First Thessalonians. I meant
to mention Brother Robert Montgomery. He's got often infirmities, and
he would like to be here, but he's probably listening in right
now. First Thessalonians. I just don't know where to read.
I want to read all of it, but can't. Let's read chapter 5, 1 Thessalonians
5. You may remember that four or
five years ago, one Wednesday night, we just read the whole
book. You remember that? Made a few
comments. It was a real blessing. And I
urge you to read it. I sat down again tonight before
I came here and read the whole book. It takes 20 minutes. Well,
I looked up some verses and it took me 20 minutes. It's a wonderful
letter. Wonderful. Chapter 5, 1 Thessalonians
5, the times and seasons, brethren, that is, of our Lord's return,
you have no need that I write unto you. You yourselves know
perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in
the night. For when they shall say, peace
and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them. has travailed
upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye,
brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake
you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light
and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of
darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others, and let us watch
and be sober. They that sleep, sleep in the
night. They that be drunken, are drunken
in the night. And let us, who are of the day,
be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love. For in Helmut,
the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who
died for us. And whether we wake, are living,
or sleep when he comes, We should live together with him. Wherefore,
comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also
you do. And we beseech you, brethren,
to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord. He's talking about the pastor. And admonish you to esteem them
very highly and love for their works sake. And be at peace among
yourselves. Now, we exhort or beseech you,
brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded,
support the weak, be patient toward all. See that none render
evil for evil unto any. Ever follow that which is good,
both among yourselves and to all. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything
give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit. Despise
not prophesies. Preach him. Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of
evil. And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly. And I pray, God, your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet
all the brethren with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord
that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. Pray with me. Our Lord, as our brother has
already thanked you on our behalf, we thank you again for this place. And that means the time, the willing mind and heart and the
body that is able to come here and sit and worship. What a privilege. What a high, heavenly, holy calling
it is. Those that are born of God and
are called, predestinated, called, justified, glorified. We are
truly glorified when we hear the glorious gospel. What a blessing it is to hear
your Word at a time when we had no interest. And so many that
pass by, there's nothing to them but God. You're so rich in mercy
and love and grace to us. Grace and peace comes from you,
God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. And the greatest
grace and gift is this gospel is the truth, the heart to love
it and receive it. We thank you, Lord. As our brothers
also pray, we ask that you'd be with us. Without you, we can
do nothing. We need your Holy Spirit to worship
in spirit and in truth. Lord, we ask that you would keep
back the things of this world, the vain thoughts of this world,
because all is vain. We know it from your Word and
from experience. And yet these things distract
us and take up our thoughts and our cares. And Lord, we would
be without carefulness. We want to be without anxious
care. We want to sit at your feet like Mary of old. This is the best part. Oh Lord,
hedge us about this evening to keep things, the foul of the
air and the storms from choking out your water. We pray for our
brethren, your people, your brethren throughout the world. So many
that we don't know. We pray for them. Churches we
do know and we love dearly. We ask your blessings upon them,
our brethren. Let us not, Lord, cease to pray
for our brethren. Let us always think on things
of others. We pray for these we've mentioned,
Jeanette, Robert. Oh, we pray for them, Robin. Pray for Margaret in this upcoming
surgery. We know you're in absolute control
of everything, but you've told us to pray about these things
and everything. And it is our request that you
raise these up and bring them back to us. Give peace, give comfort where
it's needed in these trials and these troubles. Forgive us of
our sins, for Christ's sake. Amen. 354. 354. What a friend. Oh, what peace
we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything,
everything to the Lord in prayer. 354. Okay, Sally. What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry, everything
to know Him. Oh, the peace we often forfeit
Oh, what need this pain we bear Oh, because we do not carry Everything
to God in prayer Every trial and temptation Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Lord in prayer Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus, what's our every weakness? Take it to the Holy Grail. Are we weak and heavy laden? Come and lift us, Lord, again. Bless His favor still our refuge. Thank ye to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise forsake
thee? Thank ye to the Lord in prayer. In His arms you'll take and see Thank you, Sally. Go back to
1 Thessalonians now with me. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Chapter
1. Paul speaks of the brethren here
in this one letter. Sixteen times he calls them brethren. Beloved brethren. James many, many times. Beloved
brethren. He says, I beseech thee, four
or five, three or four times. Brethren, what a blessing it
is to be in God's kingdom, God's family. Behold what matter of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
sons of God, born of God. Oh my, what a blessing. Church,
God's people. The Church, the Kingdom of God
is our true family. It really is. This is the relationship
that's going to last forever. There will be no husbands and
wives and fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters. Blood
can't. None. And all of us are going
to be together forever. What a blessing that'll be. Family.
