th th Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 448. 448. There's a sweet and blessed story
of the Christ who came from glory just to rescue me from sin and
misery. He in loving kindness sought
me and from sin and shame has brought me. Hallelujah, Jesus
ransomed me. Hallelujah, what a Savior, who
can take a poor lost sinner, lift him from the miry clay and
set him free. I will ever tell the story, shouting
glory, glory, glory. Hallelujah, Jesus ransomed me
From the depth of sin and sadness To the heights of joy and gladness
Jesus lifted me In mercy full and free With his precious blood
he bought me When I knew him not he sought me And in love
divine He ransomed me. Hallelujah, what a Savior, Who
can take a poor lost sinner, Lift him from the miry clay,
And set him free. I will ever tell the story, Shouting
glory, glory, glory, Hallelujah, Jesus ransomed me By and by with
joy increasing And with gratitude unceasing Lifted up to be With
Christ eternally I will join the hosts their singing In the
anthem ever ringing To the King above who ransomed me Hallelujah,
what a Savior, who can take a poor lost sinner, lift him from the
miry clay, and set him free! I will ever tell the story, shouting,
Glory, Glory, Glory! Be seated we'll sing hymn number
511. 511. Face to face with Christ my Savior
Face to face, what will it be? When with rapture I behold Him
Jesus Christ who died for me Face to face I shall behold Him
Far beyond the starry sky Face to face in all His glory I shall
see Him by and by Only faintly now I see Him With
the darkling veiled between But a blessed day is coming When
His glory shall be seen Face to face I shall behold Him
Far beyond the starry sky Face to face in all His glory I shall
see Him by and by What rejoicing in His presence When our banished
grief and pain When the crooked ways are straightened And the
dark things shall be plain ? Face to face I shall behold him
? ? Far beyond the starry sky ? ? Face to face in all his glory
? ? I shall see him by and by ? Face to face a blissful moment
Face to face to see and know Face to face with my Redeemer
Jesus Christ who loves me ? Face to face I shall behold him
? ? Far beyond the starry sky ? ? Face to face in all his glory
? ? I shall see him flying by ? Acts chapter 17. Read the first
15 verses. Now when they had passed through
Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was
the synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was,
went in unto them three Sabbath days, reasoned with them out
of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs
have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this
Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. And some of them believed,
and consorted with Paul and Silas of the devout Greeks, a great
multitude, and of the chief women, not a few. But the Jews, which
believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows
of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city
on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to
bring him out to the people. And when they found them not,
they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city,
saying, These that have turned the world upside down are come
hither also. whom Jesus hath received, and
these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that
there is another king, one Jesus. And they troubled the people
and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And
when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they
let them go. And the brethren immediately
sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea. who coming there
went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than
those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all
readiness of mind, searched the scriptures daily whether these
things were so. Therefore many of them believed
also of honorable women, which were Greeks, and of men not a
few. But when the Jews of Thessalonica
had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea,
they came there also and stirred up the people. Then immediately
the brethren sent away Paul to go, as it were, to the sea. But Silas and Timotheus abode
there still. And they that conducted Paul
brought him unto Athens, receiving a commandment unto Silas and
Timothy to come on him with all speed, and they departed." Our great blessed God of mercy, God of grace, Father
of mercies, God of all grace, God of peace, God of all comfort. Lord, we always are thankful
to you, always thankful. And our hearts lifted up with
joy as we come into your holy presence. Lord, we've read your
word. Now, if you'd be pleased to bless
it to my mind and their mind, to my heart and their heart,
Lord, we would be so thankful. But Lord, we can't do anything
without you and the Holy Spirit. So please come among us, come
down, meet with us tonight. And Lord, we pray for those who've
never believed on Christ that you'd open their hearts to believe
and receive the truth of as it is in Christ Jesus. For those
who are not with us through the weakness of their body, we ask
for your mercies. Those who are not with us through
providence, we ask for your mercies on them. Your grace is free and
it's abundant, and it's always sufficient. Meet with us, please,
for Christ's sake. Amen. Number two in our course books. Number two in our course book. All for me, Christ did surrender. All for me, freely gave. Only one made sin for sinners,
by his death my soul is saved. He surrendered all All to Thee,
my blessed Savior He surrendered all Coming from His throne in heaven,
Jesus laid His glory by. Thus this sinner is forgiven
and shall soon be glorified. He surrendered all. He surrendered all. All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
He surrendered all. Into death Christ did surrender,
Even death upon a cross. ? All to save the worst offender
? ? Find the gain is all the loss ? ? He surrendered all ?
