Nicholson, Boyd: Rise Up And Build 1995 Conference-02 ~ The Sanctuary - Altar And House

Most wonderful service. I think David caught that. When he prayed that he might become a pillar in the house of his God, I believe he had an eternal ministry in view there. A ministry that will be directly related to ministering to the heart of God. Moses discovered it. To know God was the greatest thing. David discovered it. As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Saul of Tarsus discovered it in a blaze of light, and he cried out, who art thou, Lord? The person first. It's his first question. It's his greatest value that I might know him. It's his greatest prayer that we might have a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. And to know this God is the supreme blessing, but to minister to him is the supreme service. And that is the ministry of worship. King Asa discovered this. When he renewed the altar of the Lord, God first, there was such a recovery in the land. Mind you, it was by command, but nevertheless, there was such a recovery in the land that the ten tribes to the north, hearing about it, began to flock to the south in such numbers that King Basha built the first iron curtain city, the city of Ramah, the fortified city of Ramah, to keep the people from leaving the north to join that revival. Hezekiah discovered it. When the burnt offering, the scripture says, when the burnt offering began, then the song of the Lord began also. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, said David. He knew there was something missing, of course, caused by sin. He knew there was something missing. Not only was his service, his witness to the unbeliever affected, but his worship to the God of heaven was affected. Malachi records it. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there might be meat in mine house, says the Lord. And prove me now herewith, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open unto you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, there will not be room enough to receive it. Isn't that what we want? The principle is, God must get his portion first. And when God gets his portion first, step out of the way. But he's got a bigger shovel than we have, and he will pour it out. Is that not what it says? I think that's what it says. The very first activity, well, strictly speaking, the second activity, the very first thing they did was that they set the altar upon its base. You see, they're not going to put this altar on wheels. It was not going to be an adjustable value. It was not going to be associated with any kind of compromise. There were no wheels on that altar. It was going to stay. It was going on its base, and the very first thing they did was offer burnt offerings to the Lord. Burnt offerings. What's the burnt offering? Well, of course, it was that offering you remember, all of which, apart from the skin, of course, which was taken off, given to the priest, but all of the offering ascended to God. It was all for God, a beautiful picture, first of all, of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ offering himself to God, but likewise pursuing that, a picture of true spiritual worship, ministering to the heart of God. There's an interesting expression that goes right through from Old Testament to the New Testament. It's associated with the burnt offering before the Lord, or its equivalent unto the Lord, meaning, in effect, for the special and personal joy and delight of the Lord. The burnt offering was unto the Lord. The whole tabernacle ministry, the garb of the priests, the breastplate, the table, the lampstand, the golden altar, all of these were before the Lord. They were for his personal delight and pleasure because they all spoke of his beloved son. And in him is all his delight. And the amazing thing about it is that when we come into Ephesians chapter one, we discover that you and I, who are New Testament believers, were chosen before the foundation of the world, that we might be holy without blame before him. Same expression. He saved us to bring us into the knowledge and enjoyment of God, and in so doing, God himself will derive joy from his people. Think of it. Sinners, unworthy, unlovely, unloving and ungodly, saved, transformed, transported into glory to bring joy to the heart of God. Amazing grace indeed. Israel's corporate worship. Brother Gunning just gave me a few extra minutes, so, so bear with me. It's so important that we look at this. Israel's corporate worship was identified at the beginning with the tabernacle in the wilderness, a pattern of the things in the heavens. There were three names given to that tabernacle in the wilderness. It was called the tent of meeting. That is the approachableness of God by men. It was called the tent of witness, that is, a witness to the holiness of God before men. It was called the dwelling of the Lord, the presence of God in the midst of men. What a miracle of grace this was. But of course, the worshipper coming in was faced with three great obstacles. There was the brazen altar, and the brazen altar cries out, without shedding of blood, no remission. But the offer sheds the blood, and the altar, beyond the altar was the laver. The voice cries from the laver, they that bear the vessels of the Lord must be clean. And there was no entering into the holy place without the use of the laver. The holy place is the place of service, spiritual service, but there hung the veil, the great obstacle. The voice of the veil cries out, thou shalt not come at all times into the holy place. Of course, the Lord Jesus has dealt with the claims of the altar, the blood of Christ, the washing of the water of the word is our labor, that we might be clean in the service of the Lord. The veil hangs there. It