Address—H. Short
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OK, God and our loving Father, we.
Thank you for all in the room, asking the room.
I'm seeing this here and.
To thank your fathers for that moment, we.
That is soon coming.
And you're going to be.
So as the open right word.
Hearts may be warm and drawn.
To say our God and Father for his glory.
For the blessing of I belonged to people here this afternoon.
We do need thy health, our Father. We pray in the dream.
Of our world.
Would like to read a verse.
And we just saw.
2nd Thessalonians.
Chapter 2. Second Thessalonians.
Chapter 2. Can everyone in the room Hear Me?
Now we received you, brethren.
By the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And our gathering together.
Unto him.
And then I would like to read one more verse in Isaac in Jeremiah after three.
Jeremiah, chapter 3.
And verse 17.
At that time they shall call Jerusalem.
The throne of the Lord.
And all the nations shall be gathered exactly gathered unto it.
To the name of the Lord.
And then we won't turn to it, but we're very familiar with.
After 18 months.
This afternoon.
Is to look at Jerusalem in the book of Isaiah.
Realizing that her future.
Those beloved people, the children of Israel and the nations.
Will be gathered together unto the name of the Lord at Jerusalem.
It would have been the Lord's mind for his dear people.
To responded in their hearts.
And to have been gathered to his name even today. But they're not.
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And then in 2nd Thessalonians 2.
We see that the Church of God.
Is some time perhaps not too far off?
Going to be gathered together to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But it's his mind.
That his beloved assembly would have been gathered together unto his name even now.
But we here this afternoon.
Many of us enjoy that.
Act of grace on God's part.
That has gathered us to the Lord's name.
But we're painfully conscious.
That most of the Lord's beloved assembly.
Is not there.
Where he is in the midst of the two or three gathered together unto his name.
But I'd like now to go back to the book of Isaiah.
Chapter 49.
And look at that city, Jerusalem.
And seek to draw not so much the prophetic truth of this chapter.
But the moral application of it to our own souls?
As believers, you might say, and gather to the Lord's name.
For in the equivalent in Israel's history at Jerusalem, where the Lord had placed his name.
Of course, failure had come in to Israel.
And she was scattered.
But there was a resource that God had in his beloved Son.
His servant in this chapter.
And so in Isaiah 49 and verse one it says Listen to me and hearken ye people from far.
The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother.
Hath he made mention of my name?
And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword.
In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft in his quiver at the hidden knee, and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
Now it's true. God is going to be glorified and His people Israel.
As he is going to be glorified in US His things.
But I think what's before the Spirit of God in this chapter is the Lord Jesus taking the place of Israel before God.
But what is on my heart?
Is to go down through this chapter.
And seek to encourage our hearts not to give up in the day of departure.
And not to leave.
The Lord Jesus and his gathering center, which is himself.
You know Jerusalem will see.
Was pretty well desolated.
But she has a glorious hope.
Of soon being gathered to the Lord's name there in that city.
And the Assembly of God is to God's mind that He would have had us move as one man through our history here on earth.
Thinking, one thought, moving, as they did on the day of Pentecost and in the early assembly, as one man.
Gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But the assembly has been left desolate virtually.
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And that gathering center, the Lord Jesus, his precious name, as pretty well been left by most of the people of God.
And so it was the case with Jerusalem, and we're going to see it restored and the principles involved in restoring souls to that city.
And the exercises of heart that will be involved in that restoration.
And they have a moral application to us, brethren, this afternoon.
Who would like to say in verse three? I believe it's the Lord Jesus himself. And I said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naughty, and in vain.
You ever felt like that?
Do you have loved ones right now on your heart that you wish were sitting next to you?
Some you've prayed for. Some of you have prayed for them for many, many years.
But the seed is empty.
They don't feel it.
And you might feel a bit discouraged and say Lord Jesus.
I've labored in vain. But the Lord had a pathway like that, and He can relate to it. And he knows the feelings of walking this through this world, loving the people, laboring for them.
And ending up not having them beside him. And that's the sentiment behind this expression of the heart of Christ. I've labored in vain, but then he had something.
Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work with my God, but rather and maybe it it does look like we're just failures. And maybe we have had exercises about the assembly and about believers being gathered to the Lord's name, and we've seen little fruit in our lives. And that's the thought here. And as we'll see in the next verse.
There was that longing of the heart, and when we meet believers, and no matter what state of soul they are in, above our own state of soul, we long that they might be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, because we know that's where the Spirit of God would want them to be.
But evidently.
Any could look at us and say our labor has been in vain instead of growing.
We're getting smaller. We'll see that happen to Jerusalem.
But the Lord said, But my work is with my God, and that's what Paul said when he finished his course here on earth.
If anyone looked at him, they would have to conclude he was a complete failure as a servant of the Lord. As he expressed those words, only Luke is with me. All in Asia have turned away from me.
Here I am alone.
No, he didn't say my labor was in vain, he said. I know whom I have believed, and persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that a brethren Lord, takes note of your heart. He knows those tears. He knows those longings of our hearts that those believers that we know and pray for.
That they might be restored, or that they might be gathered to the Lord's name, but it appears like it's in vain, that kind of a labor.
But our work is with my God.
Sin in verse 5 And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb.
To be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, that was the Lorde desire. He came here to his own, and they had been scattered, and the Lord labored, and he he dung that digged and dunked about the fig tree.
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He longed that they would be gathered to the Lord, but he wasn't successful in that labor Yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord?
Though Israel be not gathered.
Yet shall I?
Be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldst.
Be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give before a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
Then it says in verse seven. Then said the Lord the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One to him whom man despiseth to him whom the nations abhorrent to be a servant of rulers.
Well, rather, in the name of the Lord is despised.
The apostle had to labor with the same people.
And as he laid down his pen, and writing to them, he said, Let us go forth therefore unto him without a camp bearing his reproach.
But brethren, that's where we find ourselves, as gathered to the Lord's name and position, at least outside.
Bearing his reproach, not much to look at, but the Lord Jesus is there. Well, the Lord failed in gathering Israel.
And as we look around, we see the assembly hasn't fared any better.
And down in.
Verse.
24.
We read Jerusalem or zions heart.
But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. Do you ever feel like that again? You know we?
Come to our meeting rooms and there's more empty chairs than filled ones.
And yet we find ourselves praying and praying.
We could naturally conclude the Lord hath forsaken us.
There's Mr. Brown used to say, you know, there's nothing a believer can point to and say I have that because I'm a Christian.
But rather than as gathered Saints and nothing we can point to either and say, we have that because we're gathered to the Lord's name from all apparent.
Outward appearances.
Here's a company of feeble folk.
And it speaks of in the.
Umm, the kings, The poorest of the sort.
And one would look at us and say the Lord has forsaken us.
I look just not what evidence of the Lord's presence.
Well, let the Lord have his thoughts.
Let's not thank them for him. And so the Lord answers Zion's heart. She says. The Lord hath forsaken me.
And my Lord has forgotten me.
But the Lord said.
Can a woman forget her sucking child?
That she should not have compassion on the son of her womb. Yay, they may forget. Yet will I not forget thee?
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Now what I want?
To consider this afternoon, brethren, is the possibility.
That the Lord Jesus heart.
Finds delight.
In these few poorest of the sort, believers gathered to his precious name around himself.
I think we are to allow that consideration. He hasn't forgotten us and he does appreciate, you know.
Sometimes we.
We think we're going to meeting and we forget.
It is going to meeting, but it's going to meet the Lord in our midst. And I believe He values that better may not seem like much to us. We may feel forsaken of the Lord, but He cannot forget us. And I'm not saying He is forget forgotten those who are scattered. No, but this is talking about Zion.
That gathering center in Israel, she thought she had been forsaken of the Lord. But he says a mother may forget her child, but I won't forget you. And then, he says.
In verse.
16.
Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls.
Are continually.
Before me.
Does the Lord have an interest?
And that little assembly gathered to his name.
I say.
The walls are continually before him. He hasn't forgotten us.
And brethren, may we not forget the assembly. It's so easy for us to look at each other and get discouraged and walk away. And we say we're walking away from the meeting. Or I've read recently of one who said he was walking away from the assembly.
