The Assembly

Turn with me to 1 Kings chapter 7, please. 1 Kings chapter 7. I'm just going to read one verse, and that verse is the last verse in the chapter number 51. 1 Kings 7 and verse 51.

So was ended all the work that King Solomon made for the house of the Lord. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, even the silver and the gold and the vessels, and he put among, did he put among the treasures of the house of the Lord. That's all we need to read, but God will bless the reading of his word.

I remember listening to a Scotsman who was really one of the greatest ministers of the word I think we ever had in the assemblies. He made a statement, he said, you know, these Irishmen can get the local assembly out of the hair from the tail of Balaam's donkey. Well I might be stretching it a and I want to speak a little bit about God's assembly this morning.

I know the local assembly is not in the Old Testament, but there are many pictures of it, and I think this is one of the beautiful pictures of God's house. It's really called God's house. It's a house of the Lord, and it's telling us what happened when Solomon's temple was finished.

Everything was complete, and I've got just one verse, but I have eight points. Old Mr. Archie Stewart used to say, a lot of these young creatures have more points than a porcupine. Well, I'm an older one, but I still have a few points.

Hope they're okay. It's a wonderful thing to, when we read the word of God, to enjoy it, you know, and our brother was opened the meeting by reading from Psalm 49. And before God ever saved me, and I was an adult, 30 years old when I was saved, just shortly before that, I wanted to be saved, and I wanted God to show me.

And even though I was brought up in a Christian home, and knew a lot of the stories from the Bible, I opened the Bible at random. Not always a very good thing to do, but I opened it, and where did it open? Psalm 49. And I was still from Ireland, trying to get along in the world, trying to make a good living, and I realized when I read this chapter, that no matter how much I earn, no matter how well I get on, it could in no means redeem me.

I know it says, redeem your brother, and as you can see, it could never redeem me. I turned over another page, and it happened to be Isaiah 55, and you know, you're right there with wine and milk, and buying it without money, and without price, and I thought that suits my pocketbook. I won't go on, I'm not telling you how I got saved, but anyhow, it's a good thing to get into the word of God, read the word of God, and apply it to yourself, and I'll tell you, it was a while after that, not too long, God reached and saved me, and after God saved me, and he saved my wife on the same day, my first wife and I, and we sat down, and I said, now I want to be baptized.

I told my wife what she said, I'd like to see it in the Bible. Good thing to see it in the Bible. She wasn't brought up the same way as I was, and we studied in the Bible, and we didn't know all about it, but we knew that's what the Lord wanted us to do.

If you're saved and not baptized, you don't need to know all the ins and outs of baptism. I don't suppose any of us maybe know it all now, but you know what, you need to be baptized, and then where are we going to be in fellowship? I had gone with a couple, an Irish couple to a church, as they called it, and the clergyman was a pastor, David Allen. He was a converted Jew from London, England, and I tell you, he could preach the gospel, and they had a choir, and I loved music.

I said, you like music? They could be able to really sing and let her go, and you know, their singing was tremendous, and they had trumpets, and timpani, drums, and boy, it was really going great, great guns, and that would be a great place to be, wouldn't it? You could just sit there and enjoy all that. Maybe you could sing in the choir. I don't know if you could grow your own horn.

The choir leader, he was good in the trumpet. They called him Gabriel, but that was just a nickname, but anyhow, when we sat down, where were we going to go? I knew one thing, didn't need to know very much. I knew there was no one-man ministry in the Bible.

So, I'll tell you, that cut everything out. I wanted to be in the assembly, and I love God's assembly, and I hope I stay in it till the end of my days. So, here we're going to look at a few things that would correspond, maybe, and this is the talk about the treasures of the house of God.

There are treasures in God's assembly. Are you enjoying the treasures? I heard about how people can be at discord and so on with one another, but are you enjoying the treasures? That's what we need to get into, and we have a precious treasure. There's silver, and there's gold, and I want to apply those in a very simple way.

Of course, the tabernacle and the temple are all gold, and most of the people didn't see the gold, but I'll tell you, I can see the gold in the local assembly. That speaks of Christ and all his glory, the one who was despised and rejected, the one that had nothing to do with in our unsaved days, and now all of a sudden, things have changed, haven't they? And we have the gold, the person of the Lord Jesus, that's what makes the assembly precious. I'm glad you're in the assembly, but I'm not there because of that.

