Address—E. Wilson
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270.
And shall we see thy face? And.
Hear thy handly voice.
Well.
With all our heart, let's go back this afternoon. I want to take up look at a few verses. First of all, First Chronicles chapter 28 time permit. We may look a bit in the 29th chapter as well. I have just thoroughly enjoyed these two chapters so much.
And just some recent meditations on them.
Because David, as we know, here is a lovely picture of the Lord Jesus.
And he gives a charge to his son.
He's about ready to turn the Kingdom over to Solomon.
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Solomon has already been crowned king, as if we went to the 29th chapter, we would see that that the Kingdom is renewed again. Isn't it wonderful to realize this afternoon?
Is thinking, as our brother mentioned, that wonderful chapter to us to be taken up there in the reading meetings?
I think 2 of the saddest verses in all the word of God are found in that one chapter. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. And then there's so many of those butts that come in in scripture which are so lovely, but as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
Well, it's lovely to just take this chapter up. I'm not going to go into any real death in this chapter because I'd like to get into the other chapters I've said as well.
First of all, let's read verse one.
David assembled all the Princess of Israel and the Princess of the tribes, captains of the companies.
That minister to the king by course, and the captains over the thousands, and captains over the hundreds.
And the stewards over all the substance and possession of the king and of his sons, with the officers, and with the mighty man, and with all the valiant men unto Jerusalem. Just want you to notice one thing in that verse. Who does the assembling, and where they assemble to?
It just wasn't a group of people who decided to come together one day. You know, deer winds this afternoon. To be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is an unspeakable privilege.
It's an unspeakable privilege. Do we value it? Do we value the person of Christ? Do we value the One who is there in our midst?
So David does the assembling here and he brings him to Jerusalem. And you notice here that it's not all the nation that's mentioned.
But there is a very lovely list here. A very lovely list.
Princess of the Tribes, Captains.
Stewart's sons, Officers. Mighty men, valiant men.
Now I realize that the testimony is not in in the condition that it was.
Over 150 years ago. But isn't it lovely to realize this afternoon that God's principles never change?
No matter how.
Terrible the times may be or may become.
It's a lovely list that we have here. Isn't it lovely to realize that every person in this room this afternoon who knows the Lord Jesus as their Savior?
They have that wonderful privilege.
Of being with Him. And I'm not only talking about knowing him personally as Savior, I'm talking about knowing Him as Lord. And of owning that lordship. What an unspeakable privilege it is.
You know there are many dear children of God this afternoon out in the systems of men.
And our hearts have to go out to them.
Many of them devoted, many of them that love the Lord Jesus. No question.
But all what I covered for them, and I'm sure what you covered for them, is that they may be able.
Collectively to be.
Where the true David is. Where the true David is. Are we anything in ourselves? Nothing.
But as we heard this morning, it's the person.
It's the person who makes that place. It's the person.
You know, David had a real sense of this in his soul. I think of that beautiful 84th Psalm. He said this.
My soul longeth for thee. My soul longs for thee.
Do we really long for him?
Is it our joy to get out to those assembly meetings where He is in the midst and to be able?
At the remembrance of the Lord, to remember Him in his death. What an unspeakable privilege that is, because the Cross is the grandest council of eternity.
It's the greatest fact of time. What a privilege to be able to commemorate the greatest event that's ever happened.
To think back upon that one who died there for the glory of God and for your blessing and mine.
What about the reading meeting?
I've sat in a few meetings.
But isn't it a lovely thing to be able to sit there and have the Spirit of God take the Word of God and unfold it to our hearts?
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We had that privilege this morning.
What a privilege that is. You know that not all of the Lord's people enjoy that kind of a privilege.
I remember after being first gathered to the Lord's name way back in November 1971.
The thing that impressed me the most?
Was being able to come and sit down quietly with those of like precious faith and have the word of God opened and have the Spirit of God speak to us out of this book.
What an unspeakable privilege.
And then the prayer meeting, think of being able to come together and collectively address that throne of grace and power and to realize that there is one this afternoon who sits on that throne, who is interested in every detail individually in our lives and is also interested.
In the collective welfare of the Assembly.
What an unspeakable privilege.
Thinking as our brother read that verse to us this morning.
We know that we ask, we have the petitions that we ask of him.
What a privilege to be able to come and to tell him in simple, childlike terms.
