Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number one in your hardbacked hymnal,
number one. Let's all stand together. O worship the King, all glorious
above, and gratefully sing his power and his love. Our shield and defender, the
Ancient of Days, Pavillioned in splendor and girded with praise. O tell of his might, O sing of
his grace, Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space, His
chariots of wrath, the deep thunder clouds form, And dark is his
path on the wings of the storm. Thy bountiful care, what tongue
can recite? It breathes in the air. It shines in the light. It streams from the hills. It descends to the plain. And sweetly distills in the dew
and the rain. Frail children of dust, and feeble
as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail. Thy mercies, how tender, how
firm to the end, our maker, defender, Please be seated. Good morning. Let's go before our Lord and
ask his blessings on our time together. Our maker, our defender, our
Redeemer and our friend. Oh Lord, what great hope we have
in being able to come before Thee under those titles and that relationship
and union that You've given us in Christ. Lord, we know that Only by his perfect work of redemption
can we have this hope, that there is nothing in us that would give
us any reason to think that we could be friends of God, except
that the Lord Jesus has made us so. We ask that your Holy
Spirit would comfort our hearts with that great truth. We ask
Lord that those who remain alienated from thee, that you would use
your word and empower it by your spirit to speak truth to their
hearts and give them hope in Christ. Lord, we pray that you would
enable us to worship. What we do here would be worse
than vanity. if you're not pleased to attend
it and to empower it and to bless it. And we find the hope of that
in your precious promises, knowing that you are faithful to your
word. So Lord, we pray now that as
we open your word, you would open our hearts. Bless us with
our presence for Christ's sake. For it's in His name we ask it,
amen. If you'd like to turn with me
in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter five, 1 Thessalonians
chapter five. And while you do that, I'll call
to your attention, there's a flyer in the back next to the bulletins
that have all the pertinent information that you or anyone else might
need about the schedule of our conference coming up in the next
few weeks. So take as many of those as you
want. We can make more. Give them to
family and friends and keep one for yourself so that you'll be
reminded to to be in prayer and to to be in attendance for that
for that time together. You have your Bibles open to
1 Thessalonians, I'm sorry, chapter five. What a blessing it's been
to study this epistle. And I remind you once again that
the Apostle Paul had only been in Thessalonica for three weeks
before he was run out of town. And he's in Athens and concerned
for these believers and writes this epistle to them. And as
is his habit and God's purpose, he closes
this epistle with some exhortations, some encouragements. I've heard
men speak of the things that Paul is referring to here as
practical applications of the gospel. I don't like that term
because it suggests that there's something else about the gospel
that's not practical. Everything about the gospel is
practical. And if we don't see that, then
we've not understood the gospel. It all applies to to not only
who we are, but how we live. And so I've titled this Final
Exhortations. When God is pleased to show a
lost sinner his grace and his glory in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ, he causes those to respond the
same way Saul of Tarsus responded on the road to Damascus. Saul,
Paul, the apostle Paul refers to his conversion as a pattern
for all believers. And after the Lord revealed himself
to Paul, the words that came out of Paul's mouth were, Lord,
what would you have me to do? That's the spirit of grace that
God puts in the hearts. He puts his spirit in us and
he causes us to will of his good pleasure. And so when the Holy
Spirit is inspiring the penman of scripture to give us these
exhortations, these encouragements, these instructions, he's not
putting us under the law. He's not saying these things
are required in order for you to be saved. He's saying that
because you are saved, this would be the desire of your heart to
know what is pleasing in the sight of God. I don't like speculating about
scripture, I much prefer and ought to always say, thus saith
the Lord. But there is one little speculation
that I like to have myself, and that is that perhaps the rich
young ruler who walked away from the Lord sad, After the Lord had told him what
he must give up in order to follow Christ, the scripture says the
Lord loved him. Whoever the rich young ruler
was, we know he was one of God's elect. Scripture doesn't name
him. But I like to think of him as
Saul of Tarsus. And whether he was or not, I
can't say for sure, but I bring that up in order to contrast
what the rich young ruler said to the Lord Jesus when he came
to him and said, good master, good master, what if it was Saul
of Tarsus? Here's his first words to the
Lord Jesus, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal
life? And now we hear Saul saying,
Lord, what would you have me to do? You see the difference? You see the difference? One is
an attempt to try to earn favor with God by one's works. What
must I do to inherit eternal life? Is there a prayer I can
pray? Is there a life I can live? Is
there work I can perform? Is there something I can abstain
from? We know from Paul's testimony
that he had already done a lot of those things. He made this
confession after his conversion. He said, concerning the law,
I was blameless. My outward behavior, no man could
find anything wrong with the way I was living. But when the law of God was spoken
by the Spirit of God to my heart, then sin revived and I died. Then I saw what I was before
God and that none of these things that I was doing in order to
try to earn my salvation were of any value to the contrary. They weren't helping me, they
were hurting me because I was trusting in them. He said, those
things that I thought were gain to me, I now know that we're
loss. But now, now that he's met the Lord Jesus Christ in
grace, now that the Lord has revealed himself to Paul, Paul's
heart's been changed. Now it's not good master, what
must I do to inherit eternal life? Now it's, Lord, what would
you have me to do? That's the spirit of grace. It's not a work. It's not a practical
application. It's an exhortation from God
to the heart of his children, instructing them on what's pleasing
in his sight and The scripture says that the Lord
makes us willing in the day of his power. And that's not just
speaking to our conversion. Yes, we are made willing. We have no, we're not saved by
our will or by our works, but when the Spirit of God comes
into our hearts, he makes us willing to believe on Christ.
