You may be seated. The collegiate chorale is going to sing for us, led by Mila Schultz. Afterwards, our moderator, the Reverend David Mook, will be bringing us the Lord's Word for this hour. StSq3 3.30 (-0.99)" ♪ Love me not else to be saved but the one ♪ ♪ And the last love I take for my life ♪ ♪ Make me your savior, thy presence my light ♪ ♪ Now I'm restored and now I'm true, Lord ♪ ♪ I am who in Thee hath love in me, Lord ♪ ♪ I am great Father and I'm thy true Son ♪ ♪ Thou with me dwelling ♪ ♪ And I waiting for Thee ♪ ♪ Graces I need not ♪ ♪ For death's empty place ♪ ♪ Thou my inheritance ♪ ♪ Thou grant all things ♪ ♪ Thou and Thou alone ♪ ♪ My King of Heaven, my treasure thou art ♪ ♪ My victor in love ♪ ♪ May I reach heaven's charge on right hand side ♪ ♪ Fire, fire, fire, whatever may fall ♪ ♪ Still be my worship, hope to the God above ♪ Amen. I do want to add my greetings as moderator of the presbytery to our brother, Dr. Saunders, the new minister of this congregation, and to the elders and the deacons and the members of this congregation. We rejoice with you. This is a night of grace for which we ought to give God praise. God has shown that he knows how to continue the work that he has begun. And it ought to leave us full of thanks to the Lord, that the Lord knows how to deal with his own church and to advance that cause in these difficult days. So I greet you, brother. I congratulate you. And certainly, on a personal level, it is a great delight for me to be here to have the honor of delivering on this occasion the charge to the new minister and to the congregation of this church. I direct your attention to the portion that was read in our hearing earlier, to 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. I want to take as our text this evening the first three words of verse 2. Preach the word. No man enters a more solemn office than that of the pastor of a Christian church. Other offices are important in the realms of history and politics. Depending on their contexts, those offices can impose very heavy responsibilities on those chosen to occupy them. but not even the heaviest of those earthly responsibilities can compare with that which is laid on the man who is installed as the minister of a congregation in Christ's church. He has duties placed before him that will demand his time and his energy. He will be among the people to whom he has been called in times of health and sickness, in times of joy and sorrow, in times of birth and death. He will visit the sick and will seek to console the bereaved. He will preside at marriage ceremonies and offer congratulations subsequently to parents of newborn children. At other times, he will be called upon to accompany dead bodies to their graves and to direct the attention of those who mourn to the day when Christ himself will appear to raise those bodies from those graves. In the church, he will be responsible to guide the labor of the session and committee and to oversee the instruction of the people in the faith of the gospel. Always, he will be conscious of the fleeting nature of time and of the serious and never-ending realities of eternity. Those among whom he has called to labor have souls that will never die. The minister of Christ has been called to watch for those souls and to desire that not one of them will ever be lost. There are many words of advice that could then be delivered to a newly installed minister who is facing such responsibilities. But the Apostle Paul, in his farewell to Timothy, placed one exhortation before everything else in the duties that Timothy would have to discharge as a Christian minister. He was to be known above all else as a preacher of the word of God. As Paul had charged the Ephesian elders in his farewell to them at Miletus, he wrote in this text that Timothy was to make it his chief task in his ministry to feed the church of God, which God has purchased with his own blood. It is significant that Paul set this exhortation into the context of being in the presence of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Clearly, the inspired apostle wanted Timothy to consider that his work would have consequences then in his lifetime, but also consequences in history. and in eternity. This message to Timothy was then a charge for time and forever. It is my primary responsibility this evening to deliver the charge to the newly installed minister of this church. But it is also my responsibility and privilege to deliver the charge to this congregation that has witnessed tonight the official transition from the founding minister to his successor. The number of those who can remember back to the early days in this church's history is now very small indeed. especially as a proportion of the whole congregation. But whether you were here at the beginning or not, the Lord has a word for you this evening. Never despise that which was established at the beginning. in first john two and twenty four we find this command let that therefore abide in you which she have heard from the beginning if that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you he also shall continue in the sun and in the fall the faithful ministry that has been carried on in this church by dr mcclelland has been remarkable for its emphasis on sound doctrine, on compassion for lost souls, and for defense of the faith. Let that emphasis abide in you in the days to come. You have called a minister to labor among you who is well known to you. and who is committed by his own testimony to carrying on the ministry of the gospel in this place. But as Dr. McClelland has found it to be over the many years of his ministry here, so Dr. Saunders will find it to be the case that he will require your faithful support in prayer and in every other aspect of the church's ministry. He cannot carry on the work by himself. And so tonight I