YP Address—N. Simon
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Could we begin?
Singing.
That well known hymn #256.
Praise the Savior, Ye who know Him, who can tell how much.
Keep us laughter, keep us cleaving to thyself, and still be leaving till the hour of our receiving promised joys with thee. If someone could start that, please #256.
Experience Rainforest.
Training ground.
Is low of my grass and it's a little darker so I'm going to be.
A lot of yeast must pray in the life of the lights.
I would just like to read 2 verses in Revelation chapter 3.
Revelation chapter 3 and verse 2.
Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die.
For I have not found thy works perfect before God.
And then verse 11 Behold, I come quickly, hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Shall we just pray?
If we could turn to Nehemiah chapter 3.
Nehemiah chapter 3 is a chapter that has been taken up in meetings no doubt many times.
It's the story of the rebuilding of the Wall of Jerusalem.
And in particular, in that wall, there were 10 gates. Now, this chapter could be taken up in different ways. And I would encourage you, each of you here, to read that chapter and just meditate upon it. If you look at the people involved, there's much to be learned and and much encouragement, much instruction and admonition. I don't intend to take it up in with respect to the people that were building.
This afternoon, but rather.
I would like to look specifically at those 10 gates that I mentioned, and it seems to me that each of those 10 gates represents some truth that was recovered in the history of Christianity, in the history of Christendom, and.
Is in danger again of being lost.
The walls of Jerusalem were in disrepair, the gates were burnt and they had to be restored.
And so they were.
But if we go on and read more through the Old Testament and the New Testament, we find that again things fell into decay, into ruin. And so as I said, I want to take these 10 gates up, especially in regards to truth that was recovered in the history of Christendom, but of very much in danger of being lost again.
00:05:19
There are 10 gates now in the Book of Nehemiah. We know there's actually two more gates, but they're not in this chapter.
So altogether there are 12 gates, but there are 10 mentioned here. 10 would speak of responsibility. We have a responsibility and you young people, you have a responsibility. You might say, well I didn't choose to be raised in the Assembly.
I'm afraid it doesn't matter. You have a responsibility.
Responsibility to purchase for yourself those truths that are faithful, faithfully been taught over the years and to make them good to yourself. It's not something that you can be handed on a platter and that you can take away. Know it comes at a price. So the first gate, we have 10 gates and we have an hour. So you can figure that out. It's not much time for gate, so let's move along.
In chapter Nemi chapter 3, verse one, then Elias ship the high priest, rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate. They sanctified it and set up the doors of it even unto the tower of Mihah. They sanctified it into the tower of Haniel.
Well.
Just one comment on these gates. You'll find that with names in the Old Testament that the Hebrews or the Jews were not necessarily particularly imaginative.
They tend to call things exactly what they were, and so I have no doubt that the sheep gate served the function of bringing in sheep especially for sacrifice.
And so it comes should come as no surprise to us that the very first gate is the sheet gate and that.
Perhaps not. Perhaps that is the very first thing that we must have a grasp of in our lives. Our faith must rest on that perfect and complete work of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that He has done it all, that He has shed that blood that washes us from our sins, and that we can rest upon that and know that we are saved. Not wonder, not fear.
A day where we're going to have to be weighed in the balance and all. How am I going to come out? But there was a time.
When that truth was forgotten. When it was unknown.
Where if you ask that question that Job asked in Job Chapter 9, how can man be just before God? There was no answer that could give you any comfort whatsoever. And then the light of the Reformation came. And that's why I read those verses inside us in chapter 3. Now Sadas has described in Revelation chapter 3 is not so much the Reformation, but where the Reformation has become.
But just returning back to the Reformation, it wasn't just one man, but I will mention Martin Luther and it's it's always amuses me a little bit that when you speak to a modern generation, you have to remind them the Martin Luther I'm Speaking of lived back in the 1500s. He didn't live in the 1900s. But I'm talking about a man that lived in Germany.
Back in the 1500s He was born in the late 1400s and went on into.
The 1500s and he struggled with that question, How can a man be just before God?
And finally an old monk said to him, I believe in the forgiveness of sins. And the light came on. I feel like I may say that reverently.
Can you imagine the state of a man knowing or not knowing that there is any forgiveness of sins, Always wondering, always fearing, always doubting, never knowing that perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ?
In connection with the Lamb, let's just read a verse.
First Peter chapter one.
Well known verse that everyone here probably learnt at some time or another in Sunday school.
