McCandless, Murray: Taking Our Proper Place Before God

Now I want to thank you very much for coming tonight. I realize it's a busy, busy night, permitting night of a conference, and you did well to be here and to make it. And I certainly would express my thanks to the responsible brethren for inviting us to the conference to share in the ministry of the conference and trust that even in being here, it'll become evident that we are in the mind of God. Somebody called me not too long before I left and said, did Jackson close their platform? I said, no, I don't think it did. Well, they said it, it's not an open one. No, I said it's not an open one either. I said, what kind is it? I said it's an invited speaker conference, whereby the brethren come together and they pray about it and invite men to speak at a conference. Now, I know what is meant by the other terms, but a closed platform would suggest that there are truths that are closed out, that we don't have those truths here. An open platform would suggest that you preach whatever you like. It's not that other men can't do it. Other men have been here, other men have been invited other years, and the will of God will be. So, but we're thankful just to be here to help to share in this responsibility. I want to read with you tonight from First Samuel chapter three, a passage I've enjoyed of late, and I want to share that with you. First Samuel in chapter three. verse 1. And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord, uh, unto the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open vision, and it came to pass at the time when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim that he could not see. There the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Samuel was laid down to sleep. That the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli and said, Here am I, for thou callst me. He said, I called not. Lie down again. And he went and lay down. The Lord called yet again Samuel, and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not my son. Lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. And the Lord called Samuel again a third time, and he arose, and he went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Well, you have to give Eli that much credit anyhow. He recognized it. Verse nine, Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go and lie down. It shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place, and the Lord came and stood and called as another time, Samuel, Samuel. Samuel answered, speak, for thy servant heareth. The Lord said unto Samuel, behold, I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle, and so on. Verse nineteen says, and Samuel grew, the Lord was with him and did let none of his words fall to the ground. As many times as I've read this passage, it wasn't that long ago that for the first time I realized that when Samuel recognizes the call and responds to it, there's a change. We maybe would have written it something like this, so Samuel went, I'm referring to the latter part of verse nine— so Samuel went and laid down again. Well, it doesn't say there's a difference. It says that Samuel went and laid down in his place. It's not until Samuel is in his place that God is then able to speak to him. Could he not have spoke to, spoken to him at other times? W- was there a difference of where he was laying at that particular moment? I doubt that. But you and I both know that these words are not put into the scripture simply for the filling of the pages in our Bible. There's a truth to be recognized, and it is this, that God speaks to a man or woman when they are in their place. Take it back in conversion, when it went to salvation. It was not until we took the place that was ours that we could ever be saved. Not until we took that place of being guilty, which was so hard to do, true repentance in our lives, that God could ever deliver us. Those that work in gospel work, and there's many here that work in gospel work, uh, that maybe are not full time in it as we speak, but you know as well as I do, people will come and they'll hear the gospel preached, and you'll say, they're not getting there. What do we mean when we say they're not getting there? We may say they're not getting it. That's true, they will not. Until they take the place that God gives them. Interesting when it comes to the firstborn son in Exodus chapter twelve. Notice, he's only safe in the very house in which he is condemned. He's not safe in a relative's house at that moment, not safe in a neighbor's house, but when that midnight hour struck, he had to be in his place. His place was in the house in which he was condemned, and the very place in which he was condemned is the place in which he can be saved. So I'm just emphasizing that when it comes to the beginning of our experience, God spoke to us. Whether through a particular verse or not, or the line of a hymn, whatever it might be, we were in our place. And we heard his voice. You know the hardest thing to do, brothers and sisters, is keep our place. You and I will spend the whole of a lifetime of Christian experience learning the value of what our place is. Oh, you said preachers don't have any problem with that, no. Wish they didn't. For example, for me to involve myself unnecessarily, uninvited, in the affairs of the government of even an assembly I'm involved in the planting of it, my home assembly, and telling them, trying to tell the brethren what to do, I am out of place. That's not my place. They want my help or advice, they'll ask for it. If I have something to suggest to them or speak to them, I will do that. Once and leave it there. Keeping our place. There's two men in this chapter says they were in their place. The one that's so sad. That's why I read verse number two, it says