charge every member of this congregation, be faithful in your own responsibilities here. This church has established a mighty testimony for Christ in this country of Canada, in this continent of North America, and as we have heard this evening around the world. Such a legacy calls for your unflagging diligence to preserve it. So keep on keeping on in the faith of the scriptures. Keep on persevering. Pray that above all else, your minister will be known as a preacher of the word. That which I say to Dr. Saunders this evening should be taken to heart by every member of the congregation here. He is called to preach the word. You are called by Christ himself to receive the word as the word of God and to act in accordance with it. Let every member and every officer of the church come to this place of worship week by week, desirous to hear the Lord's word through his servant. And to go out from this place, having heard that word, to demonstrate the reality and power of that word in your lives every day. To you, Dr. Saunders, I say that your labors here in Toronto until now have been admirable and evidently blessed by the Lord, and we give God praise. We rejoice in the Lord's mercy to you and to your family. And we desire that you will know even greater blessing as the pastor of this congregation, than you have known in your various other capacities until now. When I think of this simple command this evening, there are three facets of it that I would leave with you, dear brother, in particular, for tonight and for the days to come. First, preach the word as the infallible source of the truth. Here I exhort you, my dear brother, to be faithful to the doctrine of scripture. It will be your charge to proclaim at every opportunity that the book God has placed in your hands and for the preaching of which he has equipped you is unique among all the other books of the world. It is the product of divine inspiration. It is the result of a stupendous miracle that took place over a period of a millennium and a half. The Apostle Peter stressed that the scriptures are not the product of private opinion. He wrote in his second epistle that holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. You have renewed your oath tonight, not only as a minister of Christ, but also as a minister of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, to defend this book as inspired by God, and to reject every suggestion that seeks to cast doubt upon it. We live in an age when not even the statements of the Bible are exempt from analysis in public opinion polls. Hardly a week goes by that I don't read of some new study. What do the people think of this or that statement in the Bible? Dear brother, you've been called by God to shun all such efforts. You know and the people to whom you preach must know that this Bible is still and always will be the infallible book of God. We're not here to compare it to other books and see where we may find common ground. Only in this infallible word Will you find the basis for your authority as a Christian minister? The people here may be curious about your opinions on a whole range of subjects. And no doubt, from time to time, they'll ask you for those opinions. But what they must have for the benefit of their immortal souls is the authoritative voice of this infallible book. I charge you then to preach the word with the authority of heaven's throne, and to find in the word the source of your power, to apply the truth to the hearts of all those under your care, including, may I say, some who have not even yet been born. The Apostle Paul spoke elsewhere of this great power that lies in the preaching of the word, and we find that in Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10 and verse 12. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. There is the source of your power. There is power, this book tells us, in it to transform the hardest heart. I draw your attention to a portion in the Old Testament in the prophecy of Jeremiah and chapter 23. And beginning at verse 28, the prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream. And he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh a rock in pieces? There is the power. The hardest heart, before the word of God, becomes broken. by its power. So I say to you, dear brother, preach the word as the infallible source of the truth. But there is a second facet of this charge this evening. Preach the word as the inseparable revelation of Christ. There is a breathtaking array of subjects expounded in the Bible. On some of those subjects, no doubt, you have already had occasion to speak, and you will address others, I'm certain, in the days to come. There is a great temptation to treat the Bible as a book dealing with topics of interest and importance. If you surrender to that temptation, you will forsake the crucial unifying theme of the Bible that you have been called to preach. You must never drift away from the Bible's central emphasis on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor must you ever lose touch with the truth that the Bible is an inseparable book and that both Testaments in whole and in their constituent parts point to the Savior in all of His glory. I do not have the time this evening to range over all of the aspects of the preaching of Christ. But let me stress that you must always set before the people to whom you preach his eternal and essential deity and his true and comprehensive humanity. You have been called to announce the glad news that the God-man has come into the world. and that he was and continues to be in the language of our shorter catechism, God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever. You have been called to announce his absolute perfection and his complete obedience to every standard of God's law. You have been called to proclaim Him as the true and only