And he continues to make us willing. He continues to make us willing.
And so the child of God reads these words, and I will conclude
with verse 24. Let's look there first. Look
at verse 24, faithful is he that calleth you who also will do
it. So these exhortations that the
Spirit of God is concluding this letter with, these encouragements
on what's pleasing to God, the Lord says He's faithful. He's going to be the one. And
so if there's any, if there's any evidence of any of these
things in your life to me or in my life to you, it's to his
glory. Faithful is he that calleth you
and faithful is he that will do it. So that no child of God
can say, well, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm doing that. No, we,
We see in everything we do our own sin, don't we? And we have
to look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for all our righteousness
before God. We know that outside of him,
we have no righteousness. And in him, we are but unprofitable
servants, aren't we? No child of God can glory in
anything that the Lord was faithful to give them and to do in them
or through them. We finished last Sunday with
verse 11. Comfort yourselves together and
edify one another even as you also do. The Lord is revealing
to us the glorious truth of his second coming and the hope that
every child of God has to see him and to be made like him. And then he begins these exhortations
in verse 12. And it's interesting that he
begins with the relationship of the church to their pastor. Nothing will break down the fellowship
of believers quicker and more severely than for there to be
a division between the members of the body of Christ and their
pastor. And so the Lord knowing that
is giving them instructions. Now I want to preface these words
by saying that God hates clergy laity. He hates it. I believe that that's what the
doctrine of the Nicolaitans that is mentioned in the book of Revelation
is. It is the exaltation of a man As a priest, priestcraft is what
I call it, it's practiced in every religion. And everyone loves it because
it gives the Pope or the priest or the elder or the pastor a
position of power and authority. That's what Nicholas means, power
over the people. And that's how we know that the
doctrine of the Nicolaitans that the Lord said he hates is that
clergy, laity, priestcraft. And as much as we hate that and
agree with God, it would be a great error and we do this. Whenever
we react to one error, we always run the risk of error and in
the other direction, don't we? We try to compensate for one
error by going the other way. And I see it in my own tendencies
and I see it in the things that have happened historically in
the church. Men try to respond to an error and end up promoting
an error in the other direction. So what would be the error in
the other direction of priestcraft? It would be to not recognize
the man that God has called to feed the sheep for the work that
he does. And though the Lord makes it
clear, he's not to be highly esteemed as if he was closer
to God or less sinful, but he's to be highly esteemed for his
work's sake. Nothing will break down the work
of the pastor quicker than to be disregarded and disrespected
by the congregation. And that's
what the Lord's saying here. So let us find God's design in
terms of the relationship. There's responsibilities on both
parts, aren't there? And there's a great burden of
responsibility on my shoulders and there's one on yours. And
here's what the Lord says, with all that having been said. Verse
12, and we beseech you, I love that word, we come along beside
you and we plead with you to know them or to acknowledge them
which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish
you. Those who teach you and those
who warn you, that's what the word admonishment means. Those
who labor in the word, acknowledge them, not as if they are They
are some sort of priest or some sort of man that is in less need
of grace than another. That's the real problem with
priestcraft, isn't it? It suggests that one man might
be less sinful and therefore in less need of grace than another.
