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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/murray-mccandless/wandering-from-his-place/
Proverbs 27 verse number 8, as a bird that wanders from her, you notice that's a feminine word there, wanders from her nest, so is a man, and that is the man male, that wanders from his place. As a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man that wanders from his place.
Now back over please in 1st Samuel just for a reference here, just for the sake of, we've got some young believers with us today and I know that we think we know all these things and I would be guilty for offending of maybe not reading as much as I should.
However, 1st Samuel chapter 3 and verse number 4, really verse 3, and ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and 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 callest me.
He said, I called not, lie down again, and he went and lay down. And the Lord called yet again, Samuel, Samuel rose, went to Eli, 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, so up to this point he doesn't know the Lord, so you can kind of understand what is happening there. Now verse 8, And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me.
Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go lie down. It shall be, if he call thee that thou shalt speak, imagine a man like Eli saying this. He rises likely to as high as he's going to be near the end of his days, because unfortunately Samuel missed this word.
I'm reading from verse 9, Speak, Lord, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down, notice the expression, in his place. The Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel, then Samuel answered, Speak, for thy servant heareth.
Dropped the word Lord. When we're preaching, of course, in the gospel, we often tell sinners and rightly so, and I'm sure it's been told from this platform that really whether it is a thief that was referred to last night in the gospel meeting and he said, Lord, he didn't have to say anything else.
No man calleth the Lord but by the Spirit. The other side of that is the other thief, when he would say if, he didn't need to say anything else, because in his mind, there's just one great question mark over the whole thing.
But I've been thinking just a little, enjoying it with my own soul, really wasn't, I haven't really tried to launch this thing before, so if it goes down, this will be two preaches in one, first and last.
But anyhow, we're going to go with it. As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place. Now, I would think that if it was going to say a bird that wandered from her nest, it would say so is the woman that wandered from her place.
The word of God is more accurate than that, and of course, our authorized version is too. Let's understand that. As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is the man that wandereth from his place. Her nest.
Come on, brethren, married men here today, you know who the nest belongs to. That's her kingdom. A brother very kindly, and they did it here when we were here, they've done it, they offered it in Vancouver and up in Ontario, they said, look, we're going to fly your wife out here.
We don't know her. We want to see her. And of course, her daughters tell her, the reason they want to see you, mom, is they want to know what kind of a woman really lives with that guy. And there could be a lot of truth in that.
But I said, now, listen, you talk to Brandon. He stayed in her nest and he will know that she's someone that doesn't go far from the nest. She loves the nest. And let me encourage some here today. Now, listen, I am not criticizing some that have had to go to work.
And I understand the day in which we live, I have, I would be hard put, hard pressed to tell sisters that they can't work. But just don't do it at the expense of your children. Okay. But let me commend those that have made the choice to stay home and be the mother in the nest.
We have a brother in our assembly, wouldn't take a lot apart. And I do commend him. He has a good job with the refinery company, the big oil refinery company in St. John. The fellows at work, literally needle them, needle them, literally torment them and say, yeah, come on, Sarah can get a good job.
What's she doing at home? He says, she's looking after our three children and she could get a good job and they could have a bigger house and they could have a better car and it could go on like that.
But she is there in that nest. But I'm not thinking of it so much as our home and that nest that you take care of. But I'm thinking of it in our lives. Okay. In our lives personally, notice it doesn't say fly from his nest, fly from his nest.
Naturally speaking, we think a bird would fly from his nest. No, he says, so is the man that wanders from his place as a bird that wanders from her nest. The last one to leave the nest is usually the bird, the mother bird.
The first one is usually the male bird, I'm told. Now, I don't know a lot about birds. There's some here likely going to take me, sagging me a few lessons. You don't have time today. I'll have to get another day.
But anyhow, for the sake, I have to be doing the preaching right now. So it's, the mother stays with it. Isn't there something kind of unsightly about an abandoned nest? You know, you look at that nest, the eagle's nest, and you think of all the labor and the work, and there is, we've watched them.
