Open—John Kemp
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Chapter.
Two.
I lifted up mine eyes again and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.
Then said I Whither goest thou?
And he said unto me To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breath thereof, and what is the length thereof. And behold, the Angel that talked with me went forth, And another Angel went out to meet him, and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls.
With a multitude of men and cattle therein. Right. For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about.
And will be the glory in the midst of her.
Well, I just want to leave a few thoughts.
In relation to the ground of gathering.
We live in a day and age when there is a lot of evangelical activity outside of those who are gathered on scriptural ground. I'm well aware of that.
And.
We can be thankful for the work of the Spirit of God.
We are not.
Exclusive.
Of umm.
We are not the proprietors of the grace of God. The grace of God is sovereign and He can work.
By whichever means he may choose.
Possibly to our shame, but I'm thinking of the man with the measuring line here.
Jerusalem was in a very sad condition at this juncture.
Perhaps it was similar to what we have in Hagee Eye, where every man was doing that which was right in his own eyes. They were neglecting the interests of the Lord. They were occupied with improving their.
Their situation in life and renovating their houses and so on.
And they were neglecting the House of the Lord. That's brought out in Hagiah chapter one.
And he was raised up to stir those people up.
To energy in the things that counted, in the Lord's interests and his glory and his house.
And it was fruitful, Hagee. I was a prophet that spoke to the conscience of those people.
That were settling down in their own comfort and.
Um, not interested in those things which concern the glory of the Lord. Well, I think that I've often taken the measuring line out and when I look at the assembly, I can go back 40 years and think of times when there was much more power and much more.
Fellowship and.
Much more teaching from the word of God. I came up under the ministry of some giants in spiritually I would judge and when we compared things.
Well, when you compare things it looks pretty small. There doesn't seem to be much being done.
Is the Lord really pleased with this testimony that we are connected with, or should we seek a wider path where there's more activity and more results evident? Well, this is what Zachariah is saying.
Don't be discouraged when you look at things as they are now.
The point is.
Are you where the Lord has placed His name?
Are you giving him his rightful place and gathering according to the principles of the Word of God that are laid out for us in the book of Timothy and so on? Is there a path for faith amidst all the ruin that there is in Christendom today? And there's corruption, there's departure.
00:05:16
There's.
Compromise everywhere. Christendom is really a corrupt system.
And when we tested by the word of God, we find that.
There's been a serious departure from the original.
Mind of God, the apostles, doctrine and fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers. There's been a departure and although there may be activity, there is not concern for the glory of Christ and his interests giving him his rightful place. So brother and I would say.
Without talking down to you.
Continue in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of.
This is not just another denomination.
We have returned to that which is from the beginning. We haven't started a new sect or a new church. We've returned to what God gave us at the beginning. What was God's mind in the Apostolic days? We don't have Apostolic gift.
We don't have Apostolic power, we have the apostles writings most definitely. And are we valuing them? Are do we know what is comprised in Pauls doctrine?
Which many believers in the systems of men have no idea of, they are in. They are in a confused condition as to prophecy, as to the position of the Church of God now in this world.
And our our place in in the world as heavenly strangers.
How many?
Recommend that we.
Get involved in the political system and try to improve things. That is not our place down here, brethren.
Christianity is not a moral force to build a better world. That's not our place down here. Our place is to bear the name of Christ, to gather according to His word as members of the body of Christ.
And to value the truth that has been left to us handed down. Timothy there was given the truth by Paul. He was told to stir up the gift that was in him. And I'm glad to see that the young brothers here are being stirred up because we all need it. Neglect not the gift that is in thee. You may have a gift.
And it may be latent, Mr. Darby said.
If there is more devotedness among us, there would be more gift. That's rather strange expression. Does it mean that devotedness brings gift? No, he didn't mean that. He meant that if we were exercised to follow the Lord more devotedly, our gifts would be manifested in the assembly. If you have a gift, that is your.
That is your guarantee or your.
Your rights, and I don't like to use the word right, is your.
Authority to to exercise that gift.
To use it for the benefit, not of yourself. The gift wasn't given for yourself. It was given to build up the Lords people. You can be a help. I can look back on some brethren in Ottawa years ago. They didn't have a great gift.
Publicly, but their presence in the meeting, Their warm handshake.
