Address—H. Short
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Denver General Meetings, September 3, 1994, Young People's Address.
Build the house, build the assembly.
May we open our.
Meeting this afternoon by singing hymn #197 One Nine seven and with some brother. Kindly start that please.
I would ask, can you hear in the back to the microphones? Can you hear?
Would like to.
This meeting has been designated for.
Young people and I would like to make two categories of young people.
First, what we might call young people.
And the other category we might call young parents.
Young people.
And young parents, the burden on my heart this afternoon.
Is that not only YouTube companies of unbelievers here, but each one of our hearts?
Would be stirred to a fresh and deepening appreciation.
For the grace of God.
That has identified you.
With that company of believers, we have come to express.
As Saints gathered to the Lords name.
I would like to read a verse.
In Philemon, first part of the verse.
Thinking of.
This subject.
Philemon and verse 22.
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But with all.
Prepare me.
Also a lodging.
I think a brother prayed in the prayer.
Meeting this morning that the Brethren here had prepared their homes for the Saints.
And the general tenor of our subject this afternoon will be preparing what we might.
Symbolize, I guess might be the word.
A lodging for Paul or what answers to Paul in our lives.
The Saints gathered to the Lord's name.
And Assembly of God.
That I believe by the grace of God the Apostle Paul where he hear.
Would identify himself with.
In the Old Testament, what would answer to this?
Would have been Jerusalem.
And thinking, first of you, who we might call young people.
It's not an expression that I particularly like. I look at you as young brethren.
You're more than people to me.
Your young brethren.
And probably most all of you here this afternoon in that category.
Unlike myself, you've probably been raised as we.
Express it in the meeting.
I would like to turn now. We'll be turning to a few verses to the book of Isaiah.
Chapter 51.
My wife and I, we're reading this.
In our family reading this week and I don't remember.
That the Spirit of God ever called my attention to this verse.
Before.
But Jerusalem?
And God's government upon it.
Is before the Lord Isaiah.
Chapter 51.
And verse 7.
Awake. Awake. Stand up.
O Jerusalem.
This chapter, the Lord is taking that city, so precious to his heart, up in a governmental way.
But you young believers, I want you to notice.
Verse 18 or verse 18.
There is none to guide her Jerusalem.
Among all the sons whom she hath brought forth.
In a way, you were brought forth in the assembly.
And I wonder if the Lord looks down on you this afternoon.
And as you as an individual, would he be saying this about you?
There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth now this expression.
Neither is there any that taketh her.
By the hand.
Of all the sons that she has brought up.
Dear young friend, do you realize in your soul?
The grace of God that has been addressed to you in your life, in allowing you.
To be gathered or identified with the company of believers.
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Gathered by the power of the Spirit of God, and to the precious name of the Lord Jesus.
Have you taken that assembly by your hand?
Being a burden on your heart as a young believer to form your life in such a way.
That you have a care for the Assembly of God? Or is it something that your pathway has been taking you away from?
When the Lord looked down on this beloved city and about to judge it in His governmental ways, and who knows but what, He might be looking at us in that way right now. And who knows, but what He might have already taken us up in recent years and months in that way as the response of your heart as the young believer said Lord Jesus.
I come to thee for grace, to take what is so precious to thee.
By the hand that I might be used to help preserve that assembly.
I couldn't covet for you as a motive in life.
A higher aspiration here on earth?
Than to make it a chief purpose in your life to preserve.
And I might rather than who are older.
You know that. I know that.
That unless God keep the city, the Watchmen watch in vain. But there is a side of responsibility. And today you, dear young brethren, and sisters, for here it's children. It's not just sons, but it's children.
You lived your life today with that object in mind to take the assembly by the hand.
With an effort to help it along the way and preserve it. Or you've lived your life today, self-centered, with you as the object of your life and no thought of this beloved city at all.
We make all kinds of preparations.
Are you as a young?
Believer.
In your life, is it a real thing to be before your God, preparing for the assembly of the gathered Saints?
Perhaps you were helping downstairs and serving the tables. I thank God for that.
It's a way of serving the gathering and serving your brethren were so selfish. Someone has been mentioning his brother. War mentioned it. We're so self-centered, we find ourselves looking at the assembly. There's nothing there.
For me, I say, when you come looking at it as something to contribute to instead of drawing from, your whole attitude of life is going to be changed.
Is the assembly an object for you to live for? Have you taken it by the hand?
To preserve it, you might say.
From the governmental actions of our God, none of the sons of Jerusalem took it by the hand. Did they prosper in their lives. Verse 20 Thy sons have fainted.
