Open—Brad Erlandson
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One aspect of what I've had on my heart.
Is one score and four score.
The age group of the range of 20.
One score. The age group of the range of 84 score and.
Let's look at.
A portion in Jeremiah 32.
Portion that has to do with a transaction.
We've had some reminders on transactions, and here's one about the right of redemption.
And.
We've had some remarks about.
A good start and a good finish, one score and four scores and we have in this portion.
Jeremiah instructed to make a purchase and that it was his right to make that purchase. And I look around this room and.
Yes, we don't have any rights, but you have a right of redemption and what we the truths of divine inspiration that we hold in our hands and that we've been schooled in and that we need to make an effort in. And so there needs to be that transaction. Buy it and don't sell it. And the opportunity is there in one score.
To avail yourselves in that period of strength in your life and take it and use it, redeem it. Let's let's read a little bit here in the 32nd of Jeremiah. Read a couple of verses at the beginning and then the portion in respect to the the purchase.
Jeremiah 32 verse one the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.
In the 10th year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar, for then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison which was in the king of Judas house.
So Nebuchadnezzar is besieged. Jerusalem now down.
Verse six And Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Behold, enemy of the son of Shalom, thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, By thee my field that is in anatok for the right of redemption is thine to buy it. So Hannah Meal, my uncle's son, came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord, and said unto me By my field I pray thee that is in amethought.
Which is in the country of Benjamin. For the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine by it for thyself. Then I knew that it was the word of the Lord. And I bought the field of Hannah, Hannah meal, my uncle son that was in Anatol, and weighed him the money, even 17 shekels of silver. And I subscribed the evidence and sealed it and took witnesses and weighed him the money and the balances. So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and.
And that which was open. And I gave the evidence of the purchase under Baroque, the son of Neriah, the son of Messiah, in the sight of Hannah Meal, my uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribe the book of the purchase before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.
And I charged barrack before them, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed and this evidence which is open.
But the men in earthen vessel, that they may continue many days, For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
So the setting here is.
Jerusalem is about to be.
Overcome and.
Jeremiah is instructed to make this purchase and just a couple of thoughts here on one score and four scores. I so enjoy this setting because of the intergenerational aspect that we can enjoy here from the young to the old that's been set aside in Christendom to a large degree. And we don't have this this company together and.
00:05:10
One score I want to encourage you to cultivate relationships in the fourscore. Perhaps its grandparents, perhaps its other going to tell a little story about.
I was a little more, I was, I was beyond one score, but I had, I had an opportunity to go and have lunch with my Grandma Schmidt from time to time. I worked in the same town.
And it was a good lunch and I'd go over there occasionally I'd sit down at the table and then we just visit.
And there be times. One time I specifically remember she related it was the day that her husband had passed away. It was a day in January, and she wasn't even 50 years old when she was widowed. She was left with an 11 year old son, the youngest of six boys. And what I remember specifically about Grandma relating that memory was that there wasn't a twinge of bitterness in what she was telling.
And I value that, the difficulties of the pathway. But there wasn't bitterness. Another another memory is this very room of intergenerational fellowship.
76 or 77 came here for the meetings. There was some difficulties at home.
My dad specifically said to say to greet a particular brother.
I found him and I greeted him.
He leaned over and he kissed me.
Albert Hayjo.
And.
Those are happy memories. There was a lot of difficulties at the time surrounding that greeting and he sent his message and so I value that the.
On Wednesday, I was driving and I was thinking about this portion. I was thinking about coming here and thinking about who I would see.
And I was thinking about who I wouldn't see.
And tears were running.
I'm sorry, it's not who I would see. It was who I wouldn't see.
I value who I see, but there's many that I don't see and I'm going back a long ways and those, those are happy memories and happy relationships and there's been.
There, there, there there is a.
A purchase, a right of redemption, and it may have been laid hold on at one point, but there needs to be it needs to be maintained. The the right of redemption. Is it to take your place at the Lord's table? Yeah, that's part of it. But that's not that's not the completion of it. There's there's a going on. There's grow in grace, the last words of Peter grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And so we all need to end the enemy of our souls. He wants to. He wants to take that away.
And he wants to make make your life barren for him, and he's going to make every effort to do that. But here Jeremiah's given these instructions and it just doesn't seem logical. And the world is going to look at your pathway and your steps, your efforts and.
What are you thinking? Well.
Jeremiah is told to buy this field. It's about to be taken out of their hands, out of their possession. It's been out of their possession for 2500 years. And yet he follows these instructions and he makes this purchase and he has 17 shekels of silver and he buys it. And the, the we, we, we can look forward to this transaction and this effort and what we're, what we are acquiring because it's going to.
It's going to reap a rich reward in a soon coming day.
And verse 15 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. He was, He was buying it, and He was taking that step in obedience because there was going to be possession again in this land. It was all going to be handed back to them. They forfeited it because of disobedience and because of infidelity.
They they were, they lost it, but it was going to be brought back to them again.
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I remember having a conversation with.
A family member, the earlier generation gathered at a young age, gave it up and I was, I was talking about things that I enjoyed in the aspect of a coming millennial age and how everything is going to be so settled and he said.
Oh, you're a dispensationalist. The Millennium is just a figure. Well.
Yeah, I am a dispensationalist, but the Millennium is more than a figure. It's a reality. And it's going to be.
Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. And this is one of the transactions. One part of the transaction that we can make and we should make is things that were recovered in the 1800s, one of them being dispensational clarity and knowing, having our orientation in terms of where we are and what's happening and it's.
It's not difficult. And so we can, we can know that and we can know where the church is going and we can know that God is going to take up his counsels and his desires and his purpose with Israel once again. So just one other.
