If I did not speak on behalf of
myself and of the guests, all of us
who were guests here, and express our thanks
to all who had a part in this
conference, my words would be quite inadequate.
So I would just like to leave a
verse of scripture, Colossians chapter 3 verse 24,
knowing that from the Lord you shall receive
the reward of the inheritance, for you serve
the Lord Christ.
That is true of all who have arranged
this conference and had any part in it.
Shall we turn again to Nehemiah, and this
time to chapter 6.
Nehemiah chapter 6 and
verse 1.
Nehemiah 6.1, Now it happened when Sanballat,
Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, the rest of our
enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall,
and that there were no breaks left in
it, though at that time I had not
hung the door in the gates, that Sanballat
and Geshem sent to me saying, Come let
us meet together in one of the villages
in the plain of Ono, but they sought
to do me harm.
So I sent messengers to them saying, I
am doing a great work so that I
cannot come down.
Why should the work cease while I leave
it and go down to you?
Those are magnificent words, aren't they?
I am doing a great work so that
I cannot come down.
Why should the work cease while I leave
it and go down to you?
Nehemiah had his priorities, he had his priorities
straight, and he stuck to them.
In all Christian service, there is always the
temptation to be distracted.
Nehemiah refused to be distracted.
I will not come down.
We saw the first night that he had
the vision of a great goal before him.
He went straight for the goal, and he
would not allow any red herrings across the
trail.
What is our goal?
What is the goal of the missionary?
Well, I think that we have a clue
to this in Ephesians chapter 3, and we
might just turn to that for a minute.
It has spoken very loudly to me, certainly.
Ephesians chapter 3, and beginning in verse 8,
this passage speaks of the fact that the
apostle Paul had a twofold ministry.
A twofold ministry.
I will read it.
Ephesians 3, 8, To me who am less
than the least of all the saints, this
grace was given, that I should preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and
to make all people see what is the
fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning
of the ages has been hidden in God,
who created all things through Christ Jesus.
Paul, I say, had a twofold ministry.
First, the gospel, that I should preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Second, the local assembly, the truth of the
assembly, that all men should see what is
the fellowship of the mystery.
To me, this is the core of Christian
service.
This is the core of missionary work.
The gospel, the assembly.
Preaching the gospel, seeing souls saved, seeing local
assemblies planted and strengthened and built up in
the faith.
In one of the South American countries, one
of the assembly missionaries was talking to a
missionary from one of the faith missions.
And the missionary from the faith mission said
to him, what do you do?
And he said, I plant churches.
And the missionary from the faith mission said,
you?
A brethren missionary plants churches?
What did he mean by that?
He meant that practically all the other assembly
missionaries in that country were engaged in parachurch
organization.
That's what he meant.
He meant that they were all busy with
subsidiary ministries, but they weren't evangelizing and they
weren't engaged in assembly planting.
We should really have a greater devotion for
the assembly than Nehemiah had for the walls
of Jerusalem and the people of Judah.
But as I said, in all service, whether
at home or abroad, there's always the tendency
to get distracted.
There are so many good things that present
them to us, present themselves to us, and
we have to remember that the good is
often the enemy of the best.
A lot of good causes that you could
take up, and yet they will keep you
from that which is central.
I repeat again, I believe that Paul's twofold
ministry is a pattern for us all.
The gospel and the assembly, and we mustn't
be distracted from that.
But oftentimes when the going gets rough, it's
very easy for us to rationalize ourselves into
escape routes.
We might be facing intense difficulty in our
service for the Lord, and I'm sure that
we all do, and I'm sure it's a
temptation for missionaries at times to feel, I
think I better go back to the state
and get a master's degree in the microbic
contents of cotton t-shirts.
Nehemiah had an opportunity to escape from what
he was doing, but he wouldn't do it.
I am doing a great work.
I cannot come down.
And maybe those words will stick in our
hearts when we're tempted to turn aside for
something that might be good, but isn't central.
Let me say again, the gospel and the
assembly, they are the central things.
Everything else is subsidiary.
Nehemiah says, I am doing a great work.
I hope we all feel tonight that we're
doing a great work.
I would like to paint a word picture
for you concerning the great work that we're
doing, a good work.
What I'm going to paint really never happened
in so many words, but it paints the
picture just the same.
This is a meeting in eternity past between
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
before the world ever was made.
And the Father tells the Son that he
has a secret desire to get a bride
for his son.
To be a bride who would be with
him and share his glory for all eternity.
A bride who would be referred to as
the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints.
And up to this point, everything was beautiful.
But now the Father describes the Son, describes
to the Son, the bride, as the Son
would find her.