And nothing could be further from the truth. Verse 13, and
to esteem them very highly in love. for their work's sake. Now we're just dealing with God's
word here. I've got no ax to grind. I've got no, I love you and I
believe you love me and I'm thankful for you and I pray for you and
I trust you pray for me. We're just looking at what God
says about the importance of this relationship between the
pastor and the people of a church. I've had men say, I don't need
a teacher, I don't need a pastor, I don't need anyone to care for
my soul, I'm a priest, I can go to God, I don't need you. That's the error on the other
side of clergy laity, isn't it? And the truth is here, what God
has said. What is their work? Well, their
work is to pray, to prepare, preach God's word, feed the sheep,
to protect the sheep. You remember in Acts chapter
six, when right off the bat, right off the bat in the New
Testament church, the 3,000 and 5,000 and there's huge church
in Jerusalem and there's dissension in the church. There's division
in the church. The Greek women are complaining
that the that the church is caring for the needs of the Hebrew women
more than they are the Greek women. There's prejudice and
accusations of prejudice in the church. And the apostles got
together and they said this, it does not meet that we should
wait on tables, but that we should give ourselves continually to
prayer and to the ministry of the word. And they appointed
men who were filled with the Holy Spirit as the first deacons
to care for the needs of the, and that word deacon just means
table waiter, and we're all to serve in whatever capacity we
have been gifted to serve and wherever we might be needed. But the Lord is, well, in Ephesians
chapter four, God has given to the church some prophets and
some apostles and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry.
These are the offices that God has given in his church that
we might that we might grow together in grace and that Christ might
be preached and that the church might be blessed. Verse 14. Now we exhort you, brethren,
warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support
the weak and be patient toward all men." Paul in concluding the letter
to the Galatians said this, if a man be overtaken in a fault,
ye which are spiritual, and I think that that just simply means you
that are not being overtaken in a fault, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest I also be tempted. That's
what the Lord is saying here. We encourage and care and exhort
and help one another. We always do it in a spirit of
meekness, knowing that that I'm capable of anything you're capable
of and you're capable of anything. We don't do any of this in a
spirit of judgment. Let me show you a verse that
I think it'd be important for you to understand on this subject. Turn over just a few pages to
2 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and look with me at verse 24. Pastoring a church is an impossible
task, you can only imagine. Not only standing up and having
to speak for God, but helping the sheep in all
sorts of different places of their lives, praying for them
and caring for them and correcting them and encouraging them as
needed. I mean, those of you that have
children know how difficult it is to to deal with just one or
two or three or seven children. And and so sometimes there's
some there's some lack of understanding as to,
pastors don't deal with every situation as they should, obviously
not, any more than you do with your own children. But sometimes
there's a lack of understanding on the part of the church as
to why the pastor doesn't deal with certain situations. Look
at these verses, verse 24. of 2 Timothy chapter 2. Paul
is speaking directly to Timothy now as the pastor of the church.
And he's saying, the servant of the Lord must not strive,
but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness
instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure
will give them repentance unto the acknowledging of the truth.
and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil
who are taken captive by him by his will. So it's a difficult
thing to know sometimes how to deal with situations, but there's
my call to ministry is to be patient and gentle and to not
be harsh and to not beat the sheep All those sort of things,
all right? Look at verse 15. See that none render evil for
evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among
yourselves and to all men. Turn with me to Romans chapter
12, Romans chapter 12, these are, Final words of comfort and instruction
and exhortation to the believer who has been given a heart to
want to be pleasing to God. And Romans chapter 12, look at verse
19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. but rather give place unto wrath,
for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith
the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger,
feed him. If he thirst, give him drink,
for in so doing thou shall heap coals of fire on his head. Be
not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Now that's what
the Lord is saying here. Don't try to get right and get
even and get back and get revenge, don't do that. Respond to whatever might be
said or done. Respond in grace and in love
and in goodness. All right, look at verse 16.
Rejoice evermore. Rejoice. Now, the world tries
to overcome anxiety and depression with the power of positive thinking. They try to overcome it with
don't worry, be happy. It's peace, peace when there
is no peace. The Lord's telling us to rejoice
in the Lord. Always, and again I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known
unto all men. Why? Because the Lord is at hand.
The Lord is at hand. We have reason to rejoice. This
is not some sort of false peace where we're just trying to convince
ourselves that everything's well when it's not. This is confessing
our God's on his throne. And what he's doing is right. I read a statement recently,
I loved it. It said, you wanna know what God's doing in the
world? Read the newspaper. Because that's what God's doing
in the world. That's what God's doing in the world. Whatever's
happening out there in the world, God's the first cause of it.