mediator between God and men. You have been called to point the attention of those to whom you preach to Christ and Him crucified. That has been the message of the Free Presbyterian Church since its inception in 1951. And may God preserve us from ever seeing it altered. There are so many facets of our blessed Savior that you will be compelled to expound. But I trust your resolve that you will never get far from the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let your testimony be that of the Apostle Paul, who said, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross. of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is solely, I would say to you this evening, on the platform of the preaching of Christ that you will be able to fulfill every responsibility that you have as the pastor of this church. Let us turn to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. And verse 27, we're breaking into a sentence here, but it's such a long sentence that for the sake of time, we're doing so. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Where unto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. The apostle himself then committed himself to a life of labor and striving in order that he might be able to preach Christ in all the scriptures. Only as you commit yourself to preaching the word as the inseparable revelation of Christ can you be faithful to the vows that you have taken here this evening. And there is one more aspect of this charge that you must remember. Preach the word as the indestructible message of salvation. Here the text directs our attention to its context and to the minister's solemn responsibility to be instant in season and out of season to reprove, to rebuke, to exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine, and as we see in verse 5, to do the work of an evangelist. You have been called, dear brother, to be a preacher of the gospel. That is your general calling. But in this congregation, you have been called to be a preacher of the gospel. And the scriptures leave you in no doubt concerning the meaning of that calling. You are called to highlight the Bible's exposure of people as sinners, who even in their very best moments have come short of the glory of God. You have been called to serve the Lord in an age when dealing with sin is even less popular than it has been in the past. It's never been popular. I think that sometimes we need to remember that it's never been popular to deal with sin. There's always going to be the temptation set before you, sometimes by others and sometimes by the devil in your own quiet moments. that if you confront sin in all of its ugliness and denounce it as such, people will not like your message, or you either. And they'll go off somewhere else for something that's a little more agreeable. And as painful as contemplating such a prospect may be, I trust that such a prospect will not lead you to retreat from proclaiming the Bible's message concerning sin. Beyond that, you must make it plain that there was only one answer for sin, and that is in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here you must renew your resolve, dear brother, to contend, as you have in the past, for those great distinctives that were, and I ask you to observe my language here, that were recovered and reasserted in the time of the Protestant Reformation. They were not invented. There was no innovation in the work of the reformers. They were simply going back to the message of the apostles. Salvation is not of works. And could I say that that applies both to coming to salvation and to seeing it exercised after conversion. It is not of works. That is Christianity is not built on a framework of maintaining ethical principles. Christianity is an exposition of the saving grace of God in the person and work of Christ. Justification, I know that's a word that's been heard here many times. I trust it will continue to be heard. It is through the grace of God alone. received by faith alone, in Christ alone. Those who are justified are truly pardoned for all their sins through the infinite merits of Jesus Christ and through that alone. It's not a novel message. You've not been called here to refashion the gospel to suit the presumed needs and tastes of 21st century audiences. You've been called to continue preaching the message that the apostles preached 2,000 years ago. As Paul wrote, it is the gospel of Christ that is the power of God. unto salvation. And as he wrote in that same context, the minister of Christ must never be ashamed of that message. For all that has been launched against it, it is indestructible. In fact, the minister must contend for that message against those who would attack it, who would compromise it, who would subvert it, or pervert it, or openly deny it. It will be your responsibility to preach the gospel as the exclusive message it is. Could I say in the midst of a city known, perhaps more than any other city in North America, for its inclusivism. It's going to be your responsibility to reassert the bold message of Peter in Acts 4 and 12, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. you have before you this evening in the powerful example of your predecessor in this pulpit, the fearless willingness to oppose and to expose every false way. Dear brother, I can do nothing better for you this evening than to exhort you to follow that example. and to seek every opportunity to contend earnestly for the faith. It is your calling as a minister of Christ, but especially so as a minister of this denomination. We're honored this evening to have with us the president of the American Council of Christian Churches. Let his presence here cause you and all of the members of the Presbytery and all of the other people of the congregation to remember our resolve as free Presbyterians to stand together with every