hung there. But at last, that last great cry on Calvary, the veil was rent from top to bottom, and the veil is rent. Now Jesus stands. We may enter into the most intimate ministry to the heart of God. The devil hates worship, and the devil hates worshippers, because his whole supreme scheme is to rob God of that which is rightfully his. And when a saved sinner enters into the holy place to worship, the devil hates that. Job was a worshipper. Job was a man of the morning hours. Job was a man of the burnt offering, and the devil hated him for it. The devil was not after Job. The devil didn't attack Job to destroy Job. He was after Job's God. He said, let me get at him. And he will curse thee to thy face. That's what he wanted. To stop that man worshiping and make him a curser of God. And so in one day, by permission of God, Job lost everything but his life and his wife. The old devil is just licking his chops, walking around like a roaring lion, waiting for this poor, beaten, battered, bereft poor man to lift his fist to heaven and curse God. What does the Bible? He fell down upon the ground and worshiped God. That's why the book of Job begins, now there was a man in the land of us. Beloved, in Christendom today, the Lord's Supper has largely lost its significance. It is called by all kinds of names and many kinds of practices surround it, but to that people, by the grace of God alone, who meet simply in the name of the Lord Jesus, week by week, around a table with a loaf of bread and a cup of wine, has been preserved to us the Lord's Supper in its true significance, and that is a matter, that is not a matter to be proud of. It is a deeply humbling thing that we should even be permitted to be there. Do you know angels would leave heaven to do it, but they're not permitted. The Lord's Supper is that place of the name, the place of the presence, the place of the offering to the heart of God, and the devil hates it. And he hates those who go to it and worship God. And he will do everything he can to stop it. And he uses devices. Distraction. We mentioned it yesterday, like Peter. Distracted by subjective benefits. It is good for us to be here. How easy it is at the Lord's Supper to be taken up with the soulish experience, the subjective experience, and miss the holy privilege of ministering to the heart of God. He uses not only distraction, but he uses misdirection. In Ezekiel forty four— we won't turn to it, but there the Lord is going to reconstitute the ceremonial worship of Israel. And in his grace, and there's lots of grace in the Old Testament, in his grace he calls the Levites, who had indeed worshipped at the false idolatrous altars of the people, the pagans, but nevertheless they were Levites, and God calls them back again to minister. But he says, they shall not minister unto me, nor come near to my table, but they shall minister to the house. That's one direction of ministry by God's grace they were given. But there was one family that never violated the ordinance. They kept their charge as the priests and never worshipped at an idol altar, and those were the sons of Zadok. And God calls the sons of Zadok, and he says to them, of them, they shall come near to me. They shall minister on. They shall minister at my table. You see the two directions of ministry? The one ministry to the house of God, and the other ministry to the heart of God. Which is the highest ministry? Doubtless the ministry to the heart of God. Now, isn't it a mark of amazing grace that we as New Testament priests have been given both ministries? In First Peter two, we are holy priests. At the heart of God, waiting, longing, yearning for the outpoured ministry of the hearts of his people. Discouragement. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat. We get down before God before we go out, or on Saturday, and we examine our hearts, so we discover all we've gathered up in the week. We're conscious of the defilement of the world and of things that have touched our lives that are displeasing. The more we examine our heart in the holy presence of God, what do we feel like? We feel like staying home. Lord, I'm not worthy to take that bread and wine. And then the Lord reminds us, my dear child, you're not there because you're worthy. You're there because he's worthy. So let him eat. Judged. Eat and remember, my beloved son. The kings of Israel were measured, the good ones and the evil ones, by two measures. One, the good kings were always measured by the ways of their father David. The evil kings were always measured by the ways of Jeroboam, who caused Israel to sin. Always. The most evil measurement of a king was the ways of Jeroboam. Jeroboam, what was his great evil? His great evil was that he obstructed the worship of God by change. He changed the object of worship. He changed the place of worship. He changed the day of worship, and he changed the ministry of worship. And for that, he's marked in the Bible as the measuring stick of the most profound evil, and God's anger is expressed against him in these words: Him that dieth of Jeroboam shall the dogs eat. Because he attacked the worship of God's people. And any device, by change or carelessness, that would rob our God of that ministry is walking in the ways of an evil king called Jeroboam, and a very dangerous territory, that is. Oh, I have to close, but not without just giving you an Old Testament and a New Testament illustration of worship. I think one of the loveliest in the Old Testament is the hands full of sweet incense when the high priest, on the great day of atonement, was to go in with the blood into the Holy of Holies before the blood, mark you, before the blood went in, there was something else had to go in. He was to take the censer and put it inside the veil. We