I'm there because the Lord is there, and I'll tell you, that should color the whole assembly and all the meetings. And then what about the silver? Well, it speaks of redemption, and that's what we've been hearing about redemption. Wonderful thing to be redeemed.

My father and mother are in a cemetery way over there at Belfast in Ireland, and their names are on the tombstone, and when they were born and when they died, and there's one other word, redeemed. That's all that matters when it comes to the end, to be redeemed, and I'm glad this is where we preach redemption, because the redemption of the soul is precious, and may God help us preach it. There are other parts of doctrine that we preach, but the first one really, that's what brought the children of Israel in the relationship with God, redemption.

That's what the Lord, what happened at the feast of the, before the Lord inaugurated the breaking of bread, you have the Passover. You say, what's that got to do with it? We don't celebrate the Passover, but it shows you that that's the way in, isn't it? Redemption, that's the important thing, and then we can enjoy the things of God. Then, as a peculiar treasure, some of us maybe think God a bit peculiar, or maybe a little bit more, but anyhow, as a peculiar treasure, there are vessels.

You ever speak or study about vessels? There's lots of vessels in the Word of God. There are broken vessels. You'd say, that wouldn't be much good in God's house.

A vessel is broken. It's leaking everything you put in. It just gets out, but, you know, in the day, I'm thinking of the days of Gideon.

They were broken. They were humbled, and what happens when we're humbled? The light shines out. That's wonderful, isn't it? And we have a trumpet.

We can blow the trumpet. I don't know how you blow the trumpet without making a loud noise. I suppose you can.

You can muffle it and so on, but it's a good thing to be able to speak to others, and you don't have to find it very difficult. I don't. I ask people, I say, what church do you go to? And they say, oh, so-and-so and so-and-so.

I say, well, that's nice, but that will not get you to heaven. You need to know Christ is your Savior, so it shouldn't be too difficult. And if they don't want, they don't think you have much to say, tell them how God saved you.

That's what Paul did when his back was against the wall. Old Mr. Louis Brandt, he preached until he was in his 90s, like some of us. I thought he was old, really.

But anyhow, he said, you know, sometimes I lose my train of thought. Well, you know, then he said, I just tell how God saved me. And I said, well, that's Mr. Crawford.

I was with him, and Mr. Crawford said to him, well, that's what Paul did. That's scriptural. Your back's against the wall.

Tell them all the wonderful things that God has done for you. I hope you know them all, and you can count them. They used to say, count your blessings, name them one by one.

Count your blessings, name them ton by ton. More than that. And you know, not only broken vessels, but you have, well, I think, I was thinking of the woman at the well, the woman of Samaria.

She had a vessel that she came to get water in, but it was the water of the wells of the world. But you know, when she went out to tell the others what she had received, she left that water pot behind, and she became a vessel. And she went out and she told others.

She didn't have a lot to say, but she said, come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? I would have said, come here, a man that told me all things. But she wasn't interested just in his word, it was in his person.

God saved you and I, not just to be interested in the words or even the blessings that we have received. He saved us to enjoy the Lord. If we enjoy him, we're not going to be falling out with one another.

If we enjoy him, we'll know how it is to help restore one another. It says, he that is spiritual. Don't say, he that is carnal, restore such a one.

Or if you're occupied with a law or anything, know he that is spiritual and do it in the spirit of meekness. How else could you do it if you're occupied with Christ, a meek one? Then I thought there were vessels to honor and vessels to dishonor. You have those in 2 Timothy chapter 2. If you want to be a suitable vessel, a vessel that God can use at his disposal, that's the thing.

Not just trying to concoct things to do, ask the Lord to show you what to do. He can open doors, he can close doors. Did it for Paul, he can do it for us.

What could be a vessel of honor? I wonder what the Lord sometimes, what he thinks of us. I've often said, and maybe you've heard me, some of you, when the heavens were open to the Lord, the Father said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. I often thought, wonder what he would say if he opened the heavens to me and he looked down upon me.

I think I just have to hang my head. Could he say, I'm well pleased in what you're doing, I'm well pleased in what I'm doing, or does it matter? Do we do things without asking ourselves, does this really please the Lord? You know, there's things that please us, and you think, well, I think this, and likely the Lord will think the same thing. That's putting the cart before the horse, isn't it? So, you see, we need to ask him to spend time in his presence.

That's very, very important. When Paul was going to speak to the elders at Ephesus, what did he do? He sent them on and he walked. Why do you think he walked? He wanted to be alone with the Lord.

