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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/murray-mccandless/what-are-you-buying/
Gospel of Luke chapter 14 please. Luke's Gospel chapter 14. And I know you're familiar with this passage so I'm just going to pick up some expressions from it. Verse 18, Luke 14 and verse 18. And they all with one consent began to make excuse.
The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground and I must needs go and see it. I pray thee have me excused. Now back to your Old Testament to the prophecy of Jeremiah. Even though we've been traveling together I was convinced when I heard some remarks from Brother Scott McLeod this morning that he had been peeking into my Bible and I think our brother Al felt the same way so we may have a little chat after but anyhow Jeremiah chapter 32 verse 1.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah which was the 18th year of Nebuchadrezzar for then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem and Jeremiah the prophet was shot up in the court.
Now notice where he is. He's in the court of the prison which was in the king of Judah's house. We wouldn't think that. We would think of maybe Babylon had him at this time in some type of a prison but he is in the court of the prison which was in the king of Judah's house.
Verse 6. And Jeremiah said the word of the Lord came unto me saying behold Hanumel the son of Shelem thine uncle shall come unto thee saying buy thee my field that is in Anath for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.
So Hanumel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord and said unto me buy my field I pray thee that is in Anath which is the country of Benjamin for the right of inheritance is thine and the redemption is thine.
Buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. I bought the field of Hanumel my uncle's son that was in Anath and weighed him the money even 17 shekels of silver and I subscribed the evidence and sealed it, took the witnesses, weighed him the money and the balances.
So I took evidence of the purchase both that which was sealed according to the law and custom and that which was open and I gave evidence of the purchase unto Beric the son of Neriah the son of Messiah in the sight of Hanumel my uncle's son and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.
Down to verse number 14 thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel take these evidences this evidence of the purchase both which is sealed and this evidence which is open and put them in an earthen vessel that they may continue many days.
For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. Nobody else believed that. Nobody else believed that. The only one that believed that was Jeremiah.
Verse 16 now when I delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Beric the son of Neriah I prayed unto the Lord saying, O Lord God behold thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out thine arm and there is nothing too hard for thee.
I have read to you in the Gospel of Luke for those little expressions where a man in making his excuse and it says the all with one consent began to make excuse but the first said I have bought a piece of ground I must needs go and see it I pray thee have me excused.
I want you to notice the tremendous contrast there is between this individual and Luke's Gospel chapter 14 and this good man Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 32. The truth of it is this that you and I today spiritually speaking and maybe in the material realm we buy into certain things.
Now you'll notice that the man Luke chapter 14 says I have bought a piece of ground I must needs go and see it. Now Jeremiah making his purchase there's nothing to see. Here is a man in of all circumstances of which to be found yet called upon to make a purchase for an inheritance that was going to be realized not yet realized.
I mean the many ways in which he could have excused himself but he didn't do that. My challenge to this audience this afternoon is this. Young and old into what are you buying today? If I have to excuse myself and what I have bought into now stay with me if I have to excuse myself and what I have bought into something's wrong.
Now there's a difference between excusing oneself and explaining oneself. This man was just excusing himself. There are certain things that you know may come to our wife and she often is a little more intelligent along these lines and than we are and she'll say do you think you really need that is it you know and but we'll start and what we think is that explanation really is an excuse and all this man had to work with and Luke chapter 14 is really an excuse but he says I must needs go and we will always follow the direction of what we buy into okay very clear now I don't want to be in a hard on people that hunt and enjoy hunting because I come from a province that hunting is a big thing but it is interesting that that when it come come to the truth about you think of Isaac he didn't seem to mind Esau being in the field.
In fact he likely enjoyed the gamey taste of the meat that he brought home and he had bought into his boy's interest and you know it's very easy for parents to buy into their children's interest sometimes at the expense of that which is spiritual and the result is that we make an excuse for it.
There was interest. When it come to Jeremiah when it comes to Luke chapter 14 there is interest. Before the transaction had reached a point there was interest. This man took definite interest in this field and he made up his mind no matter what he was going to buy it.
Not only was there interest, you remember Lot did the same thing. Lot had an interest in that city long before he pitched his tent toward it. It wasn't long and he pitches his tent toward it and the rest of it is sad history.
Not only was there interest but there was investment. This man says I have bought. It's always a costly business. I only know one thing that is more expensive, more costly, to live for the Lord, for a child of God.