Brethren. I love that term. I love to call
you. I love when the Lord save someone,
I can call them brother. We're all brothers in Adam, but
still there's a special sense in which we call the brothers
and sisters. You're brethren too, you ladies.
Brethren, it talks about the brethren. It's talking about
men and women, no male and female in Christ. Chapter one, Paul
and Silas and Timothy traveled together quite a bit. They came
to After Philippi, you know how they were treated at Philippi,
thrown in jail and all that? Well, they left there. Well,
the Lord did that, you know, to raise up a church. But then
they went to Thessalonica, this town they'd never been in, and
the people loved the gospel, but persecution came on them
too. They had to get Paul out of town
or they would have killed him. And these people, the Lord raised
up a church there, and now he's writing to them. Church in God,
I like this. Church in God the Father and
in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the heart, the mind, in the
covenant, in the hands of our God and our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Grace to you. Peace. Oh, oh,
grace and peace. Real peace. Peace with God that
the world can't take away. From God our Father. He says,
The Father. He says, Our Father. Our Father,
we give thanks. This sounds like Philippians,
doesn't it? We give thanks to God always for you all. All of
you. Making mention of you in our
prayer and remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor
of love. That's what family does, don't
they? They labor together, they work together at the house. We've
got a house here we take care of. We've got each other to serve.
If you're raised in a in a family of brothers and sisters that
you all pitch in to. That's what the family does.
It's God's work, but we are laborers together with him. So he says,
I remember your work of faith, labor of love and patience of
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and the sight of God. Scripture
says he's not unrighteous to forget. He knows. Whatever we
do under the Lord, he is fully aware of. Even a cup of water. Didn't he say that? You receive
a prophet's reward. A cup of water. Knowing, brethren. Paul says, I know you're elect.
Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. How can you
know somebody's elect, Paul? You look into the Lamb's Book
of Life. Yeah. Yeah, you're reading it
right now. You know that? This is the last
book of life. Is your name there? Is it? Let me ask you, are you a sinner? Are you the chief of sinners?
Then this is for you. Your name's written there. Okay?
He says, here's how you know. Our gospel came unto you. Paul wrote in Galatians, there's
another gospel. It's not another. There's another
Jesus, he said, it's not Jesus Christ. Our gospel, you know
what gospel that is, don't you? You've heard it too many times.
It came unto you not in word only, not doctrine only, but
in power, life-giving, eye-opening, ear-opening, heart-giving, life-giving,
power, life-giving, and yes, changing, walk-changing. And
the Holy Ghost, what's the Holy Ghost do? He takes the things
of Christ and shows them to you. He's the witness of the Lord.
The Father and the Spirit witness of the Son, don't they? And that's
what he does. This is a Holy Ghost-filled church. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Because the Gospel is preached
here. Christ is preached every time. That's how you know. And
much assurance. And you know what manner of men
we were. He says, I know many of your
elect, it's obvious. He said, and you know what manner
of men we were. If you read through this, Paul
says, you know how we came unto you. It wasn't with deceit and
guile, and we didn't use flattering words, and it wasn't covetousness,
and we don't want what you have to give us, but we've got something
that came to give you something. Right? That's the true preachers
of God. He said, you know, you know,
and he became followers of that. Can you follow a man? Well, if
he's following Christ, you can. You better. Were the people following
Moses? Were the people following Joshua?
Were the people following Samuel? Well, who was Samuel following?
If you find out who's following Christ, you can follow Him. Where
are you going, brother? I'm going to worship the Lord.