Lord, we pray for sister so and so, or we pray for brother so and so, or we pray.
In connection with the gospel, you think he isn't interested? Sure he is.
Sure he is.
Much more than we are.
Much more than we are.
We don't have time to really go into depth in the chapter, but I just want to merely point out the different.
Groups that are looked at here, Princess.
And the captains.
Over hundreds administered to the king by course. Isn't that lovely order?
Stuart's overall the substance and possession of the king, and I'll say this to everyone in this room this afternoon. Everything that you and I have in this world, it really belongs to him.
What are we doing with what he has committed to us? Are we using it for ourselves? Are we using it for him? What a privilege to be able to use these things for him to share these things with God's people, not only to share them with God's people, but, you know, be able to think of our resources in some way to further the work of the gospel or whatever.
King's substance all belongs to him.
Now in verse 2, we get the person. We had that this morning. You know the person.
I don't suppose there's an artist, I don't suppose there's a there's a novelist that can, with either pan, pen or brush, paint to our hearts what it must have been for these dear people to see this dear old man as he comes in and he stands up before these people. Is there anything in the assembly, brethren, that is attracting our hearts to the person of Christ?
Why do we have things repeated? You know, take the book of Leviticus in connection with the offerings. Remember my son saying to me, Dad, why is there so much detail there? I said, son, it's because the Spirit of God uses those things to give us fresh little features about the person and the work of Christ. That's what it is. It's not vain repetition.
It isn't vain repetition, it's given that our hearts might be commanded.
And we might look at it and we say, oh, there, this is what this means. Never saw that before.
That's why reading meetings sometimes are so precious, aren't they? I have never been to two reading meetings. It's been exactly alike, have you?
Some fresh little feature. Anyway, David the king stood up upon his feet and said, Hear me, my brethren and my people. Isn't that lovely? Hear me, my brethren and my people.
You know he's not ashamed to call us brethren.
When I think of this, it just overwhelms my soul as I think that he's not ashamed to call me one of his own.
That's lovely, isn't it?
My brethren and my people, in the midst of the congregation will I sing praise unto thee. Wherefore he is not ashamed to call them brethren that lovely. He takes up our worthless name. Think of it. And He desires to have us so near to Himself. He values our company, He loves us.
Hear me, my brethren and my people. As for me, I had it in my heart to build an House of rest for the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. Isn't that lovely, that you and I?
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Have the privilege of being in communion with him.
And it's those sweetest whispers that make our soul rejoice. He tells his people here what was on his heart. Isn't that lovely as he told us what's on his? Yes, he has. Yes, he has. You think of his friend Abraham in the Old Testament. He says, shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? No.
But what does he require? He requires obedience on your part and on mine. We're not going to know the mind of the Lord. We're not going to be able to enter into the good of these things unless we act in accordance and in obedience to the Word of God. Then we're going to know.
And we're going to know.
I will never know the mind of the Lord if I go in a self willed course.
And a lovely that we don't have to go in a self willed course.
We can say, Lord Jesus, take my heart and my will and make it holy thine.
Our wills be broken.
May they be broken, and may we learn the truth and connection with the person of Christ.
A second to David in the 84 Psalm. Again I speak of that Psalm, he says.
A day in my courts is better than 1000. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God.
Thunder dwell in the tents of many wicked. What a privilege, What a privilege.
Let's get on here a bit.
He tells them that he had in his heart to build a House of rest for the ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building. But God said unto me, thou shalt not build a house for my name, because thou hast been a man of war and has shed blood. All of the Old Testament Saints have special features in their lives.
Which when it's looked at, we can see different aspects about the person and the work of Christ. What does David life? What does his life set before us?
It sets before us the idea, you know, that one day Great David's greater son is going to return to this world, and he's going to clear this scene with the sort of judgment that the scepter of righteousness, which is pictured by Solomon, will reign from the river to the ends of the earth. Now, if you're taking notes, I'm going to go over something very, very quickly with you, something that I've enjoyed for many years.
All of the Old Testament patriarchs, as I said, have specific things that their lives set forth about the Lord Jesus. There was dominion in Adam.
Government in Noah, fatherhood in Abraham.
Judgment in David, royalty and Solomon. But in Christ all these glories will meet and shine together. The prominent thing about David's life, judgment. You see that when you see in connection with his enemies.