They lie at the head of all the streets as a wild ball in a net.
I've never known anyone.
Who has gone out of the assembly?
That has prospered in their life, I don't mean.
Materially, I'm talking about soul prosperity.
Would like to talk to you who are young parents.
And those who are young brethren, many, many years ago I noticed that Paul had a coat.
To keep him warm.
In the winter.
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But he had it during the summer and he left it.
He didn't throw it away, but he left it in view of when he had need of it. It would be there and Timothy could bring it to him before the winter come came.
And he could be preserved. I would like you to think of that quote, you young brethren.
That as we consider the young parents, you can look at it as a coat that I would seek to give you that you don't have any need of right now. You're not building a family.
But if the Lord leaves us here, those circumstances of life, those winter circumstances of life, if you don't throw it away this afternoon, you might find it useful when you yourself might become a young parent.
And for those of you who are young parents.
I would like to talk about preparing A lodging for what we might say or call Paul.
There are three households in the New Testament.
That speak of having the assembly in their house, I believe Philemon was one of them. I believe one called Memphis was one.
And then Purcell and Aquila are twice identified as those who had the Assembly in their house.
God would look at your household as young parents.
As a replenishing resource for the Assembly of God.
These children, these sons, it wasn't God's mind that when they grew up, they wouldn't take Jerusalem by the hand.
His thoughts were when these he calls them in lamentations the precious sons of Zion.
God would look at your children and your families as precious sons of Zion.
And he doesn't want to end up with this attitude of life.
Without a care or an interest for the assembly of God's people gathered to the precious name.
Of the Lord Jesus.
But just giving birth to children is not going to accomplish the assembly being drawn out or being found in your house.
It's going to require.
Preparation. I would like to talk about that. Let's go to Matthew's Gospel first for a verse, and this will be the only way.
Any of us can by any way prepare a house, you know it, says Noah, moved with fear and prepared an ark to the saving of his house. He prepared. It impressed me recently.
That the Ark.
That saved.
Noah's house was not built by God.
The pattern for that ark was given to Noah by God. But God will not build your house.
He has given us a book.
Then we need to tremble, it says of Noah.
He found grace, and that's what we're going to see here. He found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And what was the result of finding grace in the eyes of the Lord? It says He moved with fear.
We talk a lot about us having joy. If you're going to build your house, you need to have fear. You need to tremble at God's Word, because it's from those pages that you're going to get the pattern, the instructions to prepare an ark to the saving of your house And if you ignore it.
You'll end up.
Like lot.
Remember.
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Lot's wife Matthew, Chapter 20 just for.
An expression in verse 11. I want you to think, fathers.
And I would be inclined to include you young mothers in this too.
As good men of the House.
That you are building.
Verse 21 it says. And when they had received it, they murmured against the good men of the good men of the House. The context of this verse, we know, applies to those who came and agreed to work for a penny a day that came early in the morning. And on the principle of law they said, we will do this if you will do that.
But there were others who were called at the 11 Tower, and on the principle of grace they said whatever is right in your eyes.
And these who murmur about this Goodman are murmuring about.
They are rejecting the principle of grace.
Now what do I mean? I mean you will never prepare. You can be a Goodman of the house and build a house to the saving up to build an ark to the saving of your house on the principle of law.
If I do this I will get this.
But if you come to the Lord on the principle of grace, you will, like Noah, receive grace from God.
To build your house upon thy rock.
And when the storms come, we will stand.
But it's going to be the grace of God, as someone told me years ago.
God's divine enableness.
That's the only way we can build now. I'd like to go to Chapter 24 of Matthew for another expression.
And while it's again taking out of context, it is not.
A denial of the truth of the principle that I would bring before you.
Verse 43 of Matthew 24.
But know this.
That if the good men again, I want you dear parents, you young parents, to look at yourselves as the good men of this house.
But if the good men of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered.
His house to be broken up.
Context of this is the Lord when he introduces the millennial reign through judgment, he's going to take one to judgment.
And leave another for blessing.
But the principle of a thief breaking into your home?
For the purpose of taking out of that home.
The treasures that should be there.
And that that that can happen if you do not watch. That's the principle I want to address. Would you put your hand here and go back to Proverbs Chapter 24 for a little expression of what I'm talking about?
Proverbs, chapter 24.
It says in verse.
For their heart studieth destruction, in their lips talk of mischief, that is, those who are evil. But in verse four it says.
By knowledge shall the verse three through wisdom is in house builded, and by understanding it is established. The wisdom and understanding from God will come from the pages of God's Word.