discover that from Hebrews. And with the censer burning inside the veil, he was to go back to the box where was the incense beaten small. He was to plunge his hands into that and fill his hands full of the sweet incense beaten small, put it through the veil and onto the coals of the censer, that the cloud may fill the holy place, that he die not. What do you think Aaron was thinking of as he stood before that veil, and he was about to enter inside the veil? What do you think he was thinking about? I think he was thinking, is everything in order? Is everything correct? Is the cloud covering the mercy seat and the ark? Is everything right? Before he stepped in, that he die not, it was capital punishment. Someone has said, if God applied the same principle to us, as we come so often unprepared to the Lord's Supper, there would not be enough young men left to carry out the dead. When we gather together, we are engaging in the highest and holiest ministry that angels know nothing about. They worship God, we worship the Father. Oh, the privilege, beloved. It's a more wonderful thing to be a redeemed sinner on the earth than it is to be a holy angel in heaven. Oh, that we might rise to this, rise up. And first give God his portion. The New Testament, and with this I close, has a number of beautiful pictures of worship, but one of them we read about last night. I think it was Brother Joe that referred to it. In Luke chapter seven. the woman who came into the house of Simon the Pharisee who had prepared a supper for the Lord Jesus. Now it must have cost Simon something financially to gather the food and hire the servants. It certainly cost him something with his peers, the rest of the Pharisees, because this Jesus out of Nazareth was no favorite with the Pharisees, and he's going to have a dinner for him. And it cost him something with his neighbors, because the door was open to his house, and the neighbors saw a woman of the city coming to his house and turning in and going into the door of his house. A woman who was a sinner in the city. She was well known. She goes inside the house. A woman who knows nothing of true and pure love, who knows nothing of pure manhood, and she sees there before her the full expression of love and perfect manhood in the one who was soon to die upon the cross. She intends to anoint him, but before she can even get to it, she breaks down in tears and falls at his feet. As hot tears fall on those blessed feet. Embarrassed she had no towel, she gathers her long hair and wipes those feet with her tears and covers those feet with kisses. Oh, Simon is watching. If he were a prophet, he would know who she was and what manner of woman she is, and would not let her touch him. The Lord, knowing everything, said, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he told him that lovely parable that was referred to last night of those who are forgiven much and who love much. And then he said something that hits my heart at every single Lord's Supper. He said to Simon, when I came into your house, Simon, you gave me no water to wash my feet. But this woman has not ceased to wash my feet with her tears. And Simon, thou gavest me no kiss. But this woman hath not ceased to kiss my feet. One of the words translated worship in our Bible, proskuneo, is the word that means to kiss towards. The worship of the Lord's people is the kiss of the soul upon the blessed feet of the man we love. He often gives us his kiss. That's enough. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, we say. Many years ago, I was in a city three thousand miles from home. I was in business many, many years ago. Never been to that city. There was an assembly there, a little gospel hall, and I intended to go there in the morning for the Lord's Supper. Didn't know a single believer there. I'm not given too much to downheartedness, thank God, or discouragement, but I was downhearted that day, and I was lonely, and I was homesick for my wife and children. Before going out to the Lord's Supper, I got down, and I asked the Lord today if he would just give me a kiss that day and let me know of his personal love for me. Went out to the Lord's Supper, little gospel hall with about thirty five gathered round in a circle of wooden chairs, a wooden floor, the table in the center, and the meeting proceeded and came to an end, and I don't remember anything very much about that meeting, save this incident. As the meeting came to an end, before anyone moved a muscle, right across the table from me, on the opposite corner, there was a mother, a young mother, sitting with a little girl on her knee, about two years of age, dressed in her Sunday little dress and her shiny little black shoes on for Sunday. And as soon as the meeting ended, she slipped off her mummy's knee. Before her mummy could catch her, she started walking across the floor towards the table. Everybody is holding their breath. Nobody knows what to do, least of all the mother, but she wasn't interested in the table. She passed the table right by, and she came right to where I was sitting, and she stood in front of me, gave me one of those smiles that only little girls can give, you know. And she put up her two little arms to me. I reached down and I gathered up this wee girl into my arms. She put her arm round my neck and gave me a kiss right on the cheek. The Lord said to me in my heart, Nicholson, don't be foolish. You know that I love you with all my heart all the time. Worship. Worship is It loves. love's response to the one who has loved us beyond measure. We shall join in that worship, untainted by sin, unhindered by the flesh, in a coming day. And John was privileged to see that great sight. Was told to write it down for us, and he wrote, I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, the