So once again, with the help of God, I would like you to turn with me to the chapter that we read, Colossians chapter 3. And the text you'll find in verse 16. That the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Following on really from this morning as we saw the young boy who came to the Lord Jesus Christ with the five loaves and the two small fish and how it typified the great sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the bread that came down from heaven, and how that bread of life, the Lord Jesus Christ, as his body was broken for his people and his blood was shed, for his people to provide that perfect sacrifice for sin and as those five loaves were divided to feed 5,000 plus people and that one body of the Lord Jesus Christ is able to redeem an unnumberable amount of people that number known only to Christ and the Spirit of God and God the Father himself and Jesus says that whosoever then eateth of me or believes in me that they would have eternal life they would never perish they would never hunger For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and gives life unto the world.

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh unto me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. And so Jesus describes himself as that bread that came down from heaven. I am the bread of life and the bread of life which must be believed in and trusted in.

As we look at, naturally speaking, as we look at a meal before us, we must believe that that meal is edible, it is suitable, it is beneficial. If we were to look at it and it was mouldy, it had maggots in it, it was overcooked and burnt, we wouldn't see any need of it, it wouldn't satisfy our appetite, the hunger pangs they would go. and so with our natural food we must believe that it is beneficial to our body, that it is nutrients for our body and so as we view the Lord Jesus Christ, as we view him by faith as the bread that came down from heaven, we must view him as though he will satisfy us, that he will quench that longing desire for a redeemer, that he will satisfy that spiritual craving as we are worked on by the Spirit of God and we are made aware of our sin and we then look to the Bread of Life who is able to satisfy and quench that earnest desire, that God-given hunger for the Lord Jesus.

And so he says, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eat this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. And so Christ, as we saw this morning, gave his body. he was clothed in human flesh to live under the law of God that he may die to be a substitute for the sins of his people that the wrath of God would be poured out upon his son and those who are then made aware of their need of a saviour have a craving as we crave for natural fruit we crave then for the Lord Jesus Christ and he has said that that he dwells in us and that brings us then to Colossians that the word of Christ may dwell in you richly in all wisdom

In the book of Colossians he seeks to present what has taken place in the life of those believers. That they were people who were dead in their sins and now they have died with Christ and that their life is now hid with Christ and he speaks of the old nature or the old man, which is a theme which the Apostle Paul uses quite often, that he speaks of someone who has been regenerated, someone who has been born again, of having a new nature, a new man, and he speaks of their past life as the old man or the old nature. That old man which was craving after lustful and worldly desires has now died. And the believer has been born again and they've been given a new man, a new nature which craves after spiritual truth, which craves after holiness and godliness.

And so he seeks to lay out before these Colossians what has taken place in their life, that they were once people who were, we can say, dead men walking, who craved after dead things that never really satisfied. And he tells them, from verse nine, verse 7 in which he also walked in some time when he lived in them but now he also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communications out of your mouth lie not one to another seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

So he speaks of this putting off that the believer has put off that old nature and that old character and the lusts that previously dominated their lives. Those of you who have been born again and experienced that transforming work of the Holy Spirit will be able to look back at your lives and you will be able to say indeed it's true. Although I may not have gone to the extent of some of the sins that are listed here yet I can confess that the Lord has changed me and brought me out of that pathway of darkness.

In verse 5 he says, mortify therefore your members which were upon the earth fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, which is lust, evil, concupitance, which is another form of lust. One is like a burning desire or passion, and the other is a lust that's not satisfied, covetousness, which is that constant desire for things that aren't yours, a constant craving for something that you don't have, like jealousy and covetousness. These are all things that are of the old nature and idolatry.

But all of these things, although they're of the old nature, can still be present in the pathway of a Christian. This is where we do battle. This is where we fight day by day not to allow these sins to manifest themselves in our lives. And we're seeking to put to death that old nature. The Christian pathway is a warfare. We are to put on the armour of God and to battle with sin, self and Satan daily. It's not an easy pathway. The scripture tells us it is through much trouble we must enter the kingdom of God.