First, Peter 118 For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spark. And as I said, as we go through these gates, this really forms the foundation. And if you take this gate away, and I believe that in Christendom, looking at the Christendom as a whole, that this gate indeed has been given up in many places.
00:10:09
Completely forgotten what Christianity is, the very meaning of it.
But we move on now to the next gate, the fish gate chapter verse three but the fish gate to the sons of Hassan Hassan are build which who also laid the beams thereof and set up the doors that are off the locks thereof and the bars thereof. Now I said that the gates weren't named particularly imaginatively. So the fishgate. What do you think it was for? Well, the fishermen were out out in the morning and caught their fish. Now I realized that Jerusalem is neither on a lake nor on the ocean, but I believe that they.
Have brought the fish into the city through the fish gate and perhaps the men that got those fish went out through that gate. Well that was speak to remind me of what we find in the gospels. We just look at a verse in Mark chapter one.
March chapter one verse 17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become.
Fishers of men you know when the light of.
The truth of the gospel came on during the dark ages. There was finally some good news to preach. Now you could go out and preach the gospel, you know, as I said that.
The Reformation didn't revolve around one man. There were many.
And the morning Star is he's often been called as the Reformation was a man by the name of Wickliffe.
I hope I get these things right.
But anyway, he translated the first part the the New Testament into English.
And in those days, that was before the printing press, and they had every Bible, every New Testament had been written out by hand. And those handwritten copies of the New Testament was so precious that you can still buy them today if they're not in a museum. I looked on the Internet some years ago and I discovered you could acquire a copy for about $5,000,000. Do you value what you have in your hand?
That much, but I'm digressing. We'll get on to the Word of God in a little bit when we get to another gate. But what I want to emphasize here is that when those men got the Word of God, they had something, They had a message. They could go out now and preach the gospel and that's what they did.
But I just want to look at a verse in John 10.
Because the Fish Gate is a gate in the walls of the city of Jerusalem, and the city of Jerusalem was a very special city. It just wasn't any city. It was the city where God had placed His name. It was there that the children of Israel were to go and to worship and to no other place.
And again, we'll look at that some more detail when we get to yet another gate.
But the fish gate was a gate where you could go out. And so in John 10 it says in verse one, Verily, verily I say to you, that he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold the class up by some other way, the same as the thief and the robber, but he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
Skipping down to verse nine, I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find posture. And so we come in through that gate, through the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone we cannot come in any other way, but we go out in service and we come back in for worship. And so the gospel must always be.
Remembering that the assembly, that place where God has put His name, is the center. We don't just go out and save people and say, oh, but you're free now to do whatever you want.
We read further on in this chapter and it says in verse 14, I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep, and an owner mine as the Father knoweth me, Even so know I the Father.
And I lay down my life with a sheep and other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one flock.
And one shepherd, the point of the evangelist is to bring those fish in, to bring those lambs in.
So that there might be 1 flock gathered around 1 shepherd.
And so there we have the fish gate.
Now again moving on to verse six, the Old Gate.
Moreover, the old gate repairs Jehoiada the son of Pasia and Meshalam the son of they laid the beams arrive and set up the doors that arrive and the locks thereof and the bars thereof. Now one thing just to back up just a little bit.
00:15:12
You know, I said that during the dark ages, when the Gospel, the light of the gospel, was pretty much hid, shut out, as it were, by and large, what did men do? Well, they thought by their works they might merit salvation, by their works they might.
Find a way into heaven. But we read in and you don't have to turn to it. Romans 4 it says in verse five, to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. That's how we're saved, not resting in our own works, but resting in that perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And there's other verses we could turn to. I just turned run Romans 10. Speaking of the Jews, it says for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God.
And so men, not knowing the righteousness of God, was seeking to establish their own righteousness.
And the law demands righteousness of man, but it cannot produce righteousness.
And I want to talk a little bit about the old gate.
Now let's just look at a verse in Deuteronomy chapter 19.
Chapter Deuteronomy 19 and verse 14 Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmarks, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it.
And then umm.
A verse in Jeremiah chapter 6.
Jeremiah chapter 6 and verse 16.
Thus after the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said We will not walk therein.
You know, I spoke some years ago here to the young people on this subject.
Of the the old landmarks and not moving them and I commented that.
Stonehenge, which most of you probably know what it is. It's a monument in Great Britain on the plains of Salisbury, and no one knows what it was built for. Just recently there was an announcement, just like last week, how that they discovered the almost precise location where they got the rocks to build that monument from, and those rocks came from whales, which is 100 or more miles away. Why did they cut this bluestone out and move it all the way down?
