Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 62 from your hardback hymnal.
Crown him with many crowns. Let's all stand together. Number
62. ? Crown Him with many crowns ?
? The Lamb upon His throne ? ? Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns
? ? All music but its own ? ? Awake my soul and sing ? ? Of Him who
died for thee ? and hail Him as thy matchless King through
all eternity. ? Crown him the Lord of love ?
Behold his hands and side ? Rich wounds yet visible above ? In
beauty glorified ? No angel in the sky Can fully bear that sight
But downward bends his wandering eye At mysteries so bright ?
Crown Him the Lord of life ? Who triumphed o'er the grave ? Who
rose victorious to the strife ? For those He came to save ?
His glories now we sing Who died and rose on high Who died eternal
life to bring And lives that death may die Crown him the Lord
of heaven, one with the Father known, one with the Spirit through
him given from yonder glorious throne. To Thee be endless praise,
for Thou for us hast died. Be Thou, O Lord, through endless
days, adored and magnified. Please be seated. Good morning. If you'd like to
turn with me in your Bibles, we'll continue our study in 1
Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. I'm sure most of you know that
Robert Horton um, was admitted into the hospital on Thursday,
had two stents put in, um, they diagnosed him with a blockage.
Uh, there was no damage to the heart and he is home recovering. So, um, pray for Robert and Deanna. They wanted to be here today,
but of course he's very weak from what they've been through
this week. So, um, let's, let's go to the
Lord together now. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
very thankful that once again you've blessed us with the opportunity
to gather in this place. You've promised us your presence.
You've given to us your word. You've told us Lord to ask for
your spirit and we do ask that you would enable us to worship
you. in the power of your spirit and
according to the truth of your word, your gospel. Lord, we pray
that that you would enable us to look up and to see the Lord
Jesus Christ seated at thy right hand, having finished the work
of redemption and interceding on behalf of his people. Oh Lord,
that we would be enabled to rest in him is our hope this morning. We thank you for Robert, Indiana.
We thank you, Lord, for the doctors and nurses that ministered to
him this week and for the procedures and their success. And Lord,
we pray that your hand of healing would give him his full strength
and that you would return them back here to fellowship and worship
with us. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I want to go back and read the
first verses of this chapter with no or very little comment
because these are words of encouragement to the child of God. as we anticipate
the return of our Lord. He says in verse 1, But of the
times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write
unto you. For you yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night. For
when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh
upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not
escape. When's the Lord going to return?
When men in the world least expect it. God's people are always expecting
it. They're always watching. They're
always waiting with great hope and anticipation. But the world
only expects the coming of Christ when there's trouble. And the
Lord says, I'm not going to come when there's trouble in the world.
I'm going to come when everybody's at peace and everybody thinks
they're safe. That's when I'm coming. Why? Because I'm not coming for them.
I'm coming for my children. And they're going to be waiting
for me even when there's peace and safety. And you, brethren, are not in
darkness that you should be overtaken as a thief. You are all the children
of light, the children of the day. We are not of the night
nor of darkness. The light of the gospel has shined
in our hearts in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. We walk
in the light as he is in the light. We have fellowship one
with another. And the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ cleanses us of all of our sin. Christ the Lord is our
light. And if he's pleased to reveal
himself to you, Then the lights on and you see the truth and
where the truth is, the truth will make you free. And so he
goes on to say, therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but
let us watch and be sober. Even believers who are in the
light have a tendency to slumber. And that's the reason the Lord
has admonished us with these words to remind us to wake up. In Isaiah chapter 52, the scripture
says, awake, awake, put on thy strength. And then he says, sit. So the Lord's telling us, wake
up and sit down. And that's the activity of faith,
is the Lord wakes us up and sits us down in Christ. For they that
sleep, sleep in the night, verse 7. And they that be drunken are
drunken in the night. He's not talking about drunk
with alcohol is hung about being drunk with uh... with uh... false
gospel uh... believing uh... the law uh... that man's will somehow secures
for him the salvation of the lord uh... it's not true uh... it's not of him that willis it
is not of him that runners it's not by our works our efforts
is not by our will it's of god the show of mercy and so uh... he says where We're not drunk
with that false gospel, but let us who are of the day be sober,
putting on the breastplate of faith and of love, and for a
helmet, the hope of salvation." We love him because he first
loved us, and God puts in the heart of his people love for
one another. They have an affection, a desire, a concern for one another
that that they don't experience with the world. And so, he said,
we put on this breastplate of faith, we put on love, the helmet
of salvation, the hope of salvation, for God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but obtained salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who
died for us. Whether we wake or sleep, we
should live together with Him. In other words, whether we're
alive or whether we've passed from this world, we will be together
with him. And then he concludes this whole
passage by admonishing us to comfort one another with these
words. That's my comfort. That's my
hope. The promise of God that he's
going to come and take us home. And we're going to be rid of
this flesh. We're going to be rid of sin.
