Open—V. Redman, B. Weiss, D. Perry
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Save your leader.
Seems to be.
Toward the end, we are now in every federal 1 Champion.
Redemption I am celebration, for I pray nothing.
In our souls it's hard. And what forgetfulness of thee Now I can say I'm saying progress more than Congress we shall be.
Sweetheart.
We need some freedom.
And my friends, and sweet and fond sweet. We can solve, we can die.
Wandering from the radar capable left by the Lord gave us night.
Few thoughts.
In the book of.
Nehemiah.
Just a few thoughts I had I've enjoyed lately.
In Nehemiah the 1St chapter.
The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hatchelia, and he came to pass in the month of Chris Lu.
In the 12Th year I was in Shawn Cheyenne, the palace, and Han I one of my brethren came, and he and a certain men of Judea. And I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captives concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captive there in the province are in great affliction and reproach.
And the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned.
With fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days.
And fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. And I said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, and the great and terrible God.
That keepeth the covenant, the mercy for them that love Him, and observe His commandments. Let Thy ear be attentive and the eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of Thy servant, which I pray before Thee now day and night for the children of Israel Thy servants, and confess thy sins and the children of Israel, which we have sinned against Thee. Both I and my Father's house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against Thee and have not kept.
The commandments, nor statues, nor judgments which thou hast commanded thy servant Moses, remember, I beseech thee.
The word that thou commendest, thou servant Moses, saying, If thou transgression, I will scatter thee.
Scatter you abroad among the nations. But if you turn unto me and keep my commandments, undo them.
Though thou were of a cast out unto the utmost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from thence, and I will bring them into the place that I have chosen.
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That set my name there now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou has redeemed by the Great Power.
And by the strong hand, And oh Lord, I proceed to Let now thy ear be attentive to their prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name and prosper. I pray thee thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the King's cup bearer. There's a lot of really practical instructions in the book of Nehemiah that I've really enjoyed for my own soul lately.
Here is a people that.
He got the news from.
One of his brethren.
And what was the condition of the people of God here? They were cast out.
Despised. Reproached in captivity.
And he hears he has a he has a concern for the people of God, doesn't he? Nehemiah has it on his heart.
And so he inquires as to their condition.
And what does he do? Does he say, does he throw up his arms and say, well, what can I do? I'm in captivity.
There's nothing I can do. I'm only the King's Cup bearer, not a real high, lofty position.
But no, the first thing he did is he went before the throne of grace, and we've been having that in our meetings lately. How wonderful that he He knew the resource of the one who could meet the needs.
Naturally speaking, this wasn't an impossible situation. And it was of God, wasn't it?
For their disobedience.
Further now to vain the commandments of God.
They were castaway and LED into captivity. And yet he praised this prayer.
And he identifies.
With the sin of the people.
And I believe that among the Saints here, sometimes that's lacking.
It's difficult to identify with other people's.
Sin and fault, and yet we're told to eat the sin offering.
To see our part in this, we know we are in the day of ruin. No one would question that for a moment.
And there is a real reproach to them who would seek to live for Christ.
As we had in our portion.
And the enemy is very active, especially those that are gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus. He's very.
Active in seeking to bring a reproach tomorrow that testimony, and to dishonor Christ.
In any way that he can.
And so.
We need to identify that, don't we?
There's not one in this room that wouldn't confess that we can feel the effects of the ruin around us.
But he goes to the source that can meet that need. God is greater than any need that we have. But I just wanted to point out a few things here in connection with this. We don't have time to go through all of this.
But I noticed that in the first chapter does God he goes to.
The Lord in prayer, He knows that God is interested in his people.
And He would have us to have His people on our hearts as we read in Philippians 1.
That the Apostle Paul had in his heart those Philippians.
And beloved every anytime we have the people of God.
And the Lord's honor and glory on our hearts, He'll always answer our prayers. There will never be.