faithful servant of Christ in opposition to the ecumenical apostasy that has cursed this age. And that is dragging countless numbers of people into hell. Let the congregation here pray that God will keep the minister of this church faithful to his responsibility to be a stalwart warrior for the truth. If you will pray that God will answer that prayer. And I have no doubt that the leadership of this church will continue to be marked by faithfulness to the scriptures, to the Savior, and to the gospel. So may God bless you richly, my dear brother, and may he use you mightily in the harvest field for the glory of Christ and his kingdom. Amen. I want to thank Reverend Mook for that powerful word and very timely word for anyone who is called to preach the gospel in this 21st century. At this time, there'll be presentations made by Dr. Frank McClellan, James Fraser, and Dr. Ruth Slade. If they'll come at this time in that order, they'll come and make their presentations. Tonight, I would like to add my welcome to everyone. We're glad to have you all here. And especially those who have taken the time and made the effort to come from a long distance, from Phoenix, Arizona, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from Philadelphia, from just south of Buffalo, from Dublin, Maryland, from Nitsfield, New Hampshire, as well as our churches here in London and Port Hope and Barrie. Your presence tonight has been a great encouragement to every one of us. Now, as you know already, this is a historic moment in the history and the life of this church. For 31 years, it has been under the ministry of one man. And now comes the moment and time to pass over the baton to Dr. Saunders Loeb. I'll call him just Larry, because to me, he's Larry. And I'd like to hand this time over the baton to the man that has been appointed by God and has been chosen by this congregation to lead the church into the future. I want to pay tribute to my colleague for as long and faithful service as my official associates since 1995. Sometimes associate ministries do not work very well, but this is one that did. and Larry and I have had an excellent working relationship down through the years, and I am happy that the Lord has chosen him to take up the challenge of the next years. Now this evening, I want to give him a couple of personal tokens of the esteem with which I hold him. At my retirement dinner back in September, he did something very special and he presented me with a very precious gift. To you it probably wouldn't mean very much, but to me it meant an awful lot. And that was that he rescued a piece of the old apple tree that until recently stood outside the door of this church. And it's very precious to us because it reminds us of the Song of Solomon where the Lord Jesus Christ is likened to the apple tree. So he made this, and he shaped it, and he varnished it, and he added a plaque to it pointing out that the apple tree is a wonderful portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ, as in the song of Solomon, chapter 2, and verse 3. Now it is my opportunity to return the favor, because we have long spoken in this church about the ministry being like a relay race. One minister runs his leg and then he and his successor run parallel for a little while until the baton is passed over from one runner to the next. Well, we rescued another piece of the old apple tree from a bank of snow at Wilfie Brown's house and John Fraser got his lathe and he turned it and I just love to get preaching in that itself because there's a wonderful picture in that of the Lord Jesus but I'll have to leave that to some other time. But John, he turned it up in his lathe to make an apple tree baton for our brother. And then we had it mounted on a plaque for Dr. Saunders to remind him, as Dr. Mook has already said, always to preach Christ. So brother, would you come up here so I return the favor? We have, first of all, a plaque. And on the plaque, it is presented to Dr. Larry Saunders on the occasion of your induction as minister of the church by the retiring minister, Frank McClelland. The first leg has been run, and now the baton of the ministry is passed to you with confidence in your abilities to lead the congregation forward. And then this verse is very precious to me, sung go work today in my vineyard." That's from Matthew 21 and 28. And then with the plaque, we have a little baton here, and we'll leave the plaque there. And the baton has a brass plaque on it saying, preaching Christ, the apple tree, and then the song of Solomon 2 and 3, and the 18th of January, 2008. And so, dear brother, I pass to you the baton, and keep preaching the word as you've been told tonight. Just hold on, I'm not finished yet. I have read the words of the plaque there in the verse and the brass plate as well. Now I have another gift to give to him and that is to give him bound copies of the Canadian Revivalist We have been printing the Canadian Revivalist for 30 years, just finished 30 years, with the issue that's out there at the end of 2007, and we got copies bound. There's six volumes of them, and I want to present those to him as well, because, Larry, in these you'll find the history of Toronto Free Presbyterian Church, when things were happening before you even were involved really in the work, and you've also got the history of the Free Presbyterian Churches in Canada all inscribed. Now our future at the moment is unknown, but the past is well documented, and so I want you to receive these as a personal gift from me. The six volumes of them, the smaller first and the bigger one, and these here are to remind you of your roots here in the work. And remember the roots of this tree and pray that the Lord will help you to bear very much fruit in the years to come. The Lord bless you, my brother. We will be praying for you and we'll be with