living creatures and the elders. And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing, and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, heard I saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb. And the four living creatures said it. And every redeemed heart can say it. Amen. This is right. The four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped him. He is thy Lord. Worship thou. Shall we pray? O God our Father, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. We have gathered together to sit before thee, to hear thy voice. But we come to tell thee afresh, each of us individually, that thy beloved Son fully and completely satisfies our hearts. He has become to us the altogether lovely one whose beauty overshadows every other created thing. O Father, we bless thee first of all for his faithfulness to thee. He fulfilled all the eternal purpose, satisfied thy holy claims, exhausted thy fury against us. But oh, at what a cost. As we turn our hearts and minds to Calvary, we see him there offering himself without spot to God. We cry out, oh God, why did he love me so? Why did my Savior, the Calvary go? Why did he love me so? We must confess with shamefacedness before thee to the coldness of our hearts, O God. The wellsprings of our tears have long dried up, and our spirits are often dry as dust as we sit before the memorials of his broken body and shed blood. We rise to sing perfunctory hymns and make expressions of correct language, but, oh God, oft times our hearts are cold towards thee. Wilt thou forgive our sins for robbing thee of that which is rightfully thine? And O God, as we leave this convocation, may it be a matter of quietness of spirit and determination of heart before God, that we will not fail thee in this great matter to give to thee our first love, our homage, our adoration, to honor the Lord Jesus Christ, who is worthy of all praise and honor. Father, we just commend ourselves to thee that as we go about today, the memorial of our Savior and the sense of his presence may be so profound among us. As we laugh with holy joy together, as we sing in different parts and places, there may be a fragrance that will fill this hotel, the like of which has never happened before. That they may know that we have been with Jesus. And oh God, we pray for those whose hearts are aching, for the down cur- the downhearted and the discouraged, for that dear young man who's wandered away in sin and is longing for restoration, for that young woman deeply disappointed in life and doubting thy promises, for those older folks. Oh Father, we pray for individual needs today, that Christ may become to us the fullness of all things. Lord, thou knowest better than we know what to ask. Fill us, Lord, with all thy fullness, for thou art able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask for. And this we pray in that precious name, fragrant and mighty, the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Today we're going to look at Ezra today. If you open your Bibles to the book of Ezra, and the subject... Thank you. I'll repeat that for the sake of this little piece of equipment. Our subject today is taken from the book of Ezra, and the topic is restoring worship at the altar of the Lord. I will begin by reading Ezra chapter one at verse one. Now, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people, his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel? He is the God which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver and with gold and with goods and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah, and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem. And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, beside all that was willingly offered. Also, Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods. Chapter three, verse one. And when the seventh month was come, I judge that to be the seventh month after the people arrived in the land, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. Then stood up Yeshua, the son of Josadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. And they set the altar upon his bases, for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries, and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening. And God will bless the reading of these sacred and most instructive scriptures. It is profoundly humbling to the flesh, though heartwarming to the soul to read the words of the angel given to Zerubbabel in Zechariah. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. Now we come to the book of Ezra and see the record of the actual movement of the people from their place and places in Babylon, back again to the city, to the altar, and to the house of the Lord. We see it did not really begin with the edict of Cyrus. It really began with the stirrings of the Lord on the spirit of the people. The stirrings of the Lord. You'll have noticed that expression. I tried to emphasize it as I read it in verse one. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, the king of Persia. And in verse five, in the middle of the verse, whose spirit God had raised to go up to build the house. The word stir here is an interesting word. It really carries with it also the idea of waking up someone, raising someone up out of their bed, lifting them up. The idea is not just simply to stir someone in their sleep. God wanted them thoroughly wakened up from their sleep and to get up from the place of their comfortable situation and go and build for God. It would seem that after seventy years, and most and many of the old folks passing on, and another generation and another yet born likely in Babylon, they had just become to accept the status quo and to be comfortable, and even many of them, obviously, to profit in the land, for they had much gold and silver to give to those who were going. And they seemed perhaps to have settled down and fallen asleep to the reality of the times. Daniel was not asleep to the reality of the time. We noticed that in our study yesterday. He was determined before God to find out the significance of the time, and there he was, an old man on his knees with the open book before him, to understand by books the number of the years. While it's not really stated so, who can tell but the stirrings and the spirit of the great and gracious King Cyrus was a result of the answered prayers of the man of God, Daniel. Among Among the the ar- armies and the mighty men that joined themselves to David, you remember, at Ziklag, were the children of Issachar. As interesting is it not to read about the men of David, I love to read about them and their skills. Left-handed men, right-handed men, men that could do this and men that could do the other, but the children of Issachar are not really to renounce so much in their battle prowess, but what is said about them is that they were men that had the understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do. They were sensitive to the moment and what God's people had to do. Beloved, it is absolutely vital and a matter of great urgency in the day in which we live that we be sensitive to the times and what God is wanting to bring about among his people. Where are the children of Ithaca today? Men and women sensitive to the will and purposes of God for his people. In front of my old Bible, I had jotted down a little thing that there were three main classes of people. There were those who made things happen. There were those who watched things happen, and there are those who have absolutely no idea what has happened. How important it is that we be sensitive to the times. The Lord indeed rebuked the Pharisees and the scribes for their very failure among the people of God as professed leaders of the people, that they hadn't a clue about the times. He said, oh ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. I'm not thinking so much in the prophetic reference, but in our day now, a sensitivity to the need of God's people and what we ought to do that we might build for God. Sleep. Sleep is a comfortable lack of awareness to the reality of time and the events around us. Paul takes, surprisingly, I think, from Isaiah chapter sixty, an Old Testament millennial scripture having to do with Israel, and he sends it to the Gentile church at Ephesus. Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from among the dead. How solemn, how sad, that God's people should be found sleeping in the cemetery, looking like the dead, and living among the dead, asleep to the reality of time and sense. However, if there is going to be any raising up, any stirring and waking up of us, we who are God's people, if there's going to be any rising up and building for God of any substantial and eternal significance, we learned at the opening, it will not be by might of armies. It will not be by power of organization or ingenuity or any kind of ology, mythology, or any of the others that we hear about today. It will be by the moving, the stirring, the awaking of our spirits by God the Holy Spirit. Oh, may that be in these days, that the Spirit of God may brood upon the waters of this company, bring forth that which will result to the glory of God's great and holy name. The very principle of this, the fundamental principle of this, is evident in the words of the Lord Jesus when he speaks about building his church. I will build my church. Each word is pregnant with meaning. He's telling us, I will be the builder. The church will not be built by the energy of the flesh, but it will be erected by the power of Christ. I will build my church. The church is not to be subjected to the will of the flesh, but subject to the will of the Lord of the church. I will build my church. The church is to be the project of the design of Christ, and who but he could have designed this wonderful thing. So look at us. I have met brethren from India, from Africa, from Europe since coming here, and occasional heathen from north of the River Tweed. And here we are from all parts of the world. What else could provide a unity, a oneness, but this work of Christ by the gospel and the power of his spirit? I will build my church. The church is to be the project, the object of the love and possession of Christ, and not the denominational distinctions of the flesh. My church. I will build my church, the called out ones, not the fashionable fellowships of the flesh. We see the very fundamental principles of building for God in the words of the master. So it was not by the command of Cyrus at all, or the edict, that the people returned to build for God. It really was an obligation stirred and awakened in the hearts of God's people out of love for him and the honor of his name and the place of his presence. That's what took them back to Jerusalem. Jerusalem. We had read the last verses, and if you just, we won't read them, but if you just scan down the last few verses there in second Chronicles and see the description of Jerusalem, broken, burned, destroyed. What was Jerusalem? It was virtually a heap of ruins despised among the nations. That's not what was calling them back. It wasn't that we're going back to pleasant streets to walk the cardo and look at the shops. Going back to rubble, to build for God, because that was the place where God had chosen to put his name. Let me just read it to you from Deuteronomy chapter twelve. Then there shall be a place, verse eleven, which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. Thither shall you bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your heave offerings, the heave offerings of your hand and all your choice vows which you vow unto the Lord. There was the place of his name and the place of his presence, and there only was that place. And that what was taking them back to Jerusalem. But we're not back in Jerusalem. We are New Testament believers. Is there such a place for God's people today? Most certainly. It is the place of his name. Still. It is the place of his presence, still. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Granted, the primary application of the scripture is really personal fellowship, but nevertheless, the principle remains that wherever two or 3 are gathered together in my name, we can depend on the promised presence of the Lord of the churches. If we lose that sense of the promised presence of Christ in the midst of his gathered people, we will have very little responsibility and accountability as far as being in our place as the church comes together. My dear mother, to whom I shall owe an incalculable debt for the evidence of faith in God, and by her life showing me the way to Christ. In her olden years, she had a great deal of heart pain and trouble. But came meeting time, she would get ready, get her big handbag underneath her arm and her Bible. I'd say, Mum, do you think you should go out tonight? Oh son, she would say in her Scottish voice, I have a Christ with the Lord. She knew he was going to be there. She didn't want to miss it. If we really believed it, brethren, our prayer meetings would be packed to capacity. He is there. The place of his presence. It's not a geographical location for us. The Lord taught the woman by the well, the hour cometh and now is, when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. It's not a geographical location for us. It's not a literal building of bricks and stone and wood, and it's not the name on the building. But it is the place where the Lord is in the midst of his people. As we g- as we gather together in that name, that is in the authority of that name, that is under the subjection to that holy name. That is in love for the one who bears that name. We meet to hear his voice. The end of the war, I was in Burma when I got word to fly back to Bombay and pick up a ship. There were crowds of us converging, and troop ships were packed, but we were, a few of us, two hundred or so of us, were assigned to the SS Scythia, which was a ship that had just been recommissioned as a passenger ves- vessel, and it was a very comfortable experience. And so I thought I'd take the liberty to call home and let my mother know when I was coming. I went down to the post office in Bombay, and through the wonders of electronics, I was able to put a telephone call home to my mother. I hadn't heard her voice in a long time. I heard the telephone call being linked through to Rome, to Paris, to London, to Glasgow, and I heard the phone ringing. Click. And I heard my mother's voice. I wouldn't have cared if she'd just gone through the alphabet. It was beautiful. Oh, to hear the sound of his voice. We gather to hear from him, as well as minister to him. The second thing that we notice of significance in our reading was that King Cyrus understood something about separation. It's amazing. Obviously, the Spirit of God had moved upon this great king because he remembered that Nebuchadnezzar, who had gone in and taken those people out with violence, destroying the temple, and they had brought the holy vessels from the temple and put it into the house of his gods, put them into the house of his gods. Cyrus recognized there was something fundamentally wrong with that. That there should not be a mixture here of the heathen pagan monstrosities and the holy vessels of the Lord God of heaven. And so we read that it was King Cyrus himself who went and brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth. Separation of the vessels. No mixtures. God expresses his hatred for certain mixtures in the Old Testament. The people were not to sow different seeds together in their vineyard. They were not to serve in the field by plowing with an ox and an ass together. They were not to wear garments of mixed materials, teaching God's people that they were not to be involved in unholy mixtures. Separation was a word that was very important to God and to teach the people. This is a word that has kind of fallen into disrepute, separation, because it's looked upon like isolation. Lord Jesus put it this way, speaking of the disciples to his father, they're in the world, but they're not of the world. It is not isolation he's talking about, it's insulation, a distinct spiritual barrier between his people and the world. Today we're not under such legal constraints as food and clothing, but in the New Testament there are at least three forbidden mixtures, unholy fellowships that the child of God is to have absolutely no connection with. Not a little, not occasional, no fellowship. There is the unequal fellowship of bondage, the unequal yoke. Young men and women, as you face the two greatest decisions after salvation, that is your life's vocation and your life's partner, may I just raise a word in love and warning to you? Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. That's not a request, that is a command. You see, the Lord knows that an unequal yoke hurts both partners, not just the believer. When I was in India one day, I saw a man leading a yoked camel and an ox together. A camel and an ox yoked together. They're different heights, of course. The yoke was simply a straight bar of wood with two sticks down over the neck of each animal, and the yoke was about this angle. Now, you remember, of course, from school days, they called the camel the ship of the desert because a camel walks with two left feet together and two right feet together so that it rolls as it walks. The ox walks with opposite feet together. Now, you could imagine those two animals trying to walk together, and on both animals on the side of both animals, was a sore, an open sore about six inches across, covered with maggots and flies. Both animals were suffering. You see, beloved, it's not a matter of character we're talking here. There are many unbelievers who never have sought to follow Christ, who are very fine characters. There's some very lovely people out there in the world. They're not saved, they've never discovered life in Christ, but they're upstanding, moral, clean living people. That's not the problem. The problem is not their character, the problem is their nature. It's a different nature, and it just doesn't work. No fellowship. The unequal yoke of bondage, the unfruitful fellowship of barrenness. The children of the light and the children of the dark, no fellowship. They are mutually exclusive. Their directions are different. It's not only that the children of the darkness are in the dark, the darkness is in them. They are walking in the dark and into the dark, and their direction is different than the child of God who is in the light and walking in the light, and the light is in them. Lord says, no fellowship. And the unholy fellowship of Babylon. Come out of her, my people. Be not partakers of her sins. No, no fellowship. It would be most instructive if we had time to look at Genesis eleven and see the marks of Babylon. Well, just let me mention them briefly, without going into the details. The spirit of Babylon is abroad and always has been from Genesis eleven and the mud flats of the plains of Shinar. From that day, man's alternative to God's way has filled the centuries and will come in the great whore, Babylon, the false church. But the spirit of Babylon is abroad. How can we identify it so that we may withhold any kind of connection and fellowship with it? The five outstanding features of Babylon are well worth noting because we see them in the spirit of Babel today. They called it Babel, the house of God. God changed the emphasis and called it Babel, confusion. Confusion. Imitation. Brick for stone and slime for mortar. Even though they double-burned the brick, they couldn't make a stone out of it. That's what they called them, they were double burned brick, but a brick is a man-made stone imitation and slime for mortar. Imitation. So today we look out and we see imitation priests, man-made priests, standing before man-made altars, offering man-made sacrifices to man-made gods, offering a man-made heaven. Babylon, no fellowship, imitation. Identification, let us make us a name. Oh, how we love a name. But we have a name, the greatest name in the universe, and we must be aware that when we see the names of men, beware of the spirit of Babylon, the names of man's devising, perhaps more accurately. Imitation, identification, association. Let us build it a city and a tower of the zodiac. The city is the political entity, and the tower is the religious entity, and Babylon is always marked by an association of politics and religion. You see it, right over it, the spirit of Babylon. The glorification of the woman. Semiramis, the woman and the infant, whose idols have filled the temples of men from that day until now. Babylon. We see these marks of Babylon, unification. The Lord said to spread throughout the earth and to multiply throughout the earth, but they said, let us stick together. Unification. There are some words that sound alike, but they're not really alike. Union and unity, uniformity and unanimity. They sound alike if you say them quickly, but they're not. Union is man's work. We can make a union. We can take a brick and stick it to a plank with these new wonderful adhesives. We can make a union, but it's still a brick and a plank. But only God can produce a unity of many parts. And that's what he does in the church. He takes of many parts and makes one glorious. We're living in a day of church union. When you see that word, the bell rings, the spirit of Babylon. The ecumenical movement is the artificial stickum that is being used to join the modern denominations together. Be careful, beloved. The church cannot be any more one than God has made it. One day it will be evident to the whole world. Today it is not so evident. These are the marks of Babylon, have no fellowship. But then began the setting out for Jerusalem. And if we had read through the chapter, we would have discovered there in chapter, chapter, uh, two, the details of the gathering that left Babylon. Why? It tells the numbers of the people who went, forty two thousand three hundred and sixty. It tells how many singers went along. It tells how many servants went along. It even records how many horses, mules, camels, and donkeys went along. That important to God? Every detail is important to God. In second Corinthians ten thirteen, there's a beautiful title given to God. It's not a, not evident in the King James translation that I have, but in Darby's translation you'll find it, and perhaps in others. It's called there the God of measure. What a beautiful title. God is not an arbitrary God because he is almighty and can do anything he wills to do. He doesn't do things because of that. He does things because of the outworking of the eternal councils. And so he measures, and he counts, and he numbers. We see him doing it with the universe in Isaiah forty. Measures the heavens with the span of his hand, the waters in the palm of his hand, the dust, the pinch of his fingers, the mountains and scales. He measures, he weighs. And when it comes into our life, we find there is not a detail in the life of any one of his people that escapes his interest and his measure. In First Corinthians ten thirteen