Well, I'll just get in right behind you. Ask the animals, where are y'all
going? We're going into that ark. We're
coming to you. You can follow the Lord, you
see? We're not putting our trust in
people, but the Lord gives. There are so many phonies out
there, but He gives some true men that you can follow. Paul says this over and over
again, whose faith follow. That's what he said. Remember
then, they have the rule over you, whose faith follow. They
watch for your soul. I was thankful I had such a good
man, and I followed him. Chapter 2, verse 1. It says, Brethren, you know,
and I already mentioned it. But you know our entrance into
you. It wasn't in vain. I didn't apply for this job,
did I? It sure wasn't for money. I didn't have any clue how much
you were going to pay me. In fact, I didn't take a dime
for the first two months. I didn't. There were too many
things that needed to be done. I didn't come here for money.
I was making a whole lot more money before I came here. But
now, Lord, like Paul said to the Philippians, you've supplied
my every need and now we're well cared for, I think. But that's
not why I came here, and you know that. And Paul said, you
know that. I wouldn't listen to a man if
he thought he was in it for the job or for the money. Don't listen
to him. All right? He said, verse 8, We are affectionately
desirous of you, willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel
of God only, but our own soul. Verse 9, he says, You know how
we've labored and travailed. You know how hard we've worked.
We know that. It's our reasonable certainty. Isn't it? All of it. Mine. It's my job. But it's my delight. It's my delight. Brethren. Brethren. We're brothers. We're
brothers. Okay? We're brothers. And it's what
family does. They pitch in and help serve
one another. Verse 14. You, brethren, you
became followers of the churches of God in Judea that are in Christ. Followers of the churches. Boy,
we've got some dear brethren in churches everywhere, don't
we? Don't you love them? But if everybody comes to our
meeting that says they're going to, we're going to have to meet
outside. That'd be fine. But, you know, we've got dear
brethren that come here so often from Spring Lake. And I told
one of the brethren before the service, we need to pile up in
about three or four cars and go down there one Thursday night
and listen to Brother John. We support one another. Churches
support one another. Kingsport and all around goes.
Dear brethren. Followers. We're all followers
of the Lamb. Helpers one of another. Brethren. It's a wonderful thing, isn't
it? Isn't it wonderful to meet a brother for the first time?
It doesn't take long to find out that they're languages. They can be from New York and
you still have the same dialect. Just a little different accent.
A little strange accent. But the same words. What words? Our God reigneth. Christ is all. Mercy. Grace. Brethren. Look at chapter 3. Go to chapter 3. I'm
looking at where it says brethren. Chapter 3, verse 7. It says,
Brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and
distress by your faith. At Thessalonica, when Paul came and preached the
gospel, the authorities came down hard on him and others. They went through great persecution. Great persecution. That's how
he started this by saying, we know you're elect because our
gospel came and the world doesn't like our gospel. You understand? We don't want anybody hating
us, and we don't want to do anything to be hateful. And we want to
preach the truth in love, and say things in love, and be kind. We want to look at that, patient
with all men. But when you tell men the truth about God, it's
not you they hate, it's Him. And our Lord said, if they hated
me, they're going to hate you. Servants not above his master.
It's just a fact. And this is how you know where
the gospel is preached. And brothers and sisters, you
know this, Methodists and Presbyterians and Baptists and Catholics, they
all get together and have a big old time. But not us. I wish the Lord would pour out
a big revival here. We're not going to compromise
the gospel. Hmm. Where am I? Chapter 3, verse
7. Chapter 3 of 1 Thessalonians.
Verse 76, we were comforted over you in all your afflictions,
that is, for the gospel and distress, by your faith. See, only real
faith will withstand persecution for the truth. Just the nominal profession of
religion will give in and will compromise the truth. And I don't
want any enemies, so can't we all just get along? No. No, you can't. Denying our God
and gospel can't do it. And I call names. I'm a watchman. You know what a watchman does?
You know what a watchman does? When he sees a wolf, he cries
wolf, doesn't he? In Isaiah 54, it says there are
dumb dogs. These prophets are dumb dogs
that can't bark. They won't bark. They're too
nice. with a watchdog. What if he had
a dog? You ever had a dog that wouldn't
bark? I did. Oh, Abner, he was the sweetest
dog I've ever had. He was a worthless watchdog.
Wasn't he, Mindy? There was an intruder one time,
Mindy thought there was. I was out of town. And I called
the police because Charlie was barking his head off. And Charlie
would have bit into him. But Abner was asleep. And the
police came and they walked through the garage and said, we almost
tripped over your dog. If there was a pedophile living
on your street, would you want to know that?