Not just problems in life. Everybody has problems but the Christian has greater problems because he is an enemy. He is a stranger in an enemy's land. He's one who has absconded from the army of Satan, from the kingdom of Satan. He's walked away. And he's now with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Satan and his kingdom are always seeking to destroy and to pull him down. And so the Christian pathway is a pathway of battle, a pathway of difficulty.

but it's a blessed pathway to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 4 verse 21 it says, If so be that ye have heard of him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. That you put off the former conversation, the former conversation or the former way of life you have You have been changed, you have been born again, the former way of life of the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil.

And he gives, in all of Paul's letters, He seeks to lay down the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in a practical way, that there are things which you once did that there are things which you were once involved in, there are things that you once talked about, there are things that you once thought about, there are places that you once went to, there is music that you once listened to, films that you once watched, people that you once interacted with and were friends with, but now because of the transforming work of the Holy Spirit you are being weaned off those things. your new man is being put on every single day.

Now if you've ever had a velcro you might think this is strange but velcro that has been stuck for a very long time is actually quite difficult to peel away. If you use your coat every single day, then Velcro is very, it comes up, it's easy to undo. But if Velcro has been stuck down for a long time, then it is quite difficult to pull apart. And so it is with somebody who has been in a sinful lifestyle for a long time, it is sometimes very difficult for them to break the yoke and cycle of sin in their life. Their sin is so ingrained in their lifestyle that it's very difficult for them to transform immediately.

Although the heart is transformed at the moment of being born again, yet the flesh still craves after the sin that it once loved. Me for instance, I was born again very quickly, in a moment, in a second the Lord dealt with me. Yet there were things that I continued to do in my life which I knew were wrong. Smoking for instance, I carried on smoking for a while. I knew it was wrong but I couldn't quit the habit until it was a period of time.

This is why the Apostle Paul writes these things so clearly, that these people had been so ingrained in sinful lifestyles, idol worship, that he has to lay down in scripture that you can't actually continue doing these things and call yourself a Christian. He doesn't expect it to become totally natural to them. seeks to lay it down in the Word of God to make these people clear that there is to be a distinction between the old man and the new man, that there is that transforming work of the Holy Spirit and that those who have been transformed by the Spirit of God are not to continue in sin and so he lays down what he prescribes or what he feels to be the sinful behavior that is affecting those people at that time and even in today, in today's world.

The sins that were once prevalent before are exactly the same sins which are rife in our own nation. And so he even has to say, put away lying. Those of you who were thieves, Don't steal anymore, but labor with your hands, doing that which is good, that you may edify those and give to him that needs. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.

You see, the difference that a lot of us have is that we have been brought up in the church. We're probably third and fourth generation Christians. So when we are converted, we immediately know what is expected of a Christian. But when you have a first generation Christian, someone who has been born again from a non-Christian background, they've been living a lifestyle of sin, their parents also living a lifestyle of sin, their grandparents maybe also. And then when they come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, they don't know what to expect. They know that something has happened in their life. They know they have been changed. Like the man who says, oh, one thing I do know, I was once blind, but now I see. That was his testimony. That's all he could declare. And there are many who couldn't, that's all they know. I once was blind. I once was in this darkness, but now I see. Something has taken place in my life. And they need guidance. They need discipling. They need showing the way.

And so he says even down to lying and speaking and stealing and immorality. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you. And be kind one to another. You think these things would be natural? You think this would be the effect of the Spirit of God, that immediately someone is born again, bang, everything just suddenly changes? It doesn't always. It's a gradual process of change. As water erodes the rock, so the spirit of God erodes the sins of these hard-hearted, sin-rutted Christians.

We only have to see what took place in the church in Corinthians. that one there who committed immorality and yet after a while repented and was brought back into the church. He says this person committed sins that even the Gentiles don't do. Yes he had to be removed from the church but He was given an opportunity to repent. That was the rod by which the Lord used to bring him to sorrow for his sin. And so the apostle seeks to lay down this battle at the Christian house of the old nature and the new nature and our daily battle with the old nature and the daily battle with sin.

