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Zechariah.

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I wish with all my heart that those

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books had never been called the minor prophets.

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That's not what they're supposed to be, minor

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prophets, but it's what too often they are

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in the lives of the Christians.

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I think that they're perhaps the most neglected

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part of the Bible, don't you think so?

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The minor prophets.

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Praise God.

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We find His blessed face wherever we look.

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Would you turn with me now to Ephesians

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chapter 3, and what we're going to speak

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about this afternoon is rather linked chronologically with

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what we've had before us.

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Brother Carl has been describing most vividly the

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rejection of the Lord Jesus by the nation

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of Israel.

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But God wasn't frustrated by that one thing.

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God had a secret in His mind all

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the time, the secret concerning the Church, to

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bring in consequent upon the rejection of the

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King by Israel.

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And that's what I'd like to speak to

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you about this afternoon, the assembly.

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And before we ever read this portion of

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the word, I'd like to ask you for

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every one of us to answer in our

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hearts, what place does the assembly have in

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my life?

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How important is God's assembly to me?

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This is what I'd really like to think

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about with you this afternoon.

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Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 1.

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For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of

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Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have

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heard of the dispensation of the grace of

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God which is given me to youward, how

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that by revelation he made known unto me

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that I am of the same body, and

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partaker by the gospel, whereof I was made

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in Christ.

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And I was made in Christ.

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And I was made in a new society,

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and in many ways the most privileged society

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in all of God, that he was formed,

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made up of all, and ultimately

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would head up a redeemed church with this

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church as his bride, sharing forever.

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And it really is marvelous when you start

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to think of it that God would ever

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take over

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a redeemed universe.

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And I'd like to suggest to you this

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afternoon that this which was, we're

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believing, as we read in verse, something

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that was never, members

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of the part

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of God.

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And I'd like to suggest to you that

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in an evangelical, but it isn't taboo among

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us, praise in

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the New Testament.

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I believe not only in the inspiration of

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the Bible, you're

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not building with God, and you're marching to

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the beat of a different drummer.

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And you know that's all too possible.

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And then God says, he's

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in your life.

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Then I see, and

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I see something else about it, and I

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suggest to you today, we've lost.

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And it's very significant.

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And to me, in

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other words, there were two, and it's the

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second.

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If he had just gone and

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fill up that in my flesh, oh

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certainly it doesn't mean that this was, there

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were other books added.

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Fourthly, I read in the name

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to the, and they looked down, men

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and women, I

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often think of that little as, imagine,

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wonderful when the angelic beings look down, and

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putting, is

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the only unit on earth to which God,

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he said, but

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in, to the extent that that organism, I

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really missed God's best for my life.

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Because God never promised perpetuity.

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Is the assembly really, I'll

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break in in verse 20, well

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really it beggars human language but in

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his mouth, I'm

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going to just tear that piece of paper

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in half.

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If this is Christ, and this is the

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church, that

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you and I, saved by his matchless grace,

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and united in him, in the body, all

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in all.

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I tell you, I wouldn't believe this.

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They're just two, I read that the assembly

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is the body of Christ, of greater nearness.

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And not only the body of Christ, but,

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and if the body speaks of nearness and

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intimacy, the deepest affection.

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Christ also loved the church, and gave himself.

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And I try to, and

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that brings me to say this, and I

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read, means more

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to him than the greatest empire in the

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world.

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He said, oh brother our assembly, and

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I read there that the nations to him,

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are a drop of, doesn't

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carry any weight, it really

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humbles my heart, and

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has many members.

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Remember the weakest representative, and I'd like to

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suggest something else to you this afternoon, that

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the elder, any particular elder, is more important,

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won't find very much instruction in the new

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testament.

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What does it tell me?

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It tells me, and really, it's time we

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recaptured that, in our own thinking.

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Honestly, you know very well, just as I

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do, or the education doesn't

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have more glamour to God, and it's just

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about time.

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By the world, and by its, I'd

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like to suggest to you that the local,

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is the unit on earth.

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It's taken me years to come to this,

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and I, but I really believe, as I

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stand before you, E.

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H.

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Lange says in his book, The Churches of

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God, in our service, and

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this is what we have, but

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we have a, organizational Christianity, an empire building,

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a very, now

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that brings me to say this, we live

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in a tremendous day, we live in a

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day, when people oppressed by ritual new

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testament pattern, and the books are coming, they

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want to get back, they want, people

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have never heard anything, movement

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towards, but

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I'd like to suggest just a few things

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to you as we close, things that we

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ought to wait, we must as Christians be

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willing to, generally speaking, I feel we,

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and when a, when a, a people about

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us, or did companies

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that, uh, they

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did, and the sales began to boom, well

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that's to believe that

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we should get away from this terrible tendency

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to, in that sense, but

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in that sense, Jehovah's Witnesses don't spend money,

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they don't spend, I'd

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like to suggest that what we need is

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a new love, and loyalty, and faithfulness, really

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I do, but on the other hand, when

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we come to put the same effort, the

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same energy, and the same devote on

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the table, and serving the Lord in the

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context of God's looking for men today, you

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want your life to, you'll have your heart

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broken, you'll have to be, remember,

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the man who aspires, the

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assembly is, I

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ask myself, are you