Never have a a time and we go to the throne of grace that we don't and that we have the people of God on our hearts in his honor and His glory that He won't answer our prayers.
But we noticed that in the second chapter he is four months later that he answers.
His prayer, it's not answered right away, is it? And sometimes.
We have to weigh it on the answer from God.
Maybe four months, maybe four years.
Now I have mentioned before, if we have the people of God.
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On our hearts, in prayer before the throne of grace, and we have His honor and glory before us.
He'll answer our prayer according to his time, and I just wanted to.
And sometimes.
We need that patient grace from the Lord to wait His time.
A brother once told me just recently, he said that we're either ahead of God's time or we're lagging behind, so we need to be in His time. His time is perfect for us, and I just want to read one verse, keeping our place there back in. I think it's an Exodus 14.
Yes, verse 13 Exodus 1413. And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show you today. For the Egyptians which you have seen today, you shall see them again no more. And so here was an impossible situation, naturally speaking.
That.
The Children of Israel had been redeemed from Egypt.
There were God's people.
And they were backed up against the Red Sea, and how were they going to? And here comes the Egyptians down on them, insurmountable.
Impossibility, naturally speaking, that there was no escape.
The only resource they had was to stand still and see the salvation of God. I suppose that some of them who were good swimmers could have jumped in the river and started the lake there, or whatever it was the sea started swimming, but that probably wouldn't have gotten them too far. But here was a situation that really called for just waiting on the Lord.
And how so often I know in my own life and I speak to my own soul in this and we get ahead of the Lord and we really miss the blessing that he has for us. And I know we're living in a in a fast-paced high tech.
Age right now you buy a laptop computer and six months later you must throw it away or get it redone. So things are moving at A at a very fast pace, especially for the young people. They have so many things thrown at them, so many decisions, obstacles and the world wants to keep you busy. And sometimes if we really want to get the blessing and to know the will of God in our lives and and the direction he wants us to go.
For his purpose.
If we really want to live for Christ.
And we have to sometimes just back up and stand still and let the Lord work on our lives and wait His time. We are a very impatient people. I know I am, and I just wanted to bring that before you. But then back in Nehemiah, the Lord does answer his prayer in a marvelous way. And he's even prayed for the man. He didn't even call him a king, but he.
Says this man.
He was preparing the man's heart. He knew the Lord could prepare the man's heart.
And so.
He goes to the king and the king asks him why he said his continents and eat and I guess in that time it was a.
A pretty scary thing to go to a head of a monarch like that and a king that had all the power to life and death.
But he lets them know what his request was and.
The king grants to him his request.
And you know, and I think Nehemiah realized that it was all ordered of God ahead of time. And yet the grace of God we see in this that he as we have, and I believe it's in Ephesians where it says that he.
He answers our prayer exceedingly and abundantly, above all that we ask or think.
How many times we've prayed about something and the Lord so graciously has?
Has brought that prayer and answered our prayer and has brought it so exceedingly, so abundantly.
Far more than we ever expected. And so.
He gets ready to go and but he doesn't realize that.
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At first that he's about to meet a great opposition. You know, when we're in the Lord's will.
And we're going on with the Lord. There's always opposition. There's always that which the enemy will seek to disrupt.
And to hinder that work and we won't go into all of these right now.
Because I don't want to take all the time up, but there's there's seven things that.
The enemy.
Sought to confront.
And to.
To hinder the work of God that Nehemiah and his company.
We're about to do the first one was grief, and then there was laughter and wrath and mocking, fighting, compromise and then false accusations. So all of these things.
The enemy can throw at us.
But then he gets letters.
In a company of people to go with him. So what does he do now? He's not aware of what lies before him.
So how does he prepare to do this great under tax?
Well, we get that in Psalm 71.
And I think he probably knew and was aware of this verse.
I've enjoyed this for my own self.
71 verse 16 I will go in the strength of the Lord, so when we finally know the Lord's will and purpose for us.