Their participation, perhaps not in large measure, was an encouragement to me to this very day. So what do we bring to the assembly? We're all always occupied about what we get there, which is all right, we should have.
Have teaching that encourages and builds us up, but are we exercised to bring something to the assembly?
00:10:00
Christianity is characterized by what it brings, not by what it finds, Mr. Darby said. Well, if you go back to the book of Exodus without turning to it, but maybe I'll just refer to the chapter there in Exodus chapter 33, because.
It touches on the same aspect of things.
In Zechariah, the Lord pointed them on to the day when the Kingdom would be established in all its glory. Don't look at things as they are now. You'll be discouraged. Look on to that day.
At the judgment seat of Christ, when there will be a reward for faithfulness.
And when we can have an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
As I said yesterday, it's not an abundant entrance into heaven. We all will have that. But our place in the coming Kingdom will be according to our walk down here.
And that's the abundant entrance that the Apostle Peter is referring to.
Those who?
Have lived for eternal things, for the glory of Christ. Have not compromised the truth. Have remained gathered to the Lorde name, though it may be in much weakness.
And we see that all around us were conscious of it in ourselves, but like Joshua in Exodus 33, verse seven, And Moses took the Tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, a far off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the Tabernacle of the congreg.
Which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the Tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses until he was gone into the Tabernacle. And he came to pass. As Moses entered into the Tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the Tabernacle. And the Lord talked with Moses.
Now.
Sin, very serious sin, idolatry had come into the nation of Israel.
And because of that, Moses took the Tabernacle, Speaking of the presence of the Lord, and he pictured a far off from the camp, and Joshua, the young man who was the servant there. In order for him to enjoy the presence of the Lord, he had to go outside the cap. The Tabernacle was no longer in the midst of that camp that was defiled by sin and idolatry.
And in large measure.
In Christendom there is.
Corruption and things.
Teachings, I won't say they're truths, teachings that are dishonouring to the name of Christ. For instance, to say that the Lord could sin, although he did not, is really blasphemy. But this is commonplace in evangelical Christendom today. The camp was where all the people were. And you might say, well, Moses went into the camp.
Yes he did. And you remember the occasion when Eldad and me dad said he came to Moses and said.
There are those that are prophesying in the camp.
Or Joshua I guess said there's those that are prophesying in the camp, Moses forbid them to do that. And Moses took a very humble spirit and he said would to God that all the Lords people were prophets. But the point is God is sovereign and.
Joshua was told to go outside the camp and to meet there, where the Lord had placed His name, outside of that whole system of things that had been defiled by idolatry.
And our position is outside the camp. To brethren, what is the camp? It's the religious system that we have around us.
Composed of innumerable denominations and sex, it's all part of the camp.
00:15:04
It's a mixture of Judaism and Christianity. That's really what the camp is now.
At this time it was Judaism, and Paul could say in Galatians, if I build again the things that once I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. You're gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you go back into the camp.
And join yourself with that system of things. You make yourself a transgressor. And yet we look back on the history and the background. We see how many at one time were gathered. I can look back a number of years in Ottawa. Many of my friends that I worked with in the gospel, Ernest Nice Christians, are no longer gathered to the Lord's name.
Where are they while they're in?
Different associations, but they're no longer gathered according to scripture.
And this is a voice to each one of us.
There's no guarantee that we will finish our days gathered to the Lord's name if we are not walking independence upon the Lord in obedience to His Word.
In self judgment so needful, and in fellowship with our brethren.
In happy accord. Well, God is sovereign. Moses was in the camp.
And he was prophesying there. Umm.
And God is sovereign, and he can use whomever he will.
In the camp we have to leave that with the Lord, but our position is obedience to what God has given to us. Don't take out the measuring line and look at things as you see them. Perhaps you say, is there anything being done here? It's so small and insignificant, but does it have the approval of the Lord?
It's not what man says that's going to count brethren at the judgment seat of Christ.
It's the approval of the Lord that will mean everything to us. That's what we should seek now, not the approval of men.
That might make us feel good for a while, but we want the approval of the Lord. And to finish, I want to just look at a few verses in Malachi. We're all familiar with these verses, I'm sure.
Uh, Malachiya?