? He surrendered all ? All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
He surrendered all. At the cross, the Father's pleasure
prospered well in Jesus' hands. Now he's honored with a pleasure
So the fathers will demand He surrendered all He surrendered
all All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
He surrendered all. Alright, let's go back here to
Acts 17 again. Talk about the noble Bereans.
But you remember the apostles when they were at Philippi were
so badly mistreated, badly mistreated. Stripped their clothes off of
them and striped them with many stripes and put them in jail.
And it was all to the furthest of the gospel. Let me read something
to you out of Philippians chapter 1. You can look at it if you
want to, but in Philippians chapter 1, all these things Paul talked
about as furtherance of the gospel. In Philippians 1.12, look what he says. But I would you should understand. He's writing to the Philippians
now. He's writing to these people that mistreated him. There's
a church there now. There wasn't one there when he
went there. He's saying, but I would you should understand,
brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen
out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. Well, he got put
in jail. And the jailer got saved. God
saved the jailer, saved his whole family. They got up and was baptized. So, you know, he said it fell
out furthest to the gospel. So that my bonds in Christ are
manifest in all the palace and in all other places, and many
of the brethren and the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds,
are much more bold to speak the word without fear." He says so. all the things that happened
to him fell out for the furtherance of the gospel. But you remember
that Paul wouldn t leave and let nobody else leave until those
people that were GUILTY of mistreating him and falsely accusing him
came and set him free, and they were vindicated. And then it
says there in the last verse of chapter 16, And they went
out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia. And
when they had seen the brethren, They comforted them and departed."
Now, did Paul need comfort, or did the brethren need comfort? You think Paul needed comfort?
I think it tells us here that THEY got out of prison. After
that ate, and that Philippian jailer had washed their stripes,
I think that they went in there and said, and these folks were
just going on, oh, Paul, I'm so sorry for what you and Silas
had to go through. Paul ended up comforting all
of them people, comforting all the brethren, and that's the
way he was. And so they went on now, and
then it says in verse one, When they had passed through Amphipolis
and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of
the Jews. Now you know how far it was from
Philippi to Thessalonica? It was a hundred miles. And these
fellas took off. They'd just been beaten and walked
a hundred miles to go to another city to preach the gospel. walked
a hundred miles. Most of you in here tonight couldn't
walk a mile or two miles. But these fellas walked a hundred
miles, they didn't have no other way to go. How's they gonna get
there? They didn't have stagecoaches,
they didn't have trains. And here they went, they took off.
And they went from Philippi to Thessalonica. Two men had just
been beaten with many stripes. But as the sufferings of Christ
abounded, so did the consolation of Christ. As they journeyed
on down through there, I'm sure that they rejoiced in the Lord
Jesus Christ and walked and prayed and spent the night in different
places. And later Paul reminds the Thessalonians
that their entrance into Him was suffered after what He suffered
at Philippi. Let me show you that. I want
you to see this over in I Thessalonians chapter 1. I want you to see
what He told them over here about when He came into them. I Thessalonians
2. You know, He reminds them later,
the Thessalonians, that when He came to them, it was after
He suffered at Philippi. He said in verse 2. a warning to, for yourselves,
brethren, know our entrance coming in unto you, that it was not
in vain. But even AFTER that we had suffered
before, and were shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi, we
were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God, but
with a lot of aggravation, a lot of contention, a lot of people
arguing. But he said, I come to you straight
from a Philippian prison. So he said, when I come, that's
how I come. And these preachers went from
Philippi to Thessalonica, then down to Berea. And from Berea,
from Thessalonica to Berea is 60 miles. So these fellas, I
mean, these are, we talk about men being tough. You talk about
some fellas that are tough. to be able to do what they did,
suffer what they suffered, and they went on. But when they went
to Thessalonica and then down to Berea, they had two ENTIRELY
different reactions to their gospel and to the hearers, two
different types of experience in these people. Now, let s look
at the first experience they had at Thessalonica. It says
there in verse 1 that when they came to Thessalonica there was
a synagogue of the Jews. There were no synagogues of the
Jews in Philippi. Remember, they went down to the
riverside, and that s where the Jews gathered together to pray,
and that s where Lydia heard the gospel, and she was converted. But they went in and Paul always
whenever he was someplace, and there was a Jew at the synagogue,
that s where he went. That s where he went in. And
he always says his manner was, in verse 2, As his manner was,
went in unto them, and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them
out of the scriptures. And so he went into the synagogues
because of the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles were gathered there
together. they would give them liberty
to exhort to talk to people and preach. You know, they say, Brethren,
if you ve got something to say, say it on, exhort, do whatever
you ve got to say. Well, they did, they did. And
as Paul s manner was, Three Sabbath days. Sabbath starts on Friday night,
ends on Saturday. It starts at 6 and ends on Saturday. So that's their Sabbath day.