Do you know what is more costly than living for the Lord as a child of God? Not to live for Him. Not to live for Him. Be it a life of me, my, and my interest. That's disastrous child of God. So there was interest.
There was investment. You know a man that made all the preparation, the man that made all the preparation for this, do you know what he didn't do? He did not spend five seconds trying to talk the man out of a wrong choice.
It's true. We preach the to unconverted people that we have a free will. That's true. After I am converted, it's true to a sense of which I have a free will, but I have a will that's been claimed and should be claimed by another.
That was the case when it came to this man Jeremiah. There was not only interest and investment, the next thing there's involvement. The one expression has to follow the other. Here's what he says, I have bought.
I must needs go. What have you bought into child of God that, as we were hearing this morning, that when it comes to the spiritual things, when it comes to assembly responsibilities, you put up your hands and say to brother, sorry, I gotta go.
I gotta go. Now we understand when it comes to work and shift work and you're called from one side of the country to the other. I'm not putting that down. I some measure, I understand that. But there are things that I can dangerously buy into that are going to affect my investment in that which is going to last forever.
That's what Jeremiah would see. So there was not only an interest, there was not only investment, there was not only involvement, but you know, it was an inconvenience. Anything else was just kind of an inconvenience.
Let me ask you today, when it comes to assembly life, assembly responsibility, do you look at it as a privilege, as an honor to be part of it? You know, at times, nothing against my brother, but I've almost heard them kind of excusing us that we're, we're just this poor limping company that meets in some little, I was gonna say beat up gospel hall.
Hope your hall isn't a beat up gospel hall. Make it look the best that you can. And you know, we gather to the name of the Lord Jesus and we say that quietly. Not at all. I have every reason to be proud of the fact that I am gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
And I'm equally thankful, brethren and sisters, and equally proud, right or wrong, that I meet in a hall called a gospel hall. It's a place where the gospel is preached. It's a place where the name of the Lord Jesus is upheld.
And it's still a name that I love. But just, it really designates the building, doesn't it? Isn't that enough? A man that didn't like such a thing invited me to his, their area for gospel meetings. And I said, that's fine.
I would come for gospel meetings, but I said, well, I'm inviting people. Where am I going to tell them the gospel is being preached? I said, tell them the white house, the white, you know, white house, all right.
The white building down on Prince Street. I said, and if there's two white buildings on Prince Street, which one? Have a bit of sense, brethren and sisters. CH Spurgeon, CHS stands for something else.
Common Horse Sense. This man didn't have it in Luke's gospel chapter 14. Am I wrong in asking you today, what really is your piece of ground? Does it not remind me of one who bought a piece of ground?
One who paid the ultimate price. One who saw a value in that field that nobody else saw. And the result of that would be that he would go to Calvary. Because you see, in that field, I know that primarily with the nation in view, the purposes of God through the nation, but he still paid a price that allows me to be here today.
Someone understood a future value that maybe others didn't. So where does that leave us today? Let's come quickly then to this man, Jeremiah in chapter 32. Very interesting. Here's a man that's in circumstances that were less than ideal.
As you know, when it comes to spiritual things, invariably, we will find ourselves in circumstances that are less than ideal. I think our brethren were alluding to that this morning. You know, some say, well, you know, once I get this, once I retire, once we get the bigger house, then we're going to entertain.
If you don't do it in the apartment that you have to walk sideways in, you'll never do it in the big house. Doesn't work that way. I've never seen that. I think it is thrilling when a young couple sets up a home and it's for God and God's people, and they understand that their table is limited.
And there's a lot of things that might be very limited, but it's not, it's big enough to have the people of God. We started out, my wife and I, it's coming to my mind now, in a trailer. We called it a trailer then.
Now they call them modular homes, they got fancier names for them. But, you know, you can always tell a man that started off in a trailer, lived a few years in it, if you watch him closely, he still walks sideways.
But it was a big enough place to have Mr. McBain for five weeks while there were gospel meetings going on. And God bless the dear man, he didn't mind. He was quite at home there. The trailer was 10 feet wide.
It was 50 feet long. And we had two children. I think of it now, I think, I'd never do that again. No, it wouldn't be me. We did it. Believe it or not, we survived. And I don't think it had anything to do with the shortening of Mr. McBain's life either.