We're going to be, um, we're going to be with him, seeing
him as he is. And, uh, what a, what a glorious
day that will be. Now verse 12. Now we beseech
you brethren to know them, which labor among you now. Every form of religion in the
world practices clergy laity. It's very obvious in the Catholic
Church uh... they take a man uh... who's never
been married and never had children dressing like a woman and calling
father and uh... and make you know and make and
they established this clergy laity uh... relationship that
uh... in order for me to get to god
i've got to go through him it's a lot it's not true uh... And the reformed Calvinist would
call what I just described heresy, and yet they practiced the same
thing with their elder rule and the insistence of submission
to the authority of the elders and all the things that they
do in that in that form of religion. It's practiced in Judaism with
the rabbis and in Islam with the imams and the monks in Hinduism. Everybody practices this clergy-laity
division and men seem to go for it. They like it. Why? Why would men submit themselves
to that sort of hierarchy of godliness or holiness or whatever
you want to call it? The answer is simple to me. It relieves the clergy of responsibility. and it gives, it relieves the
laity of responsibility and gives to the clergy power. Now I'm
here to say to you, I'm not responsible for the mess you're in. I'm not. I'm not. I want to make that as clear
as I can. I'm not responsible for the mess you're in. I'm responsible
for the mess I'm in. and even if I did bear some responsibility
I can't fix the mess you're in I'm having a hard enough time
fixing the mess I'm in I hate clergy laity and the Lord hates it in Revelation
chapter 3 the Lord speaks to the church at Ephesus and he
says to the church at Ephesus that he encourages them and commends
them for hating the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which also
I hate. That's what he said. And in that
same chapter, later on in the church of Pergamos, he chastises
the church of Pergamos and he says to them, you have those
in your church who teach the doctrine of the Nicolaitans,
of which I hate. And so the Lord says twice that
he hates the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Now, you can read
commentaries about what the doctrine of the Nicolaitans is, and everybody
speculating about what the doctrine of the Nicolaitans may have been
back there in the first century. We believe that you interpret
Scripture by Scripture. That's it. The Scripture interprets
itself. and so we don't have to go outside
of scripture in order to try to figure out what the doctrine
of the nicolaitans is why would the spirit of god inspire john
to make reference to the nicolaitans twice and the lord says i hate
it and not mention it anywhere else in the scripture the fact
that it's not mentioned anywhere else in the scriptures causes
us to have to interpret the doctrine of the Nicolaitans by what the
name Nicolaitan means. That's the only option we have.
