We thank Thee that we are again in
Thy presence.
In Thy presence there is fullness of joy.
We pray that the sense of Thy presence
will fill the place.
And O may Thy Spirit minister graciously to
our hearts as we once again consider Thy
Word and the life of a man of
God who was impacted by Thy Word and
impelled by Thy Word.
Lord, may our hearts be touched.
May our souls be stirred.
I pray that if there's one without Christ,
Thou wilt save that one.
And those of us who know the Lord,
we pray that our walk with Him will
be deepened and strengthened.
Lord, come and speak to us now.
Give us Thy Holy Spirit, we pray in
Jesus' name.
Amen.
Matthew chapter 28 verse 20 and the closing
words are the words that I wish to
consider with you tonight and to weave around
these words the life story, some of it
at least, of John G.
Patton of Scotland, the great missionary to the
New Hebrides.
And lo, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world.
We have been looking at some of the
favorite scriptures of famous saints of God, Bible
texts that have impacted the lives of outstanding
servants of God in the past.
Now, in these biographical studies, that's really what
they are, it is my purpose to educate
my hearers.
There are young people in the service tonight,
and that's a good thing.
And there are people who are just a
little bit older, and that's also a good
thing.
And all of us can stand to learn
about the giants of church history.
And it is my purpose, with the Lord's
help, to educate you a little bit more
as to the history of some of these
men of God.
But it's also my purpose to evangelize the
lost, to seek to bring the gospel to
those that know not Christ.
And it is also my purpose to edify
and to build up the hearts of all
the Lord's people through these texts of Scripture
that God used to bless those godly saints
of a bygone day.
Now, we all know that the world has
its so-called heroes.
The movie stars, and the rock stars, and
the sports stars, and many a young person's
bedroom walls are adorned with images of some
of the most filthy, depraved, and ungodly individuals
that you could ever wish not to meet
in your life.
And these are their heroes.
Well, I want to inspire you in these
messages with the stories of real heroes.
People whom God made great, and who would
make the most wonderful role models, not just
for our young people, but for all of
us.
And one such man was the 19th century
Scottish missionary John G Patton.
Patton's favorite text of Scripture, undoubtedly, was Matthew
chapter 28 and verse 20.
And the words of Jesus to his disciples,
Lo, I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world.
Incidentally, this was not only John G Patton's
text.
It was the great model text, and the
favorite text of David Livingstone as well.
David Livingstone, also from Scotland, was a pioneer
missionary to Africa.
Livingstone said of this Scripture, it is the
word of a gentleman, of the strictest and
most sacred honor, and there's an end to
it.
Lo, I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world.
That's not my purpose to preach on David
Livingstone, but it is a fact that when
David Livingstone was found at his death, he
was found kneeling in the attitude of prayer
in a little hut in Africa.
His Bible was open on the bed before
him.
He was kneeling there.
He was already gone into the presence of
the Lord, but his hand was upon the
page at Matthew chapter 28 and verse 20,
and he had written in his Bible, it
is the word of a gentleman, of the
strictest and most sacred honor.
Lo, I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world.
And so it is the word of a
gentleman, of the strictest and most sacred honor.
It's a word to be trusted.
It is a word to believe in.
It is a word that we can take
to our souls as God's people and be
encouraged by it.
A word that will be the same at
the end as it is at the beginning.
The same to us as it was to
the disciples of old.
Lo, I am with you always.
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
John G.
Patton was born in Scotland in the town
of Dumfries, or near to Dumfries in the
south of Scotland.
He went out to work very early in
life as a farmer's boy.
At the age of 12, he began to
learn the trade of his father, which was
stocking making.
He worked, listen to this, 15 hours a
day, but he always had lesson books at
hand.
So he was a student as well as
a worker.
He worked also as a gardener and a
harvester, saving enough money for six months study
at Dumfries University.
In his early years, the Lord was certainly
with him.
Now, of course, again with the constraints of
time, I will not be able to tell
you everything about the life of John Gibson
Patton.