How do you make out? Circumstances were less than ideal. I mean, here's a man that can say, boy, things are bad. Things are bad. Egypt's about finished. And Assyria really has lost its punch. And the Babylonians are coming.
And there's these kings that I have watched come and go. Even a king like Hezekiah. Look at the revival. That didn't last forever. Now there's a man coming by the name of Josiah. I would suggest to you, sure, Josiah got a good start.
But, but Josiah's prosperity as a king was inseparably linked with the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah was to Josiah what a Samuel was to a David. Two are always better than one. Always good to have that prophet there.
Always good to have that one that you could call upon. I mean, he couldn't live forever under the days that had happened in the reign of Hezekiah and say, oh, those were great days. And these days are just so bad.
But there was a weakness in Josiah that Jeremiah picked up and the nation didn't. Yeah, reformation was fine. Josiah longed for reformation. But before reformation, there had to come repentance. This nation had to be brought to a point of repentance.
To admit their folly, their error, and their sin. And they were unprepared to do it. Do we not minister to God's people and teach them and preach rightly so? That repentance is something that should follow us all of our days?
All of our days? It is interesting that when it comes to Jeremiah, you know, he could have looked back and said, my family, look at them. They wouldn't listen to me. You know, if they had listened to the prophecy of this good man, this would never have happened.
He would never have been where he is. But there was a secret. There was a secret that this man clung to. And you'll notice it repeatedly in the chapter. I have it highlighted in my source. Very easy to pick it up.
The word of the Lord. The word that came from the Lord. The word of the Lord unto Jeremiah. That's what this man clung to. It was God's word. But you take God's word from us today as believers and I don't have to remind you.
We're done. I have no future. Here's a man in less than ideal conditions. Does it not remind us of the Apostle Paul when it comes to the situation between Onesimus and Philemon? And here's a man in prison and he says, well, whatsoever, you know, if there's something more here involved, he said, I'll repay it unto thee.
In other words, Philemon, you're not going to be the loser. Nobody, nobody that buys into the truth of this book. Nobody that buys into that which is spiritual is a loser. Too often, brethren and sisters, it's other things that we buy into.
And I'm not against, I'm not against businessmen that are buying this or farmers that are buying this, but whatever you do, do not allow it to infringe on spiritual responsibilities. Don't buy into anything that is going to take you or your family from less than they're doing now for the Lord.
It's always easy to excuse ourselves on that. That's what I said. Jeremiah doesn't have to make any excuses here. He's just the opposite to the man in Luke's Gospel, chapter 14. When we're doing things that are wrong, we're so quick to excuse ourselves.
I mean, that's exactly what Aaron says, doesn't he? When the people with the calf, he says to Moses, listen, you know, the heart of these people is set on mischief. You know that's what they're going to do.
In other words, just let me off the hook. Just let me off the hook. Isn't that, doesn't Samuel, or excuse me, does not Saul do the same thing with Samuel? He just says very clearly to Ammi, you know, he said, you know, he waited his time.
He just felt that that wasn't enough. But as I look at this man, Jeremiah, buying the field, the first thing I want you to notice is this. There were prophetic convictions, prophetic convictions. You know, what a severe test to, really, to a man's ministry.
This is responsible business up here, because I'm sure I speak for every brother that attempts to take a platform or minister or help God's people. We get tested. We get tested. This was a very severe test to his ministry, but he saw a future in God's plans.
How about you, brother? How about you, dear believer, today? How about you, young brother? Oh, you say, you know, this is a tough day. People profess, and then they don't go on, and then they're in the assembly for a while, and they're gone, and this and that.
Yeah, if you center your thinking like that, you won't buy into it. You will just be the opposite of this man with prophetic convictions. But Jeremiah, really, not only did he see the restoration and the regathering of God's people, had he not seen that, had that not been revealed to him, he'd never have touched it.
In a dark day in Revelation chapter 3, and what does the searching priest say? He said, I counsel thee to buy me gold that's tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and that thy white raiment, when all else is failing, and what an opportunity to invest.
Of course, there are people around that have money that are capitalizing on the economic condition of this country and parts of our country as well. They go around, and they are buying up houses that nobody else can afford to buy or to live in or whatever, and they're buying them up by numbers.