you to give you all the support we can in the days to come. I'm going to call upon James Fraser who is the clerk of our session and I want him to come at this time and then after that Dr Ruth Slade and Abigail Schultz is going to come up. They have something to do with it but you stay here brother, I'll go. It's my privilege at this time to present this plaque to Dr. Saunders on behalf of the session, the board, and the congregation to acknowledge his many years of faithful service as associate pastor of this congregation and as the administrator of the Whitfield Christian Schools. And I'll read the plaque. Toronto Free Presbyterian Church presents to Dr. Larry Saunders The Session Board, members and friends of the Church, gratefully acknowledge the many years of faithful, selfless, and dedicated service he has rendered as Associate Pastor and as Administrator of the Whitfield Christian Schools. It also comes with the assurance of our full-hearted, prayerful, and practical support on the occasion of his induction as minister of Toronto Free Presbyterian Church, January the 18th, 2008. And then a passage from Nehemiah chapter seven, verse two, he was a faithful man and feared God above many. And I present this plaque to you. Now if I could call on, where is Jill? Colin, Jill to... Okay. All right. Yes, Jill, come and stand to the side. Now at this time on behalf of the session, the board and the congregation, I would like to present this Bible to Dr. Saunders as our new pastor. This comes with the prayer that God's richest blessing will be on him, his wife and his family. And we have selected the verse that was taken from the passage in Joshua 1, which our pastor referred to at the prayer meeting. And it was taken from verse 8, when the Lord gave the command to Joshua to continue the work. And in Joshua 1, verse 8, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. May the Lord bless you both. It is my pleasure tonight to be able to just speak about Mrs. Saunders. Already many things have been said about our new pastor and the work and the years of faithfulness that have been exercised in this congregation. But we need to very much mention Mrs. Saunders as well with appreciation for many, many years of service. I remember her, just, I'm one of those Dr. Mook that can go back, right back. And I remember Jill just finishing up school, finishing high school and then at the University of Toronto and finishing with distinction academically and coming in as the secretary of our new church. When we moved on to Borden Avenue, she became the first secretary there. And I remember being involved with the Sunday school and getting it started. And I just seemed to be forever giving her things to do that had to be done for the different departments and children and so on. And I said to her one night, I'm so sorry, Jill. I have to load you up with so many things just to get this organized. Oh, she said, I just love it. I just love it. It's such fun to do all these things. And this has been her spirit all the way along whenever anything had to be done. We have appreciated that willingness. She was involved in the Sunday school, teaching in the Sunday school. She was the one to launch the bookstore with help, of course, but she got our Let the Bible Speak bookstore started as well. Involved in the Young People's Fellowship. And then after a year or two or three, 1981, I think it was, she was married, but that didn't hinder anything. We just kept right on going. Esther arrived in 1984, and that didn't stop a thing. I just remember Esther being carried in in a little basket, put in Papa's study to sleep, shut the door, because Mama had to carry on with the work in the church office. And this has been the picture down through the years, which we appreciate so much. Then there were the years in Northern Ireland, two years altogether. And what were we doing over there? We weren't just waiting for Daddy to finish his studies. We were off teaching in Mr. Cranston's school, over there in the Newton Abbey School. She was working as a teacher, really getting ready for the Whitfield before we knew it. And then I have still a letter which Jill sent to me in 1989 when we were making plans to start the Whitfield. And the letter said, if there's anything I can do to help you, I will give you, give the school everything I have to help to get it started and to get that Whitfield school established. And that was before she came back. And so, 19 years later, here we are, still working 110% at every job, whether it's in the church or it's in the school, just faithfully serving the Lord and carrying on in this work. And so, I just am happy tonight to have this opportunity to pay tribute to Jill and to thank her for those years of fellowship and years of hard work. They said Larry was a hard worker, and I do agree, but he'll have to go some to beat his wife when it comes to hard work. Any hour of the day or night, you'll see those lights on over in the school. So we just appreciate so much what she has done, and we look forward to her as our new minister's wife and carrying on with more responsibilities. We want you to know our prayers are with you too as you carry on, both of you, in this tremendous ministry. Thank you very much. It's our joy at this time to hear from the newly installed pastor. I am overwhelmed tonight by the expressions of kindness and, well, the love that you have shown toward us and extended to us is beyond our words and abilities to properly express to you tonight. At the very commencement, I stand here to give testimony to the great grace of the Lord that has called me to salvation and has called me to serve Him. And I'm very humbled because when we think of what the Lord has done for us in saving our souls from a lost eternity, that is something that we can never properly express and yet to know