And the child of God finds great comfort in that. We can rejoice
in Him, knowing that as unstable and confusing as everything might
seem to be, it's not to God. He's purposed and directing every
step of it. And for that reason, we can rejoice
in Him. Rejoice in Him. Pray without ceasing. It'd be wonderful if we could
have a perpetual spirit of prayer going on all the time in our
hearts. I don't know about you, but that's not something I've
ever experienced. Prayer is a difficult thing. It can only be done in the power
of the Spirit of God. What the Lord's saying here is don't quit praying. Because God
doesn't answer your prayer in the way or in the time in which
you think it should be answered, don't stop praying. Don't cease. Don't be discouraged. Keep going
before the throne of grace. Now I've heard people use the
term prayer warrior. I knew a woman one time, she
used to always talk about storming the gates of heaven with prayer.
There's nothing militant about prayer. Those are bad ways to
describe what praying is. There's nothing militant about
prayer. Prayer is a humble confession before God, asking him and trusting
him and rejoicing in him. We don't storm the gates of heaven
or put on our prayer warrior suit, but we continue going before
the throne of grace with boldness And that's all the Lord's saying
here, don't stop, don't be discouraged. God's on his throne, keep coming,
keep coming. Look at verse 19, quench not
the spirit. I love the way Paul in Ephesians
chapter four speaks of grieving the spirit of God. And here he speaks of quenching
the Spirit of God. What is it that grieves the Spirit
of God and what is it that quenches the Spirit of God? Sin, isn't
it? It's our sin, it's our rebellion,
it's our unbelief. And we're to plead for the Spirit
of God. One of the things the Lord makes
clear here is the Spirit of God is the third person of the triune
God here. The Spirit of God's a person.
He can be grieved just like you can be grieved. He can be quenched. The burning fire of love and
hope and grace and desire can be put out. And the Lord just saying, you
know, be very careful about about the person of the Holy
Spirit. Despise not prophesying. Prophecy in the sense of foretelling
a future event is no longer, you know that. We don't have
prophets today who foretell. Some, we dealt with that I think
it was last Sunday we were talking about the second coming and men
who predict the second coming of Christ and put a date on it.
And they believe they've gotten some, you know, and then you
hear people talk about getting some word from God, you know,
and they got something to say, you know, that those days are
gone. Why are they gone? Because everything
we need has already been given in God's word. And we now foretell,
we don't foretell a future events, we don't know what the future
is going to hold. But we foretell what God has already revealed
in his word. And the Lord is telling us to
highly esteem preaching. That's what he's saying. It's
the means by which you have given faith. This need, don't despise, this
word despise means to discount it as non-essential or unimportant. Don't do that. The means of forth
telling what God has given us in his word is essential to the
health and well-being of your soul. Verse 21, prove all things, make
righteous judgments, Make righteous judgments. Separate in your heart
what's right and what's wrong, what's holy and what's profane, what's true and what's error,
and hold to that which is right and holy and true, and reject
that. Well, you have to have some discernment
about those things, don't we? Prove all things and hold fast
to that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of
evil. Yeah, I think about that. Generally
speaking, whatever has the appearance of evil also has the potential
for evil, doesn't it? And so the number one reason
to abstain from the appearance of evil is not to maintain a
good testimony among other men and that they might begin to
doubt and question what you're doing, but abstain from the appearance
of evil because the appearance of evil generally has the potential
for evil. And what's the Lord telling us? Flee from it. Flee from it. Oh Lord, that's what I want. I've gotten way too close to
it too many times. Lord, give me that grace. And
again, faithful is he that called you and also will do it. You
see that? And the very God of peace, verse
23, the very God of peace set you apart. holy, that's not h-o-l-y, that's
w-h-o-l-l-y, completely in your whole spirit and in your soul
and in your body that they might be preserved blameless unto the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. The means by which The Lord calls
us is the preaching of the gospel. The means by which the Lord does
these things in us is through the instructions of his word. Brethren, pray for us. Greet
all the brethren with a holy kiss. Show affection and grace
toward one another. I charge you by the Lord that
this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. Now here's
sanctified in Christ, holy in him, perfect in him, without
sin before God in Christ. The grace, always dependent upon
grace, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. And all God's people said, amen. So be it. So be it. That's what
amen means. So be it. God, make it so. Make it so. All right, let's
take a break.