Down our way too. Hey, we got a few eagles back in Canada. They're not all here in Iowa. Okay. We had a Wisconsin too. Not all Iowa. Not everything's here. Somebody said to me, you only go to bat for the state that you're preaching.
That's it. That's it. Right now, it's Wisconsin. But to look at that eagle's nest and think of the labor, those large, almost branches and adverse weather, nothing stops. That eagle is tenaciously building that nest.
And then down in Maine, where there's a game preserve area, you go by, there's a nest, there's nobody in it. Nobody in the nest. Everybody's gone. Now, some of us know what that is like when you've raised children and you'd have them around and, you know, you're going to have all that spare time when they got away and then you end up with grandchildren sitting on the doorstep and you're busier than you ever were.
My wife is busier than she ever has been. Far busier with two grandchildren. We have 14, but two that live up the street, and she was raising four kids. But as the bird that wandered from her nest, so is the man that wandered from his place.
What the nest is to the bird, the place is to the man. Now, in a spiritual sense, listen, dear young believer today, God has one place for you. One place. Let's have it nice and straight now. You would not disagree with me that if I was to tell you that God has one way of saving you, right?
Sure. How many ways of baptizing you? One. How many ways of gathering you? One. Isn't it sad? Isn't it sad? When there are those that have heard the gospel amongst us, sat in our Sunday schools, have grown up under the teaching that we have grown up under, and then they get a little older and supposedly a little smarter and wiser, and all of a sudden they start to wander away.
They leave it. All of a sudden it wasn't good enough. All of a sudden it was old-fashioned. All of a sudden it was this and it was that, and yeah, you're not up to speed, you're this and you're that.
Nonsense. I don't buy that for a second. I thank God today for the ministry of good men, good men, that I sat under. Mr. Archie Stewart was mentioned by our brother Dryburn at the conference, and I don't say this in a kind way.
You could go on Voices for Christ, and I think some of his messages are there, but I'll tell you, anybody that heard Archie Stewart remembered him. Anybody that heard Willie Wark remembered him. Anybody that heard Ellie McBain remembered him.
Norman Crawford, Harold Paisley, Hector Alves. What did we get from those men? We learned. We learned. There's a character, there's a dignity that they brought to this platform and ministered to us, and look at us here standing in the good of that.
Why is it that some of my generation, unfortunately, wander from the nest? Wander from the nest. See, the thought of wandering is that a bird in flight, of course, is very quick, but the thought of wandering is just something that's just kind of a gradual thing, kind of a drawing back, and it's just a little easy, and then we get away, and then we get further and further.
So says the wise man, and he speaks from experience. I could go back and show you Solomon's experience, but we'll just stay with Samuel's for a minute when we get to it. You know, we are either, we are either wandering or journeying.
What are you doing, brother? Really? Really? Since you sat in the conference a year ago, has there been journeying in your life? Has there been progress? Or is it just a year that the Spirit of God would bypass if it was to put you in Hebrews chapter 11?
Those years of wandering, not even mentioned, not worth a mention. Those years that Jacob spent in Shechem, not mentioned. Those years he spent even with Laban and all that was going on, not even mentioned.
What was he doing? He wasn't journeying. You pick it up where Jacob is journeying. He is wandering. You know, we could be wandering and not know it. We could be. You know, a person that doesn't know where he is, is lost, and rightly so, we preach that in the gospel.
A person that doesn't know where they are is lost. But a person that doesn't know where he's going is wandering. Really, where would you like to be in your Christian experience a year from now, brother?
Better than you are today? More into the Word of God? More committed to the assembly? More devoted to the things of God? You know, sometimes we get, I know there's something maybe I'll pick up a little later, but sometimes we have a wrong perception of love to God, love to the Lord Jesus, okay?
Love to God in the Bible is never divorced from commitment. You see, I commit myself to what I love. I do not necessarily love what I've committed myself to. I may have committed myself to a task that I'm not even happy about doing, but I got to do it.