I will not be able to fill you
in on all the little details and the
little incidents that took place in his life.
You will have to find a biography of
Patton for yourself and read it.
And by the way, that's part of what
I want to do in these meetings, is
to instill within you an appetite to read
about men and indeed women of God of
a bygone day.
And I'm sure that will be a blessing
to you as you search out some of
those books.
And they are available despite the garbage that
you find in many so-called Christian bookstores
today.
There are books like this available if you
just look hard enough.
But the Lord was with John Patton in
accordance with his promise.
Lo, I am with you always.
And certainly the Lord was with John G.
Patton in a number of ways.
For instance, we could say the Lord was
with him, first of all, in salvation.
You see, the Lord does not say this
to everybody.
But rather the text shows us in verse
18, and indeed in verse 16, that the
Lord came and spake unto them who, verse
16, the eleven disciples.
A disciple is a follower.
A disciple is one who learns.
A disciple is one who sits at the
feet of his master or his teacher.
And so the Lord is speaking these words
to those who are followers of his.
And what does he say to those followers
of his?
I am with you always.
The Lord was with John Patton in salvation.
The sunrise of God's salvation rose on Patton
in his early boyhood.
He tells us about that little Dumfriesshire cottage,
what the Scottish people would call a little
Button Ben.
Just a little cottage, very small, little hovel
almost.
And there in the south of Scotland in
that little cottage he was brought up.
And he tells us of the sacred memory
of his father going into that little room
in that cottage.
And there before God, kneeling in prayer.
And when he came out of God's presence
from that room, Patton said there was a
light, as it were, shining on his father's
face.
Patton was greatly impacted by his parents and
particularly his godly father.
This is what he said about his dad.
He said, we children came to know that
that light on his face was a reflection
of the divine presence in which his life
was lived.
Never in temple or cathedral, on mountain or
in glen, can I hope to feel that
the Lord God is more near, more visibly
walking and talking with men than under that
humble cottage roof of thatch and oaken wattles.
God was in that home.
And God bless the faithful example and the
instruction of John's parents.
Let me read to you just a little
of what John Patton said of his godly
parents.
He spoke of their influence upon him and
he said that the good seed that was
sown by his parents bore fruit in his
own life.
Early in life he testifies that he was
led to give himself to Jesus Christ and
to consecrate his very all, holy and fully
to the service of Jesus Christ.
He trusted his father's God.
He came to know his mother's Savior.
And before I go any further, I would
challenge the parents that are here tonight.
I wonder what memories will your children carry
through life of you?
Do you desire God's best for your children?
Would you rejoice for instance if the Lord
were to call your children as missionaries or
Christian workers as he did call the son
of that home in the south of Scotland.
When John Patton was still a young man,
God called him to be a mission worker
in the city of Glasgow.
The time came for him to leave home
and there was an opening as a mission
worker that occurred in Glasgow for him.
With just a little small bundle containing his
Bible under his arm, he set out to
walk to that great city.
Now it is said that he walked as
far as Kilmarnock.
Why he would want to go to Kilmarnock,
I'll never know.
But anyway, it was 40 miles from his
home in the south of Scotland and then
from Kilmarnock there he would catch a train
on up into the city.
His father walked with him for the first
six miles and to read that story of
that journey is a very touching thing.
Mr. Cranston and myself were both reading about
it today and how that his father for
about the last couple of miles of that
journey really didn't say anything and both of
them were feeling it very much, the parting
that lay ahead.
And John Patton said that he could just
see his father's lips moving gently and he
knew he was praying for his son, that
the Lord would bless him as he set
out on this life of service.
But he didn't really say anything but just
once in a while the tears would come
down his cheeks.
And Patton said when the time came to
leave his father, neither one of them could
speak for a time.
But just on parting from the lad, he
took John's hand and he said, God bless
you my son.
Your father's God prosper you and keep you
from all evil.