Gathered to the Lord's name.
We should rather, brethren, be taken home to be with Christ.
Than to take a step like that.
Because we're not just relieving the poorest of the sort of believers.
Relieving the Lord Jesus.
In the midst of those two or three, and it breaks his heart, he said. Your walls are continually before me.
Down in verse 17.
Thy children shall make haste.
Thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth. Of thee brethren, there is coming a time.
When we're going to be gathered together there in glory around the Lord Jesus.
Here it says your children are going to make haste. Why does it say that? We'll see a little bit later why it speaks of the children making haste. That is, they're going to come back. Those Israelites who have been scattered throughout the world, they're going to come back to that gathering center, and they're going to do it quickly. And perhaps, brethren, the whole Assembly of God scattered clear across this world.
God's children are going to come back to His gathering center. We're going to be gathered together, perhaps soon to Him. Wouldn't you like to be there when we just stepped from that place here to that same place in heaven and not have to change our position one bit?
Well, it's going to happen for Israel. It's going to happen for the church.
Verse 18. Lift up thine eyes round about and behold, all these gather themselves together and come to thee. It's going to happen, baby.
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And our laboring to that end while he is despised.
And abandoned like the apostle in his closing days.
Our laborers that we labor to that end are not going to be in vain.
Then in verse 22.
I want to take up now.
The principles of restoration, because these principles had been abandoned and that's why there was the scattering.
Verse 20 Thy children which thou shalt have after thou, hast lost the other.
Shall say again in thine ears, The place is too straight for me.
I just want to call attention first to that expression, the children.
Thou hast lost.
The children thou hast lost.
And down in verse 21 in the middle of the verse.
See, I have lost my children.
I believe this is going to have to be the first principle of restoration, even in those who have left us.
Who were once gathered with us, but they're now gone.
If we're going to see some recovery there, we're going to have to say we are the ones that lost them.
The children that I have lost.
Zion is going to own her failure in keeping her children.
When that door is opened before our God and we say Lord Jesus.
I am the cause.
Of the loss of my children.
That opens the door for restoration.
If we point our finger at our children.
Or if we point our finger at our gathering and say they are the reason they're lost. I'm not saying they're going to be able to point the finger at us and say you're the reason I left the Lord.
But I am saying, brethren, let's take the responsibility of our present condition of having lost our children.
The first principle of restoration, But you know, and that verse ends in verse 20 when they come back.
It's it's like this, they say the place is too straight for me.
Give place to me, that I may dwell, but brethren.
Let's anticipate the Lord's day when we're gathered in His presence to remember Him if all of the brethren in Saint Louis area alone.
Came to be gathered unto the Lord Jesus, this building would be too straight for them.
It would have to be expanded. And that's the thought when Jerusalem, it kept losing and losing and losing its children and it was just this little small city.
But when God restores them, they're going to say you're going to have to enlarge the borders of it to make room for the abundance of blessings of those children being brought back to that city. But, brethren, when the Lord comes for His church.
This isn't to our glory.
But we're gathered here to his name. We will be gathered there to himself, and we won't have to change our position, but those who have left him.
And they're not now gathered but are looked at as scattered sheep. And they're gathered to the Lord. It's going to be like they're going to have to say you'll have to make room for us too. You're going to have to make room for us too. And there will be roommates for them. Well, someday you might say these empty seats are going to be filled and more seats added, because all of the Lord's dear children.
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Are going to be gathered to him. Wouldn't you like to be there when he comes?
Do you want to be somewhere else then around himself when he comes?
We may be a few numbers, but everyone is going to be gathered and that day to our Savior, the Lord Jesus. And so those who were scattered, they are going to say this place is too small for us.
Going to have to make room for us. Verse 21. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these? Seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate A captive and removing to and fro. And who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone. These Where had they been?
So that's the second thing we're going to have to see.
That we can't gather. We may lose our children, but we can't gather them. We're going to have to cast ourselves upon the Lord and say Lord Jesus.
And cry out to him, for he alone will be able to do this mighty work. He did it for you and me here on earth, and he can do it for those we've lost. If we'll truly turn to him and acknowledge our failure and his sufficiency, the door can be opened for this restoration. And so Zion says, I lost these children. Where did they all come from?