So many Syrians put to death in the Valley of Salt, subduing the Philistines and so on. That's, that's what is seen in his life. So it was not up to him to build that beautiful temple. It was for his son. But isn't it lovely that there may be things in your life and in mine that we, you know, we'd like to do but can't? Isn't it lovely to realize that God will give us credit even for the very motive?
Because 139 Psalm says he sees our thoughts afar off.
It says in job chapter 38 you know that about the measure.
You realize in Proverbs that all the weights of the bag are his. I cannot fathom the fact that God can put the Rocky Mountains in the scales and weigh them.
And that he can also take to work and he can weigh your thoughts and mine. And He knows our thoughts are far off. And by the way, that comes out in this chapter. And if God permit, we'll get to that in a few moments.
Verse 4.
Howbeit, the Lord God of Israel chose me before all the House of my father. Isn't that lovely?
Now, in the Old Testament, God's people, you know.
Jehovah was was the name that he was known to to his people of old Jehovah. I think we get little indications, little pictures in this chapter of what God had in mind in a future day. We get this word chosen coming out here. That's Ephesians chapter 1, right? We were chosen in him before the foundation of the world.
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I think it's just so lovely. Let's read it a little bit here.
He chose me before all the House of my father, to be king over Israel forever, For He hath chosen Judah to be the ruler, and of the House of Judah, and of the House of my father, and among the sons of my father. He liked to make me king over all Israel and of all my sons, for the Lord hath given me many sons. He hath chosen Solomon my son, to sit upon the throne of the Kingdom of the Lord over Israel.
What a statement.
What a statement this is. How many chosens have we got in this verse? Quite a few.
Quite a few.
Do you know this? This afternoon you're saved, that you have been chosen in him, and that you this afternoon, my beloved brother and sister in Christ, you occupy a place of nearness to Christ.
That even Solomon, in all his glory would never occupy. You and I are a part of that church.
You and I are a part of that body of which He is the glorious head in heaven.
We are so near to him and I love the way the hymn writer puts it that we could not nearer be.
Isn't that wonderful?
Lovely truth we have here.
Lovely truth.
One other thing in that fifth verse, the Kingdom of the Lord over Israel.
Just wasn't any Kingdom, was it? It was the Kingdom of the Lord.
How David never ever lost sight of that door in his long and eventful life when he went out against the Philistine giant. It just wasn't the armies of Israel either, was it? It was the armies of the living God. I like that statement.
How precious, how precious.
Is that the way we see the people of God? They're his people.
They're his people.
Is that the way we see the assembly? Is it our assembly? No, it's his. It's his.
May God preserve us from ever losing sight of the fact of whose assembly it really is.
Yes, and whose people they are. They're God's people. That's why it's impossible to say I love God.
And despise one of his own.
That's how intimately we're linked with Christ, you know?
That he said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. Isn't that a lovely statement? I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. Lovely statement.
This is New Testament language, isn't it? But it's all here, you know, in type.
The mystery of the church was hidden in other ages. It wasn't something mysterious, it just simply means that it was hidden.
But is the Spirit of God trying to tell us something and type here? I believe so.
Now, therefore, in the sight of all Israel, the congregation of the Lord, and in the audience of our God, keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God, that she may possess this good land and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you forever. You know this afternoon I'm not under the law, but there are principles in the Word of God that never change.
Principles that never change.
Am I going to continue tomorrow in the path of faith? Am I going to continue to follow a rejected Christ?
Outside of the mentionings of men and the order that we see all around us, that has been devised by men.
The only thing that's going to keep me, brethren, is whether or not my heart is attached to that wonderful man in the glory. That's it, that's it.
It's lovely the language here.
That she may possess this good land and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you forever.
Maybe you've been considering in your heart about leaving the Lord's Table.
Maybe you found the pathway a little bit too difficult, maybe you've had settles with your brethren or whatever.
Why don't you just take that to the Lord and leave that with him? Because, brethren.
Not being gathered to the Lord's name. To me, the alternative is unthinkable.
And inheritance.
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As I've said before, what a privilege to be in His presence and to enjoy that presence not only individually for myself, but collectively with those of like precious faith.
May we be preserved and kept, and the way we're going to be preserved and kept is to have the eye single and upon Christ, and to be occupied not with my love for him, but the realization of that great love that brought him from those courts down into this world so low down so far.