He said at that point they embraced with
tears and John began to walk away and
in fact he said he began to run
because he just wanted to get away and
make sure that he didn't turn back with
his father.
And he said he ran to a corner
where he was just going to go around
the road around the hedge and he looked
back expecting to see his father quite a
long way in the distance but his father
was standing there with his cap off in
exactly the spot where he had left him
watching his son.
And he said that was a very difficult
parting and of course after a few moments
he said when he was out of sight
of his dad he had to get into
the side of the road into a ditch
and just weep his heart out.
Then he said he stood up on top
of the ditch to see if he could
see the old man and he could just
see him climbing the same ditch further down
climbing up to see if he could see
his son and Patton said he just went
on and sought to go on with doing
the will of God.
But years afterwards John Patton declared that those
words from his father in an hour of
great trial and an hour of great difficulty
the hour of parting those words God bless
you my son your father's God prosper you
and keep you from evil that those had
been as a guard about his pathway.
Now for a time John managed to attend
an educational seminary in Glasgow where ultimately he
became a teacher and then having saved the
sum of 10 pounds about 20 Canadian dollars
now he entered Glasgow University and later he
settled down to work as a city missionary.
Speaking in later days of his life's battles
during those years of struggle he said that
he committed his way and his future to
the God of his father and was not
disappointed.
Darknesses were dispelled, obstacles removed and crooked looking
ways made straight before him.
John Patton no doubt was greatly influenced by
his godly father and I say now to
the young people that are here believing parents
are a great blessing and privilege.
You ought to thank God for Christian parents.
Personally I thank the Lord for my mother
and my father who brought me up to
love the Lord Jesus Christ and to serve
him and you can have no greater blessing
I believe outside of salvation than parents who
love the Savior.
Make sure that you trust Christ for yourself
however.
John Patton resolved that his father's God would
be his God and I ask you have
you trusted Christ?
Do you know the Savior as your own?
The words of Matthew 28 verse 20 were
spoken to believers, those who had experienced God's
salvation and without saving faith in Christ you
can take no comfort from this promise.
The Lord is not with you if you
are not with him.
The Lord is not with you if you're
not saved and you need to be saved.
You need to be redeemed.
You need to be born of God and
when you receive God's salvation the scripture shows
us that the Lord comes into your life
and he comes into your life to stay.
Away with this nonsense that the Lord will
come into your life and then at some
point because of your failure he will leave
you.
No, I give unto my sheep eternal life
and they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of
my hand.
The Lord Jesus has given us his promise
that he will be with us.
For instance in John chapter 14 on several
occasions in verse 16 he said, I will
pray the Father and he shall give you
another comforter that he may abide with you
for how long?
Forever.
Lo, I am with you always.
Verse 18 of John 14.
I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you.
Verse 20.
At that day you shall know that I
am in my Father and ye in me
and I in you.
Verse 23.
If a man love me he will keep
my words and my Father will love him
and we will come unto him and make
our abode with him.
The Lord will be with us if we're
his people.
He will never leave us.
He will never forsake us.
God said I will dwell in them and
walk in them and I will be their
God and they shall be my people.
Lo, I am with you always.
It is a promise.
It is a word from God for God's
people alone.
John G.
Patton was saved.
He was redeemed by faith in Christ and
so the Lord Jesus was with him.
The Lord was with him in salvation but
then the Lord was with John G.
Patton in service.
John was a missionary but I want you
to think about this.
He was a missionary at home before he
was ever a foreign missionary.
Some people get the idea that well they're
going to go off and serve the Lord
in some other place but they've never learned
to serve the Lord at home.
God will never take you abroad to serve
him if you can't serve him at home.
That was true of John Patton.
For ten years in the city of Glasgow
he went out into the closes and wines
of that city preaching the gospel of the
kingdom of heaven and it was an uphill
work.
He had all kinds of problems.
There were those of the Roman faith.
There were those who were infidels.
There were publicans and sinners combined against him
but the Lord was with him and success
came.