And what did they do when they got there? It says they reasoned
with them out of the Scriptures. Used the Scriptures. That's the
first thing I want us to understand. They used the Scriptures. And
all they had was the Old Testament Scriptures. And you know, and
they began with the Word of God. That s what you always start
with, with the Word of God. And here there has to be, and
there only has to be, there s only one source of authority. There
only has to be one source of authority, and it can t be somebody
in the church. It has to be the Word of God.
There s only one place that there s any authority that we have
to go by, and that s God s blessed Word. And they used the Scriptures. That's why Isaiah said, As God's
Word, as the heavens are high above the earth, so is my Word
above men. And he said, When I send my Word,
he said, I send it, and it will accomplish that I send it to
do, whether it's justification or damnation. And all this, and
it was the Scriptures that they used. And you know our Lord Jesus
Christ, He took the Scriptures, and He went through the Scriptures,
and He used Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets, and taught
Himself from those Scriptures. Well, that's what Paul's doing.
He's using Moses, he's using the Psalms, and he's using the
Prophets. That's the only Scriptures he
had. And so he began to reason with them, opening and alleging
that Jesus Christ, and when it says there, he reasoned with
them out of the scriptures there in verse 2, reasoned with them. That meant, beloved, that they
were there in that building. The Jews would ask questions.
Maybe the Greeks would ask questions. And they would ask questions
about what he was talking about. When they'd say, well, when they'd
hear you use a verse of Scripture, they'd say, well, I thought that
Scripture meant this. And so they would reason with
the Scriptures. And whenever they'd bring up
a subject, Paul would reason with the Scripture. He would
take the Scriptures and open their understanding, use the
Scriptures to enter their mind and convince them that Jesus
was the Christ. I mean he presented arguments
to the mind, presented arguments to the reason, and I tell you
what, if a man gives in to his own reasoning, he don't know
nothing, he don't know nothing, and that's what these fellows
did. They went to their own reasoning. They tried to figure things out
themselves, and here's what happens. When we first hear the Gospel,
we have to say, Well, is that so or not? Is that right or not? And that's what HE was doing
here. And I tell you, I don't know how many conversations I've
had with people, and you know, you use a verse of Scripture
on there and say, But what about? What about this? And what about
that? Well, that's what these fellows was doing. Paul said,
Well, I'm going to tell you what about. I'm going to tell you
that Jesus Christ is the Lord. That's what he goes on to say.
That's why Peter says, You know, be ready to give a REASON for
the HOPE that's in you. BE READY TO DO IT! And oh, you
got to have a hope and got to have a reason for it. But then
he goes on to say, there he said, he explained the scriptures in
verse 3, he explained the scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ
must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and
that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. HE EXPLAINED
THE SCRIPTURES, AND HERE'S THE FIRST THING HE TALKED ABOUT.