Plains of Salisbury and make this circle of standing stones. No one knows. Now there's lots of speculation, lots of theories, and some may well be close. I don't know. But let me tell you something. Those that built that circle knew why they built it, and their children knew why they built it, and their grandchildren no doubt knew why they built it. But at some point.
There was a generation that no longer knew why that stone circle was built.
And so each generation has to buy the truth.
What does that mean to buy the truth? Well, let's just look at where that's found. It's in Proverbs and, uh, it's chapter 23, verse 23.
That helps to remember things sometimes. 2323 but it says buy the truth and sell it, not also wisdom and instruction and understanding.
Just to illustrate what it means to buy the truth, let's look at Second Samuel.
Chapter 15.
And this is a very sad story. David is being driven out of Jerusalem. His son Absalom has mounted an insurrection and taken over, and David has driven out. Who is it that goes with David? Who is it that flees from Jerusalem with David? All you say it's, it's the children of Judah. They love him. They're going to go with him.
But you know, family connections will never keep you if you are here today because of family connections.
00:20:02
It's not going to keep you if you're here today because your friends are here today, it's not going to keep you.
In second Samuel chapter 15 it says in verse 19 well.
I will read in verse 18, Second Samuel 15, verse 18. All the servants passed them beside him, more than Cherathites or Kerasites, and the Pelophytes and all the Gittites. 600 men which came after him from Gaff, passed on before the king. Then said the king to Iti the Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? Return to thy place and abide with the king, for thou art a stranger and also an exile. So here we have one Ittai the Gitai, who was from Gath, who also was from Gath.
But at some point it ties history, he said. I have done with the idols of this world. I don't need Goliath anymore. My affections are with David. And even when David goes into exile, Iti, the man from gas, the Gentile goes with him. And as far as we can tell, the Kerasites and the Pelophytes were probably Gentiles as well.
It was no longer a question of family connection, it was a question.
Of the sections of the heart, and Ittai's heart was bound up in that one that he gave up all four.
He left gas and he said my lot is with David, I am going to go with him. That's what it means to buy the truth to sell it not but back to we mentioned I read there in Deuteronomy in 19 verse 14, I believe it was that they want to remove the neighbor's landmarks. Well, those landmarks were not strictly speaking in the sense of.
A landmark like Stonehenge was, but rather they were markers that marked the edges of their property.
And I know that on my yard I can go to one corner. I can still see a survey peg that was pounded in there that marked the corner of my little lot that I own.
And for an Israelite, their land was very important. It was their inheritance. It couldn't even go from one tribe to another. You couldn't even sell it.
You could lease it.
But that was as far as you could go. Their land was so important and you couldn't move your landmark to steal a little of your neighbors.
And he couldn't move that landmark and steal a little bit of yours. And so I asked you today, young people, do you know what your inheritance is? Do you know what those old paths are? Do you have any interest in them at all?
It's your heritage.
It's your inheritance. You know, I believe that both through during the time of the Reformation in the early part of the 1800s, there was a desire to return back to those old paths in the Reformation. Perhaps it was very little. Perhaps it was just knowing that we were saved by faith, justified by faith and faith alone, and not by works, not by works of righteousness, which we have done.
But there was a returning back to those old paths and then in the 1800s again, there was a far deeper understanding of what our heritage is, those things that we have in Christ.
Our salvation rests in Christ, our redemption where you can look this up for yourself. All the things that we have in Christ, look at that expression in Scripture. There are so many things that we have in Christ. Do you know what they are? Do you even know what they are? Do you value them? You know, I remember when I spoke to young people some years ago on this.
That I mentioned that I grew up on a farm in Australia.
Because most of you probably know and uh.
It was in hilly country and the farm was long and thin and wound its way along the valley, a steep sided valley. And I can remember with my brother, my older brother Steven, he and I would periodically head off to one corner or another of the property. We'd say I haven't been down to the far end.
For a long time, let's go down there and we'd walk all the way down there to the far corner of the property. Then we might walk up the hill and walk along the Ridge all the way back to the other end of the property.
You know, it says in Joshua chapter one and I'll just read it.
Joshua chapter one, the Lord says, every place that the soul of your feet shall tread, upon that have I given you, as I said unto Moses. And so dear young people, unless you walk these things, you know there is such a wealth of ministry. Perhaps it's overwhelming, but you know, you don't even have to read it for yourselves anymore. It's all available online. Go back to those old.
00:25:16
Meetings, addresses from this you know, from conferences in the Los Angeles area from years gone by and listened to what those older brothers said. Find out.