that He has humbled Himself to use us as miserable sinners that we are, people filled with faults, who fail to live up to the standard, who mess up many times, and yet the Lord in His grace continues to lift us up again, dust us off, and put us on the way, and keep us going. I know in my heart my limitations. I know the number of times I have failed the Lord. And I realize that if anything will be done to the furtherance of the gospel of Christ here, it will only be done with His grace in spite of us and with His great power to enable us. I want to take the opportunity thanking all of you for coming tonight. It has already been expressed that many have traveled a great distance and have come from far, who have flown in just for this meeting tonight, and they will be flying back out tomorrow. Those who have driven a tremendous distance to be here, family members who have come, friends and old workmates, Murray, that have come to be with us tonight, and your expressions of love to us are a real encouragement to me. I want to give a word of thanks tonight to this congregation for all of your support and prayer and the love that you've expressed to us during the whole process of choosing a new minister. It has been a test of your patience and stickability. And I thank God for each one of you. And I pray that the Lord will bless you in your own spirit and heart. He'll bless you and your families. And that he will visit us with a gracious outpouring of his Holy Spirit. I am very aware of the responsibility that rests upon us. and we are humbled that God directed you through his providence to choose us to serve you here. We know that if any work will be accomplished for the glory of Christ and the unity of the church will be maintained and the kingdom of God be advanced, it will only be by his grace and power and all the honor will be unto him. I give a word of thanks tonight to Dr. and Mrs. McClelland. They have been, to me, stellar examples of Christ. And they have encouraged me over the years, and they have showed me the true and the right way to serve God and to serve others. What I have learned from our pastor, and through his ministry and life could not be properly expressed in these few moments. It has been a life lived for the glory of God and his shoes will not be easy to fill. The Lord must give special grace to this congregation. For anyone who comes after a founder and developer as Dr. McClellan has been, it's a most difficult task to complete. It can only be done by the prevailing prayer of God's people and the love for God and for each other and the resolve that we will stand for the honor of Christ and his word. And I thank Brother Mook tonight who has so given me that charge and I take it very much to my heart that we must stand beyond all other things, faithful to His word, to our Savior, and for His kingdom. I say a word of thanks tonight to the session and the board of this church. This has not been an easy time for them. The elders have been thrown into the deep end because of the uniqueness of this work. There is no other ministry in the Free Presbyterian Church that has the specific needs or the nuances of this work. And I say this honestly. It does not mean in any way that this work is better. It just means it's different. And there are specific needs. And I want to pay tribute to these men and ask you to specifically pray for them and their families. because Satan will try to undermine the work of God through them. He will try to undermine the work of God through us as we labor together for the Lord's Word. And so to you, brethren, board and session, I express my love and my commitment as your servant for Jesus' sake. I give a word of thanks tonight to the staff members of the Whitfield Christian Schools and to the collegiate choir who have come tonight to be part of this meeting. It has been a real blessing to me. I have counted a great joy to work with our staff members in the school. It has been just a blessing for me to have any part in the leadership of the school. And as we continue in this ministry, and I talk of one ministry of the church and school together, that God will continue to put his hand upon us together as we labor for the cause of Christ to see a generation yea and many generations raised up to continue to go on. to be a voice and to be a testimony in this very difficult world in which we're living in today. I give a special word of thanks tonight to my parents. It is with great thanksgiving to God that he has spared their lives to be here for this evening tonight. A godly home cannot be overvalued. My parents have been examples of love and of kindness and generosity and grace. They have maintained a consistent example of Christ before me in my life. I can say I don't have any recollection of my father ever telling me a lie. I have no recollection of my mother ever being involved in a dishonest or questionable transaction. Those things are so powerful in the lives of young people and children. And as a son, it has been a tremendous example for me and I cannot say enough to you to express my love and gratitude for what you have done for me. I say a word finally of thanks to my wife, Jill, and to our children. I do not speak often enough about the wife that the Lord has given to me. She shows by her life a deep love for the things of God, a desire to honor the Savior, desire to defend the truth, a devotion to his word. And our family has grown up in the church and school ministries, as Dr. Slade has given you some indication. And Jill has always supported these vital works. She's a woman of virtue and faithfulness. And I thank God for her and for her love and support in the work. For our children, for Esther and Steve, a new member of our family. And I wonder, Esther, if that was part of the problem, dear, if you were left in the study too long by your