And we know the pathway that's been marked out. Do we go on our own strength now? We're going to fail, aren't we? We go on the strength of the Lord. And we had a a great deal of that about being weak, that I'm strong.
We were reminded again that we can do all things without me. Excuse me? Where? It said without me, John 15, you can do nothing.
And so I believe that Nehemiah went with this idea that he waited on God's time. God answered his prayer in a way more than he ever expected, and then he went in the confidence and the strength of his God. He knew that if God called him for a purpose and a pathway and a work that needed to be done, he was going to supply the resource and enable Nehemiah.
And to provide whatever was needed for the work to be done, regardless of what opposition we might run into. So how wonderful we see this, that there's a time to sit still.
And let that still small voice speak to our hearts.
And then there's a time to go forward, but we need to remember to go forward in the strength of whom we can draw on, inexhaustible strength in the Lord Himself. So these are only the few things that there's so much more in here that I've enjoyed, but I just wanted to bring those two things that we just need to be before the Lord as to our time.
And waiting on him.
And how easy it is to get ahead of the Lord in service and the gospel work. We're eager to go out, but even in the gospel work, we need to be before the Lord. That it might be that we are LED of the Spirit of God in whatever we do for the Lord, that it might be that him working us, in US.
And then when we do go forward, we need to go independence and know that without him we can do nothing.
Are to continue in that same vein if we could, if you're still not in Nehemiah to turn there again.
To the other end, to Nehemiah 13, the last chapter.
Nehemiah having waited on the Lord, like brother Virgil mentioned here, having been LED of the Lord. What happens at the very end of this story here?
Verse 31. Very last verse in Nehemiah.
He says.
Remember Me, Oh my God, for good.
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And I remember when I first read that I thought.
For lack of better term, is this not a little self-serving?
If you'll notice through the chapter here, just kind of glance down, not going to take up much of your time, but he says did not I do this or that? Verse 17, for example, I contended with the nobles of Judah. Verse 25I contended with them and cursed them.
Smoked certain of them plucked off their hair, but.
I had to remember what was his Commission, his was to rebuild the wall. We have that as a little picture of separation here. They came back to the land from the captivity and great weakness and the and that wall was all that was between them and their enemies, which sought to overturn what the Lord was doing and bringing them back to the land and so.
Well, at the beginning of Nehemiah, he had a great deal of enemies on the outside. It turned out that they are often allied with those that were supposedly his helpers, and it was very, very difficult for him. And then the other thought that came to me was perhaps is Nehemiah interceding against the people of God like we have in Elijah. But you'll notice a little difference here. Go ahead and turn with me to 1St Kings.
Chapter 19.
And let's just look at Elijah's complaint for contrast, because I really believe we have something very different here.
At the end of verse 13, First Kings 19.
The Lord says, What doest thou hear, Elijah?
And he said I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts.
Because the children of Israel.
Not anybody in particular.
But he seems to have tarred the children of Israel with a very broad brush. He's included everybody.
The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, slain thy prophets with the sword, and I even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away.
Well, we know from the account in Romans and from what later happens that basically at this point his ministry has ended. He does a few more things, but the Lord tells him to Commission Elijah to take his place here. And furthermore, the Lord points out to him in verse 18, Yet have I left me 7000 in Israel all the needs which have not bowed unto bail in every mouth which hath not kissed him. So the Lord was in effect saying.
You know, you cannot characterize my people this way. You cannot speak about them thus. So if we turn back to Nehemiah 13.
You'll notice.
That Nehemiah does not characterize all of Israel, or even of the returning remnant that way. He speaks very specifically of those particular evils that he had to deal with.
And how he met with each one of them. And again, I don't want to take up too much time doing it, so I'm going to just kind of need your help to look over this yourselves.
But if you just glance down the chapter.
He verse 9 For example, I commanded they cleansed the chambers, chambers that have been defiled while he was gone. Verse 13 I made treasures over the treasuries.