THE JEWS, YOU REMEMBER IN ACTS CHAPTER 1 WHEN OUR LORD JESUS
CHRIST TWENT OUT AND HE WAS FIXED TO GO BACK TO GLORY, AND THEY
SAID LORD, WILL THOU NOW AT THIS TIME RESTORE THE KINGDOM TO ISRAEL? THEY'RE LOOKING FOR A MESSIAH
THAT WOULD SET UP A KINGDOM ON THE EARTH, AND THAT THROUGH HIM
THE JEWS AND EVERYBODY ELSE LIKE DAVID, THEY WOULD RULE THE WHOLE
WORLD. And everybody'd have to come there. And that's what they
thought. But when the Messiah came, when
Christ came, he didn't come with a big crown on his head. He didn't
come to sit on a throne on this earth. He didn't come to do anything
like that. He came to suffer. And he rode
into Jerusalem on a coat, the full of an ass. And then I tell
you what, he said he must need suffer. That's one thing that
the Jews stumbled over. Our Messiah's not supposed to
suffer. He's supposed to be a king. He's
supposed to sit on the throne. He's supposed to establish the
glory of Israel again, like when in Solomon's day and David's
day. And oh my, and he said, this
is the Jesus that I preach. This is the Christ that I preach.
Why must he suffer? What was the reason he had to
suffer? He told his disciples. He told them several times. He
said, I must go up to Jerusalem. I must suffer. And they just
could not never get it. They could not understand that.
And when he finally got down to where he was going to the
cross, then they understood that he had to suffer. Suffer. Now, I tell you, they
was looking to establish a glorious kingdom, but it says He must
NEED suffer. Why must Christ suffer? Our Lord
said, You know it is NECESSARY that I suffer before I enter
into My glory. Why must He have to suffer? Well,
first and foremost, to satisfy and honor God Almighty. That's
the first reason he had to suffer. He must need suffer to satisfy
and honor God and to establish God's righteousness, establish
God's justice. That's the first reason he had
to suffer. And the second reason he had to suffer was this, for
sin had to be punished. and it had to be punished with
death. So Christ suffered, and He suffered unto death, and by
that He honored God, satisfied justice, put sin away once and
for all by the sacrifice of Himself, and THEN He ascended on high
and sat down on the right hand of God. And I tell you what,
they preach Christ, they preach Christ according to the Scriptures,
and I'm telling you this Christ, this Jesus that I preach, He's
the Christ. He's the Messiah, He's the Christ.
And they preached Him according to the scriptures. And look what
happens now in verse 7, excuse me, verse 4. And some of them
believed. And they consorted with Paul.
They'd run around with Paul and said, Listen, let's follow him
around. I want to learn what he's got
to say. They consorted with Paul in Barnabas. And oh, some of
them believed. And of the devout Greeks, and
that's why the Greeks always sat in the back of the synagogue.
They called them God-fearing Gentiles. But they went, and
the devout Greeks, a great multitude, and of the chief women, when
it says, Not a few, that means it's a bunch of them. means it
s a bunch of them. Oh, my! They BELIEVED! They consorted
with Paul, run around with Paul, enjoyed Paul, enjoyed the gospel
that he was preaching, spent the weeks with him, traveled
him around, and no doubt he preached to them every single day. But
look what else happened in verse 5, But the Jews which believed
not. Ain t that the way it always
is? Some believe, some believe not. Some believe, some believe not.
But look what happened with these fellas that did not believe.
This is what I do not understand. If a fella don't want to believe,
why won't he leave the people that believe alone? But these
fellas can't do that. These Jews, you know how many
times that they got upset with Paul and run him off? and run
him off. And Hickwater says, But the Jews
which believed not, and it always says this so many times about
the Pharisees in the Gospels, moved with envy. They were jealous. They were envious that Paul was
being used, and people were being converted, and people were becoming
believers. There's leaving Judaism, there's
leaving Moses, there's leaving the law, and there's leaving
the ceremonies. But look what he says. They moved with envy,
and they went and got them certain lewd fellows of the baster sort.