If something tells me that those men must see that there's a future coming here, I'm not sure everybody sees that, but they do. That's what they're buying into. Let them buy into it. May this conference of New Lenox be something, brethren and sisters, that will send you and I home with right values, right understanding of what we should invest in.
Because it'll become obvious. It'll become evident to my children what my interest is. It'll become very clear. I will not have to sit them down and say, listen, this is where mom and dad and I stand on this thing.
This is what we're interested in. This is where we're putting our investment in. Brethren, let me speak to my own contemporaries. Do you not want to leave the rising generation something to run with? I'm reminded several years ago, maybe more than several years ago, likely five years ago, that horrific moment when this country athletically was crushed.
They had a man in the relays in the Olympics in China. His name was Tyson Gay, one of the best relay runners that the world has ever produced. I mean, it was a given that the Americans would come home with the gold.
They began to run that, all the eyes watching on cameras and watching on TVs as that relay started to go on. Watch that man with rippling muscles and just bulging and every leg, just the speed with which that man, but that wasn't all.
As Tyson Gay later would say, speed isn't everything in a relay race. And when it come to the taking of the baton from the other relay runner, it got dropped. Now there were cameras to indicate what had happened.
There were those that said, hey, come on, what happened to Gay? He dropped it. Do you know what Tyson Gay said? He said, I did not drop. How could I drop something I never felt? And when they replayed that, it had been dropped before Tyson Gay had a chance to grab it.
I fear, brethren and sisters, that there's things amongst us that are being dropped and we are not allowing the coming generation to grab it. Unlike the Apostle Paul, we are not putting into their hands something that's going to yield in the coming day.
Notice, I'll come back to it. I'm going to get ahead of myself, but let me just say it while we're passing here. Notice where all this transaction, all this business is put. Doesn't take it home and say, God, we'll put it in this safe for safekeeping.
They didn't have them then. It's put in an earthen vessel. It's put in an earthen vessel. I'm looking at a company today of earthen vessels. The word of God teaches us. And that treasure, that investment, heaven today has in you.
And you and I today carry the potential of a future day when the value of this will be realized. I mean, I'm not trying to live in yesterday, but I'm sure I'm speaking for my own generation today to say that we are so grateful, so thankful for men whose names have been mentioned from this platform already that taught us the word of God, that drilled it into us and the result of it.
Here we are today. Now, how about you, dear brother, dear sister? Are you able to firmly pass like this man Jeremiah could put into an earthen vessel? Look at that young brother. Look at that young sister there today.
Now, that's just not somebody that got saved, though she did that. Not somebody that's a member of the assembly in this given area or some other area. That is a human vessel precious to God. And on board of that human vessel are the title deeds to a future that God has for them in testimony.
Now, here's a man, 17 shekels. I mean, how much? I often thought the Apostle Paul, I'm not sure if he had anything in those pockets of his or not. I mean, they had to, in those prisons then, they had to be dependent on visitors to bring their food.
I have no idea where he got the 17 shekels, but I'll tell you this much, it was the last thing he was worried about. He knew that if he stepped out on that, God would meet that need. That's exactly what God did.
God met that need. He stepped out on it and he paid them 17 shekels. It's interesting to notice that he's dealing with family here. Oh yeah, his cousin. I was telling him last night in the prayer meeting, and I think for today too, I likely have more cousins than most of you do here today.
I got 61 of them. That's enough to keep a man busy. Tried to speak last night on two humble cousins and I told them I didn't think I had too many cousins that were humble. Now, if you went to those cousins of mine and said that, you know what McCandless said off the platform in Atlantic?
They say, what's he talking about? Here's this man, Jeremiah, and this is kind of an inner family deal. He that troubles his own house shall inherit the wind. Jeremiah understands. He's very careful. He's going to make sure that that family, no, no, he could have literally turned on and said, hey, what are you doing?
Go ahead. You make the purchase. You take your shekels. What are you bothering me about this? You wouldn't listen to me back there in the day of prosperity. Why would you listen to me now in such a day of adversity?
Forget it. I'm out of here. No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't because the Lord commanded him differently. And dear brother, when the Lord commands you differently than what your family are telling you, you go with what God says.
There was prophetic conviction. There were present circumstances. I mean, pay good money for a piece of ground which the purchaser had no hope of possessing himself. People would have said to him, Jeremiah, take your 17 shekels out into the street and throw them in the street.