Verse 22, I commanded the Levites they should cleanse themselves and cetera. What he was doing. He's not really bragging about himself.
He is more or less can I say of pouring out his heart to the Lord as if to say, you know, I've had I've, you've left me alone to do this work. In a way it's been difficult, but to you, O Lord, I can pour my heart out and what I guess I would encourage all of you to do.
Is that sometimes you're going to feel like you're all alone.
Especially in issues of separation, where you've walked a narrow path, where you've gone to meeting, sometimes not everybody else comes with you. You may be just one of a few there. For some of the younger folks, you know you don't have the outreaches and the programs and things that you see your peers enjoying in churches and so forth. And you know you've done things that the Lord has asked you to do and nobody else perhaps has noticed but Him. This, I believe, is what the Lord is saying here through Nehemiah. He's taking this path of separation. It's been hard.
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Sometimes people that were with him and close to him working with them, he had to rebuke them. And you know, it wasn't easy. It broke his heart. And so in the same sense here when he says, Remember Me, Oh my God for good in verse 31.
This just wasn't a private transaction between him and the Lord. This came down.
On the pages of Scripture to come down all these thousands of years for us to read and we can say, yes, Nehemiah, the Lord remembered you for good and so do we.
So we enjoyed our brother.
Simon's address yesterday afternoon on the Minor Prophets.
And no doubt in trying to.
Cover the scope of all those books. He left some crumbs on the table.
Perhaps we can look again at justice. A few things in the Minor Prophets.
I feel the burden of this because.
What I have on my heart here applies to me first.
In my brethren.
Micah, Chapter 3.
Verse 10.
They build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priest thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money.
Yet will they lean upon the Lord and say.
Is not the Lord among us?
Non evil can come upon us.
Therefore shall John, for your sake be plowed as a field.
Jerusalem should become as heaps.
And the mountain of the house.
As the higher places of the forest.
He is not the Lord among us.
You know, I believe in these the last days we have the privilege.
Have been gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ at His table.
And he himself sits at the head of that table.
As we remember him.
And these are the last days of Christendom.
And the mess that the Christian Church has become because of a lack of faithfulness for people by you and me.
In.
Matthew 25, The 10 virgins, they all slumbered and slept.
Did any of them live up to their responsibilities now?
Have any of us perfectly lived up to our responsibilities?
As Christians.
Each with a gift.
To be used for the building up.
Of the Church of God, that which he loved, actually he valued.
And he gave me, he gave it to us to take care of.
Have we been faithful in that responsibility?
Now.
And here we see those who would boast of having the Lord's presence.
But their moral condition didn't answer to it.
What was God's answer?
Well, we read in Ezekiel how the presence of the Lord leaves that temple.
And I believe the prophet here, Micah, looks forward to that time.
When Nebuchadnezzar's going to come in and destroy that temple?
Now there is a comment.
In Mr. Darby's synopsis, and I think it's regarding a scripture in Jeremiah. Forget exactly where I come what what scripture it related to it.
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Now.
But the comment goes like this.
It is a solemn thing.
When God destroys that which he set up.
A solemn thing when God destroys that which he stood up.
But he destroyed that temple.
Mr. Darby goes on to say.
Because it no longer represented him.
The moral condition of those who were in that temple.
We know that.
Idolatry came into that temple.
One of the kings rearranged the temple to suit himself and putting an altar there that was a copy of one from Damascus.
And eventually the Lord.
Destroys it.
Because it no longer represents him.
I hope you'll bear with what I say now.
When I was first at a Des Moines conference was nearly 40 years ago.
Conference was about a week later that year.
I came from a small waiting in England.
Found a large number of gathered Saints there in Des Moines.
Able ministers of the word, amongst them Chapter Brown, I think are just about just recently gone to California. Tom McMillan.
Younger brethren, that was zealous for the Lord.
Outreach. Prison work.
The Wall.
