Grace Assembly 09 1

So here we are back in High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon. This time it is the Grace Assembly Conference. We have been having residential assemblies for some time now and it seems to work well although numbers are slightly down this year. I took the train to Broxbourne via Tottenham Hale then walked to the centre. They say it's two miles but it felt more like four. John and Jean MacDonald gave me a lift the last 5000 yards or so. We began with lunch so it was nice to have time together. I sat next to Philip Tait from Stockton on Tees and Gearoid Marley from Birmingham. There are lots of other familiar and unfamiliar faces here. We also met briefly as a steering committee before the first meeting. Our hosts are Mark and Chris Richards from Chesham. Mark kicked off for us preaching from Malachi 3:16 Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honoured his name. He gave us some background and then made the following points
1. The character of the people of God - They fear the LORD. The fear of the LORD was thoroughly with lovely references to the minister visiting the dance in the Lewis Revival of 1959, to Polycarp and to the modern martyr Mehdi Dibaj of Iran. He used that famous quote of Anselm about his devotion to the Lord even to going to hell.
2. The logic or reflex of the people of God - they talk with one another. He interestingly raised the question of whether we should put more time into our marriages given the prevalence of divorce. The people in Malachi's day knew their times and so saw the need to spend time with other believers. We are not in danger most of us of turning into a holy huddle. There is an argument for spending more time with Christians than ever. Obviously this includes things like assembly. Perhaps these are days for special measures such as these.
3. The conduct of the people of God - they respond to their situation by talking with one another He referred to Ephesians 4, Acts 2:42, Acts 12, etc, etc and also to Spurgeon's first sermon on how precious Jesus is to believers.
4. The Lord pays close attention to what they say and records it and does so much more. Moving on to the rest of the verse and beyond Mark then spoke of the blessings God brigs on his people who fear him.