about Eli, he was in his place. Isn't it sad when a man that had such potential and a man like Eli would be found, uh, laid down in this place? You know, you have a wrong picture of Eli if you have the picture that I had for years. Maybe you're just not quite as dense as I was. Eli wasn't always the way, always this way. Eli's early days that we don't read a lot about were not the days of his latter days. You'd pick that up, and I, it's not my subject at the moment, but as you read and go through the, the life of Eli. I can only suggest to you that maybe with a growing family, it had a negative effect upon him. Oh, you say, what's a growing family have to do with, what do you mean by a negative effect? Well, I will tell you, brothers and sisters, I knew Christians, faithful, steadfast, in their place, honoring God, serving God. And the families grew, and they took a different course in life. And what broke the heart of their parents at the beginning, soon they were starting to accommodate it. Today they've gone the same way. Is that what happened with Eli? I'll just mention a little bit about him, uh, as we get along here. But just, just interesting that it's, I love that expression, so Samuel went and he laid down in this place. In other words, he was settled in it. What I'm really saying tonight is this, that if we really expect God to speak to us, we're gonna have to be in a proper place. I don't mean these seats, and you know that, where we're sitting in this auditorium, but spiritually speaking. Things in your life where you're out of place. Dear young believer, is there places that you attend? And I know nothing, nobody has said it other than me. You know me better than that. If they had, I wouldn't even mention it. Nobody has. But is there places where you're thinking of frequenting, or you've been there. You really wouldn't want Christians to know that that's where you've been, because you just felt so out of place there. I know believers that have come to me and shared with me some things they've learned in life. That's what they've learned. Other than from the persuasion maybe of other fellow believers or whatever, they went to certain places and they were so uncomfortable. They just felt so out of place. My Jacob's experience is one for you. Genesis chapter thirty twenty eight, the difference of the him and chapter thirty five. But to be their place. He lay down there. He would abide there. He would dwell there. That's the purpose for which we've come to this conference, is to hear his voice. Hope so. Are you prepared for that? So you say, well, what place would I take? Well, maybe, let me just take the application a little further. Have you taken your place in baptism? Have you obeyed the Lord in the waters of baptism? That's the first step of obedience, first step a believer takes after they have trusted Christ, because that's their place. And of course, I've given a very simple application, but absolutely true one. As you've heard me say before, there's one way in which God saves people, there's one way in which he baptizes, they're to be baptized, there's one place for them to gather. And they learn the truth of a gathering center. This is my place. This is where I expect to hear God's voice. Isn't it something how we look back at our Christian experience? I just speak for myself. There's few scattered times when God spoke to you, times when he tried to speak to you, but there's a department of your life that you just didn't want him to speak to you about. That's where you were at a place. Now, I have no idea what was going on in, in the life of this young man with all his intentions and that. Just understand this. There's a change when you get to the end of verse number nine and he lays down in his place. Like I say, it might have been the same place in the house, same marked spot, but it's a different man now, different young man laying down. The place is very important to God. When God created the garden, he just didn't pick up Adam and say, hey, you know, it's yours, whatever. But, but if you read very carefully in Genesis chapter two, it says that God placed Adam in the garden eastward. Very important. Towards the rising of the sun, toward all the blessings that could be his. Yet what happens? He gets out of place. He gets out of place. Whatever was transpiring there in the garden, here's a man out of place, listening to a voice he should never listen to. And the result of that was a tremendous downfall, as we know it to be. Remember the wise man Solomon said, said it likely from, from a broken heart. He said, as the bird that wanders is from his nest, so is the man that wanders from his place. You know, it's nice to, to go to different assemblies, and you, you see people, you can't visualize them being in any other assembly. No, nothing against men that have moved, and others haven't. They've been a help wherever they have gone. Nice to, nice to see that. Very encouraging. I just had a, you know, sometimes you forget. I'm not just saying it for the sake of my own, um, but a young sister just wrote me here just this week. Just got the email day before yesterday, way over there in England. And she is appreciating things that she had learned back home, as she called it, in the maritime provinces and in the local assembly. Things that she had taken for granted. Now as a mother of two children, very successful young woman, a woman that has her degree in whatever, whatever, suddenly relinquished all that world of professional life, nothing against that, and realized that there were other values. In her words, just learn my place. And where God wants me right now is home raising my children. I thought, God bless her. God bless her. I don't even want to tell you the salary that she likely turned away to do that. That's sacrifice. But