I looked that up, certain lewd fellows of the baster sort. That
lewd fellow means vile. Vile. That means people that
are, what we would call them around here, we'd call them sorry
fellas. Fellas that has no use whatsoever. And that's what they, he got
certain vile fellas of the lowest kind of sort. The lowest kind
of people he could find. And they went up and got a whole
bunch of folks together, And he got in town and he said, he
got all them folks all stirred up. Come on, you fellas. I know
you guys are rebel rousers. I know you stir up a crowd and
you'll go in among them and start making accusations. And that's
what they did, these rebel rousers. They got there and he got the
whole city in an uproar. Everybody's upset. And you know
what they did? They got in such an uproar They
assaulted the house of Jason, first time we've heard him mentioned,
and sought to bring them out to the people. They thought Paul
and Silas was going to be at Jason's house. And when they
found him not, they didn't find Paul and Silas there. They drew
Jason and certain brethren that there with him unto the rulers
of the city. Let's take them up to these fellas
that's got some power, got some authority. And so they took a
big mob, took Jason and some brethren with him, and they was
pushing them along. And here's what they accused
them of. They cried under the rules of
the city saying, these that have turned the world upside down
are come here also. Their envy, their envy, and I
tell you what, it always happens. Jealousy's crueler than the grave.
Envy is awful. And envy will turn to maliciousness
if you don't get a handle on it. I mean, if you're envious
of somebody, you'll end up doing evil towards them some way, somehow. Whether you start a rumor, whether
you gossip, whether you find fault, whether you do something
evil towards them. And that's what these fellas
envious, and that moved them to do maliciousness. What kind
of militia? GOT A CROWD STIRRED UP! Stirred
them up, got them mad, got them all shook up, and now here's
what they accused them of. They've come to turn the world
upside down. Do you know why? Because the world was upside
down over sin, and when Paul preached, the world really was
turned right up. You know, when God saves a man,
He turns His world upside down, and if God don't save a man,
His world IS upside down. Oh, my, and they started preaching
the gospel, and oh, these fellows said the whole thing, and the
gospel s the power of the Holy Ghost, and it s either a saver
of life or unto death. It s life or death, there s no
middle ground. It s justification or condemnation,
and I ll tell you something, once you hear the gospel, If
you ever hear the gospel, like these fellas that heard it and
believed, if you ever hear the gospel, you're talking about
the gospel upsetting your house and changing you from the top
of your head to the sole of your feet, changing the way you think,
the way you look at things, the way you... You're talking about
invading your little world and taking your world and just flipping
it. OH, I CAN'T HARDLY BELIEVE IT!
THEY SAY, OH, HOW COULD YOU BELIEVE SUCH A THING? BUT OH MY, ONCE
YOU HEAR THE GOSPEL, IT'LL CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE TOWARD GOD AND
HIS PEOPLE, AND YOU'LL TAKE THE PLACE. THE GOSPEL WILL TURN YOU
UPSIDE DOWN NEVER OTHER WAY. AND THEN LOOK AT THE CHARGE THEY
MADE THERE IN VERSE 7, whom Jason hath received," talking
about those men, Paul and Silas, who've turned the world upside
down. "...Jason hath received these. And these all do contrary
to the decrees of Caesar, saying, There is another king, one Jesus."
You remember when our Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross and then
brought out, before He got to the cross, Pilate brought Him
out and said, Hell, here's your king! And all them Jews cried
out, WE HAVE NO KING BUT CAESAR! Well, that's what these fellas
saying. He said, Oh, the charge was they're preaching that there's
another king. There's another king. Who IS
that king? Jesus Christ. Huh? Oh, my, that upset them,
and look what it says in the next line, And they troubled
the people. That troubled them. They ought
to be troubled. When you hear Christ is King,
Christ on His throne, they ought to be in trouble. They said that
there s one King, it troubled Him, it should have. You know,
they should have bowed to Him, but they didn t. They said, We
ll not have this man to reign over us. I remember Nineteen,
I want to say 1978, it was in, it might have been the fall of 77,
but I'm pretty sure it's in the spring of 78. I was invited to
preach at a premillennial, independent, fundamental Baptist church. And
I used that verse of scripture right there. And when I say premillennial,
They really believed, they had charts and everything that Christ
was going to come back and He was going to go into Jerusalem
and establish a throne in Jerusalem and set on a throne there as
a king. He's not king now, He's going to be a coming king and
He's going to set a throne up over there. And they're going
to institute, set up the priesthood again. He's going to be the king,
the eternal king, and they're going to institute sacrifices
again. And everybody's going to have
a wonderful time. And everybody that's going, all
the nations are going to have to go to Jerusalem and stand
before the king. Answer to the king. Well, I preached
this. that Jesus Christ is not a coming
King, if He's not King now, tell me, who in the world's running
this world then? Who is ruling over this world? Who's ruling
over His Kingdom? Who in the world is, if He's
the King, and He's a coming King, who's running this world now?