As you were before him in fear, and trembling with that desire.
To submit yourself to the instruction of God's Word.
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I suppose in a way, wisdom is the application of God's Word to our lives.
But it's from God's word we get wisdom and understanding. But notice what happens. It says in verse four. And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
Talk a little bit about those chambers.
In the building of a house.
The Lord says, In my father's house are many mansions, abodes, or chambers. In the building of your home, dear young friend, there are many chambers. There are many rooms in the house that you will build if it's built according to the mind of God, like there were many rooms and Noah's Ark, it's not just one room that you have to fill with precious things. We're going to see it.
Toward the end of this meeting, the Lord willing but there is a chamber or room for prayer. But sometimes they call it the family altar in the reading and praying together.
There's got to be a chamber for playing together, recognizing the needs that your children have of a dad and a mom who will take time out of their important life.
To go down at the level of those children.
And take an interest in what they're interested in. They might want to build a log cabin, you know, remember my oldest son? He said, daddy, I want to build a log cabin. And I said, fine son, Anything you can find, you can use. Well, he ended up a big ditch in my land. That's as far in a pile of junk boards that he drug out that I'd thrown away. But what would have happened if I said no, son, you can't do that. One of them said, I want to build a car. I said fine son, go ahead and build a car.
Whatever you find you can use to build a car never got built. He couldn't do it. He didn't have the ability. I knew he didn't have the ability, but what would have happened if I said son, that's foolishness. When your children come home from school and want to tell you about something, you say I don't have time for that now. You better have time for it. You don't have time for them and their little things and their young lives.
They're not going to have time for you.
When they're grown.
The Chambers of playing. There's Chambers of Reading, There's Chambers. All kinds of important things are found in this house, and your children themselves are one of the precious things that God would fill and put in one of those chambers.
You know Hezekiah when he valued, he looked at the he judged his life by the dial. Obey has.
When the Lord said, set thine house in order for thou must die, he said, I don't want to die.
Sort of a recently our whole life basically is built setting our house in order. In the event of our leaving this world, we think of the Lord's coming, I know, but one way or the other, we're going to leave this world. And when we leave it, will our houses be in order?
Have we spent that little time? God would have given Hezekiah to set his house in order to set it in order. If we said I don't want to die, Lord, I don't want to leave this earth, I want to live this life. Lord said if you live it, you're going to lose it. And so Hezekiah judged his life by Ahaz's sundial.
This life under this sun, that's what counted time on. He has a sundial. He didn't have eternity before him. He decided to save his life, and he lost his house because the King of Babylon came into it and emptied all of his chambers of the precious things that God would have had preserved had Hezekiah obeyed the Lord.
How are you looking at this life? You measuring it by the sundial of Ahaz, or are you measuring it in view of eternity?
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It will make a difference who gets into your house and has access to the chambers that are to be filled with precious things. And so Hezekiah's sons became eunuchs and servants in Babylon.
Well.
Do you know?
Are you watching?
When the enemy is going to break in? Or do you think it can happen to me?
You'll think this perhaps is legal.
My beloved son-in-law, one of them. They have a little grandson.
And I use this for an illustration.
Not to condemn anything, but to exercise your soul. What I'm talking about a thief entering into your house.
When you don't realize he's entering in, add his little boy by the legs and he was going like this and the little boy was just having a delightful time.
Later, I said, son.
I just would caution you.
About the possibility of instilling in your little son.
Uh.
Something that only a roller coaster.
At Adventureland, Filling into whom? An appetite that only a roller coaster at Adventureland will be able to satisfy in a coming day. Do you understand what I'm saying?
We don't realize how easily for a thief to come into our house.
We introduce into our children's lives things that.
Maybe another occasion that might be harmless warplane or gun or something, but do you think, do I really want my son going growing up and flying a warplane?
Can you understand the principle that I'm Speaking of? We plan a little seed and we don't know that the thief has entered in with that seed is going to use it at an coming day.
To the loss of our families.
Think of what you're doing when you're doing it, and tremble before your Lord.
What principles you're acting on?
And I speak of one who's failed miserably.
I like to go now and closing.
To marks Gospel.
Chapter 14.
We know this account.
Were often from Luke.
Mark, Chapter 14.
And um.
Umm.
Verse 12 And the first day of Unleavened Bread when they killed the Passover and then.
Verse 13 They asked this question in verse 12.
Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayst eat the Passover?
And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye.
Into the city, and there thou shalt meet you, a man bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him. What I want to draw from this passage is that they had come to this city of profession.
And the Lord sends two of his disciples in search.