Oh, he stayed six days so he could be with the assembly, and remember the Lord with the assembly, that was important. And he had suitable companions there in Acts chapter 20, seven young men that he had met at different times, at different missionary journeys. He wasn't quick at picking up companions, but he walked alone because he wanted to have a word for these elders.

Spend time in the presence of God for guidance. Thought he'd never seen him again, sorry much for the words that he spoke, that we should see his face no more. Thought he would never see him again.

I could go on and on, but anyhow, vessels of mercy. How wonderful. Paul is merciful to us.

We didn't deserve it. We appreciate that. We'll appreciate him more.

The more we appreciate him, his greatness, the more we can see our lowliness. Sometimes we want to talk about our capabilities. What about the shortcomings? I can't think of the word I want, but anyhow, we shouldn't be thinking about our capabilities.

It's just how low we are. I was preaching at a conference in Windsor, Ontario on New Year's Day. I don't know if you make New Year's resolutions.

I don't because they don't last long anyhow. I used to before God saved me. I'd never drink again.

I'd never smoke again. I did a whole lot of things and they didn't last very long. But I spoke there and I mentioned, I said, well, we should be larger vessels and we all should be larger.

Why should we be larger? To take in more so we can take in more of the things of God. And there were two sisters that had just wanted to diet and lose weight and they thought that was a good word. They didn't have to bother trying to skim back, but they could eat all they wanted.

Now it's a precious treasures we have in Revelation 3 and 7. There's a key there and I think that's precious because it opened doors. And I don't know how you look at that. Some look at it and maybe they're right.

It opened doors for the gospel to go out to others. And that's right, it did. The church at Philadelphia, I think, would show that.

But I thought it was a key of the treasury. See, we're talking about treasures. And you know at that time there were men that studied the word of God and women as well.

Not just for men. And you know, they got the treasures. And I'm glad, that was way before my time, but in my time, I'm glad I met men that got into the treasure house and they brought out treasures.

Say, why didn't I think about that? Do you ever wonder when you hear somebody tell you something that you really enjoy? Why didn't I think of that? It seems so simple. Oh, you see, they had the key. The key, I believe, is spending time in God's presence and wanting to bring out a word, a word to touch the heart.

Wherever you preach the gospel or minister the word, we're trying to touch the heart because we love the sinners and we love believers. When I was first saved, there was a brother, he said, when you want to fix a clock, you don't fix it by twiddling around with the hands. He said, you get into the works.

That's what we need to do. And we need to have our heart. When we come to a conference, Lord, touch my heart.

Give me something. You know, you read about the feeding of the 5,000 in the gospel of John. Twelve baskets left over.

My, what there was, there wouldn't seem to be much to start. You ever wonder about the five loaves and the two fishes, what they mean? I tried to figure that out. That's just the way my mind is.

You know, I come to the conclusion that it just means it was very little. And the truth that Israel had in the Old Testament was little, but the Lord magnified it when he came. He opened it all up.

And we have it all in our Bible to enjoy it. And then, you know, I read a few more chapters in John 6. What do you think I found? A Serf, a Nishan woman, a Gentile. That might be twelve baskets left for the Jews in the future, but you know, a woman got a crumb.

Now, if we could just come to a conference and get a crumb, you could chew on it. It depends what kind of a crumb it is, but something, you know, a little bit of chocolate, you try to make it last. And once in a while, Linda allows me to have a piece of shortbread, and I tell you, I nibble it, and I suck when I do, so I don't leave all the crumbs.

Just a little bit at a time, make it last. I tell you, when you get a crumb, you can meditate upon it for the rest of the week, or the rest of the month, or the rest of your life. The precious treasure.

It's a preserved treasure. The Lord told, Paul told Timothy, don't change this treasure that God has given you. Pass it on.

Guard it. We need to guard the truth today. Some places, the truth seems to be fading away, and we don't want to stand for the truth.

We want to compromise. And if we compromise and, you know, keep half-truths, Mr. Crawford said, uh, how did he put it? But anyhow, what he was saying was that a half, they keep half-truths, or half-obedience, he said, is disobedience. So, we want to be obedient to the Word of God, and this is something that we should want as we come to a conference.

Preserved treasure, he said, pass it on to others that can pass it on to other men. Pass it on to your teacher, he said. Pass your teaching on to other teachers, that they can teach others.