Well, these false preachers are worse than pedophiles. And I called their names. Paul
called 16 names in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. And he told Timothy,
warned them, he told Titus, their mouths need to be stopped. This
is what a watchman does. And I don't apologize for that. That's what a faithful watchman
does. That's a wolf. That man's a wolf. So, anyway. The reason I said that was because
faith, real faith, won't give an inch. It will not compromise. It can't get along with those
that blaspheme our God and blaspheme our Christ. It can't do it. Those
that talk about the love of God like it's an offer, there's nothing
that makes me more angry than that. The blood of Christ, they
trodden underfoot the blood of Christ. That makes me angry.
It makes God's people angry. Think of what it makes God. You
understand that? God sent His Son down here to
save worthless, no good sinners. It wasn't an offer. He wasn't
asking them to do something with His Son except His Son. Are you
kidding me? He sent His Son down here to
die for a particular people. And when He came down, He did
the job. He did it job. And He went back to glory and
sat down and He's waiting for everyone He died for, everyone
that God loved to be brought to Him someday. And it's going
to happen. He didn't offer His precious blood to worthless sinners. He paid the price for worthless
sinners, but every one of them know they're worthless and they
know they didn't have anything to do with their salvation. They
didn't accept Him, didn't make Him Lord, didn't let Him into
their life. No, they know He did it all. Now there's no mistaking when
a man's preaching that. No mistaking. They can say the
right things, like Billy Graham. and say all the right things
and then come down to the end and say, now, won't you come
down front and accept Jesus? They just denied the whole gospel. You received the gospel in power. That's what he said, power. What
happened? Nobody asked you to come down front. Nobody asked
you to accept Jesus when you heard the Gospel. A man like
Simon Peter stood at Pentecost and just declared who Christ
is and what He did for His people and sat down, and Peter didn't
ask anybody to do anything. They were begging Him what we're
going to do. Right? You know the difference. And buddy, I'm going to call
out anybody that doesn't know the Gospel. That's what a watchman
does. He tells you to watch. He tells
you to watch. You're supposed to be on guard. He says, I was comforted by your
faith. Comforted. But you're not going to give
an inch either. In verse 8, he says, We live if you stand fast
in the Lord. You know, a true preacher and
pastor, the people, the gospel, that is his life. Like sheep
and the shepherd, that is his life. He gave his life. Christ
laid down his life for the sheep, didn't he? That's what a true
shepherd does. It's a fact. It's a fact. Where am I? Chapter 4. Furthermore,
then, we beseech you, brethren. This is the title of the message.
I beseech you, brethren. Have you ever beseeched someone?
Have you ever beseeched? You had five children. Surely,
would you listen to me? Did your mother ever do that?
Would you please? Would you just listen to me?
That's what beseeched me. Not beg, but implore you. Urge you. This is vital. This
is life or death. This is what he said. He says
it over and over again. I beseech you, brother. I beseech
you. I exhort you. What's that mean? I urge you. beseech, exhort,
same word, by the Lord Jesus. Did our Lord beseech you people? Come unto me, all ye that labor
and heavy laden. He wept over Jerusalem. If any
man thirsts, tell him to come unto me. Not a beggar. Our Lord
is not a beggar. Neither is His preacher. But
we beseech you. We implore you. We urge you.
This is serious. Young people. I'm not just preaching,
I beseech you. Listen, come to Christ. Come
to Christ. And he talks about here in this
chapter how you ought to walk and please God so you're bound
more and more. Walk. Is that important? Oh,
it's over and over throughout the business. Because we can
deny what we believe by the way we act. Where do we walk? Who do we walk
with? How do we talk? Yes, we can. Look at verse 9
down here. As touching brotherly love. Brethren,
as touching brotherly love. You don't need that. I should
write under you. You know. How many times did
our Lord tell His disciples this? This is my commandment. You love
one another. How many times? And so they picked this up and
they kept John sure heard it well, didn't John? He sure did. His whole epistle was full of
brethren love one another. Love one another. Brotherly love.
You don't need I should write. You're taught to love one another. How? How? Simon Peter said love
is brethren. I had two brothers and a sister.
And we loved each other. We did. And I'm so thankful to
have siblings. And it's just wonderful. You know, if you have sister,
Isabel and Sophie have each other and they just love each other.