This is what an assembly has gathered to the Lord's name ought to be.
Where is it now?
Is it a warning to us?
To boast the Lord's presence amongst us, but not at the moral condition that answers to it.
As a collective testimony.
Do we for reflect the light and love the wisdom and grace of our Lord Jesus?
Collectively and as we were commenting on this morning, it was an individual thing we had before us this morning, but I think our brother Don was quite correct when he associated that our collective testimony has been the sum of our individual testimony.
And so if I allow things in my life and you allow things in your life.
It detracts.
From that testimony.
Had been gathered to the Lord's name.
I believe the Prophet answers that in the 6th chapter.
Verse 6.
Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings and with cars of a year old? No.
If I dare answer that question.
May the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with 10,000 rivers of oil, No.
Shall I give my first born for my transgression, and the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
No.
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good.
And what does the law require of thee but to do justly?
And to love mercy.
And to walk humbly.
With thy God.
That was the moral condition.
That would answer to the Lord's present amongst them.
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I can't judge.
Those brethren that were in Des Moines, only the Lord knows, but I just have to. It just seems so striking to me.
40 years ago.
What was there then?
Until we find now a company.
That we can recognize as gathered to the Lord's name in that city.
I know that there's a universal principle of Scripture which I'll read and in First Samuel.
24th Samuel two, I think.
Yeah, that's a part of verse 30.
Then the honour me I will honour.
And they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
Yes, if there's one who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.
And would go along to a company of Christians.
With a sincere desire to honor the Lord Jesus, I believe that the Lord honors that person.
But does that mean that?
Because there is a Christian there, I can associate with that group of Christians.
Or is there amongst the mess of Christendom 1 Lord's Table?
Paul said, Is Christ divided?
Paul couldn't accept the concept of a bit of the Lord's Table here and a bit of the Lord's Table over there.
But at the same time.
As we have that privilege of meeting around the Lord's Table, there is that moral responsibility that goes with it.
I don't know, obviously I can't comment.
As to why the Lord allowed that in respect of Des Moines?
But looking back, if somebody had said me to me 40 years ago.
What do you think is going to happen to you? More enough? Or well, maybe the Lord will come first, but the concept of no more those gathered to the Lord's name.
When there appeared to be such strength.
Did the Lord detect something that I didn't?
And doesn't it bring before us our responsibility?
To live up, shall I say, to be dependent upon Him, in dependence upon him, as we had this morning.
To have that desire individually.
To walk through his praise and his glory. You know the apostle, he had a choice and he told us what the result, what what he would choose. He said to depart and be with Christ is far better.
But as I think it was pointed out this morning, he didn't exercise that choice. He left that choice to the Lord.
The Lord raised me up in health and strength this morning.
He's done that in the measure for everyone in this room.
Maybe we could say it wouldn't be our choice.
We know that to be with Christ, which was far better, but the Lord has done it.
And he has a purpose for each one of us to die in doing it.
We should walk for His praise and for His glory.
Another happier picture.
You know and Sunday school Bible class at Pine Grove we.
We read through Ezra.
Nehemiah, Esther.
And then all the post exiled prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
Most instructed I.
Would recommend it to anyone who wants to do it.
And so we find another little picture in Haggai.
The nation had gone into captivity in Babylon.
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That the opportunity comes for them to return.
To Jerusalem.
And.
Just a few thousand out of a nation that was probably a couple of million at the time.
Return to Jerusalem.
Most of them have become pretty comfortable in Babylon.
They've made their fortune.
The Jews seem to do that wherever they go.
They made themselves very comfortable in Babylon.
And the idea of going back to God's center, acting according to God's Word, and seeking out God's center.
And going back to Jerusalem and building that temple didn't seem terribly attractive to them. And they stayed in Babylon.
But that remnant went back.
With a desire in their hearts to please the Lord and act on His word.
And as we were reminded yesterday, they soon got discouraged.