Who is King over His Kingdom in this world right now? He said,
you're looking for the Kingdom of God, and our Lord said the
Kingdom's within you. And I'm telling you what, you're
talking about stirring up a hornet's nest. I mean, they got so mad. They got so upset. The preacher
got mad. Deacons got mad. And needless
to say, I never went back. Never went back. And I just barely
got out of there on the skin of my teeth. I really did. I'm
serious about it. They really got upset. They went
to pushing and shoving and poking and pushing. Oh, you're a heretic,
you're a heretic, you're a heretic. That's what they called me, a
heretic. Well, I'm still a heretic. I still believe that Christ is
King on His throne right now. I believe that Christ was King
when He was on, the scripture said He was BORN King of the
Jews. In Bethlehem, He was BORN King
of the Jews. and they put it on His cross,
King of the Jews, and them Pharisees said, He SAID He's King of the
Jews, and old Pilate said, What I've wrote, I've wrote, you can
just go ahead and deal with it, because He is. And I'll tell
you what, this is the thing, some believe,
some believe not, that's what the gospel does. If you don't
believe, the gospel will be the saver of death unto you. And
if you don't believe, the gospel will be a condemnation unto you.
If you believe, it's a saver of life. If you believe, it's
justification. No middle ground. Huh? Oh, my! Well, that's the experience they
had there. And look what happens now there in verse 8, And they
troubled the people of the rulers of the city when they heard these
things. Now, look what happens here. And when they had taken
security of Jason, you know what that means? He had to post a
bond. That's what it means. He said, we ain't going to let
you go unless you give us something to guarantee that you're going
to answer for this. And when they took security of
him, he had to post a bond. And of the other, they let them
go. We're not going to let you go until you post a bond. That's
what they said. They took some security of him. Oh, these folks hated the gospel.
They hated it. And oh, my! And look what happens
in verse 10, And the brethren immediately, after they seen
what the Jews had done, every time they got started, a bunch
of Jews got stirred up and run them out of town, stirred up
the whole city. And oh, listen, And the brethren
immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who
coming there went into the synagogue of the Jews, And oh my, look
what it says. These were more noble than those
in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness
of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether these things were
so. Oh my. Oh, their experience at
Berea, oh my. They had a wonderful experience
there. Remember, our Lord says this, If they persecute you in
one city, go to another one. And it was sixty miles from Thessalonica
down to Berea. And it says here they set out
at night, and I tell you what, just as quick as they got there,
they went into the synagogue, went into the synagogue of the
Jews. That's where He always went. He went there to do his
preaching, went there to open up the scriptures to their understandings,
and oh my, first thing I want you to know about these Bereans
was, these were more noble than those in Sethula and Ica. The
Bereans were open hearted, look what it says, they received the
word with all readiness of mind. Their mind was ready. They was
ready. When these men got up to preach
and these men got up to open the scriptures to them, they
were ready. Their minds were ready. We're
here to learn. We're here to find out something.
We're here to see what you've got to say. They were open hearted. And oh my, they received the
word with all readiness of mind. And you go to 1 Thessalonians
1 and you'll see what kind of church this was at Thessalonica.
Oh my, they were an incredible, incredible church there. And
listen to this, and search the scriptures daily whether those
things were so. Well, they weren't coming to
the scriptures with preconceived ideas and beliefs. And that's what most people do.