You file a tax form, got to fill out this, you know, you just got to do it. But there are certain things in life that I don't have to persuade you this afternoon. You're committed to those things. Why?
Because you love them. You love them. And that commitment isn't something, well, I'm committed to this, so now here I got to do it, so I'm going to plow it on with this. No! It's this that it becomes literally the center of your focus, your interest, your desire, your love.
Can I, is the word automatic wrong to use here? Comes the commitment to it. No assembly testimony today is suffering because of too much commitment. We live in a world that doesn't want commitment, doesn't want it.
Any workplace, you talk to any employer today, he'll tell you, no, no, no, they don't want any commitment. That could seep into us as well. We have happened to be built as believers with a new birth, with a desire for commitment.
Did you hear that today? Could that commitment be just a little more than it is? Remember, you commit yourself to what you love. How true in our unconverted days when it says, I wandered on in the darkness.
That's what we did. Not a ray of light could I see, wondered if Christ the Redeemer could save a poor sinner like me. And we sing too. I was a wandering sheep. I did not love my father's fold. I did not love my father's voice.
I would not be controlled. There's a verse sometimes, in fact, somebody mentioned Mr. Maxwell at the conference. I heard him. He preached it in the gospel. I could never handle it in the gospel, but he did handle it well.
Assyrian was my father, ready to perish. And the translation of that, that's nothing against Mr. Maxwell, is this, Assyrian, ready to perish. And you'll notice your margin says, wandering was my father.
Wandering was my father. Now, listen, I'm speaking to some here today. Your father didn't wander. Steady course. You didn't have to ask your father, weeknight meeting, were we going to a meeting or not.
I really feel sorry, excuse the word, kids, they have to go to mom and dad, they bounce back to choose whether we're going to a meeting or not tonight. Should be a given. It was in our home. I never had to ask them, hey, it's Thursday.
I knew where we were going. Why? Because my father, whether he was Assyrian or not, I'm not sure, but he was not going to wander or to come to that. How about you? As a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man that wanders from his place.
Now, come back just a minute for Samuel. It's interesting. You read about Samuel here. And those early verses, without taking time to go over them, he did not know the Lord. So you can't be too hard on him.
He's working with a man, if I could say it, the best was away from God. But please, brother, do not judge the whole of Eli's life by the last part of it. I believe there was a better day in his life. There was.
I believe there was a day when he was a good man. Do you know what I really believe likely happened? I can take time and prove it to you from Scripture. His boys took him down from what he was. Hmm. That's not the first time that children have taken parents down.
They'll do it if they can. Remember what it says about Samson? He went down. He went down. Who's it say went down? They went down with him. I think here's a man that went down with his boys. But out of that comes what could have been his boys.
A boy by the name of Samuel, and Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and someone is speaking to Samuel. And, of course, he is told specifically that he must go and lie down, and he is told to say, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.
What does it say? He hears nothing. There's no communication from God till it says. It says specifically right in that verse, and he went and lay down in his place. Verse 9 of chapter 3. You know, I don't have this communion with God that other Christians talk about.
Really? Do you expect to get that if you're wandering? You'll get it if you're journeying. You can go through all the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Notice where it says they were journeying. Notice the communication with God.
Notice the altars. Notice the sacrifices. Notice the things that are taking place. But wait a minute. Now they'll go down into Egypt. Now go down to some place where they wandered to. Not where they journeyed to.
Any communication from God? Altars being built? But when they come back and realize, that was wandering. I was wandering there. There's things we do when we're wandering we'd never do when we're journeying.
There's decisions we would make when we are wandering as they made. I'd never make if I was journeying. Wandering is kind of a thing that is, you're not too conscious of the clock. It's a bit like preaching sometimes.
And you know, you're just kind of, you know, weed in the mouth, kicking the dirt. But a man is journeying. I walked into a store the other day, I was dressed up, and I was in a hurry. I may surprise you.
