The Letter of Artaxerxes (instruction for the local assembly)

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