They come to the scriptures. with an opinion or preconceived
idea of what it means, and they can bring their beliefs
to the scriptures. And they'll say, I think the
Bible says this somewhere, the Bible says that somewhere here
and there, and they won't even come close to saying what the
Bible says. I don't know how many people I've seen do that
over the years. Oh my. They weren't coming to
the scriptures with perceived ideas and beliefs. We all done
that in our lifetime. All of us have, you know, an
Armenian comes to the scriptures with the belief that this, that
they come to think a lot of people come to the scriptures looking
for works to be done, looking for something to be done, something
that they have to do. And the Armenians come with the
idea that salvation is up to THEIR will, and it's in THEIR
power. And they just go there with these
preconceived beliefs, and they honestly don't even know what
they believe, because if you pin them down, they can't tell
you! They can't give you no scriptures. All they can say is, The Lord
is my shepherd, or else John 3, 16. That's all they can talk about.
But oh my, the Bereans weren't like that. They came. They came to the scriptures.
And oh my, when they heard the scriptures, they looked. They
had the Bibles with them, and they searched the scriptures.
Every day when they'd hear Paul preach and Silas preach, they'd
look in the Bible, said, now he said something about over
here in Isaiah about something. Let's go over there and look
and see if that's so or not. Then they said something out of Deuteronomy.
Let's go over there and see if that's right or not. Oh, I remember
he said something out of Exodus about a lamb. He said, oh, let's
go over there and see if there's a lamb over there he's talking
about. So they took the Bible every single day that what they
heard, and they searched the scriptures to see if they were
so or not. Oh my. And oh, let's listen to
what they're saying. Let's listen to this man. They're
using the scriptures. They're using God's word. Let's
see what the word has to say about it. I want you to see something
with me in John chapter 8. I want you to just look at this
with me. John chapter 8. Down to verse 37. Our Lord said, I know that you're
Abraham's seed, but you seek to kill me, and listen to this,
because my word has no place in you. There's no room in your
heart for my word. There's no room in your mind
for my word. There's no faith in your soul
for my word. There's no place in your heart,
mind, anything about you that wants my word. Well, I tell you what, I want
His Word, and I, Lord Jesus Christ, one fellow says, you know, who's
gonna get married to who? Seven brothers had seven wives,
who's gonna marry them? He said, you do err, neither
knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. And I tell you,
it's an awful thing when the Scriptures has no place in a
person's heart. You think about all the people
that come and hear the gospel. and they sit and listen to the
gospel, this place will be full Sunday morning, and there will
be unconverted people here Sunday morning, and they'll sit here
and they'll listen, and they'll pay attention, and they may even
follow me in the scriptures, but if lest till the word has
a place in their heart, The Word finds a place in their understanding. The Word has, they have room
in their soul. They have room in their heart.
They have FAITH to believe God's Word. Until then, the Word of
God has no place in them, and it's a sad thing, and it troubles
me, Sunday after Sunday, that people come, and the Word has
no place in them. That's troubling, very troubling.
And oh my, look what it says now, in verse 11 again. These were more noble than they,
this Thessalonica. They searched the scriptures
daily. And look what it says, whether these things are so or
not. Is that so? I don't know how
many men, especially when I first started putting newspaper articles
in the paper, I don't know how many people, men, came to this
office back here, back in the study. And every one of them
came to straighten me out. Every single one of them came
in that office. And they came with the Bible,
and they came there to show me how ignorant I was, and how stupid
I was, and how I was misapplying the Bible. And I wouldn't even open a Bible.
