to God so I know him the best and worship him the most just before I go into his presence. And that's what Jacob did. He had a lot of bumps in the road. But above all things, he wanted what God had for him. And above all things, I trust that that is our compulsion and obsession in life that I may know him. So let's visit Jacob this week. I think we'll enjoy doing it. And I trust that all of us will be a little more like Jacob in being the best at the very end. Let's pray together. Until the races run.