Many were blessed by his mission.
Drunkards were reformed.
Infidels burned their books.
Romanists renounced their creed and hundreds it is
said were led into the light of the
gospel of Christ through his ministry.
Now alongside of his mission work Patton continued
his studies in arts and divinity and actually
succeeded in obtaining training in the practical branches
of medicine.
That is why he is referred to as
Dr. John G Patton.
He was a medical doctor but all this
time that he served in Glasgow his heart
was going out to the perishing heathen and
at the end of ten years he offered
himself to the New Hebrides mission a place
that's now known as Vanuatu in the South
Sea Islands.
He was accepted as a missionary but for
a time with all the strength that he
could muster he devoted himself to special training
including several trades that he might need on
the mission field.
His parents hearing of his determination to be
a foreign missionary lightened his heart by informing
him that they had long ago given him
up to God and were satisfied that his
going to the mission field was right.
The Lord was with him in service.
His work among the cannibals on the islands
of the New Hebrides ultimately proved that the
Lord was with his servant.
What a text this is by the way
for a missionary.
What a text for one who is going
out to serve the Lord not knowing what
befalls him.
Lo I am with you all the way
even unto the end of the world.
It doesn't matter what comes or goes.
It doesn't matter about the discouragements.
It doesn't matter about the hardships.
It doesn't matter about the persecutions.
Lo I am with you all the way
even unto the end of the world.
Those are the words of the Great Commission
and I say this evening that this word
is a word that is good for us
as it was good for Patton.
The Lord is with us.
He's with us in service.
The Lord was as good as his word
to the original disciples for these men to
whom he said Lo I am with you
all the way.
They experienced his presence with them as they
went out to preach for Mark 16 verse
20 says and they went forth and preached
everywhere the Lord working with them and confirming
the word with signs following.
The Lord is with us.
He's with us if we're saved in salvation.
The Lord is with us in service.
This was true of John Patton.
The Lord was with him then also in
sorrow.
Sometimes we get the mistaken notion into our
heads that when you come to know Christ
then all problems cease.
There's a kind of a gospel that is
preached by many today which is a feel
-good gospel that if you come and make
a profession of Jesus all your difficulties whether
they be financial physical or whatever all these
problems will cease.
If you're a true Christian walking with God
for instance you'll never become sick.
What a load of garbage that is.
What absolute nonsense and drivel that is.
That if you are serving the Lord the
way that you should you'll never be sick.
Well the Bible tells us about Job that
he was a perfect and an upright man
one that feared God and eschewed evil.
Yet he lost in one day his whole
family, his children, ten of a family, lost
his health, lost his wealth, his wife turned
against him.
Yet the Bible says that Job did not
sin with his lips.
Continued to worship God.
Oh many are the afflictions not of the
sinner many of the afflictions of the righteous.
But the Lord delivers him out of them
John Patton on the 5th of November 1858
landed on the island of Tanna in New
Hebrides with his wife.
It was a cannibal island in those days
and the white man found his faith sorely
tried but he was prepared to trust his
God for the Lord had told him lo
I am with you always even until the
end of the world.
The Lord tested his servant and within three
months of his landing on that cannibal island
he had to dig with his own hands
a grave for his young wife.
One week after he buried her he had
to bury their baby boy to whom she
had given birth just recently.