The clerk looks up, excuse me, sir, she says, you're going somewhere. Can I help you? I said, sure, I figured, little thing I wanted. And it was a good opportunity, of course, to give her a track. But, you know, people can tell in our lives, I don't mean by that, just type of person that you are, type A personality or whatever it might be.
People can tell whether, spiritually speaking, you're journeying or wandering. You know, it would be a proper assessment, speaker included. Speaker included. If I got a hold of the truth at this Stoke Conference this afternoon and did such searchings of heart to discover what really has been happening in my life this year, started out good, had a plan, maybe in the reading of the scriptures, what I was going to visit, how many people I was going to speak to, so on and so on.
How are we making out now when it comes to this date in April? Wandering or journeying? When there's journeying, of course, there's places of blessings, there's going to be things that you're going to be brought into.
But what can God use of a people that are wandering? They're a liability, is literally what they are. You know, the hymn writer has it right when he speaks of our hearts, it speaks to my own heart. It's a hymn we sing, and we have to sing it with a measure of truth.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love, here's my heart. Oh, take and seal it. Seal it in thy courts above. Do we really mean that? Let's come back, of course, to the thought of the nest.
What's the nest, first of all, speaking of? It speaks of rest. The one place to gather. God's assembly, the local church that we heard well put forth at the beginning of this conference from Brother Skates.
The local assembly. And I back 100%, even there are those that challenge us today. It is the only place that this book endorses. There's nothing else to be found. Everything else out there is out of the parameter and the teaching of this book.
Now, let me ask you this afternoon. Is it a place of rest for you, or is it the place of the restless? You see, when you're at home, it is a place of rest. Even when we travel and we visit, the Christians go all out to make sure that we have as a place of rest.
We don't want the bed that's come to my mind now. I'm not going to tell you where it happened. It's a long way from here. They're lovely people. They come from over in Hungary or somewhere like that. But they had one of these futons.
And the thing was, I think all of five feet long and three feet wide. And that was where I was going to sleep for the weekend. And I'll tell you, it was the longest night I put in in my life. Oh, talk about...
I thought, how true the scriptures. That a man could lay himself upon it. Couldn't do it. Everywhere, something was short here. Something was short here. It wasn't coming up right. There's no rest. But you know, there's something about going home or where you're made at home.
It's a place of rest. That's what's intended for the nest. It just doesn't build it so you can see it in the trees and say, oh, good job for the bird. No. That bird has got a place of rest. But you know something else the bird has got?
Others in mind. Others in mind. Notice that the wandering here starts with one. One. A single person wandering. Comes to the assembly. Thank God again for the sisters that have stayed by the nest. When the brethren likely would have got some chip on their shoulder or something, would have packed up and gone.
But she said, no, let's stay here. Let's stay here. It's a place of rest. And it is. It should be that to you. If the assembly isn't a place of rest, there's something wrong with you. There is. Never mind.
I know you're going to tell me a hundred things that are wrong with the assembly. Listen. The world could hardly contain the books that people would like to write about things that are wrong with the assembly.
You'll find out what's wrong with you. What's wrong with me? It is a place of rest. It's intended to be that. Notice how the Lord emphasizes, even in the gospel we preach it, Matthew 11 and 28. And I will give you rest until you get to the assembly.
And there's war. Not at all. Not at all. I can say from my heart before God, I would call my God to witness as I stand on this stout platform, that the assembly is a greater place of rest for me now than it was when I first came into it.
I was too young and too stupid to appreciate it. I might be older and stupid too, but I still appreciate the place of rest. How about you? I can see. I appreciate that. The Christians that are acknowledging, yes, it is a place of rest.
It is. Well, it's a place of work. You say, well, wait a minute. That's contradicting what I've heard you preach before. That this is no easy street. This vineyard of the Lord, constant labor doth afford.