But those old paths were. Find out what the corners of your heritage are and walk those paths.
And make a conscious decision to buy. You know, there are other examples in Scripture too, I think that we could come up with if those individuals that bought the truth and there's always a price that comes with it.
But it was a price that they were willing to pay.
So let's move on now. As I said, these are things that were recovered and in danger of being lost, and each generation they did. You just don't inherit it. You know that happens a lot these days. But if you inherit money, you don't have to do anything. It just comes to you. Well, these things don't just come to you, you have to make them your own. So then the next gate is the valley gate, and that's found in verse 13. The valley gate repaired Hannon and the inhabitants of.
They built it and set the doors thereof. The locks are off and the bars are off. And 1000 cubits on the wall. And to the Dung Gate. Well, we'll talk about the Valley Gate first.
Well, let's read a well known verse in Psalm 23.
Psalm 23 says the Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the positive righteousness for his name's sake. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me well. I just want to share something that a brother who is in this room.
Umm, shared and, uh, probably on multiple occasions now.
But he pointed out that the valley gate, the the the umm, the valley spoken of there in Psalm 23, is often used in connection with those sorrows that we encounter in our lives. But he suggested that the valley is spoken of is really this world, you know, the shadow of death.
The shadow of the Cross is cast upon this world in which we live.
This Weld is really the valley of the shadow of death.
And so how does that connect with a truth that was recovered? Well, I believe that when you look at the Reformation.
Well, let's just if you look at those seven churches in Revelation chapter two and three, we find that with Ephesus.
There is a church as a whole that is separate from this world.
When you get to Simona, we find a church, an assembly that is persecuted by this world.
When we get to Pergamos, sadly, which would speak of the time of Constantine and so on, we find a a, an assembly. The Church is settled down in this world. When you get to Thyatira, which would speak of the system we call Roman Catholicism, we find that the Church rules the world. And when we get to samurai coming to Sardis, we find that the world now protects the Church.
When we get to Philadelphia, it's not like emphasis where the church as a whole is separate from the world, but we find a remnant.
Separate from this world. And when of course, when we get to latest here, we find a system that is completely indistinguishable from this world. And so the Reformation, that's something they never saw. They never recognized this separation from the world. In fact, those we call Protestants, that word comes from protest. And the protest it speaks of was a protest that was signed by various German Princess.
It was signed by political heads. There was not a single signature by what we would call an ecclesiastic on that protest. It was a protest that was entirely political in nature.
00:30:03
Indeed, that was one of the downfalls of the Reformation.
So many of the churches that came out of the, what we call churches, the umm, denominations that came out of the Reformation are connected with nationalities. So you have the Dutch Reformed Church, Swiss Reformed Church. Lutheranism is especially connected with Germany and Sweden. Not entirely, of course.
And when we look at the address, decide, as it says unto the Angel of the church inside us, write these things right. These things, says he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. If you look back at.
Revelation chapter 2, verse one. It says these things, saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand. We don't see inside of those seven stars in his hand. Or rather the church looked to the world for its protection.
There was another reformer by the name of Zwingli.
And I'll refer to him again in a minute.
Have a have a habit of saying that and then forgetting to, but you'll forgive me if I don't. But Zwingli, he went further than Luther, and he saw things a little clearer than Luther. Luther never could free himself from the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, and I won't digress to explain that. Instead, he came up with a system called consubstantiation, where he believed that the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ were not physically in the blood in the in the wine and the loaf.
And the loaf and the wine was there nevertheless.
Zwingli saw that the when he said this is my body, that it was just like the Lord said I am the door, he didn't mean he was a physical door. And when he said that that loaf was his body, he didn't mean that it would become his body, flesh and blood.
Swingley saw that, but sad to say, guess how Zwingli died?
He died fighting a battle. He took up the sword, and he died by the sword. And so, as I said, the Reformation, they never saw that there was to be this separation from the world. And it's not until we get until the 1800s and to those early brethren that there began to be a clearer picture that we have no place in this world. And young people, what is this world? What do we mean when we talk about the world?
Well, the Greek word for world is.
Cosmos and the cosmos. We use that word today for something a little different. When you go out at night, look up the stars. That's what we refer to as the cosmos. And you know, if you go out and look up in the stars every night, apart from the fact they all rotate a little bit, they're all perfectly ordered in the same place. And the reason why? The word world.
Comes from the word cosmos because it means an ordered arrangement of things.
And this world has its ordered arrangement. It has its politics.