Mrs. Patton had insisted on accompanying him to
the mission field but she contracted this which
caused her death she died in childbirth and
there in the darkness of a terrible midnight
John Patton had his Gethsemane but God's Word
did not fail him God's Word was still
true lo I am with you always even
unto the end of the world even at
the grave of your young wife even at
the grave of your baby son lo I
am with you always and friends it is
easy to accept isn't it that the Lord
is with us when things are going well
it's easy for us to say oh the
Lord is with us how wonderful it is
when you don't have any problems when you're
not taking the wind in your face but
the wind is to your back but oh
how different some people are under severe testing
and it is a great measure of your
faith how it bears up under the severest
of trials again if I might refer to
Job he said though he slay me yet
will I trust in him John Patton stood
firm in trial and of that very trial
he speaks and he says I was never
altogether forsaken the ever merciful Lord sustained me
to lay the precious dust of my loved
ones in the same quiet grave but for
Jesus and the fellowship he vouchsafed me there
I surely must have gone mad and died
beside that lonely grave but the Lord was
with him and I can tell you this
evening that the Lord is as good as
his word to his people no matter who
they are and he tells us in his
word lo I am with you always even
unto the end of the world Bible says
in Hebrews 4 14 saying then that we
have a great high priest that has passed
into the heavens Jesus the Son of God
let us hold fast our profession for we
have not on high priest which cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities but
was in all points tempted like as we
are yet without sin let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace that we
may obtain mercy and find grace to help
in time of need oh how often we
hear of those who have been through the
most terrible of trials yes but what do
they do they start blaming God they start
shaking their fist in the face of almighty
God and blaming the Lord for their trials
and blaming the Lord for taking this from
them or taking that from them it's one
of two things that we can do under
the severest of testing we can either run
away from the Lord or we can run
to the Lord and when we run to
the Lord we will find that he's as
good as his word we will have we
will obtain mercy we will find grace to
help in time of need does that mean
it's not difficult no it doesn't mean that
doesn't mean that we won't shed tears no
it doesn't mean that what it does mean
that it is that in our tears and
in our sadness the Lord will be there
because standing somewhere in the shadows we can
find Jesus he's the only one who cares
and who understands standing somewhere in the shadows
we will find him and we'll know him
by the nail print in his hands a
few weeks after Patton had buried his wife
and his child a man called George Augustus
Selwyn the pioneer Bishop of New Zealand and
James Coleridge Patterson the martyred Anglican Bishop of
Malaysia happened to call at the island of
Tanna they had met mrs.
Patton they had seen her as a perfect
picture of health and how shocked they were
to find that she had gone now along
with her little child standing there beside the
grave of mother and child John Patton says
I wept aloud Patterson sobbed quietly on my
left and the good Bishop poured out his
heart to God and then laid his hands
on my head and advocated heaven's richest consolations
and blessings upon me he says the virtue
of that kind of Episcopal consecration I did
and do most warmly appreciate you see Patton
was a Presbyterian and had no time for
Episcopacy in that sense but he appreciated the
words of that man of God and as
a believer you can and I can prove
the truth of God's promises in our time
of sorrow the Lord says to us for
instance in the Psalm 91 and the verse
15 I will be with him in trouble
I will deliver him and honor him he
tells us does he not in Isaiah 43
and verse number 2 when thou passest through
the waters I will be with thee and
through the rivers they shall not overflow thee
when I walk us through the fire thou
shalt not be burned neither shall the flame
kindle upon thee and in verse 5 of
that same chapter he says fear not for
I am with thee the Lord is as
good as his word hold on to it
even in your times of trouble you'll find
that lo I am with you always is
true John Patton said I was never altogether
forsaken for the ever merciful Lord sustained me
but for Jesus I might have gone mad
and died but lo he says I am
with you always even unto the end John
Patton it seems constantly through his weight upon
that text of scripture for he keeps writing
about it for example in another place I
read where he said during this crisis and
this was another crisis that he went through
I kept generally calm and firm of soul
standing erect and with my whole weight on
the promise lo I am with you even
unto the end of the world I should
say as a postscript to the story of
the death of his wife and child that
it actually got worse because soon after that
Patton was struck down with a fever of
unusual severity but on recovery he turned to
his beloved work with admirable heroism in a