It's just a wonderful thing. It really is. I hope the Lord
saves both of them and they grow up to be sisters in Christ. That
would really be special for them. But brotherly love. What's brotherly love? Well,
real loving brethren stay together. Don't they? They stay together. Yes, they
do. The old saying, blood's thicker
than water, meaning it just stays through thick and thin. Real brothers don't leave each
other. No, they don't. Can brothers get mad at each
other? I'm ashamed now of some of the
fusses and fights. Me and my dad, boy, he hated
it. One time he whipped all three
of us boys. He didn't care who was at fault.
Because we were supposed to be at peace. Real brothers. Get mad, maybe, but you don't
leave. Love, because love Never failing. Isn't that right? It
doesn't quit. Real love. What kind of love?
The love of God. That's real love. Real love. Is he going to leave his people?
Does God send his people to hell that he loves? That's blasphemy. That makes the love of God worse
than ours. You wouldn't dream of sending
your child to hell, would you? And neither will God. Love. Love is brethren. Love
is brethren. Forgive. My brothers and I, well, my second
brother and my oldest brother, and we were eight years apart,
so we didn't have any spats, but my other brother and I did.
And he just beat me mercilessly. And I'm not at fault. I never did anything. But anyway,
we could go at it just like cats and dogs, and he shouldn't do
it. Max, champ, don't do it. But it happens, doesn't it? Doesn't
it? It happens. But, I mean, the
next day it's like nothing happened. Isn't it? The next day it's over. It's like it never happened. Love is brethren. Love is brethren. Brethren. Love is brethren. And what a loser brother. That's
tough, isn't it? Look at this, and I wonder, you
know, first I wonder why Paul brought this up in the middle
of chapter 4, but I know now. Talking about brotherly love.
And he says in verse 13, Brethren, I would not have you ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep. Those that know Christ,
our brethren who have gone to be with the Lord, they didn't
die. They fell asleep. Our Lord never said that, didn't
He? He said, Lazarus sleepeth. He sleepeth. And He says in verse
13 that you sorrow not. You can't love somebody and not
sorrow over losing them. Love sorrow, but don't sorrow
without no hope. As those who have no hope. If
they know Christ and you know Christ, you're going to see Him
again. Very soon. Very soon. And I love in this
chapter, and I've got to go on, it says the Lord's going to bring
them with Him. He's going to bring them with
Him. Wouldn't you want to go be with someone you haven't seen
in a long time? Can I go too? Yeah, they're all
coming. If we're still here when Christ
comes, your mom is going to be with the Lord. Come on, Helen! We're here to take you home.
That's a fact. Margaret, your mother. My mother. She's not dead yet. My father. That's right. That's what this
says. It says, well, comfort one another. The separation is
just brief. You see why it's so important
to know the Lord? There are many that are going
to stand in front of Him someday. He said in Matthew 7, He said,
Lord, Lord, and He said, I never knew you. So we need to know the truth.
The Lord. The one true God and Jesus Christ
whom He sent. And why? Chapter 5, he said, now brethren,
you have no need for me to write unto you of the coming of our
Lord. You know it's going to be as a thief in the night. And they say peace and safety.
Brothers and sisters, our society has never been, there's never
been a time when there's been more carnal security than right
now. This society we live in, they've
got a false sense of carnal security. Since, when was that, 2000, when
was 9-11? 2000, what year was it? 20? 1! 23 years ago. And this night, it's like it
never happened. And nothing like this happened. Oh, peace, peace. And false religion. God loves
you. Everything, mm-mm. Noah didn't
preach that. Did he? No, he didn't. He's a
preacher of righteousness. He said the wrath of God is coming
down. That's what he said. Get in the
ark. And they say peace and safety,
carnal security, financial security. This nation, this society has
never been more well off. No society has ever been more
well off financially. and no more spiritually bankrupt
than any generation in the history of this world. That's a fact. Our Lord is right at the door.