Of a house.
A house that had had an exercise.
Remember, we spoke of a chamber.
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A house where the good men of the house had an exercise that there would be a chamber in his house where the Lord and his disciples could meet the church.
In thy house, in all of this vast city, this man apparently was the only one.
In this city of the Lord's professed people that had this exercise.
That there be a chamber which we will look at in his house.
In which the assembly could be found.
And so it says, he sent two of his disciples.
We learn. I believe in Luke. It was Peter and John.
Peter would tell us of the governmental ways of God, and he doesn't speak of the love of God and his epistles.
With the governmental ways of God.
And John would tell us of the love of God.
We need those two characters in our lives. We need to move with fear and with a sense that our God is love.
These two disciples come into this town.
And they find a house.
That meet what they're looking for, they follow this man bearing a pitcher of water and it says here.
In verse 14 And wheresoever he shall go in say to the good men of the house, the Master saith, Where is the guest chamber? Where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? The new translation, I believe it says, Where is my guest chamber? As the Lord looks down on your house, Dear young friends, have you had the exercise?
That there be a gas chamber for the Lord.
That the assembly could be found in.
We looked at it a little bit.
But I want you to notice.
How the Lord presents himself to this man who's called the good men of the house? The teacher, the Master, the teacher. I thought, Lord, why didn't you say Lord?
The Lord Jesus is not the head.
Of your house.
And he will not be.
He is the teacher of the head of your house.
He will instruct you, from his word, how to build a chamber in your house in which the Lord could find His assembly.
He could approve of, you, might say is a place for his assembly to be found. He will teach you, but he will not be the head of your house.
What does that mean?
It means that the Lord, dear fathers, young fathers.
The Lord hold you responsible.
For your household.
He will not take that responsibility.
The teacher said, Where is my guest chamber? Know what kind of a guest chamber is?
Verse 15 and he will show you a large upper room.
Furnished and prepared.
I began the meeting talking about that word. Prepared. My brother prayed This morning, we prepared our homes for our brethren.
These chambers in our houses do not come about.
By the passing of time they come about.
By preparation.
The ark that Noah built, he didn't build the day before the flood.
It was years of preparation, and when the time came for its use, it had been built according to God's instructions to Noah, and it was serviceable and safe.
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But this house, this room, this chamber is described by three things. It was the upper room.
Dear young Parents is the Assembly of God, and your formation of your house is the uppermost thought in it. The Assembly of God, your movement and your preparations in life is the first thought in relationship to the Assembly of God if you chose the Chamber of your work which is going to be in your house.
Under that upper room of the assembly that is.
And did you take a job so you could be in the assembly?
Or did you think the assembly wasn't worth taking hold of by the hand? And you neglected this upper chamber. The assembly must be foremost in your thoughts. You know some when I speak this way, they say I thought the Lord is to be foremost. You can't divorce the Lord from His assembly. I'm talking about that place where the Lord is in the midst. It's He that makes that place precious to our souls.
And so valuable to us that we form our whole household.
Under this upper chamber, it had the highest place in this man's house, the assembly where he built it, his work, even his play, the Chamber of playing with the children. He did it in such a way that it didn't take them away from the assembly.
You'll have to apply these things to your own life. Practically, I can't do it.
If I could, one brother told me one time, if we just had a book of rules, How dreadful. Another brother said I can't live by the rules. You said. I said brother. This never occurred to me.
That this is a book of rules.
The other thing that describes this room.
It's an upper room.
It's large.
Bigger than any of the other chambers in the house. Again, Assembly must have preeminent thought in the building of your house.
And then the other thing.
It's furnished and prepared.
That the energy and activity of grace in our lives.
That you know, Doctrine.
That is valuable. I installed my heart and Thanksgiving for our reading meetings this morning.
And thank God we still have a resource in our reading Meetings of Sound Doctrine.
But communion with Christ is the application of those doctrines.
To our life that cause us to walk in fellowship.
With him. And if we fail in the application of those doctrines to our lives.
We cannot prepare this large upper room furnished. These words have been stumbling. I pray that you may grasp at least the concept of what I've had on my heart this afternoon.
And dear young brethren, take the assembly. And young sisters, take the assembly by your hand.
Think of What can I do for you now? What can you do for me? Take it by your hand and dear young parents.
Let the assembly.
Prepare a place for Paul to lodge in in your house. Let's pray.
Lord Jesus.
We pray.
Oh my God.
We need to see you in the end of my heart.
And all the glory to yourself.
Realty heart.
First verse we read will be in First Timothy chapter 2.