Maybe even start to look after their own things, themselves, their their their leads and their comforts became their first.
Objective rather than rebuilding the Lord's temple. And so Haggai would encourage them. He rebukes them and encourages them.
But notice what he says. Then spake Haggai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message to the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord.
I am with you, saith the Lord, the Lord's messenger, delivering the Lord's message. I am with you.
And then encourage us in the course to build that temple, to exercise that Christian responsibility which we all have, to use whatever gift he's given us for the Lord's glory, for building up his church.
Where was the Lord?
In those days, was he with a couple of million in Babylon?
No, you read the book of Esther and it's remarkable.
It deals with.
Those that remained in the Babylonish Kingdom.
And their trials and difficulties.
And we learn there that God is always.
He never neglects his people. He may allow trials to come in. He never neglects them.
And so trials are allowed to come in.
And the Lord delivers them.
But does he associate his name?
With them in Babylon.
Now the Lord's name is not mentioned in the book Vester.
But here he says to this company.
I'm the Lord's messenger and I'm going to give you the Lord's message. That's this little feeble remnant.
I'm with you, saith the Lord.
And it's repeated.
Chapter 2.
Verse five, I believe this was read to us yesterday according to the word that I covenanted you when I came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you.
Sorry, I should have read the previous verse or the end of the previous verse.
I am with you, saith the Lord of Hosts, according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt.
So my spirit remains among you. Fear you not.
And then he goes on, of course, to describe the.
That which will happen when the Lord before, just before the Lord, comes to take his rightful place as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, He will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.
What encouragement it was for that little company.
Ezra tells them to go back and think of what Solomon's temple was. Yeah.
We don't live in Apostolic times, do we?
But nevertheless, there was a little company there that acted on the word of God.
And he says I'm with you.
Malachi.
Our brother commented on the.
Parallels between the minor prophets, as we call them.
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And the.
And the.
Seven churches.
And Malachi is the.
Laodicea of the seven churches.
There was that which was due to the Lord, and they were careless about it.
Once again, they were looking after their own things.
They wanted the best for themselves and second best for the Lord.
Does the Lord get second best of our energy?
Our time. I've got to speak to myself in this, haven't I?
Two or three years ago I was in England.
Went to a fellowship meeting there and brother Paul Kendall got up and.
Ministered.
Do you know what scripture you read?
Ephesians 4.
See if I can find it.
So yeah, yes, verse 28.
That him that stole steal no more.
How would you like to minister on that scripture?
Him that stole still no more.
I felt for my billfold and my English brethren become light fingered.
Then he turned to Malachi.
3rd chapter isn't it?
Verse eight Will a man rob God?
Will a member of God? Are you a robber?
Are you taking what the Lord gives you and using it for yourself?
Got to speak to myself in this, haven't I?
Second best was for the Lord.
If an animal is lame, oh that's a good one for an offering.
And so they robbed God.
They took of that which He had given Him, He had given them to use for his praise and for His glory, and use it for themselves.
But even in this, there's a little bit of an encouragement, shall I say?
Because in the 16th verse of that chapter. And they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it in the book of remembrance was written before him.
For them that feared the Lord.
And that thought upon his name.
And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spare of his own son that serveth him.
And I like to see in Luke's gospel.
I believe we get a little glimpse of, shall I say, that remnant of a remnant.
In Simeon.
And Anna?
And.
Just reading concerning Anna, and she was a woman. She was a widow of about four score and four years. What weakness?
Which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in at that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord.
And spake of him.
To all of them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
Yeah, I believe that was just that little remnant, that little remnant of a remnant that we reel of in Malachi were there to welcome the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth.
What about responsibilities as Christians?
Have we taken what the Lord has given us and used it for ourselves? Have we robbed God?
Does our moral condition looked at collectively?
Answer.
To that privilege that we have.
A being at the Lord's Table had been gathered to his name.
311.
00:50:09
One to several.
Days pursue.
My name shall be grilled in.