She would be unclean spiritually, filthy clothing.
Her stockings rolled down over her shoes.
She would have stringy hair and bloodshot eyes.
She would be an unbathed woman of the
street.
She would love darkness, seeking her satisfaction in
the cisterns of this world.
She would run after many lovers, materialism, sex,
pleasure, status, and similar vain things.
She would be spiritually dead, an ungodly wench,
and an enemy of all righteousness.
As she would live for bread alone and
have no regard for any word that proceeded
out of the mouth of God.
She would be aimless and hopeless and yet
have no sense of need whatever.
There's more.
She would be blind, blind to the glory
of God.
She would be deaf, deaf to the voice
of God.
She would be dumb, unable in any way
to speak of the wonders of God or
to worship and adore Him.
And she would be paralyzed with no ability
to serve the One who made her unloved,
without rest or peace.
She would be only happy when she could
forget God and only sad when she remembered
Him.
The son listens intently and then the father
drops the bomb.
The son would have to go down to
planet earth and buy this woman back from
the slave market of sin.
It would be a tremendous price that he
would have to pay.
He would have to shed his blood.
He would have to give his life.
He would have to endure separation from God,
the Father.
He would have to experience the concentrated essence
of hell in three hours on a cross
of shame.
Let me ask you, what man would ever
be interested in such a bizarre transaction?
Absolutely unthinkable.
But the Son of God was willing.
He did not flinch for a moment.
It was a joy set before him.
Who for the joy set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame to set down
at the right hand of God.
Nothing could stop him from doing the will
of God his Father.
Lo, I come in the volume of the
book that is written of me.
I delight to do thy will.
Oh my God!
He was willing to sell all that he
had to buy, imagine, the pearl of great
price.
Rather hyperbole, don't you think?
Calling that woman a pearl of great price.
He who was so rich was willing to
become so poor in order that his poverty
stricken bride might be made eternally rich.
In time he came down to earth.
He looked for her in Bethlehem, but he
didn't find her.
He looked for her in Egypt, but she
wasn't there.
He went to Nazareth for her, but he
didn't find her in Nazareth.
He spent time looking in Bethsaida, Chorazin, Capernaum,
no success.
He even went as far as Tyre, but
she wasn't there.
At length he came to Jerusalem, but he
went to a place called Calvary, and he
found her there.
He found the bride, the secret of his
father's heart, and there he opened a fountain
for sin and uncleanness.
So that she might be bathed from all
her guilty stains.
The shepherd had found the sheep that had
gone astray, and the son had bought his
bride.
The cost was enormous.
Thy father in his gracious love did spare
thee from his side, and thou didst stoop
to bear about at such a cost his
bride.
Amazing, isn't it?
At such a cost, thy bride.
Now this is where you and I come
in.
The search is still going on, isn't it?
God is calling out of the nations a
people for his name.
He's still speaking in every tongue and tribe
and nation.
Just as David longed for a drink from
the well at Bethlehem, so he still longs
for drafts of the wells of Africa, Asia,
Europe, the Americas, and the islands of the
sea.
And he uses us by the Holy Spirit
to bring them in.
We are doing a great work.
We're not only part of that bride ourselves,
cleansed by precious blood, but we're sent out
under great commission to seek to add to
that bride until it is perfect at last.
A preacher once told of a church that
had been made out of waste marble, a
church building.
It had been gathered from a dump.
And he commented, waste marble into that?
Well, that's exactly what was happening in the
book of Acts.
The marble from the waste dumps of humanity
being built in a beautiful temple for the
habitation of God through the Spirit.
That's what's happening today.
That's the work that we are called to.
We are doing a great work.
Let us not go down.
Just think of the bride in a coming
day.
She will be without spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but the Lord Jesus presents
her to Himself.
Nothing that would compare to a wart or
a mole or a defect of any kind.
I want to tell you, that's truly marvelous.
God should ever take such raw material and
save such by His grace and transform and
sanctify that the Lord Jesus presents to Himself
a glorious church in that coming day.
She will be a glorious church, beautiful in
glory.
The wedding will take place at the rapture,
and I believe the marriage supper of the
Lamb in the millennium, and then throughout all
eternity God will show to a wondering bride
the exceeding riches of His grace and His
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
We are doing a great work.
We cannot come down.
What a wonderful privilege to be partners with
God, calling out of the nations, bride for
His sons, a people for His name.
I'd also like you to move on to
chapter 8 and verses 1 through 12 and
speak just briefly about the centrality of the
Word during Nehemiah's service here.
When Ezra reads the law of the Lord,
the centrality of the Word, I think every
once in a while it's good for us
to stop and ask ourselves the question, what
place does the Word have in our ministry?
And we mentioned the other night that there
are so-called preachers and teachers who are
nickeling away at the truth of the Word
of God.
There are some people who don't talk about
the inspiration of the Scriptures anymore.
They talk about the authority of the Scriptures.
I'm frank to tell you, I don't like
the Word.
I like to hear people coming out saying,
frankly, we believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration
of the Scripture.
We believe that the words as originally given
were given by God, and we believe that
this book is inspired from cover to cover.
I believe in the authority of the Declaration
of Independence, but I don't think it's inspired.
And it's possible to use these words and
weaken the idea in the minds of people.
And I want to say again that men
who nourish doubts about the inerrancy of the
Scripture should go up, get out of the
ministry and go back to peddling groceries, what
they should do.
Let us think about the message that we
preach.
What is the message we preach?
I like the expression, the gospel of the
glory of Christ.
The gospel of the glory of Christ.
You know, that's what they preached in the
book of Acts, wasn't it?
A risen, ascended, glorified Christ at the right
hand of God.
Paint it with a big brush, I say.
Exhaust the vocabulary of excellence.
Harness figures of speech, as we were saying
this afternoon.
Set him forth as the all in all.
I'd like to say tonight it's a sin
to preach a pale, anemic Jesus, or an
amateur Savior.
And with all the powers that are in
us, we should set him forth in all
his grandeur, in all his glory, in all
his power, as the only Savior and the
only Lord.
We must move on.
In chapter 9, verses 1 through 38, the
subject is confession.
All the key things are found here in
the book of Nehemiah.
Confession.
Here they come together and they confess sin.
Confession is the road to revival.
You can live and die in many, many
assemblies, and you'll never hear confession.
It's almost as if people think that it's
washing your laundry in public or something like
that.
But if you're engaged in some work of
God, or even in an assembly here at
home, and you've been going months and perhaps
years, and no one has been saved, and
no one has been baptized, and the chariot
wheels of God are dragging on heavily, maybe
you'd better think about getting together for a
time of confession.
Wonderful what happens when God's people come together
and say, well, we have nothing to confess.
Really?
We can confess our materialism.
We really are a materialistic people, aren't we?
We really are a materialistic people, and even
a dime can come between your eye and
the sun, and material things can come between
your eyes and the Savior as well.
We're a pleasure-loving people.
A lady told me, since I've been here,
a sister told me that in certain places
a meeting has to stop on time so
people can get home and watch the football
game or something like that.
I wonder what the Holy Spirit thinks of
that.
I was in an assembly.
I won't name the country.
Maybe I'd just better not name the state.
The meeting began at 11 o'clock Sunday
morning, and I got up.
I think I got the meeting at 11
.20, and at 11.45 I lost my
audience.
People weren't with me at all.
I could tell.
It was obvious.
I lost my audience at 11.45. And
driving back home in the car, I said,
well, I certainly had an experience this morning.
They said, well, what's that?
I said, I lost my audience at 11
.45. They said, of course, the meeting was
supposed to stop at 11.45. I said,
why?
They said, they like to get to Marsden's
Cafeteria before the church crowd gets there.
You know, that's playing church, isn't it?
That's really playing church.
That's not Christianity.
Think of a grieved Holy Spirit in a
situation like that.
Pleasure-loving people.
A lack of commitment to the Lord.
That's where we are today.
A lack of commitment to the Lord.
We should confess it.
Gossip.
Mixed motives.
Broken marriages.
Wayward children.
Scandals.
Immorality.
Biblical illiteracy.
People of God today are really not studying
the Bible, largely.
Not.
Sad, sad conditions.
The death of evangelism.
To say nothing of false doctrine, pride, racism,
and personality conflicts of the church.
I want to tell you, I really believe,
in many local fellowships, if we get together
and get down on our knees and cry
out to God and drag these things out
into the open and confess them to the
Lord, we see blessing.
Sin is holding back the blessing of God.
And this would be true in the foreign
field as well, wouldn't it?
Hard feelings among the workers.
God can't work in those circumstances.
Sins of every kind.
Confessions.
Well, had a wonderful effect here in the
book of Nehemiah as Ezra read the law
of God.
Then he said to them, Go your way,
eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send
portions to those for whom nothing is prepared.
For this day is holy to our Lord.
Do not sorrow, for the joy of the
Lord is your strength.
Then in chapter 10, verses 28 through 39,
they weren't content with reading the scriptures and
confessing their sin to the Lord.
But in chapter 10, verses 28 through 39,
they drew up a covenant with the Lord.
A covenant.
And if you look it over, you'll find,
first of all, the covenant was against mixed
marriages, against commercial violations of the Sabbath day.
It was a covenant to keep the seventh
year, and it was a covenant to support
the temple services.
You say, what has that got to do
with us?
We don't keep the Sabbath.
We don't observe the seventh year.
We don't have a temple and temple services.
No, it occurs to me that here at
the close of this missionary conference, it might
be a good thing for us to make
certain covenants with the Lord.
It would be a wonderful thing if, as
we leave here, we could covenant with the
Lord to give prayer a greater place in
our lives and ministry.
We talked the other night about prayer, and
the power of prayer.
And since then, we've heard about men that
are going around saying, prayer doesn't change anything.
All it does is bring your will into
conformity with the will of God.
But you and I know better than that.
It's around God and His sovereignty.
He's ordained everything that's going to happen whether
you pray or not.
That's not the way I look at it.
I believe God in His sovereignty has given
man a will in the matter, too.
Just as God in His sovereignty gave Adam
a will to do or not to do.
And I believe He does that with regard
to prayer.
Remember what we said the other night.
Without God, man cannot.
Without man, God will not.
But I really believe that's true.
And you've seen answers to prayer where the
hand of God was moved in response to
the prayers of His beloved people.
Let us covenant as we go away from
this.
And I want to do it, too.
I tend to be more of a Martha
than a Mary.
I really do.
I say to my shame.
I tend to be more of a Martha.
And I get down on my knees in
the morning and I think, 60 things I
have to do that day.
And it's easy to cut short prayer.
Let's covenant to give prayer a more central
place in our lives and ministry.
Two, we should covenant with the Lord to
concentrate more on evangelism and church planting and
de-emphasize other ministries that are good but
subordinate.
Wonderful thing, wouldn't it?
Take up Missions Magazine and hear a read
of assemblies that are springing up in countries
of the world.
Because you went back from this conference with
a new determination to see this happen under
God.
Three, we should seek under God to train
national successors and turn the work over to
them as soon as possible before we're forced
to do it by governmental decree.
In other words, this covenant is that we
want to make ourselves extendable.
The gifts were given for perfecting of the
saints for the work of the ministry.
For perfecting of the saints for the work
of the ministry.
A missionary is a goer, not a stayer.
A missionary should not be a resident pastor
abroad.
Should he?
The longest the Apostle Paul ever stayed in
one place was two years.
He stayed in Ephesus for two years.
During his total ministry, he spent three years
in Ephesus.
But any one time, he only spent two
years there.
This is tremendously important to see national workers
trained up so that they can do the
work and you can move on.
Next, we should constantly pursue holiness without which
no man shall see the Lord.
The ministry, the Christian ministry, is primarily a
ministry of character.
What we are is far more important than
anything we ever say and do.
You can't get away from it.
A good tree brings forth good fruit.
A bad tree brings forth evil fruit.
Pursue holiness in our lives.
And in that connection, we should pray for
one another.
Because, I think I said the other night,
the closer you stand to your captain, the
more you'll be in line for the devil's
shots.
We need to pray for one another.
And we should, next we should cultivate simplicity
in our lives.
Why?
Why should we cultivate simplicity in our lives?
Well, first of all, because the Lord Jesus
commanded it.
He sent his disciples forth as poor men.
Blessed are the poor, for yours is the
kingdom of God.
Secondly, we're representatives of the Lord Jesus.
What kind of a representation do we give
of him?
I don't think we can ever totally identify
with the nationals in third world countries.
I don't think they expect us to.
But it's nice to have a home where
they can come in and where they can
feel relaxed in the home, isn't it?
Certainly, that way we can identify with them.
And finally, another covenant.
In as much as lies within us, we
should live at peace with our fellow workers.
Would be nice if we could go forth
from this conference and I'll just leave a
few blank lines here for you to fill
in perhaps other things that you would like
to covenant with the Lord.
Chapter six, verse 15.
And with this, we close.
Chapter six, verse 15.
My heart beat just a little bit faster
when I read those words, so the wall
was finished.
Great.
Tell you, they had a vision of a
work to be done.
They went at it with all their heart
and the work was finished.
That's going to be true, perhaps very soon,
in the work of the Lord.
So the work was finished.
What's it going to mean?
Well, the best thing it's going to mean
is the Savior's smile.
Praise is sweet, but it's never as sweet
as when it's the praise of Christ.
When he says, well done.
The poet says, when the harvest days are
past, shall I hear him say at last,
welcome toiler, I've prepared for thee a place.
Shall I bring him golden sheaves, ripened fruit,
not faded leaves, when I see the blessed
Savior face to face.
When the books are opened wide and the
deeds of all are tried, may I have
a record whiter than the snow.
When my wraith on earth is run, may
I hear him say, well done, take the
crown that love immortal doth bestow.
The Savior's smile, nothing will make up for
that.
And second, the work is finished, a welcoming
committee.
I think that's great.
Paul says, well, what is our hope, or
joy, or crown of rejoicing, are not even
you in the presence of our Lord Jesus
Christ at his coming.
I tell you, some of the people here
are going to have a welcoming committee.
It's wonderful when you think of years of
faithful service for the Lord, and of those
who will be waiting at the ramparts of
glory for them.
When in the mansions above, the saves all
around me appear, I want to hear someone
saying, it was you who invited me here.
The satisfaction of having planted and strengthened New
Testament assembly, what a monument to leave behind
and to be rewarded for in that coming
day.
The Savior's smile, a welcoming committee, and I
think too it's going to mean vindication for
some of you.
It makes me think of a man who
wrote this, when full-time service was a
career for which I had no interest or
inclination.
In my early Christian life, I had no
leading to it, nor was it attractive to
me.
Yet about midnight one night in May 1972,
I found myself on my knees telling God
that I was available, and that I would
resign from my career as an Air Force
officer to be in full-time service for
Him.
What do you think happened?
Many were critical of my decision.
Some were skeptical.
One retired officer told me I was insane.
My grandmother cried.
My wife was initially apprehensive.
Most of my relatives were shocked.
Others thought it was a great step of
faith.
The step seemed illogical because I had only
six and a half of my 20 years
service left until retirement.
Many thought I should wait until then.
He didn't wait.
He stepped out.
It's going to be a time of vindication
for a man like that, isn't it?
This happened to C.
T.
Studd, too.
When C.
T.
Studd told his friends that he was turning
his back on a brilliant career in cricket,
they said, you're mad leaving your cricket and
going to be a missionary.
Couldn't you wait until you finished your cricketing
days?
Couldn't you make more of an impact for
God as a cricketer?
This last one's marvelous.
Why go as a missionary to a place
where they've never heard of cricket?
The fact they never heard of Christ didn't
seem to make any difference, did it?
Why go to a place where they've never
heard of cricket?
A day of vindication, won't it?
A people who made the choice, and they
made the right choice, too.
They sensed the divine tap on the shoulder,
and they heard his call.
They left all, rose and followed.
That was all.
And it strikes me here at the close
of this meeting that perhaps we're on the
last lap right now.
I'd like to think that.
That we're in the last lap, and the
Lord's coming is just around the corner.
The thing to do is let us go
back to our ministries with renewed zeal, with
greater dedication, and with a greater desire to
finish the course in a blaze of glory.
It's like a marathon, and you've been running
for 25 miles, and you're beginning to feel
it.
Maybe you feel like just stepping aside, and
yet you give that burst of energy as
you cross the finish line victorious.
Or maybe it's like climbing a mountain.
Those of you who have done any mountain
climbing know what that's like.
It just seems that when the top comes
into view, when your energy is at its
very lowest, and you just have to step
on the gas and take that last push
to the top of the mountain.
I think the poet said it well.
Go on, go on.
There's all eternity to rest in, and far
too few are on the active list.
No service for the Lord is risky to
invest in, and nothing will make up should
his well done be missed.
Shall we pray?
Father, we thank you that you've not left
us without direction, that you've told us what
our priorities should be.
Help us to see those priorities and to
give our very best in seeing them through.
We pray, Lord, that we might be a
confessing people, that we might keep short accounts
with you, that in our ministry and in
our service we might not let sins accumulate.
We pray that we might see you moving
in revival fires as we come to you
and confess our materialism and our pleasure-loving
and our lack of commitment to the many
things that characterize us now.
Help us, Lord, to give centrality to the
Word of God, to preach the Word, to
be instant in season, out of season.
We do ask, keep us, Lord, O keep
us, cleaving to thyself and still believing till
the hour of our receiving promised joys in
heaven.
Hear the covenants that are made before you
tonight.
Give us grace and strength to see them
through.
Father, we do look forward to that day
when we'll hear the shout, the voice of
the archangel, the trump of God, and when
our blessed Savior and Master appears and we're
caught up to meet him in the air.
We pray that we might do so with
joy and confidence in that hour.
We commit ourselves to you.
Thank you for this week together.
We love you, O Father.
We love you, blessed Lord Jesus Christ.
You are truly our all in all.
We give thanks in your worthy name.
Amen.