No, no, because he saw this is the best investment that I could ever make. And if it is the last shekel I have, this is where it's going. Where are you prepared to put your last shekel? Where am I prepared to put my last shekel?
Jeremiah, I will put it into this that the word of the Lord has commanded me. A man that's shut up in prison. A man that's got everything that is going against him. Present circumstances could not play upon it.
A man in prison making a purchase like this, I mean, what funds, what future did he have? And really he was dealing with people that were almost his foes. He was dealing with friends. He was dealing with family.
He was dealing with the future, but likewise he was dealing with foes. The one that paid the ultimate price at Calvary, you remember that, dear child of God? He paid that for foes that they might be his friends.
That was the Savior. That's the one that paid it in precious blood. So there was prophetic conviction. There was not only present circumstances, but there was personal criticism. And it's interesting where the criticism was coming from.
Again, it's coming from his own family. Just read it up to you. I didn't take time because it would just take too much time to go back and read those passages. But the hardest on him were his own family.
And the very place in which he is bound up in the court of the prison which was in the king of Judah's house. This was the man that they were desperately in need of. He's the man that they're binding up.
And this is what it says in the court which is in the king of Judah's house. Doesn't that remind you of Samson? His own brethren coming down to him saying, Samson, listen, knowest thou not that we are servants unto the Philistines?
No, just settle down, man. You're rocking the boat. Behave yourself. Sounds strange, doesn't it? Ever feel like that? Now, I'm not talking about some that have misguided exercise, if I could call it. They're standing back saying, the brethren won't let me do this and the brethren won't let me do that.
Maybe there's a reason why the brethren don't want you to do that. You work in fellowship with your brethren at any cost. Okay? Even though it be something that be so justified in your exercise, your interest, in your eyes, remember, when you have consulted with them and they've said, we don't think so, you have shifted that responsibility to them.
It's no longer yours. Jeremiah, didn't matter what the risk was. He would get beyond personal criticism. You know, I was telling him in Heightsville last week, it doesn't matter. The only thing that, the only way that you can avoid any type of criticism is to do nothing.
Do nothing. Say nothing. And you'll likely never be criticized. But to the individual that makes themselves available, remember, you have become vulnerable. The person that is a person that can be used, unfortunately, is the same person that often can be abused.
Ever feel like that? Ever feel like, now I'm not talking about a pity party where you're feeling so sorry for yourself in this, but ever feel like, you know, they're just using me here. Well, if the Lord sees that, isn't that really all that matters?
Again, I'm reminding of a young athlete by the name of Kathy Rigby who lived in this country. Kathy Rigby was a great athlete, tremendous athlete. She was part of the gymnastics team in 1972 at the Olympics in Munich, Germany.
And that day, after she had done her run, her acts on the bars and that sort of thing, they sat down on the stands waiting for the announcements of the winners. And Kathy Rigby's name didn't come up. She knew she had slipped a couple of times, didn't think it was that bad.
Her mother and her father were on either side. They put their arms around their daughter and the three of them sat there on the stands and they just wept together. Kathy says, I will never forget what my mother told me that day.
Sticks with me to it now. My mother looked at me and said, listen, Kathy, you did your best. And she says, remember, doing your best always is better than just being your best. Doing your best. We are so quickly sometimes to condemn people or tell us they're doing their best to get to heaven.
We know better than that. But really, all of us today in this auditorium have to admit that when it comes to the spiritual, we don't do our best. We don't give it our best. There's nobody here from the speaker out that couldn't do just a little better.
You know, when circumstances are good, things are rolling, what would 17 shekels mean? But look at the circumstances in which the man is giving it. That's what the Lord looks at. Always the circumstances in which it is being done.
God help us as people to realize, brethren and sisters, that you and I have some of us that are older. We have bought into certain things. There's people today that live with regrets. They would tell you as they have told me, were they doing it over again today?
They would purchase differently. Now you today, we're trying to hand carefully, from even failing hands, a baton. And we want that when you look down, there's something there. And that there is something that I can pick up.
Remember that what this man invested in, he could not see. The man that made the biggest mistake were the people that could see it. Remember Lot? He saw it, saw the land. Remember the man in Luke chapter 14?
He said, I must know these, go see it. Help us to invest, God help us to invest in that which is eternal. That which eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for him.