For the God of grace, you know, in Deuteronomy 2929.
He spoke of having secret things that were not yet revealed. Well, they're going to be revealed to Israel. And the secret things are his ways of grace with his people. And Israel is going to be brought in on the principle of mercy and grace, just as you and I are. And if there's going to be restoration of those we've lost to the gathering center, it's going to be on our part in acknowledgement. It's got to be.
A work of grace, the grace of God. And so she says.
She didn't bring them back.
Then verse 23 it says, And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their Queens by nursing mothers.
Now here are two other things, for it says in the next verse they shall bow.
In verse 22 I want to read that thus saith the Lord. Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people, and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
And King shall be their nursing, thy nursing fathers.
Well, those who bring them back have these two characters, nursing fathers and nursing mothers. I want to talk a little bit about that this afternoon.
For it says in our verse, kings shall be thy nursing authors. We're taken now to the family scene, and I believe rather than it was because the family was disrupted and destroyed, that we've lost our children.
Unawares we let the family decay.
There, that circle where they should have learned the principles of the assembly.
We let them go.
And so our children ended up not knowing the assembly from anything else.
They lost.
A view in the home of the assembly principles. Two of them are here in the Father. He was to be a king, and he was to be a mercy father.
Those two principles 1 without the other, are sure to lose our children.
If I take my place as a king in my house, but not as a nursing father and we need to drive them away.
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If I take my place in my home as a nursing father and not as a king, and we need to lose them too, what do I need?
I had a dear friend.
He was a very dear friend of mine.
One day he told me he was having difficulty with his children and he said I'm the father in my house and they must obey.
Well, that's how he rules his house.
And they're all, including himself, scattered to the land.
Authority.
Kingly authority there must be in a house.
A man must have more honor than his house.
But if that's all that I have.
We'll never gather our children like that.
But what about the nursing father?
We might think of the Father who is unable to say to his children no.
He loves them so much and he can't restrain them.
And all he can do is whatever they want him to do.
He's seeking to nourish them, but there's no authority there.
They're going to leave.
Because there's no head in that household.
But what is a king? And what is a nursing father? King shall be their nursing fathers.
It's a father who is able to have his yay be yay and his nay nay.
There isn't a rising up and questioning when the decision is made by the Father.
He says yes, we're going to do something. He says no, we're not going to do something.
And there's rest in the family because there's submission to the king in figure.
But he also must be a nursing father. Now what's that? A nursing father is someone who thinks about his children and their welfare before he thinks about himself, and I would say.
Don't forget our wives either.
Perhaps we could call a nursing father or a husband. I wouldn't call him a nursing husband because our relationship, our wives are not in the same position as we're going to see as our children are sometimes being think they're wives and their children are the same.
Now for the moon.
But we might ride over nursing father.
The considerations.
Of love.
We can provoke our children to anger when we make decisions after decisions. Based on the fact that it troubles me if I do this, it's going to be put me out. If I do this for my family, they say I want to go to a picnic, Let's go camp. Can we go camping, Dad? And I think, oh, go camping. There's a heavy cooler I'm going to have to carry. There's that tent I'm going to have to put up and sleep in the rain.
And then when I come home, I'll have to dry it out and the kids will be too little to help me and the bird and such a burden is so big. Oh, let's do something else. Or no, not this weekend. I want to get something done that I want to do.
That's not the consideration of love.
The considerations of love look at our children and consider what is the effect of this decision going to be on my children?
Is it simply an inconvenience to me or is there really some reason that I would say no to the request?
But when we say no to the request, it should be because the Lord himself would have had to say no.
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A nursing father who is a king. It's vital and brethren, if we.
Will, look at this. There's only one father to a family, and some of us may have abandoned fatherhood and given our children to others to raise. Maybe you've even looked at the assembly as responsible to raise your children.
God had never placed that responsibility on the assembly unless they were orphaned.
But you're here as a father, and your children shouldn't be.
Orphans.
It's on your shoulders.
To be a king and a nursing father. But then there's the Queen.