mother and it had some effect on you. I don't know, but I hope you've recovered from that. You might have been called for the Children's Aid Society today for abuse, perhaps, if that was known too far and wide. But to Daniel and David, my sons, I do thank you for your support. And I would ask you to pray for our families. I share with you just a very brief word of testimony. The Lord saved me when I was eight years old. He saved me on a night when my brother Les, who's here tonight, had come back from a youth weekend where he had trusted the Lord. And he led me to the Lord that night as we knelt beside my bed. And some years after that, our family was set on a journey to find a new church home. And it led us to a work called the Bible Presbyterian Church. The minister there, Reverend Horace McEwen, had been pioneering, and he established a very good foundation, though the numbers were not very large. Then in 1976, Reverend Frank McClellan took up the invitation to come over to Toronto and take up the work. Following that arrival, there was a gospel campaign that lasted for two weeks, and at that time, God really spoke to my heart and brought me back to the Lord. I'd wandered far off in my teenage years, but the Lord brought me back at that time and really had a powerful impact on our whole family. I began to get involved in the church, work with Sunday school and young people, and the Lord began to burden my own soul about full-time work. And then it was in 1986, October the 4th to be exact, And God struck my heart with a verse from Ephesians 3 in verse 8. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles, the ethnos, the ethnics, the wonderful, unsearchable riches of Christ. In 1987, I began my training in the gospel ministry, spending two years in Northern Ireland, finishing two years here in Toronto. And then at the same time, in 1989, our school started. And Jill, who had been helping in this Christian school over in Newton Abbey, she then was working here along with Dr. Slade. And the school ministry began to grow very, very rapidly. As the graduation, or after the graduation in the ministry, the session and the board of the church approached me and asked me if I would consider becoming involved in the school and the church ministries in a more solid way. And in 1995, I was elected here in the congregation to become an associate pastor, and I was ordained on October the 29th of that year. The school grew very rapidly, and my involvement in the church was diverted more to be in the school. And that's where, for the last number of years, I have been working for more than 10 years, focusing attention in the school. And then, around the year 2000, the Lord opened the door for me to become the administrator. I was concerned at that time, I need to be honest with you, that the emphasis of my call was being changed or changing, and yet I knew that both the school and the church made up one ministry here, and so I felt confident that God would lead forward in that way. In 2002, Dr. McClellan went through some cancer surgery. And really it was a time of uncertainty for the congregation, knowing if he would be able to continue or not. And that really began the whole quest for finding a replacement for our pastor. And that was on his own heart to cut back and go back to part-time or half-time. I don't think that's really ever happened to any degree yet. But nonetheless, that was happening in 2002. A lot of circumstances and details which we have no time to go into tonight, but on September the 25th, 2004, we had really come to a point of needing to know and have clarification for the future of our own involvement in the work and where we were to go And we set aside, I set aside that day to get before God and seek His face. And I continued reading in my own devotion, which is always a good thing to do if you're seeking God, to continue in your own course of consecutive reading. And before long, the Lord had impressed a verse on my heart that I had never realized was in the scripture before. And it was in Psalm 75. and verse 2. And it says, When thou shalt receive the congregation, thou shalt judge uprightly. September the 25th, 2004. And I kept that very quiet before in my own heart, not speaking about it publicly at all. And this was an unusual verse to me. I had never seen it before. And yet I felt when I Concluded that day before the Lord that he had spoken very clearly to my own heart Well, as I said that time has gone by and we've come through two elections now in our own church and just before the election a year ago in 2006 Two weeks before that I withdrew my name from that particular election And the Lord had been dealing in my own heart, and He had been striving with me, and I believe it was the will of God for me to do that at that time. And I felt that the Lord was keeping His hand on me in the situation, but the Lord nonetheless caused me to do that. And as we drew near to the election that just happened in the latter part of 2007, As we came near to that, I did not know what the Lord was going to do. I did not realize or know if he was going to fulfill that verse to me whereby he had called me from Psalm 75 and verse two. But as soon as I heard the result of the election that night, I knew what I had to do. It was the fulfillment of God's word that he had given to me those years ago. If God be for us, who can be against us in the sense that His work is unfolding in our lives day by day? He knows what He is doing even when it might be closed off to our own minds. We don't understand. We cannot see the twists and turns that our life will take. And yet God, who knows the end from the beginning, faithful and I had my seasons of doubt I had my wonderings had I mistaken the will of God and yet the Lord has proved himself to be faithful to his word on the Lord's Day morning I