Often thought of that game you may find in the amusement arcades of those little creatures that pop up and you have to hit them on the head to knock them back down again. And that's just like the Christian pathway. We have one sin, it pops up, we knock it down again. Another one pops up and we knock that down again. And another one pops up and we knock that down again. And the Lord is constantly revealing to us our sinful tendencies. We think that we've mastered the Christian pathway. We think we've mastered this purity and holiness. And then we find another sin pops up. Another idol has manifested itself in our hearts and we've gone after that rather than looking to the Lord. We've become lukewarm and cold and hard-hearted and the Lord must bring something into our lives to wake us up, to shake us up, to warm us up.

So don't think that we are better than any of these Christians that have gone before. We are not. Our sins may not be so outwardly out there but if the Lord shows us the inner evils of our heart we will see that our heart is a manufacturing process for all manner of evil. It's just we may have the strength to conceal it and we may be in the company of people that don't allow us to sin in such ways. But every Christian is in a battle to overcome their sinful nature. Being born again is not as is done in the new year, turning over a new leaf. It is not trying in our own strength to do better and to resist chocolate cake or trying to do more exercise and trying to read our Bible more. It comes from a love to the Lord Jesus Christ and a hatred to sin, a hatred of offending him. Why does a Christian pursue after holiness? Because they love the Lord Jesus and they love the things that he loves. Not that they just want to reform to gain his favour, no. It's not just a mindset, a change of mind. It is a transformation of the heart that gives new desires and a love to Christ, the man that we once hated and despised.

And so the old nature despises following the Lord Jesus, but the new nature, the new heart loves the Lord Jesus Christ and he desires to put off that old nature and to be renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as, you know, once we have washed we don't like to become dirty again. And so it is with a Christian. Once we've been cleansed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and our souls have been washed clean and we're justified in the sight of God, we don't like to become dirty. And if we find out that we have sinned, it upsets us. It grieves us and we must confess that sin before God and even before man. That spiritual work gives us a humble nature, a sensitive character to sin.

And so he says, putting on that new man verse 15, and let the peace of God, oh sorry verse 14, and above all things put on charity, which is love, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which ye are called in one body and be ye thankful. The peace of God. The peace of God is the presence of God, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and it's like cold water on every lust, every vice, every hint of anger. The peace and presence of God is like cold water putting out the fire of lust that burns within our hearts. The old nature being extinguished and that new nature growing and manifesting itself in our lives.

You think of peace, a peaceful place, a tranquil place, it's a place where you want to be. But if we think of lust, lust is seen as like a raging fire that consumes passion. We only like to be by the fire to get warm. But if we see a raging inferno, it is somewhere where we don't want to be. It is dangerous. so we desire as a believer not to fan the flames of lustfulness in our lives but to have the peace of God ruling in our hearts to extinguish those passions that rise up.

He says in verse 5, mortify therefore your members. Mortify, put to death your members which are upon the earth. Fornication. Uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry. But then he says in verse 8, he sort of places these sections of sins in two camps. Ones that we may class as greater, of a greater danger to the Christian. And then in verse 8, as a lesser danger, ones that we might not deem as very bad sins. He says, but also put off, as well as these great sins of lust and vice and evil and courageousness, also put off anger wrath, malice, blasphemy, evil communications out of your mouth. These are the sins which are from the heart coming out. Lie not one to another, seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds. And so he's speaking to us of the external and the internal, that this old nature is to be completely mortified. not just in those sins that everybody can see and that everyone deems as great sins but also those sins which may be classed as, to a lesser degree, sins of word, sins which may not look quite so bad. The whole man or woman, boy and girl, is being dealt with by the Spirit of God, this new nature. And it's to be done by having the word of God dwelling in our hearts, dwelling in us in all wisdom. Let the word of Christ dwell in you.