I wonder, have you passed any truth on? I know we're not all creatures here, but it's not, we're all Christians, and we all have the truth, and we all can pass it on, and we don't need to change it in any way, shape, or form. Would you love the truth? It shouldn't be very difficult, even if it's truth of assembly. The truth of the assembly, we read in Acts chapter 2. It's not a fancy sermon that Peter preached, but I'll tell you, he preached the truth, and that's what we need.

And he tells us how they continued in the apostles' doctrine. The apostles would preach, and they would likely write it down, and then they would never forget it. And it was, one more, tell us more truth.

And they were hungry for the truth. When you're hungry, you're healthy. Gonna have a meal.

Most of us will do pretty good at the meal, and I'm glad the meal will be different kinds of things, I hope. Won't all be potatoes, although I could eat potatoes all day, but it's just like the Word of God. There's a variety.

We don't get into just one part and forget all the others. But anyhow, don't change the Word of God. Pass it on.

The days of Nehemiah, when they brought the treasures back from Jerusalem, they were weighed in Jerusalem, in the land, and then they were weighed, but they didn't lose anything on their journey. And then not only preserved treasure, but there's, I called it perverted treasure. Sometimes it's hard to get all these peas, you know, but anyhow, you need a pea shooter.

And here, perverted treasure, I thought that's 1 Kings 14. You know what happened? All the shields of gold were given away. We need shields.

That's part of our armor. And they were replaced by shields of brass. Oh, brass shields are pretty good, too.

You know, there wouldn't really be a lot of difference. I've never seen a gold shield or a brass shield, but you can imagine what they are. But you know, that's not the truth.

That's something that might resemble the truth. That's not really the true thing. And that's what we want, the true thing.

We always wanted what was right, even in our unsafe days. We didn't want things that were watered down, I'll tell you that. You wanted what was right.

And then there's presented treasure. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh, they were presented to the Lord. We do that in the assembly, don't we? Is the prophet, priest, and king.

Gold would be the king. Frankincense or incense would be the priest. Well, how would we get the prophet out of the myrrh? Myrrh speaks of suffering.

Well, go to the Song of Solomon, chapter 5, and speaking of the groom, it says, his lips drop sweet-smelling myrrh. The words of the Lord Jesus. Isn't that wonderful? We have the Gospels.

I don't have his words in red in my Bible. I don't care so much for that. But anyhow, I love his own words.

There's other words in the Bible, but there's something about his own words, how compassionate he was. Isn't that wonderful? We've heard about having compassion with one another, helping one another. Those two sisters, I heard an Englishman say he thought that they wanted the same husband, and the husband was to help them to sort it out.

Well, that would be a job, wouldn't it? Maybe that was the case, but I don't think so. Anyhow, do we have something to present when we come to remember the Lord? Good to have something to present, isn't it? Something to give. Gold is daily.

Appreciate his daily. Some places don't appreciate his daily. They say he could have sinned.

Don't you believe it? Could God sin? God could sin and we forget the whole thing. What about the frankincense, the incense? My, what a life the Lord Jesus lived. Everything was incensed to God.

I wonder what arises from my life. Is there incense for God and incense when I offer it to him? And then be careful of what we say. Difficult to retract words.

And then we have protected treasures. And again, the treasures were weighed for the journey. That's in Ezra.

And then they were provided at infinite cost. All that we enjoy is God's assembly, which he purchased with his own. And I'm convinced it's with his own son.

That was the Lord Jesus. He's the one that paid the price all alone so that we would never be alone. How do we behave in God's assembly? Well, I'm sure you've heard me say we need to be lowly.

Lowliness. Why? The Lord took a little child. Matthew 18.

Little child lowly. Why do we have to be lowly? Because the Lord is lowly. He's lowly.

How can we be proud? How can we think that we are something? We need to be holy. Then sin has to be dealt with. We've heard a little bit about that.

Why should we need to be holy? Because the Lord is holy. Why do we forget these things? We know them, don't we? Sure. I can forget them too.

You know the third thing? The spirit of forgiveness. We've heard that too. How often shall I forgive them? My limitless forgiveness.

Forgiving one another as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. So we trust that you've got something from the meetings this morning and you'll appreciate your salvation. And that's where it all begins.

And you'll appreciate the local assembly. Remember the precious treasure that killed your treasure. And then what is a preserved treasure, perverted treasure, presented treasure, protected treasure, and provided at infinite cost.

And maybe that's the most important one of all. We trust that God will bless these words to you for his name's sake.