we discover that he measures the tests of life. He will not test you above that you're able to bear. Sometimes he does things according to our faith, sometimes he does things in spite of our faith. But when he is going to test the people of God and lay on them the burden of trial, he will measure that trial by the individual's ability to bear it, and he will not suffer you to be tested above that you're able to bear. He measures the tests of life. He tells the disciples, in effect, that he measures the trivia of life. Don't you know that the hairs of your head are all numbered? Not counted, but numbered. What's the difference? Well, every printer knows the difference. If you count five hundred sheets of paper, you know you've got five hundred sheets of paper. But if you number five hundred sheets of paper, every sheet of paper has its own number. He says, don't you know that every hair on your head has a number in the record of heaven, and he knows exactly what number of hair fell off on the comb this morning, if you had any to lose. What possible significance can this have to the God of heaven and the Lord of worlds and the sovereign of the skies? What possible significance can a hair of the people of God have? Well, it simply tells me that if it matters to God the number of your hairs, it matters to God about the aching of your heart. It matters to God about the bills you have to pay when you go home. It matters to God about the decisions you're about to make. It matters to him. He's the God who measures the tests of life and the trivia of life, and David thanks God that he measures the tears of life. Why? He says, oh God, my tears are in thy bottle, and there in heaven's museum is the glistening globe of the tears of the saints. Think of it. There with the catalyst of the precious tears of his own son, they are mixed, contained there for the glory of God. He knows about your tears, and he has measured your tears, and not only that you have wept, he has recorded in the book of tears why you have wept. And David thanks God that not only his tears are measured, but his wanderings are measured. The travelings of his life, every sidestep, every wandering path is measured by the God who loves his people. I was away in Africa for some months at one time, alone, and, uh, I get a letter from my wife, and up in the top left-hand corner of the envelope would be a little number that would say something like this, twenty seven to go. And I'd write back to her, and I'd write twenty five to go. I get another letter back from her and say sixteen to go. I write back to her and say fourteen to go. What are we counting? We're counting the days when we could be together again. Dear child of God, the love of your Father is so profound that it's numbering the days if you have wandered away from him until you come back. Though I forget him and wander away, still he does love me wherever I stray. Back, back to his dear loving arms would I flee when I remember Jesus loves me. The God of measure was watching that company of people down to the lowliest donkey, and you can be sure that he has as much interest, at least, in the lowliest saint of God. But when they got back there, after they settled in a little bit, seven months, I judge, was the time it took them to kind of find places to shelter their bodies and to perhaps put in a little planting and to gather some resources. The day came when the whole company of about fifty thousand people gathered down to Jerusalem. And the very first act was to set up the altar. The very first act. Hans Bruns, a German theologian of great experience and knowledge and erudition, was asked in his old age, as a result of all his wide and profound knowledge and experience, what is the most important thing? After a few moments of thought, he said, I believe that the most important thing of all is that the most important thing always remains the most important thing. Great deal of wisdom in that, because we have a tendency to major in minors. Well, what is the most important thing? For we who are the people of God, many things in this book we do not understand, and many truths that are concealed perhaps only to those of great knowledge and spirituality. But there is one truth from cover to cover that is as clear as crystal, and it's this: God is first. He so states it three times, perhaps four, in Isaiah. I am the first and the last. Lord Jesus picks it up and uses it as a divine title in the revelation. I am the first and the last. Of that there can be no doubt. God is first. Since then, God is first. The supreme blessing of the human soul is to come to know this God who is first. So the Lord Jesus, in John seventeen, in his great prayer, expresses this. This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. That is, this is the intent of eternal life. This is the content of eternal life. This is the extent of eternal life. Beloved, there's nothing beyond this. This is why he saved you. Oh, I thought he saved me to keep me out of hell. Thank God you'll never be there, but that's not why he saved you. Well, I thought he saved me to take me to heaven and make me happy forever. Yes, you will be in heaven and happy forever if you're truly saved, but that's not why he saved you. He saved us and gave us eternal life, which is the vehicle of the supreme blessing of the human soul, and for which we were created, that we might come to know and enjoy God the Blesser beyond all his blessings to launch out into the infinite ocean of the greatness and the glory and the wonder of God. Supreme blessing of the human soul. And of course, conversely, it is the supreme tragedy of a human soul to live without God and to die without God, to spend a dark eternity and never, ever come to know God. For sight in a lost eternity.