If we're going to interpret scripture with scripture, there's no other
reference to Nicolaitans. The Lord has made it clear that
this is something he hates. So what does Nicholas, that's
where the word Nicolaitan comes from, what does Nicholas mean? If your name is Nicholas, That
means that you are master over the people. That's what Nicholas
means. A master over the people. Now,
it's clear to me that the Lord is making it clear to us that
he hates this mastery that men submit to and that other men
enforce in the church which separates clergy from laity. And, um, it's,
um, it, it's not right. It's not right. Um, the responsibility
that I have to you is to tell you about the only one who's
able to fix the mess that you've made of your life. That's my
responsibility. and appoint you to him. To say
with John, behold the Lamb of God, look to Christ. The Spirit and the bride say,
come. Beyond that, you know, I'll say
it again. I'm not responsible for your
mess and if I was, if I did bear any responsibility, I don't know
what to do to fix it. I can't help you. I'm having
a hard enough time helping myself, but I can tell you about the
one who can. He's the savior of sinners. He's
able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by him.
Oh, he's well, look, look at, look at,
uh, look at what the Lord says in
the rest of this verse. Verse 12, we beseech you, we
encourage you, brethren, to know them that labor among you. Now, anytime we react against
error, anytime we react against error, we always tend to err
in the other direction. I mean, that's just the way we
are. We're people of extremes. And we'll go from one extreme
to the other, and we're just like a pendulum, aren't we? And
so, as clear as the Scriptures are, and as much as we hate this
clergy-laity division that men seem to love, We don't want to swing the pendulum
to the other extreme so that we take a man who's just a man
and disregard the work that the Lord has given him to do. Paul told Timothy, he said, study
to show thyself approved, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. Now, you need the word
of truth because Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes
by the Word of God. And you remember what the Ethiopian
eunuch said when Philip asked him, do you understand what you're
reading? And the Ethiopian said, how can I accept a man should
guide me? Explain this to me. Is the prophet
speaking of himself or is he speaking of another? And beginning
right there, Philip preached unto him Jesus. Rightly dividing
the word of truth is not coming up with some, I don't know, I
don't want to. confused the subject but there's
most people who read that verse rightly divided the word of truth
are dispensationalist they believe that god has dispensations of
time whereby he works this way in this area in this way in this
area in this way they're the ones who say well there's going
to be a thousand-year reign there's going to be a rapture and all
that kind of stuff that's dispensationalism and they use rightly divided
the word of truth in order to support their error Rightly dividing
the word of truth is finding Christ in every passage of scripture.
And you need, and I need, a God-called gospel preacher to do that for
me. And so, for his work's sake,
we esteem him highly. Why? Because his work is the
work that I need. more than any other work. I've
got to have this work done for my soul, for my salvation. He's been sent of God to point
me to Christ and to explain the scriptures to me. And so that's
my responsibility. That's my responsibility to study
the scriptures and be prepared to explain to you what they mean
so that you can see Christ and flee to him for the salvation
of your soul, for your refuge. And, um, that's, that's what,
look, look what he says. We beseech you, brethren, to
know them which labor among you." And it is a labor. It's a labor. It's a constant labor. bearing
the burden of believers. I'm responsible to pray for you,
and I do. And preparing of the Scriptures
is a constant burden. It never leaves. So, acknowledge
those that God's called to labor among you. Their labor is for
your profit. They're no different than you.
They're as messed up as you are. And the answer to their problem
is the same as the answer to your problem. So don't look to
a man as your priest. But listen to the message that
God's given to him. and for his work's sake, esteem
him highly, pray for him, encourage him, speak words of comfort and
encouragement. If the Lord's blessed his word
to your heart through a man, let him know. Let him know. Gospel preachers receive more hatred from the
world than any other believers. and so and i'm not saying that
whining okay i'm not i'm not at all But gospel preachers also
receive greatest love from God's people. And that's the way it's
supposed to be. That's the way it's supposed
to be. So if a man preaches the gospel to you, love him for it. Thank him for it. It's a labor
that God's called him to. Next Wednesday night, this coming
Wednesday night, Angus Fisher, Jerry's been to Australia a couple
of times for business and met a gospel preacher in Australia
by the name of Angus Fisher. And Angus is in the United States
and I've listened to him preach and he and I have corresponded
and we see eye to eye on the gospel. He's going to be here
this coming Wednesday night. to preach for us and so I want
to encourage you to come and you know the best thing you can
do to encourage one of God's preachers is just be there to
hear what he has to say because he's put a lot of work into preparing
a message and what a discouragement it is to him when when God's
people don't don't show up to hear it so well let's go back
I hope I've been able to draw a balance, if you will, between
esteeming highly for his work's sake the man that God has called
to labor in his word and preach the gospel and not err in thinking
that he's holier than me or he's my access to God or something.