And as that poor Samaritan, he had to come right to where I was.
Oh, what love, what unspeakable love this is.
And so David, with every inducement and the sense that he could use, he would speak to his son in this way. Surely any father rightly instructed in the word of God would speak to his son in this way. Solomon, fear him.
Let's see what else he said. And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind, For the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts.
Let's never think for a moment that God can't see down into the recesses of our hearts. He sees our thoughts afar off. And by the way, in the 139th Psalm.
It says there that he can see the thoughts afar off. Not only that he knows what we think, but he knows even why we think the way that we do.
How we need to judge ourselves in these things.
Serve Him with a perfect heart. What's a perfect heart?
I think a perfect heart is one that is undivided.
One that is undivided.
You and I can keep rank if we have a perfect heart.
What produces that perfection? Well, I believe the beginning of it is the fear of the Lord.
I'm going to say this to you, dear young people and everyone in this room this afternoon. The eye of the Lord is upon you and me. The best advice my mother ever gave me was this.
Son, you may get out of My presence, but you're never out of the Lord's. You may not. You may not be under my eyesight, but remember, you're always under His.
That was the great thing with, with, with.
Joseph wasn't it. He realized that the eye of the Lord was upon him.
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fear of the Lord.
And the perfect heart too. It's occupied with the love of Christ. That's it.
And with a willing mind takes a willing mind too.
Oh, yeah, You hear people say, well, it's the gospel meeting tonight. I just don't feel like I want to go out. I like what one of the old writers said years ago. My justice will say, well, it's just the blood of Christ. It's just the cross of Calvary. It's just about that unspeakable love that brought him down into this world.
Brother in the gathering here this afternoon told us about a story about a dear old lady down in Bolivia.
Who walked 17 miles to be at a conference?
Brother mentioned to him, he said, you know, I said she came over the mountains to be here.
He said, but that isn't the interesting thing, said she's deaf and she's not going to hear a word that's spoken this afternoon. That woman valued the Lord's presence. Some of us, we can't even get in our motor cars and get down the road a few miles to get to the meeting. I think of a dear old brother in the assembly in Pleasantville, 90 plus years of age. He got halfway to meeting one night when his car broke down, was pouring rain, could have turned around and walked back home.
He came into the meeting and his clothes were soaked, soaking wet. We felt bad. If I had known he was out there, I'd have gone out and got him.
He came in, I said, brother, you didn't go home. No, he said, I wanted to be here tonight.
The Lord wants me here tonight and he said I just can't stay. Think of it.
Thank you, Beck.
As any sacrifice too much for him, never anything too much for his people.
Never. Whatever we do to one of His own, we do to him. Brethren, I say this from my heart to yours.
That's Jesus. What does he mean to us?
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What does he mean to us? But then we get an if.
And if, if thou seek him, he will be found of thee, but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever. And under the law that's the way it was. But the principle does not change in this way.
Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord, we're going to know we're going to enjoy communion with him. We're going to enjoy communion with one another. We're going to be a help to one another. And I covet this for myself, and I covet this for you, dear young people, for all of us, that we might not only be a help to ourselves, but that we might be a help to others as well. And we're going to be if we continue to abide in the source.
For the wake up in the morning, go into the bathroom and look in the mirror.
And say to myself, you know you're loved.
You're loved by the greatest personage in this universe. May your poor, slow, stupid heart be ready to realize it that you're loved by one of infinite love and goodness.
And that's the motivating thing, isn't it? First Corinthians 13 What does it say? Love never fails.
The Occupy being occupied with that great love that he has and then doing those things too that are pleasing because when we read the word of God, we're in his presence and we need to be getting into the word of God to find out his mind for the pathway. Did did Jonathan love David? Yes, he did, no question.
But it wasn't enough. He needed to take that step. You know, I believe that sometimes the Lord speaks very loudly to us.
I think in the Jonathan, you know, when he defended David there at his father's dinner table, his father was so infuriated he picked up the spear and he threw it at his own son. That should have been the day that Jonathan walked out and never returned. Sometimes the Lord will allow things in our lives to shake us up, pretty much.
Do we see his hand in shaking us in that way?
Is not trying to hurt us. He loves us. He's trying to draw us to himself.
That's what he wants to do.