It's not necessarily a place that you can take it easy. But it is a place where you can rest. Because God rests there. So it is a place of rest. You know what else it is? It's a place of responsibility.
Because there's care that's got to be taken. There's adverse winds that are going to blow. There's going to be intruders, invaders. Birds that come along and will invade that nest of a smaller bird. Happens all the time.
It's a place of responsibility because sometimes it needs protection. I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, the assemblies today as we know them, need all the protection you can give it. Are you giving it any?
You say, how do I protect it? By your manner of life. Just as Samuel would. In that dark day and the lamp is going out in Israel. He protects it by his life. We were hearing about Shammah from our brother Brandon the other day.
He was prepared to give his life for it. Prepared to give his life for it. Naboth's vineyard wasn't for sale. For sale. Listen, he knew when he said no to the throne, it meant his life. It could mean his life.
And it was likely no surprise to him when that's what he had to give. Remember, where I gather and where you gather, there's already somebody that's given their life. Tremendous price. So is it a place of rest?
Is it a place of responsibility? You know something else the nest is? It's a place of reproduction. Place of reproduction. Sure, there's times of that year when that nest is very guarded because it's a place of reproduction.
Isn't that why we're praying for the gospel meetings here in Stout? Isn't that what we want to see, brethren? Reproduction. We want to see the sheep bringing forth in our streets local blessing. That's the psalmist when he speaks of the unity of the company.
Reproduction. You say, well, we don't see them like we used to. I've heard that too. So what do you want to do? Quit? No. Go to work. There'll be a rest in it. A place of reproduction. Usually the ones that are complaining like that don't know too much about gospel work.
Do anything about it. The man that was hardest on me for gospel preaching one time, only one really. Yeah, I think one. Boy, he took us to pieces. Claimed we weren't preaching the love of God. And so I just asked him to put some coffee on over at his house.
I said, come over for a visit. Oh, he said, then he started backing away. I said, no, no, you get it on. I'm coming over. First question. What would be the first question you'd ask a man like that? Ever had a series of gospel meetings?
No. He said, no. His wife peeked in around the corner. She says, can I come in? I've never told this off a platform before, but she said, come in now. I said, come in if you like. Really, he needed some help.
I said, let me ask you. Have you ever had the joy of seeing anybody saved? Well, he looked at her, looked back. He said, I guess our children. I said, well, that's good. That's good. So I said, you're condemning.
He really didn't like the man I was preaching with. Usually they don't like me, but this time it was the other boy. I was taking the rap, if you can believe it. But I was standing up for him. I'm willing any time.
No, he says, I just think there should be this and there should be that. And he says, I haven't heard it. And anyhow, I said, listen, when Paul preached in Acts 24, what did he preach? Righteousness, temperance, judgment to come.
Now, he wasn't finished preaching. That wasn't all he had to preach. He was going to preach about a man in glory, but he got cut off. So to end our little visit, we just got down on our knees and prayed and asked the Lord to help us.
And he went away happy, and I went away satisfied. What else do you do? You're not that type, are you? You don't bring anybody to meeting, but boy, you can be harder than some that are trying. At least they're trying.
Give them. Can you do something for them? Really? I had my work cut out for me, come back from Vancouver. I thought, oh, this is great. Two priests, caller and everything, sat down right at the aisle beside me.
So I thought, well, I had a lot of work I want to do on my computer. I thought, well, I better go do some other work here. But it went well, in all honesty. I felt sorry for them. You know what the one man said to me?
My question was to him, do you have eternal life? And if you have it, when did you get it? Could you lose it? Here's what he said, a lovely young man. He said, sir, you have given me things to think about I've never thought about before in my life.
He took the tracks. I asked him to respond in an email I haven't heard from him yet. You know what we do? We try. At that moment, he was my neighbor. I wanted to be not like the Levi in Luke chapter 10.
So it's a place of rest. It's a place of responsibility. It is a place of reproduction. But you know something else it is? It's a place of reward. There's reward. My, think of those that have gone to the reward.