It has its entertainment, it has its sports. You know, every Sunday thousands of people go and worship at the stadiums. They're heroes.
We need to be careful that we're not caught up in this world system because Satan has a system. He has his own religions.
We have no pot replaced. You know, I mentioned some of the things that we have in Christ. Well, in Ephesians in chapter 2 it says I'll just read it.
And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You know, I I'm not just speaking to you, I speak to myself. You know, we cannot help but recognize that the, the character of Christendom in the day in which we live is Laodicean through and through. And it affects us. It affects us.
And so, as I said, these are gates that were built up.
And they're falling down again. They're falling into decay.
So now we move on to the next gate, the Dung Gate. The Dung Gate repaired Malkia the son of Rahab. This is Nehemiah 3, verse 14.
The Dung Gate, Well, again, as I said, Hebrew names are very descriptive. This is where the waste and the refuge was taken out of the city.
00:35:02
Let's just look at a verse now in.
Chronicles, chapter 34.
We know that prior to the captivity.
That the city of Jerusalem and the temple that lay in the midst of her became increasingly under decay. And you can read in the book of Ezekiel where you find that the inner walls of the temple seem to be covered in graffiti and pictures of idols and every filthy thing.
But there was a king just prior, just prior to the captivity of Judah.
Josiah, who cleansed that city, he cleansed it. He took out all those things that were contrary to the word of God and would have exposed them out through the Dung Gate. And as I said, in the Reformation there was not only not a recognition of separation from this world, but the world was seen as a useful tool, but there wasn't even really a clear recognition of separation.
From all those things that were standing against.
So Luther didn't see that it was necessary to remove the idols from the churches because he thought it would arouse the people.
Zwingli went further. He removed all the idols and images from the churches and whitewashed the walls.
But then again, he did never recognize that that building was not the church.
No, it wasn't to the for the reformers to recover that truth.
But as I said with Zingley, there was a, an, an expulsion of those things that were at least outwardly recognisable, was very contrary to the word of God. And that's what we find that Josiah did. It says that in in Second Chronicles 34, in verse 3. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father. In the 12Th year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the Groves and the carved images.
And the molten images, these are all things that have been brought into the city by various kings.
We turn back to Chapter 28. We find.
King Ahab, great great grandfather. I think of Josiah.
So Second Chronicles 28, Now Ahaz was a very refined man. He liked science, he liked the arts. But it says of him in verse 24 of Second Chronicles 28 that he made at the end of the verse, he made altars in every corner of Jerusalem. That describes Christendom today. Jerusalem. Well, that was the place where God had put his name. So what's wrong with putting altars in every corner? Everybody could go wherever they like.
That's not what God intended. There was one flock and there was to be 1 shepherd.
A lot of time is moving on.
Let me just read one other verse in connection with the dungate, and that's in the last chapter of Hebrews.
Last chapter of Hebrews Hebrews 13 and it says.
Verse 9 Be not carried away with divers, or diverse and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the happy establishment of grace, not with meats which have not profited, and which have not, which have been occupied therein we have an altar where are they have no right to each which serve the Tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is broad near the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.
Oh, I do want to say a little more about the dungate. You know, the one thing that people resist more than anything else is separation within Christendom.
But when those things are brought in that are contrary to the word of God.
Then there must be a separation when the camp became defiled. Then the sacrifice had to be taken outside and burnt without the camp. And that's where we're to go without the camp.
Unto him, not just to gather wherever we like, but unto Him without the camp bearing his reproach. Second Timothy, chapter 2.
Second Timothy, chapter 2.
Says.
00:40:02
In verse 20. But in a great house there are not many vessels of gold and silver, but also wooden of earth, and some to honor, and some to their son. And if a man therefore purge himself from these, reject them, reject those things, and unfortunately the house will also be a separation from those that refuse to reject those things.
And he shall be a vessel of honour, sanctified, and meet for the masses, used and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful us, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Let's look at the next gate.
The 15th of our chapter, Nehemiah 3. But the gate of the fountain repaired Shalom, the son of Cocola has Cohosa, the ruler of the part of Mizpah. He built it and covered it well. The fountain gate I would believe, I believe would speak of the Spirit of God. You know, there wasn't a recognition in the Reformation of the the Spirit of God as being that which lights us together to our glorified head in heaven.
Liberty was not given to the Spirit of God.
To act in the assemblies, in the churches of that day, they were appointed ministers. Even missionary work was directed by a border, some form of governance.
But.
In the early part of the 1800s, there was a recognition of the true character of the church. Now I'm going to read to you something that I know I've shared many times before, but I want to share it with you. This was written by a Presbyterian minister.