It's obvious. He said, when you see these things,
you're not asleep as others. You know, you see these things. Verse 6, so let us not sleep
as do others. Falling asleep, any of you who
have read Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The pilgrims, they
were walking straight and narrow, but they fell asleep in the enchanted
ground. They fell for Vanity Fair. They
went through Vanity Fair and were enticed by it and intoxicated
by it. They fell out of the way into
Bypass Meadow and they ended up in the Doubting Castle under
the dominion of Giant Despair. And they thought they'd never
get out. Why? They fell asleep. They weren't
watching. And the God of this world's traps
and snares and pits and religion is the biggest pit of all. I'm
telling you, read Revelation for yourself. Babylon, Babylon,
Babylon. We live in Babylon. And it says
the whole world's in bed with her. The great whore called her
that. The whole world. Politics. Nations. The rulers. Read it
for yourself. I beseech you, read it for yourself. Brother Bruce Crabtree always
said, read your Bible. You know, these people didn't
have a Bible, Thessalonica. They didn't have a Bible. And
when Paul sent this letter, what do you think they're doing with
this letter? There's one letter. And I'll
read it again. Can I look at it? Yeah, I want
you not only to hear me read it, I want you to look at it.
I want you to go home and read it. I want you to immerse yourself
in this book so you won't fall asleep. So you won't fall for
the pits and the traps. So you watch, have your eyes
wide open. These are our eyes. The entrance
of Thy Word giveth light. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
a light unto my path. I can see where I'm going and
not fall for anything. Most people do. I beseech you,
brethren. I beseech you, watch, he said.
Look at verse 6. Watch, be sober. What's that
mean? It doesn't just mean don't get drunk on liquor. It means don't be intoxicated
with, don't be inebriated with, don't lose your mind over anything. Sports or recreation. You know,
cars and houses and clothes and all. Didn't our Lord say that
in Luke 21? You read it with me. Surfeiting and this and that
and the other. And that day come on you, unaware,
this trap, this pit that's going to come on all the world, He
said. It's here now. The most materialistic world
in the history of the world. Don't be intoxicated, inebriated
with, taken up with. You'll lose your mind like drinking
too much. You won't think straight. You
won't see straight. And you'll stumble and you'll
fall. That's what they say. Be sober. Now go on down to verse 12. We
beseech you, brethren, know them which labor among you. You need
to know who's leading you in order to follow Him, don't you?
We've already looked into that. Admonish you. Admonish you. Do you need admonishing? Do you
need rebuking? Do you need reproving? Do you
need warning? Do you need warning? You know, listen to Psalm 14.
It says, Let the righteous smite me. It will be a kindness. Let him reprove me. It will be
an excellent oil. He won't break my head. My dad used to smite me. And
now I think he should have smitten me a lot more. Wake up, son. What's wrong with you? Warning. You need warning? Those in carnal security, they
don't want to be warned. I've got a dear brother, I was
talking to him on the phone and he said he was so concerned about
some people and just careless and lethargic and
indifferent and sleeping through messages and he just, he warns
everybody and he said some people took it too personally and got
mad at him. If your child If you prepared
good meals, and their nutrition and everything depended on it,
and they kept falling asleep at the table, would you say something
about it? Would you be concerned? It's
a serious problem. Now, I understand that some people
are medicated. Age has a lot to play with it. I know that. Sicknesses and infirmities,
I know that. I know that. And the Lord knows
that. But if it's habitual, ongoing, when a person cannot Listen to
the life-giving sound of the gospel. Something's wrong. But the Lord knows. And He knows. And I'm glad. Well, OK, let me go on. Look at verse 14. Now we exhort
you, and the word is beseech you, brethren, warn them that
are unruly. rather, those that won't submit,
those that won't fall in with humility and meekness and follow
and serve and so forth, unruly. And you know what they are, those
who sow discord. And God hates those that sow
discord. What would you do if someone
spoke critically of your spouse or your children in your presence?
What would you do? Would you defend him? Her? Him?
Them? Would you? Would you? What about
your preacher? Would you? You better. I told you this before, but, and you know, esteem them highly.
That's, if you do, you will. You'll defend him. My father-in-law
was such a Such a loyal supporter of the
gospel and generous and a supporter of his pastor. And one time he
was standing with two other men in the church, two leading men,
and they were speaking critically of Henry Moyhan, my pastor. And
my father-in-law said, brothers, I'd be real afraid to talk about
God's man if I was you. Oh boy. There's a passage in
1 Corinthians 16. I almost preached on it. It says, quit you like men. Act
like men. Stand up and be loyal, devoted. Don't bow to, cow to. Don't warn
them that are unruly. We've got too much vested here,
don't we? We've got too much at stake here. We've got some
people who have never heard the gospel before. You needn't hear
it. And there is no other gospel around here. I've been here a
long time. You've been here a long time.