Who is a nursing mother? I am inclined to think when we think of a queen as a nursing mother.
That's more the natural side of things. We know it's not natural for a man to be a nursing father. I mean, there's something outside the realm of nature involved in that. I believe it's the spiritual side of things, and we as fathers have the responsibility.
Of setting the spiritual tone of our families if it's set by the mother or the wife.
It's a very, very shaky foundation.
The man is to be the king and is to be a nursing father.
I believe that's the spiritual side of things, but the natural side of things. There were Queens who were nursing mothers. What's the thought of a queen?
That she has authority over the children too.
And a wise husband.
And father will not undermine his wife's decisions regarding the children when he was absent.
If she made a wrong mistake, if she made a mistake, you better be very, very slow about reversing it in front of the children.
But she has a place children are subjected not to the father only, but to the parents.
Do we support our wives or do we find ourselves taking sides with the children?
It took both the nursing father and the nursing mother to bring these children home.
And so she has a vital role in a wise woman builds the house as much as a man builds the house. And so, both in their proper spheres and in their proper roles, bring these children back in restoration. What's really on my heart is you parents here this afternoon with little ones.
We have to acknowledge to you we've pretty much lost our children.
But I don't want you to do that.
But you're going to have to grasp what it is to be a king.
And a loving father.
You're going to have to grasp what it is to be a queen.
And a nurturing mother.
You know people are going to tell you, dear mothers, your work.
Is insignificant. I tell you, you couldn't find a greater work than what you're doing.
Don't let anyone.
Make you feel.
Like you're not doing the work of the Lord in nursing your children.
Well, they were both involved.
And then it says.
Verse 24.
At the end of verse 23.
I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed.
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That way for me.
Are we going to weigh in his presence?
Till he comes, we won't be ashamed.
The brethren, if pure, I turn aside from the assembly gathered to the Lord's name.
I believe we're going to be ashamed. We're going to be made.
To feel what we did in departing from our Lord.
One time I have a dear friend.
And he.
Who? He was still in the assembly, but he said.
Henry, Utah.
Like it's everything is lost if I leave the meeting.
I said it was.
It is.
I don't think we have any idea.
What it means when the assembly is typified as a city of refuge.
And you go outside of that city of refuge.
You've lost everything. You've lost everything, brethren.
God has given us.
An immense privilege in gathering us to the Lord's name and Satan. And now, right now in this room.
Is communicating to hearts.
Is that I'm tired of hearing it.
You walk away from the Lord.
You walk away to sorrow. You can't do it. You'll lose everything. But if you stay, you're not going to be ashamed in that day.
Down in verse 25.
Well, verse 24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, for the lawful captive delivered There again the thought is we deserved.
What we got? It's the language of the Remnant.
Expressed by that repentant thief, he says. We indeed justly we get the due reward of our deeds. So they're saying here.
Can these captives be delivered when?
They deserve to be captives, the Lord says.
But thus saith the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of a terrible shall be delivered. For I will contend with them that contendeth with thee, and I will save my children.
Brethren were going home soon.
We're going to be gathered to his name and all of his children are going to be there with us.
Again, I say.
It's no point of pride at all.
If we for this moment.
Enter into the concept that I have lost my children.
I am little few in numbers. The walls have been constricted because I have been unfaithful.
We won't come home saying I stay faithful, Lord, we won't come home that way.
Say Lord Jesus.
Honest, my children.
But I thank the Lord Jesus. Thou hast saved them, and has brought them here finally. Around thyself. For brethren, let's go on. If our labor be apparently in vain, so let it be.
But let us never give up the principles involved in the assembly and the precious privilege of being gathered to his precious name in this day of his abandonment. Let's pray for Jesus.
We pray that thou will encourage our hearts. We pray, Lord Jesus, that there might be a deepening appreciation.
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In our souls of the great grace.
That has kept us to this moment in thy presence here on earth.
And for that great grace to Lord Jesus that will catch us up out of this scene together.
To be forever with the Lord Jesus.
We thank you for that hope. We ask Thy blessing on thy word and Thy precious name. Amen.
The next meeting is at 3:30. We beg you to all try to be seated by three.