short time he had built up a mission
station and had printed the very first book
in the language of that cannibal people troubless
times then arose after three years of toil
and adventure and many herbbreadth escapes he was
actually driven from the island of Tanna and
with a breaking heart he said farewell to
his beloved cannibals but yet in his darkest
moment he wrote these words I never doubted
that ultimately the victory there as elsewhere would
be on the side of Jesus and the
victory did come and the dark island was
wholly changed why because Christ is as good
as his word lo I am with you
always even unto the end of the world
Patton tells us on one occasion which was
a time of great trouble a time of
great affliction a time of great sorrow that
there was a fight that raged on the
island of Tanna and as that fight broke
out he was told by the chief who
later became a convert to claim a tree
and remain there until the moon rises so
Patton got up into that tree and he
said as I sat on that tree and
looked right over that terrible scene the discharge
of muskets the hideous yells of savages the
blood the murder and the strife said I
never felt the Lord's presence so near to
me lo I am with you always I
was alone yet not alone I would cheerfully
spend many nights alone in such a tree
to feel again my Savior's spiritual presence as
I felt it that night lo I am
with you always that was the promise I
pleaded that was the guide I followed and
though I often felt my brain reeling my
sight coming and going my knees smiting together
when brought face to face with violent death
still I was never left without hearing that
promise coming up through the darkness and the
anguish and all its consoling and supporting power
lo I am with you always and he
says trials hairbreadth escapes only strengthened my faith
and nerved me for more to follow and
they trod swiftly enough upon each other's heels
the trials without that abiding consciousness of the
presence and power of my Lord and Savior
nothing in the world could have preserved me
from losing my reason and perishing miserably his
words lo I am with you always even
to the unto the end became to me
so real that it would not have startled
me to behold him even as Stephen did
gazing down upon the scene it is the
sober truth that I had my nearest and
most intimate glimpses of the presence of my
Lord in those dread moments when musket club
or spear were being levied and my life
the Lord was with him and the Lord
will be with us even in our times
of sorrow but not only was the Lord
with him in salvation and in service and
in sorrow but these words of the text
Matthew 28 verse 20 lo I am with
you always even unto the end of the
world proved true to John G Patton in
soul winning John Patton was a successful missionary
and by that I mean he was faithful
but also the Lord caused him to be
fruitful when he went to the New Hebrides
those people were indeed savages they were cannibals
they were eaters of human flesh the chief
of the cannibals through the ministry of John
Patton became a convert to Jesus Christ many
of the people on that island became decided
Christians and certainly that group of islands became
civilized and settled down because of the work
of the gospel now Patton when he was
involved in the missionary work on the island
of Tanna he decided that in order to
make his mission work a success he was
going to need a mission ship a boat
to travel around and so with the object
of raising funds for the purpose of procuring
such a ship he visited several countries including
to his great delight his native land so
he returned to speak of the work in
Scotland success attended his efforts wherever he went
apparently his story touched the hearts of men
and roused an interest in missions in others
such as had never before existed the Lord
called many other young people to go to
the mission field through the ministry of Dr.
Patton he eventually was unable to float a
ship called the Dayspring he returned to the
islands of the New Hebrides in 1864 and
that new mission ship visited island after island
and planted missionaries where others had either failed
or fallen the mission Synod of Australia which
had adopted Mr. Patton as the first missionary
from that country constrained him actually to turn
from the island of Tanna and to settle
in another called Aniwa and here for the
next 15 years that indomitable if I can
say the word right indomitable Scotsman toiled earnestly
and lovingly houses were built wells were sunk
other improvements were made which had a far
-reaching influence after incessant labor the first Aniwa
hymn book was brought out the first church
was built and schools were established the tide
of victory had set in and it was
a grand day for John Patton he testified
when he held the first communion service in
that heathen land when people who formerly had
been eaters of the flesh of each other
became spiritually those who feasted on Christ and
who enjoyed fellowship with the Savior at his
table there were many who were turned from
darkness to light in the course of just
a few years men who began to worship
the true and the living God of course
there were many perils there were many difficulties