As we go back to Christ being the bread that came down from heaven, as we go back to those five loaves that those people ate and they were satisfied that food to benefit the body has to dwell within the body it's not just immediately chewed and spat out it is chewed and then passed through the digestive system and as it is digested through that system it benefits the whole body it dwells there in us to benefit our bodies

We see the cows and the goats and the sheep, how they eat the grass and as they chew, as they eat and then they regurgitate, they chew again and it goes back down into another stomach and then it comes back up again and it goes back into another stomach and then it is discharged. That seemingly un-nutritious grass it becomes nutritious because of the way it has been because of the way it has been dealt with by the body how it has dwelt there in the body the same as our food it dwells in our body to benefit our whole man and then once it is once its goodness has gone it is discharged and so he says that the word of God is to dwell in our hearts.

To dwell, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Know that Christ, as we have said, Christ dwells in each of his believers by his Spirit. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? That Christ is in each of his people, that he dwells amongst and in his people as we believe in him. Or it's him who gives us the ability to believe in him.

But not only is it Christ as the word of God dwelling in us, it is his word. his written word that is to dwell in our hearts, to benefit us. As the scripture says, man does not live by bread only. We each have to eat, the Lord knows that, but it's not only that, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall men live.

The believer needs to feed upon the word of God. If we don't eat our natural food we become gaunt. We lose weight as we see those horrible pictures on the news of lands in famine and the children and the mothers and the families, their cheekbones are all in and there's no muscle or fat on their bodies. It's a horrendous sight to see.

But there are Christians like that. Physically they are well but spiritually they are famished. They are gaunt. They have no spiritual strength because the Word of God doesn't dwell in them. They've grieved the Spirit of God. They don't use the means of grace that God has given to benefit his people. They don't read the scriptures.

You see when somebody neglects the means of grace they starve, spiritually starve. And they're not able to cope. They're not able to deal with life. And they become famished. Once you neglect the reading of the word of God then you'll neglect prayer. then you'll neglect fellowship, then you'll neglect the house of God, the means of grace that the Lord has given to his people.

And so he says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. As our natural food gives us strength for our bodies, so the word of God gives us spiritual strength. It enables us to draw on that strength in times of trouble. If you think of the Puritans, one of their great disciplines was memorising the Word of God. It was always there in their minds to draw upon, to think upon, to meditate upon. It dwelt in them richly. It ruled in their hearts. It governed their thoughts, their actions. They didn't come to a situation in life and have to scrabble around in their minds trying to find a fear, not that they heard three weeks ago. No, the Word of God was there, planted in their minds that they could draw upon. and that they were able to benefit from that strength as they passed through trouble. Immediately it was there. The Word of God filled their thoughts.

It said of John Bunyan, I think it was Spurgeon who said about him that if you cut him, he bled the Bible. He was so full, saturated with the scriptures. And so the Apostle says that this new man be so saturated in the Scriptures that the Scriptures would rule in our hearts. That it would dwell in our hearts, not just a passing thought in our lives.

How often do we read the Bible? might say, oh that's legal, you're telling me to do something. Well the scripture tells us that man doesn't live by bread alone but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Believers who love Christ love his word and want to read his word. How often do we read our bibles? How often do we pray? How often do we use the means of grace that God has given to satisfy and to strengthen his beloved people? Many Christians, you know, we're running on empty. Sometimes we say about our cars, don't we, that we're just running on fumes. Neglected is the Word of God.

The Word of God should be the central piece of our lives. It is where we come to know God. The Bible tells us that we may know him, the only true God and his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the word of God that should be central to our lives as we read it, as we meditate upon it, as we eat three times a day. So we should be eating spiritual food, satisfying and strengthening our souls. It is to dwell in us. And if the word of God dwells in us then that the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom that every thought and every decision that we make will be shaped by the word of God. because our mind will be so set on biblical tracks that our thought processes will be governed and guided by the Word of God.