Those, you know, I started to name some names of those that used to correspond to me. Your former correspondent of the assembly here and the assemblies around this part of Iowa. They've all gone to their reward.
It's a place of reward. Stay with the nest. Stay with the nest. As a bird that wandereth from her nest. Can I just encourage you, dear sister, today? Come on. I hope he helps get the children dressed and hauls them off to the conference.
And all the labor and the work that goes on and that. Our parents did it. We did it. And those that are our friends did the same thing as you're doing. I'm glad to see them here. Listen, dad. Give her a little help.
Give her a little support. She needs all you can possibly give her. You ever do that? Just expect it. I appreciate it. Without trying to be judgmental, watching the interaction of younger fathers here at this conference and even older ones.
They're helping. They're helping. Why? Why are they doing that? Because they're protecting the nest. They don't want to leave the nest. Because she is not leaving the nest. As the bird that wandereth from her nest, so is the man that wandereth from his place.
Likely the saddest visits I ever make. Saddest visits I ever make. If not the hardest visits that I make are men that have wandered from their place. They once had a place. They were once there. They were once happy.
For various reasons. There they are. You go to their house. It's not the same home anymore. Not the same man anymore. Same first name. Same last name. But things are not the same. Why? He's out of his place.
He's out of his place. Saved? Baptized? I'm speaking to some here and I know you're going to be received. I already know ahead of time. Next week in Ontario. That's good. And likely maybe some of the other assemblies.
Wonderful when somebody is being received in the assembly. It's a happy day. Do you know what a sad day is? Somebody leaves. Tis. Young sister came up to me at a conference this year. She broke down. She said, I just appreciated your support.
She said, two of our closest friends have left the assembly. She said, we tried to talk to them not to. And told them, please don't. She says left. And you know what she said? It's a dark day. It's a dark day.
It is. What's to say about Judas? Now I know he wasn't saved but says he went out and it was night. Whenever you go out, brother, sister, it will be night. Stay with the nest. As the bird that wandered from her nest, so is the man that wandered from his place.
It's significant, isn't it, that when God comes with Adam. And we're hearing from Genesis today, chapter 4. But it is significant that when God placed Adam in the garden. He just didn't toss him into a garden and say.
He says he placed him in the garden eastward. Eastward. Toward the rising of the sun. Toward a great future. And a great future it was. Isn't it sad? That before. I was going to say the day is over but it was longer than that.
God had to drive him out. Drive him out. That was never the original intention of God. He had to drive him out. And place those cherubims. Wouldn't let them back in. And he must have been. Take those boys.
It must have been hard to do. Right past that gate and say. We were once in there. We once enjoyed that place. Do you know what it was like in there? They'd never know what it was like. And it would never be the same again.
It's sad. I often think sometimes. Of those that have to drive by a place where once they were happy. Say. Not there anymore. Whatever. I'm not talking about people who have moved away somewhere else for work.
Or whatever it might be. But it must be hard to look back on a place. Where once there was rest. There was reproduction. You sang when souls were saved. You rejoiced. When there was reproduction. And there was responsibility.
And what is it? It is the reward. A course that awaits us. What does it say concerning Abraham in chapter 19 of the same. Genesis chapter 19. He got up early in the morning. To the place. To the place.
Whose place was that? It was Abraham's. Is it any wonder. That when they're going to the place of sacrifice. It takes three days. Three days. It says he lifted up his eyes. And what did he see? He saw the place.
He wouldn't see it the first day. But he saw the place. You know sometimes people will say to us. You're all big on this assembly business. I don't see it. Oh don't they? You know why they don't see it?
They don't want to see it. It's in here brethren. It's in this book as clear as can be. Nice to be in it. Nice to enjoy it. Better never leave it. All I could infuse into you is. As we conclude the ministry part of the conference.
And all that you've heard. You know it is with the intention of. That you will not be the bird. That wanders. From the nest. Or the man. That leaves his place.