I don't know. There was a Presbyterian minister to the end of his life. He was also the 1St president of Dallas Theological College.
This was written by a man whose heritage was the Reformation.
And he wrote, following the clips of nearly all truth. In the Dark Ages, it was given to Martin Luther in the 16th century to reinstate the doctrine of salvation through faith alone, and in the last century it was given to J&W of England to reinstate the doctrine of the Church.
Andrew Miller wrote a little book called The Brethren, so commonly, so-called, and he has something in there and I paraphrased it. He says that the Church was the body of Christ, of which he is the glorified head in heaven, and it being indwelt and governed by the Holy Spirit was completely foreign to Christendom in 1827. Astonishing. What you young people I don't think realize is how much of those the truth that was.
Covered by the exercise of those early brethren are not putting Mr. Darby on a pedestal, any more than I want to put Mr. Luther, or the Wingley or John Calvin, who were very important men, whose heritage we should value what they did, and those that gave their life. John Huss. Wickliffe, Tyndale.
These are men that in some cases gave their lives for the truth. We should value what they did not put them on a pedestal, but to dismiss them and and somehow say, oh, Mr. Diver, you all, all you just don't put him on a pedestal. I I don't want to have anything to do with that.
That's just an excuse.
But you don't realize, young people, how much that the churches around you, evangelical Christendom is called today, how much of the truth, the truth of the rapture, which we'll get to in just a minute. How much came from the exercise of early brethren and to give the Holy Spirit liberty in the assembly was something that was completely new. Now I just want to touch briefly on the Holy Spirit. It says we can grieve the Holy Spirit that's in.
That was speak I think of us individually and you know what spizzle the fountain gate that it was covered. If you look in the Song of Solomon, you find out that it speaks of the the bride as a I'll just read it Song of Solomon.
Song of Solomon chapter 4, verse 12 A gardening closes my sister, my spouse a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
You know, if we're just an open vessel, all sorts of things can fall in and we can grieve the Holy Spirit. You cannot lose the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of your saved. If you don't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you're none of his.
But if you're safe, you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Now. There was also a counterfeit movement in the 1800s as well that emphasized manifestations of the Spirit. Speaking in tongues is what we call the charismatic movement. That word charisma comes from the Greek word meaning gift. It means the showing off of gifts. The Holy Spirit was not does not exalt man, it exalts Christ.
00:45:15
I'll give you a verse.
It's.
In John.
16 There are many verses we could look at in connection with the Holy Spirit, but time is moving on.
John 16.
In verse 28 it says.
Sorry.
John 16 verse 14 It says, He shall glorify me, for he shall receive a mind and show it unto you. The Spirit exalts Christ.
And makes his present glories known. It doesn't exalt man. So often we find that every movement, every restoration of the truth is is accounted by something that's counterfeit, something that is either false or counters the truth.
I was working with someone who had only worked for the company for a very short time and we're on a business trip and we had to drive many hours to a location in Wyoming from Colorado, what would have been a six hour drive, I suppose. And we started talking and he seemed a bright man and, uh, interested in religious things. And he asked me what I believe and he, oh, yes, oh, yes. Oh, that's lovely.
It turned out he was a Mormon.
Mormonism also arose in the 1800s and he recognised that instantly. He said, oh, how interesting that what you call brethren and Mormonism rose about the same time. Yes, a false system to counter that which was true and I'm not resulting brethren as not brethren is that I want to talk about. Anyway, let's go back to.
Near my chapter 3 so we have the fountain gate.
Speak with the Spirit of God.
Verse 26 it says more of the Netanyahu dwelt in Ophil unto the place over against the Watergate.
If I haven't skipped anything, I believe that is the next gate, the Watergate, and the Watergate would speak of the word of God, Ephesians 5.
Allow me to read that well known again verse. It says in Ephesians 5 that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water.
By the Word. So the Watergate will speak of the Word of God. And as I said with the Reformation and again with those early brethren in the 1800s, it was going back to the Word of God as being the sole source of authority.
You know, that's one thing that they they did in the Reformation. They debated teachers from Roman Catholicism and they would stand there with the word of God and say, no, here it is. And those Roman Catholic teachers said nothing to turn to but the writings of their own, which are in many cases, as soon as we get writings of men, you find things that are contradictory but the word of God.
Again, I don't know that Well, in this case, I don't know that.
Much needs to be said about the Word of God. I trust that you're reading the Word of God. It's no good sitting on a shelf.