want to speak of on our motto text for this incoming year from Acts 4 and 33. And if the Lord permits, on the following Lord's Day morning, on Ephesians 3 in verse 8, on the verse whereby he called me initially into the gospel ministry. And I would ask you that the Lord would help me. I know my limitations. I know the challenges that we will face. and I desperately need your prayers. And I ask you to hold our family up before God every day and that the Lord will richly bless us together as we labor for the Lord and for the extension of his kingdom. Pray with us. Pray for us. And again, I thank each of you for coming tonight and for making this a very special and a memorable evening for us. Tonight begins a new chapter in the life of Dr. Saunders and his family. We could say the same about Dr. McClellan and his family, and certainly concerning this church. It is the Lord, by his grace, who has brought you safe thus far, and his grace will truly lead you home. You couldn't have a better hymn to conclude the meeting tonight than that which is before us. The hymn is a prayer. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but thou art mighty. Hold me with thy powerful hand. Let's stand tonight and sing this closing hymn as a prayer from our hearts to the Lord. I am weak, but Thou art mighty, hold me with Thy powerful hand. Give me till I want no more. Give me till I want no more. Open now the crystal fountain, where suddenly streams of hope and of life lead me all my journey through. Strong deliverer, strong deliverer, aid of still my strength and shield. Aid of still my strength and shield. of joy in my anxious fearsome sight. Death of death and death's destruction, let me sing. I will ever give to Thee. I will ever give to Thee. remain standing we've asked the reverend mike yachtman pastor of our congregation in london ontario if he'd come and pronounce the lord's benediction there will be a time of refreshment and fellowship following downstairs and we'll ask him to ask the lord's blessing that time as well let's seek the lord's face in prayer let us all pray our gracious loving father in heaven we do praise and thank thee for the occasion that has brought us here this evening. Lord God, we do ask that thou will guide us, O thou great Jehovah, that thou will go before us, that we would know thy smile, thy blessing upon us. And we would truly say with Paul, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, and that we know the Savior, And that he is one who is taken upon his people to save them from their sins. And that God made Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin, and so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Truly, Father, as we come before thee, we are as nothing, and we fall far short of thy glory, but we praise thee. that there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And it is in his merit that we come even before thee this night and ask thy blessing upon this ministry and upon this church. Father, as we look back over the past 31 years, we do rejoice in how thou hast established this church and how thou hast brought Dr. McClellan and Mrs. McClellan and their family here Lord God, we praise Thee for them, and their faithfulness to Thee, and their labor of love, and how they had given themselves to this work. Lord God, we pray that these things would not be in vain, that Thou would continue to work in this area of Toronto, that Thou would establish a witness here in Malvern, and that the gospel would go forth with power and much boldness from this place. And as our brother Saunders now takes up the mantle, that thou will truly fill him with a double portion of thy spirit, that thou wilt help him and direct him in the ministry here and be his portion, O God. And, O Father, as he comes before thee in prayer, we pray that thou wilt bless him and help him. As he enters into the study of thy word and of thy truth, that thou wilt enlighten his mind and grant to him the right word to prepare for the people here, that he might be a shepherd to this flock. And O God, as he mounts the pulpit and preaches, Lord, fill him with the Holy Spirit and with power, that he would be the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message. Undertake for our brother, we pray. We're thankful for his faithfulness, both in the church and the school. we praise it that thou has called him not only to thyself but also to this ministry and lord we pray that truly he would know the help of god the nearness of his savior that he also would rejoice in christ and in rejoicing with christ he would enter this pulpit with joy and rejoicing all that christ has done for sinners and the salvation through the precious blood And so, Lord, we do commit our brother to thee. And we also pray for his wife, Jill. We're thankful for her and her faithfulness. We pray for our sister that thou wilt also undertake for her, as she is also taking on new responsibilities, that thou wilt encourage her heart and help her. And, Father, that she also would know the nearness of the Lord her God. And also, Father, remember the children. We pray for Esther and Steve and Daniel and David Also lord undertake for them may christ be their reward May christ also draw near to them and help them as well bless this family father. We're thankful for their faithfulness their testimony of christ And lord that they would be an encouragement and continue to be a blessing to this congregation and so father We do pray now that they'll bless our time together, bless the fellowship that we will have, bless the food, Lord. We're thankful for those things that have been provided. May they be blessed of thee and given to our bodily use, that we might again rejoice in God our Savior tonight. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling. and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.