Mary, Stephen, is there another gospel around here that you know
of? Me neither. We need this place, don't we? So, warn them. Comfort. Didn't he say, I beseech
you, brethren? Warn them. I'm not going to tolerate
that. Okay? That's what we need to
say. I'm not going to tolerate that. I'm not going to listen
to that. I want you, you're not my friend if you end with my
preacher and my brother. Okay. Verse 14, comfort the feeble-minded. Oh my, we're all going to get
there. Feeble-minded. Oh my. Comfort the feeble-minded. I never thought I'd see my dad
get in the shape that he's in. It's a sad thing. You know, some people born that
way. But the Lord knows, support the weak. There's some that are
just weaker in faith than others, you know. Support the weak. Like Moses and the people in
the houses in Egypt when the blood was on the door. You know
good and well there's some people in there just scared to death.
Don't you? What was Moses doing? Eating
that lamb. Waiting. Calm, confident, while
others are just scared to death. Is Moses any more safe than they
are? No. He's just more comfortable. So
we need comfort, support the weak, be patient toward all.
Patient toward all. My, growth, spiritual growth
is so slow. Oh, my. And all right, go down
to verse 16. These exhortations, let me go
through them real fast. Rejoice evermore. We just looked
at that, didn't we? Rejoice. And again, I say rejoice.
Rejoice. The Lord is King. Rejoice. Our
God reigns. Rejoice that he's called you.
Rejoice that he's revealed himself to you. Rejoice that you're in
his hand. Rejoice that you're in his kingdom. Rejoice that
Christ finished the work for you. Rejoice. Do we have anything
to rejoice over? Oh, my. We have nothing to complain
about. The more you rejoice, the less
you'll complain. God hates complaining. Oh, He loves rejoicing. It's
good for us. It's good for others. Rejoice
every morning. Pray without ceasing. How many times does it say this? Why? Because, brothers and sisters,
we're assaulted every hour of every day. From the time we go
to sleep, to the time we wake up, to the time we go to sleep,
the devil, the God of this world, our own old nature just assaults
us and assaults us, and without Him we can do Nothing. So we
call on it. Prayer is not getting down on
your knees all the time. Prayer is not uttering words
all the time, but it's your heart going out. Help me. Help me.
Give me wisdom. Give me strength. Give me ability.
Help me. I can't do this. Help me. Pray
without ceasing. The minute you quit, you're going
to fall for temptation. Right? You know it's so. Pray
without ceasing. In everything, give thanks. In
everything, give thanks. One of these days, we're going
to see beyond a shadow of a doubt that everything worked together
for our good. Look at that. I thought that
was the worst thing that ever happened. It was the best. We'll
know as we've been known. We're going to thank the Lord.
Thank you for sending that awful trial. It was such mercy and
love and grace that you sent that to me. I just didn't know.
We're not going to ask His forgiveness. There'll be no remembrance. But
you know what I'm saying. In everything you think, this is
a will of God. Whatever happens to you is God's
will in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Oh,
my. I don't have time. Listen, follow,
heed the Holy Spirit. We need Him to worship. We need
Him to lead us and guide us. Wasn't Stephen's prayer a real
blessing? That was such a blessing. He
asked the Lord, don't lead us and guide us. And He said, I
mean really lead us and guide us. How do you quench Him? You don't listen. You don't seek Him. You go after
other things. How do you quench the Spirit? Seer your conscience. Especially in a house of prayer
and worship, you need this. We need this. I mean, we really
do. Are you glad you came tonight?
Are you glad you're here now? Getting anything out of that?
You wouldn't have if you hadn't come. But there's preparation
before you get here, while you're here, and when you go home. Because
you can be in a bad frame of mind and come here and you won't
get a thing. And you'll ruin it for everybody
else. Quench not the Spirit. Don't talk about things and don't
look at your phone and stop. Quench not the Spirit. Don't
talk about things of the world just as soon as the message is
over. The fowl of the air and the thorns and the carrots, pick
that word away and you won't even remember where he preached
from. Talk about these things. Be like a cow chewing its cud.
Did you get everything out of that grass that you ate? No,
you didn't. Well, bring it, regurgitate,
and chew it some more. There's a whole lot more nutrition
to be had from that. Quench not the Holy Spirit. And
you can say so much. Despise not prophesying. Preaching.
You know, like I said, they didn't have a Bible. What he was saying
was all prophecy. What they were preaching was
all prophecy. Do you understand? We don't need prophets anymore.
We've got a Bible complete. We've got the full Word. We can read it for ourselves.
There's no future events we need to know about. It's written down
right here. We've got the last chapter. But they didn't. And
there were prophets everywhere. But prophesying also means preaching.
And the world despises preaching. The world thinks it's foolishness.
We don't, do we? No, those who have been saved,
it's the wisdom of God and the power of God in preaching. I'm
about to travel a long way and five other fellows a long way
to preach one message. Is it worth it? Oh, man. One soul is worth 10,000 years
of labor. Prove all things. Verse 21. Prove
all things. How? How do you prove things?
Somebody tell me. Right here. That's right. Whatever
people are saying, prove it. Whatever preachers are saying,
prove them. Prove them by the Word of God.
My daughter, you heard this, maybe somebody had. Sunday morning, we were still
living in Ashland. She's three years old or so, going on four. And Dad's program was on TV,
and we watched that. Right after it, somebody else
came on, like Oral Roberts or one of these other fellas. And
she was standing there, a little guy I'll never forget. Man, that
was yesterday. That darned little back of her
head. Life's too short. She's standing there, I'm watching
her in the other room. She's standing there in front of the
TV and there's a preacher on. She turned and looked at me.
And I wish more people would ask this. She turned and looked
at me and said, Daddy, is he preaching the truth? Listen to me now. I beseech you. Paul said Satan's ministers have
transformed themselves into ministers of righteousness. They're wolves
in sheep's clothing. Who better to know a wolf than
a shepherd? And a sheep doesn't always spot
him. Is he preaching the truth? What is the truth? Well, if you
don't know by now. We all need to prove them. Hold
fast that which is good. Is this good? Is this good, brothers
and sisters? There ain't nothing better on
the top side of this earth. David said, Thy love and kindness
is better than life. He said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. This is good. It's a good thing
to give thanks unto the Lord. Psalm 92. Good thing. Nothing
better. What would we be doing if we
weren't here? Huh? Something vain. This is not vain. This is your life. This is good. Abstain from all appearance of
evil. If you read that article I wrote, I'm ashamed to say that
there was a time when I just really didn't care what people
thought about me. And now I know better. I don't want to bring
reproach upon my Lord. I don't want somebody to look
at me and say, is that how a Christian acts? Is that what Christians
do? I don't want that. Where do you
go to church? What do you believe? Oh, no. Abstain from all appearance of
evil. And verse 23, I close. The very
God of peace sanctify you wholly, set you apart, consecrate you,
total commitment, communion, and conformity. He said, I pray
your whole spirit, soul, and what? And body. See that? Total commitment, communion,
and conformity. Be preserved blameless under
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, how's that going
to happen? Blameless. Anybody know a scripture that
talks about being blameless? Unreprovable in God's sight?
Faultless for the presence of Judah. He's able. Look at verse
24. Faithful is he that calleth you,
he will also do it. How does he do it? By his Spirit. Don't quench him. How does he
do it? By the preaching of the Word.
To fellows like me that I beseech you to have. Listen to me. Do
what I'm telling you. Do what the Lord tells you. That's
how it is. That's how it is. Brethren, this
is why it says brethren. He ends verse 25. Brethren, pray
for us. Pray for the preacher. Greet all the brethren with a
holy kiss. I like that, don't you? We did it, even when COVID,
when the plague came. I love it. Jill greeted me Sunday. She said, don't get too close.
She said, I've got something. I said, well, give it to me.
Maybe I'll die from it. And I meant it. Greet the brethren. Don't wait
on somebody to greet you. Might be the last time you see
them. How would you greet somebody if you thought it was the very
last time you were going to see them? A holy kiss as opposed
to an intimate one. I charge you by the Lord that
this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. Oh, the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. What do you say to that?
Amen. You are dismissed.