It's no good putting up by your bed, and it's a good place for it, but if you never open it, it doesn't do you anything. You need to read the word of God. You know those men, They lived and they died for the word of God.
Do you value the very fact that we still at this day have copies of those handwritten Bibles? The time of Wickliffe shows you how men valued those copies.
Do you place a $5,000,000 value of what you hold in your hand?
I don't mean literal money.
Do I? You know, as I said, I I'm not standing here lecturing you. These are things that we all need to be concerned about, to hold fast at which we have.
The next gate was the horse gate from above the ho, the verse 28 from above the horse gate repaired the priest. Everyone will go over against his house. So let's just look at one of the most beautiful descriptions of a horse occurs in Job 39.
So let's just look at Job 39.
Job 39. Verse 19. Hast thou given the horse strength? Hast thou clothed his neck with Thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? The glory of his nostrils is terrible. He poureth in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goeth out to meet the armed men. So, so horse gate. It would especially speak of strength.
00:50:24
And again, as we look at the Reformation, we find that they put.
Their trust in armies.
But is that what we find in the book of Nehemiah, You know, is Nehemiah built this wall. He was constantly being counted.
If we look a little ahead in the book of Nehemiah.
In chapter 8, in verse 10, it says for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Now when you first read that, at least in English, it seems to suggest that depending on the amount that you're joining the Lord, that's gonna be the measure of your strength.
That's a good thing to be enjoying the Lord, but it's, you know, when you draw a circle, you put a center and you draw a line. Well, that way of thinking puts me at the center and God is the outside. We need to put God as the center. Now what that verse means is what gives us joy and what gives us strength is knowing that the Lord has joined our walk.
And he will have joy in our walk to the degree that we are obedient to the Word of God.
And that's where we derive our strength and obedience to the Word of God.
I had a dentist once and he was remarking on a a church that had been.
Speaking in language of Christendom and he commented the parking lot wasn't very big.
Well, I don't know if that was a lack of faith or not, but to him, the thing was that what made a church significant was the number of attendees.
You know, as we look at the sad state of brethren around us and we have to own and hang our heads with shame, the division that's come in and, you know, pretending that there aren't divisions is not fixed division. You can go between A&B and pretend there's no division. It doesn't get rid of the division. All it does is sanction the division. All you're saying is, oh, well, I guess it's OK, we'll just move back and forth. It's like when Paul spoke to the Corinthians and he said there was division amongst them, so they wrote a letter back.
Paul and said, oh brother Paul, we fixed the problem. We decided that each group is no better than the other and people can just move between them.
That didn't get rid of.
The problem that Paul saw at Corinth that didn't get rid of anything. All it does is sanction it.
And so we do have to hang our head with shame when we look at the state of brethren.
And.
Have you ever considered that when?
Those, there are three men that met together. It was in the winter, I believe of 1827 to break bread for the first time. There were three, just three I believe, gathered to the Lord's name with the Lord's Table recognized in its true character, breaking bread and remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just three. Well, you say what? There are other Christians in England at the time, Absolutely.
Faithful men that love the Lord Jesus Christ. Who you say there was no activity of the Spirit of God anywhere else? Oh, absolutely there was activity of the Spirit of God elsewhere.
There it was. But if you belong to the Church of England, guess who the head of your church was? It wasn't a head in heaven. It was a head on the throne of England. The king was recognized as the supreme governor of the Church of England.
They were not gathered on the ground of the one body you had if you were. I don't exactly know how it works, but I won't digress. So time is almost up.
Oh, I just want to read one verse in Zechariah. You know, Zechariah was a prophet during the time of umm, the previous book, Ezra and Zerubbabel. He had to learn in Zechariah 4/6 at the end of the verse it says not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. The host speaks of strength, and as I said, our strength is not in numbers, it's not in politics, it's not in having the government recognize who you are.
And then we have the Eastgate in verse 29. Now if you're looking at Ezekiel chapter 43, Ezekiel really gives a history of the glory of God in connection with the people of Israel. And in the first chapter, we have the glory of God presented to us. And then throughout the book of Ezekiel, we see the activity of the glory of God as it departs from that temple that was.
00:55:16
And then when you get to Ezekiel 43.
Well, it looks at a temple yet to be built. In verse 43 it says, and behold, the glory of God of Israel came from the way of the East. Well, we don't wait for an earthly Kingdom as the reformers did, but we wait as what has already been said, for the Lord Jesus to come and take us to be with Himself.