she's up. So the place is very important to God. A man that wandereth out of his place. Happens, brethren, happens to good men. Or brethren that, and sisters, maybe in a given testimony, I'm sure you can think of some in your mind, and they were such a help, such a help to you. They made whatever kind of a move. They never seem to be in their place again. There's a price for that. God help us. God help us. We just search our hearts this weekend as we hear the ministry of the word of God. And to say, am I in my place? Am I out of place? Does God have a place for me? If he had a place for Adam, he has a place for us. Remember, it says concerning Abraham that he got up early in the morning and he went to the place where he stood before the Lord. Place doesn't matter. Where was Abraham when he stood before the Lord? In this place. What does he hear? He hears the word of God. This chapter's a very sad chapter, yet it's got some very bright spots in it. You've got a demoralized priesthood. You've got an alienated people. Now that was one thing, but a silent God was another. The word of God had become so precious because it was so rare. God speaking to his people. Am I correct, brethren and sisters, by saying that God speaking to his people is rare amongst us today? If it isn't, can I ask you something? When last did God speak to you as a believer? When last, whether driving your car, sitting in your home, God was speaking to you, and you knew God was speaking to you about whatever? Maybe about something you've been enjoying in his word. He can't speak to you about what you're not reading and what you're not enjoying. We were reminded tonight in prayer that we live in a hyper scheduled world, and we do. I'd be as guilty as anybody. Some of us have got our BlackBerry, cell phone, we got it on before we got our trousers on. We're quite a rig, aren't we? We're quite an outfit. That's life. That's us. Face answers to face in water, so the heart of man to man. That's the kind of life we're living. We want God to speak to us. We want God to go. This man laid down. You know, I was thinking when we were singing that opening hymn tonight, Our Times Are in Thy Hands. Hey, we sing it so easily here. Yeah? What about the brother that's on the rack in the hospital tomorrow morning? The surgeon's re- reaching for the scalpel, he's gonna go to work, and he sings it different. We've been reminded of people we've been praying for and back our way to, very, very sick tonight. I can give you names that you don't even know of people. They said, our times are in thy hand, and we're in his hand. And you know where he wants us? In our place. Yes, the chapter says Eli was in his place, but it is sad. Now what re- represents, you know, we tell people we're preaching the gospel that once they find out where they are, they find out what they are. Isn't that true about the broad door? Yes, it is. You know, in Christian experience, sometimes when I find out where I am, I find out what I am. Just maybe not the Christian that people think I am. Maybe just not the committed preacher that people think I am. Oh, just to be in that place that God has given us. He says, speak, Lord, for thy servant here, for the Lord came and stood and called as at other times. In other words, God didn't change anything here, but this man changed. That makes the difference. Just to have that heart that is able to be in his place. Samuel would learn the value of being in his place very early in life. I'm thankful as was expressed in, and I appreciate that, brethren, expressing the appreciation of the ministry of older men. Where would you be today if you didn't have that? Where would I be? We didn't think they were as enlightened and as taught as we are today. They didn't have the tools. I wish they certainly had the man, or we wouldn't be here today. We thank God for that. Remember John on the Isle of Patmos? He says, I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, he said, I saw seven golden candlesticks. Here's a man in extreme conditions, isolated, left alone, that barren rock island, so to speak. Man that says he was in the spirit in the Lord's day, and he turns to hear the voice that spoke with him. Where was that? That's where the Lord would have him be. What would you have for the book of the Revelation if John hadn't been there? Here's a John languishing in, in a prison and sends his disciples to the Lord and says, hey, you know, basically said, hey, what about me here? What about that verse delivering of the captives? What about me? The Lord had forgot about him. He sent a message back. Oh, he says, tell John that we're carrying on here, the work's going on. Not a word about him getting out of prison. It must have been so heartbreaking. Must have been so disappointing. Nevertheless, the man understood this, that he was in his place. Remember, I have to think of the prophet Elijah when he came to the cave, and it says that he lodged or he laid down there, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said, what doest thou here, Elijah? What doest thou here, Elijah? You know, the voice of Jezebel drove him into that cave. It took a still, small voice to bring him out of that cave. You doing cave time tonight? Someone's driven you into a cave. Oh, you come to the meetings, but you're... you don't have the heart to take part like what you did. Well, I want to say this. The key is, if you can hear from God at the Jackson Conference, you can come out of anything. If you can hear from God at the Jackson Conference of two thousand and ten, you can come out of anything. So can I. God help us. Wonderful to just take the place that God has given us. Sometimes it's not a place of honor. Sometimes it's not a place of recognition. It's just the place where he would have us, like Samuel, at his