Wisdom. The wisdom of God in Christ Jesus. The Word of God is the wisdom of God. It is laid out for us to read. But it goes on. You see, if the word of God is dwelling within our hearts, dwelling in us richly in all wisdom, it's to have an effect. It's to enable us to teach one another, admonishing one another, not based upon thoughts or opinions, but based upon Christian principles, biblical principles as our thought processes are shaped by the word of God.

But that produces something, singing. The word of God dwelling within our hearts produces this, dwelling in us in all wisdom, enabling us to teach and to admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts. serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing. The Lord has given us a voice and the Lord has given us a voice to sing and Christians are those that should be magnifying the praises of God. God has given us these voices to sing as we talk one to another we are able to pass over information but singing expresses an emotion, a feeling. As we sing it declares that we are in an emotional state and we are praising God. God has given us a voice to sing.

Some people say well I don't like singing. Well my response is that you won't like heaven. If you don't like singing, then you won't like heaven. If you don't like singing, that shows that you have nothing to sing about. The birds sing in the morning and the birds sing in the evening and Christians should delight in singing praises to their God because the Word of God is dwelt in them richly. And so the only option for them is to sing and declare the praises of God.

In Revelations it tells us of some of the songs that will be in heaven. There's quite a few but just quickly in Revelation chapter 5 from verse 9. says and they sung a new song saying thou art worthy, this was their song, thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou was slain and hath redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. and has made us unto us kings, our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on earth. That was their song. They sang that worthy is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is worthy to take the blood. Why? Because he was slain. They sang of the work of salvation. That God has redeemed us by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Chapter 15. God bless. Verse three, and they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints, who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou art holy, and for all nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are manifest. And so again in heaven the central theme of the songs of the redeemed is the Lord Jesus Christ. We sing on earth of the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus.

In chapter 14 it says And I looked, and lo, a lamb stood on the mount of Zion, and with him an hundred and forty and four thousand, having his father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder. And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. And they sung, as it were, a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts and the elders. And no man could learn that song, but that the hundred and forty and four thousand which were redeemed and these are they which so they had a song the redeemed had a song this hundred and forty four thousand that they sung the song before the throne of grace and so heaven itself will be a place of singing praises and worship to the lamb the Lord Jesus Christ

All of you I'm sure know John and Charles Wesley, the great hymn writers. They believed that they were born again and that they were ministers of Christ and they were on a journey to America and on their way they were met with a great storm and they were totally petrified. thought that they were going to die, they could not face God even though they believed they were ministers yet they were petrified of dying.

But then they heard singing as the ship was being tossed this way and that way and they were petrified of dying they heard a group of people singing And so they went and they found that these were Moravian missionaries who were going to America. And they were singing a song in the midst of this great storm full of assurance singing that of the greatness of God that God was with them in the storm and even that he would be with them in death that they would go to be with him. You see they were so filled with the word of Christ that it dwelt richly in their hearts that even in the midst of a great tempest they were able to draw on that knowledge that they had of Christ, that personal experimental knowledge that they had coincided with their knowledge of the scripture and they're able to sing praises to God even in the midst of great opposition and we see times that there have been of those on their way to be martyred and Christ gives them that special strength to sing on their way there, singing the praises of God, their Redeemer

And so as our old natures once sang and worshipped Satan, so our new nature sings praises and worships the Lord Jesus Christ with that same vigour that we once sung the popular songs of the time. That old nature is dead. Oh pop stars, a worldly music. What are they singing about? They are singing about our old nature. The lusts of the flesh. And they worship Satan whether they knowingly do so or not. It's satanic. It's of the old nature, the carnal nature.

But the new nature, the old nature of the Christian has died. Those things are not attractive to us anymore. We've put them to death. We are weaned off them. And now we drink of the milk of the word and we sing praises to God. We worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you want to work out what is a good hymn to sing you need to have the word of Christ dwelling richly in you in all wisdom to be able to rightly examine the context of the hymn that you are singing. If we look at modern Christian music Modern Christian music is designed to be sung with great accompaniments with bands and stuff like that. The words are secondary to the music. If you remove the music and you read the words they are very often very pathetic, repetitive.