which I haven't got time to speak of
tonight but one of the most remarkable answers
to prayer in the history of Christian missions
is recorded in connection with the sinking of
a well a water well in the face
of these savages of Aniwa for in a
time of great dearth we read that when
their false gods had been appealed to in
vain the brave missionary John Patton made the
startling announcement I am going to sink a
deep well down into the earth to see
if our God will send us fresh water
up from below put God to the test
and those savages stood around him watching him
digging with unceasing labor they thought he was
mad like the priests of Baal at Carmel
they waited to see whether Jehovah would help
his servant and for a long time John
Patton toiled and digged apparently in vain and
across the eye of his faith there came
clouds of doubt for you see he was
actually working on a coral reef and there
was a possibility that when he did reach
the water that it might be salt water
at last when at his weakest the answer
came there was a little moisture in the
sand that was to him just like a
the size of a man's hand and not
salt water but a spring of fresh water
came bubbling up and he made those savages
come and drink and this is what he
said Jehovah my God gave it to us
out of his own earth in answer to
our labor and prayers do you know that
the idols of the people were burned prayer
and praise began to be heard in their
homes and a new social order prevailed in
that place the great dream of John Patton's
life was to see a missionary and a
band of well-trained native teachers on every
island of the New Hebrides to this end
he devoted the declining years of his life
and in this he was wonderfully blessed his
day of sowing and tears changed to a
day of reaping with joy and thankfulness because
the Lord had fulfilled his word to him
lo I am with you always even unto
the end you know in soul winning the
only thing that will enable us to see
men truly one to Christ is when the
Lord is with us in our evangelism we
cannot create an anxious thought I can't cause
you if you're unsaved to become a Christian
I wouldn't even try to make you become
a Christian for I am not able to
do so now if I thought by all
the efforts of mind that I could make
you a Christian I would do so but
this is the Lord's work salvation is of
the Lord and souls are truly one to
Christ when the Savior according to his own
promise is with us when he accompanies the
word by the power of his spirit and
John Patton found that the Lord was as
good as his word to him in his
evangelism for he saw people come to know
Christ John had a son of his own
later when he married again writing of his
father the Reverend FHL Patton said this in
his private conversation and in his public addresses
my father John G Patton was constantly quoting
the words lo I am with you always
as the inspiration of his quietness and confidence
in time of danger and of his hope
in the face of human impossibilities so much
was this realized by his family that we
decided to inscribe that text upon his tomb
it seemed to all of us to sum
up the essential element in his faith and
the supreme source of his courage and endurance
lo I am with you always the secret
of his quiet heart the secret of his
gallant spirit the secret of his sonny faith
the text so often on John G Patton's
tongue the text upon his tomb lo I
am with you always even unto the end
of the world and as John Patton leaned
upon this word of Christ I trust that
we too will learn to lean upon it
for it is a word for believers in
all ages lo I am with you he
doesn't say lo I will be with you
he says lo I am with you always
even unto the end of the world I
don't care what your circumstances are tonight in
the sense that it doesn't matter to God
it is not difficult to him it is
no problem to him whatever your situation whatever
you're facing whatever the trial whatever the trouble
whatever the affliction and if you're not going
through it now just wait a little while
and you will you'll find that if you're
trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ that he
will be as good as his word to
you as he was to Patton lo I
am with you he will be with us
always and then thank God when our time
has come to leave this earth we will
go to be with him that's what heaven
is heaven is to be where Jesus is
where Jesus is tis heaven there no matter
where on earth we dwell on mountaintop or
in the dell in cottage like Patton's father
and mother in cottage or in mansion fair
where Jesus is tis heaven there it is
heaven to know the Savior I ask you
tonight are you going to be with him
for you see the Lord gave the promise
I will come again and receive you unto
myself that where I am there ye may
be also see the Lord not only is
with his people here he is with his
people hereafter for they are with him are
you going to heaven do you have the
courage and the confidence that Patton had in
the midst of all of life's trials because
of the knowledge that the Lord is with
you I trust tonight that you will not
go away from the service without knowing that
the words of this text are words that
are also directed to you that the Lord
is saying concerning you I am with you
always may God bless his word to all
our hearts