I wouldn't even open a Bible. And they'd start opening their
Bible and say, this scripture, this, and I'd tell them what
it meant. I was a preacher one time. He came to me and we sat
and talked for quite a while. And we went through several scriptures. And he said, I believe just the
opposite of that. He told him what it was, and
he'd look at that, and I said, I believe just the opposite of
that. So me and him were diametrically opposed. We could not believe the same
thing about the same scripture. Well, after we talked for about
three or four hours, and I used the scriptures, and he finally
said, you know, if I believe that, if I believe what you said,
and I accepted it, do you know what would happen to me? Here's
a preacher that said, I would go home, and if I preached that
Sunday morning, I'd be fired Sunday afternoon. I wouldn't
have been in his shoes for 10,000 worlds like this when he said
he believed that and didn't get up and preach. Huh? Oh, I wouldn't. I wouldn't do
it. A fellow told me the other day,
Billy R. Jeropolis, he said, he said, I can't, I've got to
preach to God, I can't do anything else. And that's what happens
once you learn the gospel, you can't preach anything else. You
know, you that believe in God's sovereignty, you that believe
in total depravity, man's sinfulness, absolute utter ruin, and you
believe in God's sovereign electing grace, and you believe in the
particular redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ dying for His
sheep, and you believe that that if you're going to persevere
and be preserved in Christ, if you believe that, NOBODY could
ever take that away from you, and I don't care what happens,
nobody can ever get you to deny that. Nobody! I don't care WHO it is! They
could not make you to give that up. You know why? Because God
teaches it! And if God teaches you that,
like He taught these Bereans, and they SEARCH the Scriptures
daily, And that's what I loved. That's what I loved a bit around
these men who preached the gospel when I first met them. They always
said, look here at this verse of scripture with me. Look over
at that verse of scripture. And if they started at verse
10, was gonna go down to verse 21, they dealt with verse 10
all the way down through verse 21. They didn't go here yonder
and just run a rabbit here and run a rabbit there. They stayed
with what they was preaching. And oh my. And I tell you something
these fellas did, it says there they searched the Scriptures
daily whether those things were so. These people brought everything
to the test of the Scripture truth, the Scripture of truth. And what they was interested
in, is this what God says? That's the first thing, did God
say this? Is this in God's Word? Is this
really in the Scriptures? Well, is this the mind of God?
Is this the will of God? Is this the purpose of God? And
they searched them, they searched them. And that's what our Lord
said, search, search, search the scriptures. Why? Because they testify of Me. When you're looking at them,
look for Me. Oh, if our thoughts and our opinions
can't stand the test, If God's will found in the Word of God,
then our foundation ain't worth nothing. It's like being on the
sand. And oh my, take your belief to
the scriptures. You know, I remember years ago,
Brother Henry told me, he said, you know, he said, you need to
examine your message every once in a while, make sure it's right. And I've gone back to the, I've
gone back as far as 1982. I've got a message in there from
1982. And I could get up and preach
it to Sunday. I could get up here and preach
the same message Sunday. Because I did. I examined myself
continually for years. Am I really preaching the gospel?
Am I really preaching Christ? And I tell you, you go back 1990,
1989, 1985. I can go in there and show you. But oh, my, that's what these
fellas did, that's what these fellas did. And look what happened
now in verse 12. Therefore, therefore, many of
them believed, also of honorable women, which
were Greeks and of men, and not just a few. And when they say
not a few, that means there's a bunch of them. But look what
happens again now. But the Jews of Thessalonica
had knowledge, back way back up there, 60 miles back up the
road, the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the Word of
God was preached of Paul at Berea. And here they come, here they
come, they come here again. And what's the first thing they
do? They stir up the people, stir up the people. And they
immediately sent the brethren away to go and see. And Silas
and Timothy stayed there. But oh my, the Jews, they just
could not stand the gospel. Paul went away and he went to
Athens and put him on a boat and he sent him to Athens. And
they brought him to Athens and receiving a commandment, he said,
Silas and Timothy, you come to me with all speed. I want you to come just as quick
as you can get here. You know, that's the only authority we
got, right there, right there. If a man sets himself up to be
the authority, you're in trouble. If the church sets itself up
to be the authority, like landmarks and Catholicism, In some of these
cults where the man stands up, you gotta obey me perfectly.
If you don't, you're gonna pay the consequences, but that's
not the way the gospel is. The gospel sets you free. It
liberates you. Gives you mind. You can use your
own mind. You can reason for yourself.
Find out for yourself. Our Father, in the blessed name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you for meeting with us this
evening. Thank you for your precious, precious word. Oh Lord, we want
to be believers. We don't want to be one of those
who stir up trouble. We don't want to be those who
the scriptures don't mean nothing to us. Lord, your word. David said, I've hid your word
in my heart that I might not sin against you. wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed according
to your word. John the Revelator saw that little
book and he ate it. It's sweet to his taste, but
bitter to his stomach. And oh Lord, bless the word to
our hearts, our minds. Put it in our very hearts and
souls. Let us always, always Test what we think, what we believe,
or our opinion, or anything else to the word of God. For Christ's
sake we pray, amen. Thank you, Lord. for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation so rich and free.