Your access to God is the Lord Jesus Christ. To know them which labor among
you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you. They're putting into practice
in the governing of the church the principles that God has given
in His Word. And they don't lord it over you. They do it lovingly. They do it according to what
the Lord has revealed. And God's people are thankful
for it. Esteem them very highly in love
for their work's sake. So we're not esteeming one man
as a man, we're esteeming him because of the work that God's
given him to do and the profit that that work is to my soul. I've got to have a man. Tell
me about Christ and explain to me the word of God. And be at peace among yourselves.
you remember you remember how the opening chapters of of first
corinthians start out where uh... the lord is is uh... chastising the church because
they were uh... they had favorites in preachers
you know some say i'm a paul some say i'm a full polis uh... others say well i'm of christ
you know where they they in the land and the lord said is christ
divided Why are you favoring and pitting one preacher against
another? If they're preaching Christ,
esteem them all highly. There was a lot of division in
the church at Corinth, wasn't there? And the first problem
that the Lord reveals is this problem of choosing one preacher over another
and uh... now that's not to say that every
congregation has an affection and a love for their pastor uh... and that's that's the way it
ought to be uh... but when there's a when there's a a competition
among preachers uh... it just causes division and so
and so the Lord says uh... be at peace among yourselves
Now we exhort you, brethren. And that word exhort means to
encourage. I want you to be encouraged every time you come here. I do. I want you to be encouraged.
Not with a false encouragement. I want you to be encouraged to
know that the Lord Jesus Christ has put away all of the sins
of all of God's people, once and for all, by the sacrifice
of Himself. I want you to be encouraged to
know that you have a righteousness before God. You've got an advocate
with God. I want you to be encouraged to
know that all the promises of God are yay and amen in Christ. That's our comfort, isn't it?
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, speak ye comfortably. And so
Paul says, exhort them, encourage the brethren. And then he says,
warn them that are unruly. Warn them that are unruly. You know, the Lord hates division
among brethren. And what can cause that is gossip
and, you know, talking. What James said, the tongue is
a fiery fire of iniquity. It's evil. I want to give you
one word of advice on how to stop conflict. Stop talking. That's it. Just stop talking. You know, you're in a conflict
with your spouse, somebody just stop talking. And it's amazing
how conflicts are resolved when people stop talking. in a true
so I'm the Lord says warn those that are unruly generally unruliness
is a loose tongue and I'm and the Lord saying warn warn the
brethren to stop to know when to stop talking comfort the feeble-minded there
are We all have times of being feeble-minded, but there are
some believers that are extremely feeble-minded and weak-minded. Comfort them. Support the weak. Be patient toward all men. These
are words of admonition, words of encouragement, words of exhortation. See that none render evil for
evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among
yourselves and to all men. You know, our natural tendency,
if somebody hurts us, to hurt them back. You know, and the
Lord said, don't, the Lord, the Lord take care of that. Don't,
don't render evil for evil. Rejoice evermore. We've got a lot to rejoice in,
don't we? We've got a lot to rejoice in. Rejoice in the Lord
always. Always? Yeah, and again I say,
rejoice. Let your gentleness, let your
moderation be known unto all men. Why? Because the Lord is
at hand. The Lord's near. He's taking
care of these things. Your God reigns. He's in control. Trust Him. Trust Him. Rejoice
evermore. Pray without ceasing. Oh, what
a privilege. What a privilege the Lord has
given us to walk into the very presence of God. You remember
when Esther, when Mordecai was encouraging Esther to go in and
talk to Ahasuerus, the king, to intercede on behalf of the
decree that had been sent out to destroy all the Jews? And
Esther says, no one can go in to see the king unless they've
been summonsed. And she hadn't been summonsed.