Couple other things in connection with this transaction and this purchase. Yes, it's going to cost you something. The Lord's Day. There's, there's transactions that happen all the time. There's a transaction to be here on the Lord's Day, and it's been largely given up in Christendom at large.
It's selfishness. That's what it all boils down to, is to please myself and do what I want.
Instead of using it for the Lord. And I don't mean to be so presumptuous as to say that I've always made the right call on what to do with the Lord state. But fortunately in our home assembly, there's been an evening meeting that has been maintained along the years, through the years, and that has been a help to me to keep the Lord's Day in its proper perspective. I remember a conversation with someone from from another assembly.
And he talked about.
Going golfing. Lord, say afternoon. And I did a little bit of research, went back to some of the older lists of gatherings or something, and there used to be an evening meeting in that assembly. There wasn't any more. So that afternoon and that evening was open. And when there's a void, it gets filled with something else. So the Lord's Day is a transaction. Getting here was a transaction. Hosting us was a transaction. I take a deep breath.
I think about the tab for hosting this other side of that kitchen wall is a transaction, a big transaction to feed us as well as we've been fed.
On behalf of your guests, thank you very much for your kindness in that transaction.
Moses made a transaction. Let's turn to.
Hebrews, Chapter 11.
Before we turn to Hebrew. Yeah, Hebrews Chapter 11.
Verse 23. Hebrews 11 and 23. By faith Moses.
When he was born was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the King's commandment. By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Esteeming the reproach of Christ Greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.
For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
We'll just go that far. He had respect under the recompense of the reward. Jeremiah had respect onto the return of those lands. Moses had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
The world can't understand this choice that Moses has made, choosing rather to suffer affliction than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. I read once that Moses was in line to sit on Pharaoh's throne. There wasn't the son to be the heir, He was the son of Pharaoh's daughter. That was that was where he was headed.
He gave it all up to suffer affliction with the people of God. What he did was, and this is the tenant of the Christian path.
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He he sacrificed the present for the future. That's the tenet of the Christian path, sacrificing the present for the future. And it's the best investment you and I will ever make is to sacrifice the present for the future, not please myself, but to look ahead to what we have in glory and.
To the one score you're going to you're going to reap a rich reward If you look around this room and you look for a godly a godly help me to go on with you. That is it's going to be a rich reward right here in time and to have this this setting and to enjoy it with your household.
There's nothing. It's, it's heaven on earth. And you, you won't be disappointed.
And umm, so that's, that's Moses steps chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. The reproach of Christ. Yes, there will be reproach, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.
First Corinthians, chapter 3.
Verse 21.
Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours and your Christ, and Christ is God's. This is what we possess near once it's all, it's all in our possession and.
All of these things that he speaks of.
Life or death or things present or things to come. The enemy of our souls would, would, he'd he'd bring that lure past you that you're missing something by walking in the path of faith. But all things are yours. That is the reality of the Christian path. Life or death. Death is our servant that brings us into the.
Presence of the Lord absent from the body.
Present with the Lord and these are all these are all transactions and we come out ahead. All things are yours and your Christ and Christ is God's and.
Trying to trying to put my hand on that thought.
Once more and it's it's escaped me. Pardon me.
Back-to-back to Ezra, Chapter 9.
Chapter 8.
Here there's a journey back to Jerusalem on the part of 12 of the chief of the priests, verse 24, Ezra chapter 8 and verse 24. Then I separated 12 of the chief of the priests.
Umm Cherubaya Hashelbia, and ten of their brethren, and weighed unto them the silver and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering of the House of our God, which the King and his counselors, and his Lords, and all Israel their present had offered.
Down to.
Verse 29 Watch ye and keep them until you weigh them before the chief of the priests, and the Levites, and chief of the Fathers of Israel at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the House of the Lord.
So took the priests and the Levites the weight of the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem under the House of our God.
Verse 31 Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the 12Th day of the first month, to go under Jerusalem.
And the hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way. And we came to Jerusalem, and bowed there three days. Now on the 4th day was the silver and the gold, and the vessels weighed in the House of our God by the hand of Mermaid the son of Uriah the priest. And with him was Eliezer the son of Phineas, and with them was Josephad the son of Joshua, and Noah Daya the son of Binua Levites.
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By number and by weight of everyone and all the weight that was written at that time.
Also the children of those that have been carried away, which were come out of the captivity, offered burnt offerings onto the God of Israel. 12 bullocks for all Israel 90 and six rounds 70 and seven lambs. 12 He goats for a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering unto the Lord. And they delivered the King's Commission on to the King's lieutenants and to the governors on this side of the river, and they further the people and the House of God.
So we have.
We have wealth in our possession. It's been weighed out to us and.
Here they took it. They brought it back to Jerusalem. There was the enemy, such as lay in wait, by the way, but they were, they were preserved. And yes, there's going to be, there's going to be dangers, but they're preserved. You and I are going to be preserved with these precious, precious possessions in our hands to bring them back. And may it be that there is that.
Good start at one score and that good finish at 4 score that all is delivered. Just this.
This four score stage.
I want to.
Ought to acknowledge.
The stage of life where there isn't much that you haven't seen and you're still here and.
That's that's commendable and I appreciate, I'm sure I speak on behalf of everyone in this room that there is that going on in spite of the disappointments of the pathway and what a privilege to have your hand in furthering the people.
And the House of God, that's what's going to count for eternity, and that's what's going to.
Is God going to be a debtor to us? No, no, he keeps he keeps good books and every effort that you've made for him is going to bring a recompense and dear one score. I I would encourage you to to go on in these things to make them your own.
It's not genetic, young people, it has to be laid hold on yourself. And so I would encourage you to do that. There's a.
There's a wealth of truth in this precious book, in the ministry that's available to us, and may it be our desire to further the people and the House of God.