But if you come to a decent hymn, not saying that no one can write hymns nowadays, but a decent hymn doesn't have to be sung. It can be read. And as it is read, it benefits and satisfies the soul of the believer. It doesn't need music to go with it because it's the word of truth We look at the hymn that we've just sang. You don't have to sing it. You can take this hymn book and any good hymn book and just sit down and read the hymns in them and they're beneficial.

There is a man, a real man, with wounds still gaping wide, from which rich streams of blood once ran in hands and feet and side. Tis no wild fancy of our brains, no metaphor we speak, the same dear man in heaven now reigns that suffers for our sake.

It's theologically sound. that Christ was and is a real man, he is seated at the right hand of the father and he still has the human heart, he's still the high priest for his people, able to understand our weaknesses and you can turn to any hymn, sound hymn and read it, you can come to the psalms You can sing them and you can read them and they're beneficial to the soul.

We don't have to have a drum kit, electric guitar, an orchestra and all of that to make us feel good when we come to sing in a hymn. Modern hymns are so combined with the music because they're so theologically poor that they have to have the music with them to make people feel good. You see sometimes you go to places of worship and there are things there to help you to feel like God is there. Our flesh, our body is so weak, so susceptible to emotional things like light and music and the atmosphere and that atmosphere is created to make you feel like you are entering into the presence of God and so they create an act by which you believe that God is there. I met a lady in Kenya and she said to me, Oh, you know, I've moved church. I just had such a blessed time in worship. Nothing to do with the word of God. Nothing to do with the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit of God it's just that she went there and experienced some emotional event that was in their praise and worship session that caused her to shift her church.

Remove the music and what do you have left? Remove the lights what do you have left? Remove the smoke and what do you have left? Boil it all down and it must come down to the Word of God. It is the Word of God that the people of God should be attracted to.

If you want to move to another church because of the music, if you want to move to another church because of the lights, because of the social then you are moving for the wrong reason. Move because the Word of God is preached there. Move because the Spirit of God has led you there. Move because the Word of God dwells in you richly and you desire to be fed more spiritual food. Don't go. because your body, your flesh believes that they worship in a better way.

True worship. True worship is what? A broken and a repentant spirit will God not despise. That is true worship. Jumping up and down, sweating and dancing is not worship. brokenness before a holy God is true worship. Submission and reverence to his holy word is true worship.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also you are called in one body and be ye thankful Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

There is the core, central peace. It's the heart. True worship stems from a transformed heart. and true worship. The object of that worship is Jesus Christ. May the Lord give us that true wisdom and may as we gather together our object be Jesus Christ and the means by which we get to Jesus Christ let it be on the rail road of his word not on gimmicks and emotional stimulations but by the true working of the Holy Spirit of God that we're able to have a broken and a contrite spirit that feeds and is satisfied by the Word of God.

Let the peace of God rule in your heart. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Amen.

Let's close in singing together our final hymn from Hymns for Worship, number 160.

160. Fight the good fight with all thy might. Christ is thy strength and Christ thy right. Lay hold on life and it shall be thy joy and crown eternally. Hymns for Worship, 160, tune 326.

Lord, with all our might, Christ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

? Rise and seek His face ?
? Dive with each puff before He lies ?
? Christ is the Word, and Christ the King of kings ?
His boundless mercy will provide. Trust in thy trust, things all shall prove. Christ is his word, and Christ's truth.

? Salve, salve, salve, salve, salve, salve ?

Almighty God, we do give thee thanks for thy word and we pray that we may be led to feed upon it daily, that thy word may dwell in us richly and that thy peace also may dwell in us. We pray that thou help us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ that we might know thee the only true God and thy son the Lord Jesus Christ and we pray that thou dismiss us with thy blessing and now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father with the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit do rest and abide with us each now and forevermore. Amen.