And so the proper hope of the church, as was mentioned this morning, the very expression was restored again with the early brethren. And we can be thankful that many in Christendom have recognized that the rapture is indeed to be found in Scripture, and that we are soon going to be called out of here. It says in at the end of Revelation, it says, the Lord says, Behold, I come quickly.
Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus, that's the hope of the church. Let's look at a verse in Matthew 24.
In Matthew 24, there's a break at verse 44, and it continues on into the next chapter to verse 31. And what we have in between is something of a parenthesis.
So beginning at verse 45, we have no longer now in connection with Israel, but I believe in connection with the day in which we live. It says Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his Lord has made rule over his household to give them meat and due season?
Blessed is that servant whom is Lord, when he cometh shall find so doing.
Verily I say unto you, that he shall make him a ruler over all his goods. But if.
But, and if that evil servant shall stand on his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming, and he shall begin to smite his fellow servants to eat and drink with the drunken. I believe that's an apartment description of the dark ages when there was no hope of the Lord's coming. The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, in an hour when he's not aware of. Then in chapter 25 we get the parable of the 10 virgins, and we find that at midnight there was a cry. And I believe this did occur in the 1800s.
And at midnight there was a cry made. Behold the bridegroom. The cometh shouldn't be in there. Go ye out to meet him. You notice in revelation the Lord says, Behold, I come quickly. And the bridary, the church replies, Amen. Even so come, it doesn't say, Even so, come quickly. We desire to be with the Lord. And so it's behold the bridegroom. Not behold the bridegroom cometh, but we behold the bridegroom. That should be our hope.
As we mentioned today that if we're living in the good of that hope, just like Daniel who was offered a third part of the Kingdom by Belshazzar, but he had seen the writing of the wall and he said no, I have. No, I don't want your Kingdom. Well, I don't want your Kingdom. It's going to be gone in a day.
What Kingdom are you looking for? What are you working for? It doesn't mean to say we shouldn't occupy until he comes.
But what is the hope? The hope that was restored with that cry? Behold the Bridegroom? Is it still our hope? Are we giving up on that?
Then the last gate and the last gate is found in verse 31. It says and the Mer. I'll just read verse 31 after him repaired Malkaiah the goldsmith's son under the place of the Netherlands and of the merchants over against the gate miskind and to the going up of the corner the gate Miffkad speaks of the appointed place. If we look in in Deuteronomy chapter 12.
We find a principle that says true today as it was in Israel's day in Deuteronomy chapter 12.
In Deuteronomy the children of Israel are given instruction before they enter the land, and there told that in verse three that there would overthrow the altars and break the pillars and burn down the Groves that they would find in that land, that they weren't to worship in those places where the people had formerly worshipped in the land of Canaan. But in verse five it says, But under the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name, there, even under his habitation shall ye seek, and thither shall thou come.
Verse 11 Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell. There shall ye bring all that I command you. So there is indeed an appointed place. We don't worship in the place of our choosing. As I mentioned, there was to be 1 flock and one shepherd. We've found gathered around that shepherd. There will be unity. There will be an expression of unity.
Of course we know that there is much division and confusion come in, but as we find at the end of the book of Judges, there can still be found a way, I believe, as guided by the Spirit of God and we walk, and if we walk that path by faith, where we can find that center where we can be gathered under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
01:00:13
And we can be found there in His presence to worship Him.
Just one other comment in connection with the Appointed Place. If you read the story of Ruth, we find that.
Boaz went to the gate, that was the place where decisions were made. And so again, I believe that the assembly, there is authority that the assembly has because of the presence of the Lord in the midst. The assembly doesn't have authority in an of itself, but acts because as we had this morning, He is son of his own house whose House of weed.
And so it's not because it's our house that we act in matters of discipline, but we do have a responsibility to act.
Because he is son over his own house, whose house so we and so again, I was think that the appointed place would speak of that authority that is in the assembly because of Christ in the midst. And that appointed place would speak of that place where he is where we come together to worship him. So let's just close in prayer.
Our God and Father, we.
Readily admit that we're very good at giving up on things very good at letting go, very good at weakening things and. And we can even do it in a way where we're pretending we're gonna make things stronger but it's really about our own wills and so Lord, we pray that we might return back to those old paths that we might be exercised by these things that.
Are written in thy word that faithful men.
Paid a price for in times past that we might make them good to ourselves. We know we cannot do it through our own strength but.
Through the power of the Spirit of God, through obedience to Thy word, we just cry to Thee, Lord, for Thy help to keep, to preserve us, to hold fast.
We just pray these things in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen.