Now we're going to turn back please to
the book of Ezra and chapter number seven
please the book of Ezra and chapter seven.
What's upon my mind is to try and
tie in with what was said earlier on
in the conference and especially to follow on
where our brother Skates left off.
I'll try and remember the time but uh
as brother Skates has already noted over in
the UK we do usually have about 40
minutes so we'll try and keep it to
a sensible length of time.
Ezra chapter seven please in verse number 10.
For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek
the law of the Lord and to do
it and to teach in Israel statutes and
judgments.
Now this is the copy of the letter
that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the
priest the scribe even a scribe of the
words of the commandments of the Lord and
of his statutes to Israel.
Artaxerxes king of kings and to Ezra the
priest a scribe of the law of the
God of heaven perfect peace and at such
a time.
I make a decree that all they of
the people of Israel and of his priests
and Levites in my realm which are minded
of their own free will to go up
to Jerusalem go with thee.
For as much as thou art sent of
the king and of his seven counselors to
inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem according to the
law of thy God which is in thine
hand and to carry the silver and gold
which the king and his counselors have freely
offered unto the God of Israel whose habitation
or house is in Jerusalem.
And all the silver and gold that thou
can find in all the province of Babylon
with the free will offering of the people
and of the priests offering willingly for the
house of their God which is in Jerusalem.
That thou mayest buy speedily with this money
bullocks rams lambs with their meat offering and
their drink offerings and offer them upon the
altar of the house of your God which
is in Jerusalem.
And whatsoever shall seem good to thee and
to thy brethren to do with the rest
of the silver and the gold that do
after the will of your God.
The vessels also that are given thee for
the service of the house of thy God
those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem
and whatsoever more shall be needful for the
house of thy God which thou shall have
occasion to bestow bestow it out of the
king's treasure house.
And I even I are to exert sees
the king to make a decree to all
the treasures treasurers which are beyond the river
and what and whatsoever Ezra the priest the
scribe of the law of the God of
heaven shall require of you it be done
speedily.
Unto 100 talents of silver and to 100
measures of wheat and to 100 baths of
wine and to 100 baths of oil and
salt without prescribing how much whatsoever is commanded
by the God of heaven.
Let it be diligently done for the house
of the God of heaven for why should
there be wrath against the realm of the
king and his sons.
And what verse number 24 as well and
we certify you that touching any of the
priests and Levite singers porters nephenims and ministers
of this house of God it shall not
be lawful to impose toll tribute or custom
upon them.
Now we do trust that God will bless
that rather lengthy reading of his own precious
word.
You'll notice this is really an epistle you
could say it's the epistle of art exerts
ease to Ezra the scribe and you'll notice
it's an epistle written by a heathen king.
As you go down you'll notice how he
speaks about your God and about your service
and your sacrifices.
It's never my God it's never the house
of my God it's the house of your
God.
He's a heathen king and yet he knows
more about the house of the Lord than
sadly many of us seem to ever grasp
in a whole lifetime in assembly fellowship.
He speaks about various aspects of the house
of God and we need to grasp some
of these things as our brethren earlier on
were saying to us.
And so we just want to briefly look
at some of these things and throw them
out and just challenge our hearts and challenge
our minds and challenge our souls with regards
to local assembly fellowship.
Firstly you'll notice the preparation for the house.
It's there where our brother skates finished in
verse number 10.
Ezra had prepared his heart.
You see before he does anything else there
is consecration.
Before we can do anything for God there
must be consecration to the will of God
and the word of God and the ways
of God.
And Ezra prepared his heart.
What does Daniel do?
He purposed in his heart.
What was that?
Consecration.
What did Mary do?
She pondered in her heart the things that
the Lord had made known unto her.
What was that?
Consecration to the mind and will of God.
And so here's a man who's consecrated to
the mind and the will of God.
But not only consecration there was contemplation.
You see Ezra prepared his heart to seek
the law of the Lord.
He was contemplating.
Let's take that into a New Testament setting.
Meditation.
What do you listen to when you're driving
the car?
Oh you say I listen to hymns.
Well that's good as long as they're good
hymns.
Do be careful what you listen to.
Don't go listening to that chap.
I think he sings with the gay.
He's got great big long hair and and
just looks an absolute apostate.
And why we ever go buying his cds.
I can't remember the man's name but you
listen to that which is good and sound
and wholesome.
But do we actually meditate upon the word
of God?
We can all have it.
I've got it on my phone.
I think I've got three different apps.
Each one of them that will speak to
me the word of God.
Do we listen to good ministry when we're
traveling in the car?
How many hours do we spend in a
car?
Well traveling here in Iowa it's three quarters
of an hour at least from where I'm
staying into Waterloo.
I wonder how much time we spend meditating.
You see what did he seek?
He sought the law of the Lord.
So not only is he marked by consecration
and contemplation he's also marked by confirmation.
You see he wanted his life conformed to
seek the law of the Lord and to
do it.
Oh we all know it but are we
good at actually putting it into practice?
Here was a man who was marked by
a consecration to the will of God.
Contemplating the will of God and then he
wanted to be conformed to the will of
God and then this communication to teach.
Now we were told that there were five
brethren here.
Well I'm not quite sure who the fifth
is so but I was looking at the
four that were left to speak and I
think our average age is somewhere between 65
and 70.
Murray puts it up exponentially above anyone else
but I'm sorry Murray that's just the case.
But that's the average age if all five
of us managed to get in and our
brother Skate's already told us you know where
he came in the rank and I know
that brother Scott's somewhere up around about just
a couple years younger than I am and
so what what am I saying?
I'm saying it's the older generation that's teaching.
It was good that Brandon got up and
had a good word for us to bring
the younger generation in but you young men
get down to the word of God because
those of us that are older will soon
be gone and should the Lord be not
come we need those who are marked like
Ezra who understand the word of God who
can communicate the word of God and encourage
the people in the word of God and
as we heard last night just be able
to lift the people with the word of
God.
So that was the preparation for the house
of God but I notice there's the place
of the house that's brought before us in
verse number 15 whose habitation is in Jerusalem.
You see time after time after time after
time we find that when the people had
been away and they'd been taken away in
captivity for 70 years they could take them
away from the place but they could never
take the place away from the people.
I was speaking to a couple about 18
months ago with my wife we had lunch
with them.
They used to be in the assembly fellowship
they left about 15 years ago.
We had a very nice time of having
lunch with them and then we asked the
question where abouts do you go now?
They looked at each other and the wife
answered and said we don't go anywhere.
Once you've been in local assembly fellowship there's
nowhere else quite like it.
There is nowhere else like the local assembly.
You know when the children of Israel were
in the land and they were disobedient to
the word of God they didn't miss it
but when they were taken out of the
land what's it say?
By the rivers of Babylon there we sat
down and there we wept when we remembered
Zion.
There's a place where God has placed his
name.
We're gathered to the name of the Lord
Jesus we are not gathered to some denominational
title.
I'm sure that you heard as I heard
when I was just a young man and
if you've not heard it well you're gonna
get it now anyway.
You know in the new testament they believed
in baptism by immersion but there were no
baptists.
In the new testament there was a church
but there wasn't an Anglican church.
In the new testament there were Romans but
there were no Roman Catholics.
In the new testament they had the right
methods but there were no Methodists.
In the new testament they believed in elders
but there were no Presbyterians.
You know what I'm saying?
Let's use scriptural language and let's make sure
that we have our minds and our hearts
set firmly on the place where God has
placed his name.
What a privilege!
Yes young man it is going to mean
that you're going to have to put a
bit of study in.
It does mean you are going to have
to lead the company in prayer.
Yes it does mean you are going to
have to bring the two turtle doves.
You're going to have to bring the goat
or the lamb or the bullock.
Well our brother Scott was telling about David
Gilliland in a prayer meeting and somebody prayed
for 21 minutes.
I was in that assembly once and they
said wait till brother so-and-so stands
up.
He goes on and on and on.
I was very bad.
You'll forgive me won't you because I'm an
Englishman but when he stood up I looked
at my watch and when he sat down
I looked at my watch again 35 minutes
later.
That was a break of your bed meeting.
You say what did he bring?
He brought a whole herd of bullocks.
Oh not just one that wasn't enough.
Listen that does kill a meeting but young
brethren just tomorrow morning tonight when you get
back from the conference make something yours something
of Christ and tomorrow morning in fear and
trembling yes stand up and give it to
the Lord and let all the people say
amen.
Oh what a conference it would be if
we could encourage some young men.
You young sisters that doesn't let you off
the hook either.
You know when we do have those silences
don't let them be barren young sisters.
You make sure that you worship in those
silent times and sometimes when we go away
and we just know we've been in the
presence of God I'll tell you why it's
because those sisters inaudibly have been leading us
or you see there was the place the
place of the house but then I noticed
too there was the prudence of the house
that's in verse number 16 and all the
silver and gold that thou canst find in
all the province of Babylon with the free
will offering of the people and of the
priest offering willingly for the house of their
God which is in Jerusalem offering willingly tomorrow
morning.
You know we live in a holiday destination
Port Rush we have visitors from Easter right
the way through to the end of September
every single Lord's Day we will have visitors
and when we get to the summer period
we will have a lot of visitors we're
about 23 24 in fellowship in Port Rush
now and when we get to the summer
I think last summer we had about 130
or so breaking bread with us.
We're a big holiday destination and you know
when you're standing on the door and you're
greeting everybody you see them suddenly they're on
holiday oh oh where's um they haven't laid
anything aside they haven't you uh oh well
you and then and then we look at
the collection and we might have a hundred
breaking bread and it's a little bit more
than what we normally give in just ourselves.
You know what I'm saying make sure the
Lord has the first fruits of what comes
into your pocket when you get that pay
rise make sure that the Lord has the
first fruits from it make sure that there's
an exercise of heart young couples with families
oh I know it's costly I know that
there's the various bills that have to be
paid but just make sure that the Lord
gets his portion first and you will find
that the Lord allows what's left to spread
to cover all the payments that have to
be made oh you see they gave willingly
willingly that's the point for the work of
the Lord the prudence of the house I
thought too that we need to think of
the priority that's verse 17 that thou mayest
pay speedily with this money bullets rams lambs
with their meat offerings and their drink offerings
and offer them upon the altar of the
house of your God what's the assembly for
what's the assembly at Waterloo for what's the
assembly at Stout for what's the assembly at
Hitsville for what's the assembly at Cedar Falls
for oh you say it's so we can
reach out to the lost and so that
they know the gospel no that's a benefit
of the assembly being planted there but primarily
those assemblies are there for the honor and
glory of God that we might have something
to offer to him on the altar oh
I want to ask you now have you
got your priorities right and because we want
to offer something and because he is there
you will be there too whenever possible I
know there's times when it's not humanly possible
for one reason or another you know but
but for most of the times when we're
not there it's just because we have a
whole lot of excuses or you see the
priority is the altar of the house it's
Christ and we should be offering up spiritual
sacrifices of Christ and you can only do
that if you're being in the word of
God you say why do I get something
of Christ in the word of God well
you can go to Genesis 22 you must
be able to find something there you can
certainly find something in Exodus 12 you go
to Levitic where you go to Exodus 25
to 40 and you'll get something then all
right on the tabernacle and if you don't
know anything about the tabernacle well I just
suggest that you get brother Scott for a
couple of weeks with all his charts and
all his models and and get him to
teach you about the tabernacle what about those
five offerings Leviticus one to seven something of
Christ in those her brother took us there
Leviticus one the burnt offering well there's the
there's that oh you see there's enough in
the word of God of Christ just go
through the gospels one of those simple stories
that we teach in the Sunday school just
reread it enjoy the work of Christ and
just bring it before him the altar of
the house is absolutely vital but uh not
only uh the altar of the house I
thought we need uh to think just about
the privilege of the house you see in
verse number 19 it speaks about the vessels
that are given thee for the service of
the house of thy God now when we
come to Timothy we find about vessels to
honor and vessels to dishonor I'm just going
to spiritualize this and I'm going to say
you have got a privilege it's a privilege
to be a member of the local assembly
and we should understand what it means when
somebody comes into fellowship our brother said we
need to be careful and we need to
examine them we need to check about their
salvation we need to know that they're baptized
and they've understood what baptism is all about
and then we're bringing them into the assembly
you know Mr McFeet used to say that
there was one thing that we could learn
from the established church keep the clocks on
the outside that was what Mr McFeet used
to say in other words you know when
you're preaching you're not you're not caught by
time you're not going to keep everything just
within half half an hour uh or 20
minutes well um there is something else we
can learn certainly from the Anglican church they
have communion classes you say what do we
learn about those you see when somebody wants
to come into local assembly fellowship why don't
we just have two or three ministry meetings
where we teach the basics of assembly fellowship
I was saved from outside of the assemblies
I was full of questions I wanted to
know just short purely because about the third
gospel meeting I went to I was already
saved uh all the all the ladies there
I noticed that they all had head coverings
the only reason I noticed was because they
were either red white or blue I wanted
to know uh what there was the significance
about the colors of the head coverings and
then I was told oh well it's nothing
to do with the colors but everything to
do with the covering and so we need
to teach these things because we bring people
into assembly fellowship and they really have no
idea as to what the assembly was all
about vessels for the house they need to
understand that they have a gift and they
need to find out what that gift is
and exercise it in the assembly for the
benefit of the assembly and for the glory
of God the privilege of the house uh
what about the problems of the house verse
number uh uh verse number 20 and whatsoever
more shall be needful for the house of
thy God do you have problems in the
assembly I don't know an assembly that doesn't
have a problem or two or more we've
got those who are aging in the assembly
do you go and visit them young brother
young sister here's something you can do young
sister you can go and visit that dear
aged widow just needs a little visit a
little lift little word in season take your
apple pie take your apple turnover take something
you know that just means something you young
couples you can learn from the older couples
when you visit them there's others that need
a visit as well those that we don't
see too often those that uh uh well
you know smos we call them somebody said
to me recently he said smos sunday morning
only so i said that's right no he
says we have too many sunday morning occasionally
assemblies it's even worse they need to be
encouraged why aren't you out why aren't you
coming you're in fellowship with us encourage these
people all assemblies have problems and most of
the problems can be overcome those things that
are needful and there's plenty of things needful
in all the assemblies that I have the
privilege of visiting and in my own assembly
as well oh there's plenty of needs the
problems of the assembly I thought too of
the uh precepts of the house you see
it says in verse number 23 I think
it is whatsoever is commanded by the God
of heaven let it be diligently done for
the house of the God of heaven there's
the precepts why do we do what we
do it's in this book why do we
practice it why do the sisters wear a
head covering it's in this book why do
the brethren take public part it's in this
book why do the sisters remain silent it's
in this book why do we preach the
gospel it's commanded in this book oh you
see here are the precepts it's what's commanded
but you see in Christendom it's not bothered
they don't bother you know oh yeah we
don't need doctrine we just need love we
need love all right but it must be
governed by doctrine we need the teaching of
the word of God the commandments of the
God of heaven I want to ask you
dear child of God this afternoon will you
just make sure that everything that we do
in the local assembly has scriptural foundations and
a scriptural backing and support that's what our
brother Scott was saying about prayer that's why
we don't pray to Jesus you go to
those that we call back home the exclusive
brethren and they speak to Jesus all the
time it's not scriptural we need to do
those things which are scriptural and so there's
the precepts for the house but last of
all I notice there's the people of the
house we found those down in verse number
24 also we certify you that touching any
of the priests and Levites singers porters nephenims
or ministers of this house of God it
shall not be lawful to impose tool tribute
or custom upon them well now I tell
you the Lord's people have been very kind
to my wife and myself over the last
34 or 35 years so kind Lord's people
here in Iowa and the week before when
I was up in Sussex so kind people
that have lent me a car people that
have paid for the fuel people that have
passed on gifts people have said encouraging words
so kind it's amazing here you know that
those who serve the Lord they didn't have
to pay tool tribute or custom wouldn't that
be quite amazing if your president said well
now from now on those who serve the
Lord don't have to pay any taxes well
that would be all right wouldn't it I
don't think it's going to happen mind you
but uh but what I'm saying what I'm
wanting to say to you is this there
were all these different people there were Levites
who could pray there were porter there were
singers who could sing singer I can't sing
for toffee I can't it's a miracle if
you heard me singing there and and with
the children leave it that's an absolute miracle
either I can carry my choruses at all
because you hear me singing any of the
hymns if they don't go to those tunes
I cannot carry them but sing out and
sing up we were encouraged last night to
say amen well over in the UK we're
a little bit more reserved we tend to
say a loud sort of amen under our
breath and we tend to repeat it two
or three times just so that people know
we have actually said something especially when you're
sat next to Murray there but uh you
sing out there were the the the Levites
and the singers and the porters what were
those they were the ones that did all
the heavy lifting and all the carrying and
all the moving there was a whole lot
of work I came down last night I
I just felt like uh just a spare
part there were people that were mopping and
people that were dusting and people that were
cleaning and people that were chopping and preparing
and working those doing the porter's work or
I tell you dear young person you say
there's nothing for me to do in the
assembly there's plenty for you to do in
the assembly get on and do a work
for God in the assembly whatever work God
finds you to do don't wait for somebody
to point it out to you notice the
chairs are moved around every lord's day for
the break of bed meeting get hold of
some chairs and move them around do the
work of the porters all these people were
all working together the nephenims and the ministers
of the house oh I tell you dear
child of God there is so much to
be done in the local assembly but where
does it all start it all starts with
a man who prepared his heart to seek
the law of the Lord to do it
and to teach it and if we could
just start there what a blessing there could
be in the assemblies of Iowa Wisconsin and
further afield at the hand of our God
may God bless his word for his honor
and glory