Is very analogous to the book of Jude. They go together, they complement each other in Malachiah. You just have to read the first few chapters to see the carelessness and the indifference to the glory of the Lord. They wouldn't open the gates of the temple unless you pay me. They were offering to the Lord.
The wounded and those animals that were blemished.
The glory of the Lord was forgotten by the priest. The priesthood was defiled. Just read chapters one and two. The Lords love for them hadn't changed because it begins right here at the I have loved you, saith the Lord. His love for them hadn't changed.
But they were in a sad condition, very similar to what we have in Christendom depicted in the book of Jude. But I'm looking at the third chapter here, which we are all familiar with.
I we're 16, then they've feared the Lord.
Spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a 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 with his own son that serveth him.
When I was young, jewels were always portrayed.
On black velvet, you may have different means now if you wanted to bring out the luster of a jewel.
You have to arrange your lighting in a special way and usually was on black velvet when I was a boy and it would it would shine brilliantly.
But you know, brethren, that we are jewels in His crown, and we're precious to Him and this little company amidst all this confusion.
00:20:09
And evil that had come into the outward testimony of of Israel. There was a little company that feared the Lord.
That thought upon his name, that gave him his rightful place.
That spoke of him, that umm.
Thought of Him. Do you know you sisters that were present this morning at the breaking of bread? You don't take part. That would be disobedience. But every thought that you had upon the name of the Lord this morning is recorded.
And the brothers too. Every thought that we have had about the Lord Jesus today is in the book of remembrance.
And you know what? The judgment seat of Christ.
Book of Remembrance is going to be opened and there will be the record of everything that you and I have done in our lives.
You know it's possible to have a saved soul and a lost life. None of us want to end up like that.
I could cite examples, but they're probably well known.
Lot was a man who lived for present advantage. He lifted up his eyes and looked, but not any further than the horizon of this world and the well watered plains of.
Of Palestine at that time.
What a sad ending you want had A child of God no doubt will meet him in the glory. I have no doubt of that. A saved soul, yes, but a lost life.
And he lived for this world.
He didn't live for eternal things. He got himself into that wicked city of Sodom. He picked up a woman along the way. I don't know, He seemed to be moving from city to city. He never, he never rested in one place, but he ended up as a judge and saw them as we know, and he was just pulled out and saved by the skin of his teeth.
And he had a shameful end.
Do you want an end in your life like that? I'm sure you don't. Let us remember, brethren, that what we have done for Christ is recorded. Everything else is going to be burned up.
But there's going to be a lot of.
A lot of a great pile in my life that no doubt will go up in flames, but there might be some precious jewel stone precious stones left.
Gold, silver, those things that speak of Christ and His interests. What you do for the Lord, it doesn't need to be publicized to others. God has taken note of that. He's not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love.
It's all recorded in that book of remembrance, how you Live Today.
And the book is going to be opened and there's going to be rewards given the judgment seat of Christ, not the judgment of your person. No, your sins have been put away by the blood of Christ. Your persons will never be judged. Those sins that we have committed and were ashamed of by the amount of sins that been put away.
Through the work of our Lord Jesus at the cross, his blood is cleansed us. That's our title to glory. The light of God can't discern any uncleanness in the believer, but our walk and our ways are a different thing.
For the young people, just a simple illustration, you go to an art or an art show or an art display, or it might be to.
Country fair and there you see baked goods and.
Embroidery and so on that is being displayed. The judges come along and they taste that food and they put a ribbon first, first, maybe a cash prize or whatever it is, first, second, third. They're not condemning that those those artifacts, they're not condemning them.
But they are rewarding.
Faithful laborers. And that's what it will be like at the IT will be at the judgment seat of Christ. It's not like in a Court of Justice where a person is before the authority for some misdemeanor that he has done some crime. That's not the way in which we will stand.
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At the judgment seat of Christ.
But as we read in the 2nd Corinthians 5, just look at that verse in closing, there will be a review.
You might say a manifestation.
Of our lives, check 2nd Corinthians 5.
This motivated the apostle Paul, one of the strongest motivations. Verse 9. Wherefore we labor that whether present or absent we may be, it should be acceptable to him, For we must all appear before the judgment seek of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that He hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Well, the judgment seat of Christ here is in the in the general sense. This takes in the great white throne as well.