But then she said, if I die, I die. And she went in, and Ahasuerus
took his staff, his golden staff, and stuck it out as a symbol
of her acceptance. And she put her hand on the staff,
and he said, up to half my kingdom, what would you have? Well, here's the beauty of that
story. The Lord has stuck out his golden
staff, But He actually has summonsed us. He has summonsed us. He has said to us, come, come. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden, come. The Spirit of the Bride say come. Come into my
presence. Approach the throne of grace
with boldness, with confidence. Knowing that you've got an emissary,
you've got an advocate with the Father, you have acceptance before
God in the Beloved. Come. So the Lord says, pray,
pray, pray without ceasing. And isn't that the way the Spirit
of God, I mean, we're always being moved by the Spirit of
God to pray. In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you." Now, you'll have to trust me on this.
I've studied this verse, and the structure of it is such that
the giving of thanks is not The will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you is not a reference to the giving of thanks. It's
a reference to all things. Okay? So the verse says, in everything,
in everything give thanks for everything that you are in is
the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. That's reason
to give thanks, isn't it? Quench not the spirit. Every child of God knows what
that means. You know, when you're enjoying the sweet presence of
the Holy Spirit, comforting your heart, encouraging you, enabling
you to rest. And then the conflicts that come
when you disobey the Lord and, and quench the spirit of God.
And he said, don't, don't quench the spirit. Now here's my word
of encouragement to you when you do quench the spirit. He's easily unquenched. He is. He doesn't punish his children
with with a withdrawal of his presence.
So he's easily entreated. Easily entreated. So when you
quench the Spirit of God, know that he is there to be easily
entreated of you. Come to him, ask him for his
presence in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Despise not prophesying. Give your full undivided attention
to the preaching of the gospel. prove all things, test everything
by the Word of God. The Bereans were more noble than
those in Thessalonica, Paul said. Why? Because they rejoiced in
what was being preached and tried the spirit by the word of god
they they tested everything by god's word to see whether or
not what i said was true so we're to we're to do everywhere to
were to rejoice in the gospel and uh... make sure that it's
consistent with what god has revealed hold fast that which
is good lord teaches you the truth from his word hold on to
it don't let go of it abstain from all appearance of evil. Why? Well, look at chapter 4,
verse 12, that you walk honestly toward them that are without,
and that you may lack of nothing. So, we avoid the appearances
of evil so that the unbeliever can't charge us with wrongdoing. You know, I told somebody recently,
I hear Christians talking about, well, I want to be a testimony
for Christ. I want other to see, I want people
to see Jesus in me. And I want to, I want to, you
know, be a good testimony. Um, I want to be a good testimony,
but my main concern, my main concern is not to profane the
gospel. That's my main concern. They
didn't see Jesus in Jesus. And what the Lord is saying here,
abstain from all appearances of evil, hold on to that which
is good, and the very God of peace, sanctify
you wholly. Now that's not progressive sanctification. He's saying that every part of
you be sanctified. i pray god your whole spirit
soul and body be preserved blameless onto the coming up of the lord
jesus christ faithful is he and here's the here's the most important
part of this whole passage faithful is he that called you who also
will do it if you pray without ceasing you've stained from all
parents of evil if you if you if you uh... uh... Seek not to profane the gospel. If you prove those things which
are good and hold to them, it's because He who is faithful has
worked in you. And He gets all the glory for
it. We're not making a work out of this. This is the work of
grace in the hearts of God's people. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a
holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read
unto the holy brethren. God considers his people to be
holy. Holy. You're in Christ, you're
holy, sanctified. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be with you. It's all of grace,
all of grace, every bit of it. Amen. Alright, let's take a break.