I don't have time to go into all the different instruments that were were there in the Tabernacle and so on, or the the temple. Rather lovely to see the gold and the silver and so on. I want to jump ahead now into the 29th chapter with the amount of time that was left.
Verse 20, Chapter 29. Furthermore, David the king said unto all the congregations, Solemn, My son, in whom alone God, whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great, for the palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.
Now I have prepared with all my might for the House of my God, the gold, for things to be made of gold, and the silver, for the things of silver and the brass, for the things of brass and iron, for the things of iron and wood, for the things of wood, Onyx stones, stones to be set, glistening stones, and of divers colors, and all manner of precious stones and marble stones in abundance.
While we learn from Ephesians chapter 2.
That the church is a habitation of God through the Spirit. You and I belong to something far greater.
Than Solomon's temple.
I just want to impress this upon all our hearts. We belong to something much greater than Solomon's temple.
The church is a habitation of God through the Spirit.
Through the Spirit. And it's lovely to realize this afternoon that every person who knows the Lord Jesus in this audience is a stone.
Are being placed in that building, you know, when reading Revelation in connection with that wonderful city.
Had 12 foundations and all men are of precious stones.
Precious stones.
Put under different heats of pressure, you know, and all of that beautiful color coming out. And then there's going to come that day when all of that light is going to be a foul through that wonderful scene and all of those beautiful colors are going to be seen. And that's the thought, you know, of Ephesians 3 where it says might be made known through the church. The manifold, the all varied, the multi colored wisdom.
Of God.
So we're having sickness and trials in this day. Do you know what it's doing?
You know what it's doing. That's the heat and the pressure that's being put on you and me.
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That that dross might be taken out.
Everyone of us in this room this afternoon.
The stitch being put in that garment that we're going to wear up there.
And so Peter could say, think it not strange the fiery trials that we're passing through. God is using these things to make it. And I love what one brother said in our assembly at home. He said this, you know, brethren, we know a lot of things. But he said, I wonder sometimes if we really know how to suffer.
We're well informed, we have the doctrines, we have the principles, but when it comes right down to it, do we really know how to suffer?
Do we know how to take from the hand of an all loving Savior everything?
And to realize that he is saying in so many ways, I love you.
I've planned for you, my child. I know you're in this difficulty. I know you're in these deep waters, but I'm using these things to make you.
That's the permanency of a stone, isn't it, you know?
Permanency.
Verse 3. Moreover, because I have set my affection to the House of my God.
I have of mine own proper good of gold and silver, which I have given to the House of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the Holy House.
That's quite a statement. That's quite a statement.
Preparation.
Oh, what a book we have in our hands this afternoon. What a heritage we've been brought into by Sovereign grace.
And, you know, he's even given us each other one another.
One another back up into the the 28th chapter again, look at verse 21. Behold the courses of the priests and the Levites even they shall be with thee for all the service of the House of God. There shall be with thee for all manner of workmanship. Every willing skillful man. I've been struck by reading that verse.
And why I'm struck is because of what we had in First Corinthians chapter 3 and the end of that chapter. And I'm not going to take the time to turn to it. The apostle speaking to that assembly, you know, the divisions that were coming in schisms, all of these things, the apostle was telling, telling them this. He says, listen.
You can have it all.
Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Life, Death year, Christ, and Christ is Gods.
I think one of the saddest things among God's people in this day is when we try to, you know, kind of get together in little parties to the exclusion of others. Don't do it. That's not worth it.
I kind of give this little illustration sometimes. I used to give my kids presents, you know, for their birthday.
And I see them down there in the living room floor unwrapping the thing, you know? And the next thing you know, they're playing with the paper instead of the gift. That's kind of like you and me, you know, with all of God's people. We're comfortable with certain individuals, but we're not comfortable with others. Why is that? Why is that?
Why is that?
I'll tell you why I think it is. I think it's that way because our love hasn't really been perfected. We don't really look at the people of God and say, I am looking this afternoon on a group of believers. I am looking upon God's people. I am looking upon a treasure that is the nearest and dearest thing to the heart of God.
Amazing. And by the way, we talk about a willing, skillful man here.
There's no question that there are those who have gifts outside in the camp. There's no question.
They're skillful men. The man who brought the gospel to our family, I remember as a child.
He could take the Word of God, he could start in Matthew, he could close the Bible, and he could quote from memory chapter after chapter, after chapter after chapter of the Word of God. That's a skillful Workman. But a willing, skillful Workman, I believe is an individual who vows to the will of God in his life.
And he says not my will.
But thine.
Who realizes the truth of that verse? It says.
If ye be willing any man be willing to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. What a great thing.
The person of Christ.
Well, let's step down in this 29th chapter a bit, verse 8. And they with whom precious stones were found, gave them to the treasure of the House of the Lord by the hand of Jihile the Gershonite.
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Interesting individual, Jahil the Gershonite, one of the sons of Koath, right?
What does that all mean?
Well, they were responsible, you know, for the things of God in connection with the Tabernacle. The sons of Asaph, many of them were singers. I'm asking you this afternoon, have you got a song in your life?
It's a great thing to sing, right? Yes, it is. But it's a great thing to be able to sing about the person of Christ. You know, the harp and Scripture is a picture of communion. I think of dear David when he had those warriors around him in The Cave of Adela. Maybe it wasn't a very pretty scene.
Maybe they were tired and discouraged, you know, as they leaned up against the walls after being chased all day like partridges on the mountains.
Ah, but what a lovely thing. There they are, and their discouragement and so on. They look into the midst. And who is there playing as harp, David?
And maybe their discouragement and everything just goes by the wayside as they hear. He leads the singing, doesn't he? When he comes into, when he comes into the scheme of things, his people can't be quiet very long.
And their hearts rejoice. What music he can play to our souls, can't He?
Well, the treasure of the House of the Lord by the hand of Jehovah Gersonite. The people rejoiced for that. They offered willingly this afternoon that the great thing.
As a believer gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus is this. It's being able to come and to give.
It's being able to come in to give. Acts chapter 20 says it is more blessed to give than to receive.
You know, we come in and we say, well, I never get much out of the meetings. Why don't we try giving a little bit?
I'm going to try giving a little bit. Make all the difference in the world, you know, make quite a difference.
They give here.
And it says they rejoiced for that. They offered willingly because with perfect heart, here we have it again. They offered willingly to the Lord. And David the King also rejoiced with great joy. I don't think it's stretching it too much to say that what we have here.
Is just beautiful Christian graces, don't we? But in the end of it, it says this. And David rejoiced also.
You know, tomorrow morning we're going to sit down in His presence again and we're going to enjoy a little bit of heaven before we get home.
What a privilege it is, but do you realize the joy that it?
Gives his heart as we come and we sit down in his presence.
What a joy it is. And so if he opened the door of heaven right now, would you and I walk through?
I think that's what happens when we're able to sit down in this presence and remember him in his death.
Says in the Kingdom, one day he's going to set us down at his table and he's going to come forth, gird himself and serve it. Don't we sometimes experience a little bit of that when we come together, you know, in the reading meeting where he comes to feed us?
How could he ever absent ourselves from those meetings?
Remember coming home one time?
You know, 7:00 at night or 6:50, the meeting was at 7:00, roar in, you know, with the vehicle, jump out, come in, wash up, change my clothes and head off to the meeting dead tired, Yes, working hard all day and, you know, and go and sit down in that assembly meeting. And then the meeting would get going and it's just like the Spirit of God would just pick you right up.
And come out of that meeting room and I turn to a brother and I'd say, you know, I almost didn't make it tonight, but what a wonderful privilege to be here. I just feel so refreshed.
I haven't had any bodily nourishment, but that doesn't matter. I've been here and I've had something for my soul, and what a difference it makes. And maybe in your group you're down to just two and three. I want to say this, but the Lord is still there in the midst. He's still there.
Come home later and get the supper afterwards, but feel a lot better.
Yes, there's energy needed in these things. There's energy needed.
And the Lord looks at our hearts, and He can see whether or not there's that desire in our hearts.
I want to leave these few thoughts with us. We're not done yet. This chapter just gets better as we go into it just gets better, doesn't it? Just let's have a look at it here. It's just so beautiful.
00:45:03
Wherefore verse 10, David blessed the Lord and all the congregation, and David said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father.
Forever and ever thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory, and the victory and the majesty.
For all that is in the heaven and in the earth is mine. Thine is the Kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as Head above all. What sublime words we have here.
It's almost like New Testament lingo, isn't it? Head above all things. Do we realize that there's one this afternoon who is head over all things of the church? Not only the head of it, but head over all things to it?
I like what one among us here has said. If someone comes to me and says something that's not quite kind, remember that he had to go around the Lord in order to get to you. I like that. I think it's true.
What a difference it makes when we realize this, that he's the one who's in control, he's the head.
Exalted his head above all, both riches and honor come of thee.
And thou reignest over all, and in thine hand is power and might, and in thy hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore our God isn't that beautiful, our God.
It's our God. We thank Thee, and we praise Thy glorious name.
I think of all the trouble that we've been through the last few years.
As it caused us to be more, you know, a bit morose, as it caused us to be a bit cast down. Or does it 'cause our hearts to turn toward Him and realize that though we passed through some difficulties and some troubles as it caused us to turn to Him?
And say, Lord, thou knowest without doing.
He knows what he's doing.
He's the head.
But who am I? This puts it all into perspective, doesn't it? Who am I? Somebody said to our late brother J&D. You know, if you knew what that brother was like you were hanging around with, you wouldn't have anything to do with them, he said. If you knew what I was like, you wouldn't have anything to do with me either.
What an attitude.
Now I'm not for a moment, you know, excusing the fact that as believers we need to follow after holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. No question that that's important. No question.
Holiness is the is the abhorrence of that which is evil, and it is the cleaving to that which is good. And by the way, even in that love is the motivating thing.
It is the motivating thing. It's the realization, you know.
The realization that this is what He orders for our pathway follow after it, that we may be able to offer so willingly after this sort. For all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee, for we are but strangers before thee and sojourners, as were all our fathers.
What is that in Ephesians chapter 2?
Strangers and pilgrims, right sojourners, just passing through an enemy's land on our way home to the Father's house.
Don't get the tent pigs too deep, people. We're out of here one of these days, and I believe that the coming of the Lord is getting nearer and nearer and nearer, and we're closer now than we were this time yesterday.
But he's coming. He's coming.
You say, what's 1 of the indications that he's coming. Take a look at the situations that we have in the world at the present time. But the big thing is look at the indifference and the coldness of heart in the Church of God. Yes, even among those who profess to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. Look at the indifference.
And by the way, that's one of the things that characterizes the Laodicean testimony, Indifference to the person of Christ. How could it ever be?
How could it ever be?
If that one has done so much for us, if that one has gone down into death, if that one has glorified God's soul.
How could we ever remain indifferent to that precious one and His precious love?
But that's what's happening. Behold, I stand at the door, and I knock.
Now we often use that verse in the gospel and we can take the liberty to do that. But the principal application of that verse is that he's outside of everything that professes him, knocking individually on the hearts door of the believer, saying I want to come in and have communion with you. And in case you've never noticed, communion is the thing that you and I need as believers if we lose anything else.
00:50:23
May we never lose that communion that we have with himself, because nothing will ever, ever, ever make up for it.
What a privilege to enjoy that communion and that fellowship with him.
Here in the realization that every time we open this book, we're in his presence.
That every time we speak to him in prayer.
That he values it, That he's the silent listener, That he's communicating with us.
We are strangers before the sojourners, as we are all our fathers. Our days on the earth are as a shadow.
And there is none abiding.
Did the law teach David this?
Now David was in communion with the Lord, you see, he learned all these things from the Lord personally, and it's lovely that you and I are going to learn things too, if we cultivate that personal communion with himself. Oh Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee in house for thy holy name.
Cometh of thine hand and is all thine own. I can't think of a better description of the assembly than what we have right here. Now, there may be other things that we might mention, but I just want to point that out, brethren, we don't have a better description of the assembly than what we have right here. It's all his. Just to go back to First Corinthians 3 again.
And dear Christ and Christ is gods. All things are yours. Yes, even the king of terrors when you think of it. Death ends everything for the natural man before the believer. For the believer. It's just more showing us of that one who is what, the resurrection and the life.
Resurrection and the Light. What a great statement we have in these verses.
I know also, my God, isn't that lovely? Changes from the from the plural now down to the to the singular. My God, he says, oh brethren, can we say that within our own heart, My God, my Lord Jesus.
Can we make it personal? Yes, we can. Yes we can, my God.
That thou triest the heart, and has pleasure in uprightness.
David had learned that I'm indebted to a brother here in the little group this afternoon who pointed out to us, you know, this thought of upright That's not that we don't fail. It's not that we don't stumble.
The righteous man, the upright man stumbleth 7 times.
But he gets back up.
Isn't it lovely to realize that we have one who is there to hold us, who loves us?
And even if we do fail, even if we do get out of the pathway and I'm not making an excuse for it, there is no excuse for it. But if we do.
He's there.
He's there. That's why the judge in the city of Christ is going to be such a wonderful manifestation.
Because I believe he's going to go back according to the 139th Psalm. He's going to bring all our life in review, I believe from the moment that we were conceived.
And He's going to bring the whole thing through and that large hand and that wonderful large and loving heart is going to show how He planned everything in the pathway. And even when we got out of communion, even when we acted in self will, even when we took our own way, He was there to pick us up. Blessed be his name. Blessed be his name.
May these few thoughts just touch our hearts that cause us to be more drawn out to Himself. What a wonderful Savior we have.
And as we go through these reading meetings with the person in the work, may these things impress upon our hearts just how great He is, just how good he is. How good He is. He loves us.
Present here to offer willingly unto thee, O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel. Our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of Thy people, and prepare their heart unto Thee.
00:55:08
Brethren, we have the doctrines, we have the teachings, we have all of these things.
But we need to be making room in our heart for the Lord. This is it.
This is it. The doctrines are important. We have to have the outlines. We have to know where we are in the Word of God.
But it's a person. It's a person.
Very blessed truths that we have here, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee, and give unto my son Solomon, my son, a perfect heart, to keep my commandments and testimonies and statutes, and to do all these things and to build a palace for which I have made provision. And David said to all the congregation, now bless the Lord your God, and all the congregation bless the Lord God of.
Others and bowed down their heads, and worshiped the Lord and the King.
They sacrificed unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings.
And the burnt offering, as we know, sets before us the idea of what the Lord Jesus did for the glory of God. You know, what a difference, what a character the remembrance of the Lord would take on. You know, if we would keep that before our hearts and our thoughts, that when I come into his presence and remember Him in his death, that's not what He did for me, important as that is. First of all, it's what He did for the glory of God. That's the 150th song in our little hymn book.
That's a burnt offering him.
What a difference it makes, brethren, when we keep that in mind. If God had not been satisfied with that sacrifice, you and I would be lost this afternoon. But oh, He did it for the glory of God. To think that there was one in this world, that God looked down into this world, and His eye could rest upon in complete satisfaction, the darling of His bosom.
And by the way, in Leviticus, it's not a repetition again of sacrifices. That work is so wonderful that God, as it were, just lined it all up there in that in those books, in those chapters in Leviticus and say, says to our hearts, here's another feature of the cross, Here's another feature, here's another feature, here's another feature. Because we're dealing with the greatest event that has ever happened in all of time or eternity, our God would say to us.
This is what I find my delight in, in connection with a person of my son, and this is what I want you to find your delight in as well. Have we ever gone into the book of Leviticus and read through those things and by the Spirit of God, seeing those wonderful little pictures, God wants us to. He wants us to.
That's why it's so important to pick up the Word of God and read it. Our time is gone.
Recently I've been speaking a little bit on the 38th chapter of Joel 2.
I can't think of another chapter in the Word of God where you have the glories of Christ.
And the work of the cross brought out in tight in that wonderful chapter. You can read it for yourself.
But it talks about the cloud and the thick swaddling band and all of these different things, you know, the doors of death, about the proud ways being stayed and all these wonderful things all seen there in that wonderful book. That's first Peter chapter 1, by the way, the sufferings of Christ and the glory that shall follow.
Lovely to realize that one day when I'm home and garments of shining white, I am going to look into the face of my Savior and I am going to realize, and you are going to realize.
That he was the one. We do in a certain sense now, but we really don't appreciate it like we should. We're going to look into the face of one who loved us infinitely, and there's going to be a wonderful burst of praise rise to Him, the like of which this universe has never heard.
We sing and close in that beautiful hymn.
And.
Shall and is it so? I shall be like thy son. 18 in the appendix. 18 in the back of the book.
And is it?
So worship.
01:00:39
Oh, Jesus.
Lord.
Love me like you.
All I work with.
Nature.