But in relation to believers, it's not a judicial size, no, but it is a manifestation of our walk, of our ways, of our service. All this is going to come up.
And the Lord will delight to reward that which was for His glory, in obedience to His Word. Even our motives will be.
Revealed as First Corinthians 4 brings before us may do the right thing with the wrong Motish anyway the judgment seat of Christ.
Will reveal.
Our whole lives.
Not only since we were saved, but everything in our lives from because you were in the body from the time that you were born. You weren't responsible at that time. But it says here everyone may receive things done in the body. So you're in the body from the time you were born. Anyway, it's going to do several things. It's going to magnify the grace of God.
As never before, it's going to fill our hearts with praise for all eternity as we think that the Lord in His wondrous grace would reward our feeble endeavor, which is only by His grace anyway. But He's going to delight to reward us for that. I believe the judgment seat of Christ will take place shortly after the Rapture. The Rapture may occur tonight. I hope it does.
And I think the judgment seat of Christ will take place soon after, because if you look in Revelation 4.
They have their crowns when heaven is open, they have their crowns. Of course we're going to cast our crowns at the Lords feet. Well, just one more point and I'm finished. Gone too long already.
I I think of one other character.
And I'll just close with a brief comment. The judgment seat of Christ motivated the apostle Paul as as nothing else could. Another thing the judgment seat of Christ will do is solve many of those problems in your life. Why has the Lord allowed this in my life? I tried to serve him. I've got this infirmity.
And I can't seem to get over it and other everyone.
Has things in their lives they cannot understand why the Lord has allowed it. We look at Brother Bruce Anstey, such a valuable servant of the Lord.
He's fairly handicapped now with that condition.
The Lord is still using him. One other reference, Jonathan. Jonathan truly loved David. Remember, he saw the head of the giant come off and he stripped himself of his royal robes. He was the son of a king.
And he gave everything to David, his bow and his arrow, as much as to say, David, if you can deliver us from Goliath, you can look after what's in the future. You know, the bow and arrow speaks of the future. Some of us are concerned what's going to happen in the future, the unknown. We get worried. That's like me, we get worried. Am I going to be able to meet this problem that I can see looming in the distance? Leave it with the Lord.
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Put your bow and arrow into his hand and remember we've been noticing in Ottawa.
The sisters said who's going to roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre because it's great. It was a difficulty in their minds. They couldn't see how they could overcome it. When they arrived, the stone was rolled away. Maybe that particular.
Dread in your life that you you know it's in the distance and you don't know if you can meet it. Committed to the Lord and when you come.
To the situation, you could very well find that the stone has been rolled away and the Lord has undertaken for you in a marvelous way. Jonathan is in the glory. Jonathan went out, encouraged David, they wept together and he said, David, I know you're going to be king and I'm going to be next to you.
You're going to have the Kingdom. You're the Lord's anointed. That never happened.
Jonathan returned to his father's court. That was his problem. He thought he could change. His father couldn't change us all. He was an unregenerate man and he returned to the comforts of the court. And his end was very humiliating because he lost his life to the Philistines, Philistines. And they nailed his wall to the.
Nails his body to the wall of Bashan. Really a humiliating end for a servant of the Lord.
And when?
When David.
Record, I think this is referred to, recorded to his mighty men, those who had shared his rejection.
Which we should be willing to do when the when David recorded his mighty men in Second Samuel.
In 2324, Jonathan's name is conspicuous by its absence. There's one place there that is blank, that is not filled in. We don't know who it was. Was it Job, was it Jonathan? We don't know. But Jonathans name is not given in that list. And yet he loved David as his own soul. Well, I leave these few thoughts with us, brethren, and in concluding to the young people, I don't want to talk.
To you, but I've been gathered many years.
With many failures, but I say to you, you are in a place of great blessing to be gathered to the Lord's name and to have the precious written ministry.
At your disposal? Are you availing yourself of it? When you're young, you can take it in much better than at my age.
And are you availing yourself of this precious truth that you won't find in the camp, in the systems of men, and remain where the Lord has put His name? You dear sisters who labor behind the scenes for us, God has reported it all in the book of Remembrance, and it's going to be open someday. And a reward will be given far beyond our expectation. And it will all.
To His glory and praise, thank you.
318.