little fella pointed up here
at the pulpit while ago and asked me, is it speech time yet? Well,
it's speech time now. Let's turn to 1 Thessalonians
5. 1 Thessalonians 5. Paul gives us three exhortations
here. He says in verse 16, Rejoice
evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And you
can apply what he says there at the end, this is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you, you can apply that to everything
that came before. It's God's will that His people
rejoice evermore, It's God's will that we pray without ceasing,
and it's God's will that in everything we give thanks. This is the will
of God concerning you. Let's just take these three for
our divisions. First of all, he says rejoice
evermore. The Lord's people are a happy
people. You know, vainly religious folks
are usually pretty somber and not real happy, and they don't
have a lot of reason to be happy. But God's people are happy people.
They rejoice, they're full of joy, and we have every reason
to be. Every reason to be. We rejoice
in the Lord. That's where our rejoicing is,
is in the Lord. Paul said in Philippians 4, 4,
rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice, rejoice
in the Lord always. We rejoice for who God is, in
who God is, and what he's done for us. The Lord, God our Father,
chose his people freely by his grace. He loved his own in Christ
Jesus. Without any cause in us, he loved
us in Christ and chose us by grace. That's a great reason
to rejoice because he's immutable, his love's everlasting, his grace
can't be changed. It wasn't based on anything in
us, so it will never change toward his people. And when you come
to see that that's such a blessing that He chose you, then we stop
arguing against God's electing grace, because that's one of
the greatest rejoicings there is, that God made you His child,
freely, freely. That means holy, sovereign God
is our Father. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called children
of God. That's reason to rejoice evermore. When the apostles came
back, you know, the Lord sent them out to preach. And they
came back and they, after that first trip preaching, and they
had seen that wicked spirits were subject to them. And they
came back rejoicing in that. And the Lord said, in this rejoice
not. He said that the spirits are
subject to you. Don't rejoice in that. He said
rejoice in this, that your names are written in the book of life.
Who wrote them there? God the Father wrote them there,
freely. That's reason to rejoice. That's what the Lord commanded.
Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. We rejoice in the
Son of God because of what he's accomplished for his people.
Our Lord Jesus came into this world to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself, and that's exactly what he accomplished.
For each of those children that God the Father trusted to him
to save, that's what he accomplished. He brought in everlasting righteousness
for us. He redeemed us from the curse
and condemnation of the law. When he said it's finished, that's
what he meant. He finished that work God the
Father sent him to do. That's a great reason to rejoice
evermore. He's promised us he won't ever
leave us nor forsake us. He promised that he's with us
when he gathers his people together. It's not just, I'll be where
two or three are gathered. He gathers them. And he says,
and I'll be there. And that's a great reason to
rejoice evermore. We rejoice in God the Holy Spirit. because He gave us life, He regenerated
us, and He's given us all things that pertain to life and godliness,
and He preserves us and sustains us and keeps us. We were born,
John said, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man. We had nothing to do with this,
but of God, of God. And if you're born of God, if
God is the reason you have spiritual life, He's going to keep you.
He's going to keep you. We rejoice for what we have in
Him. In Him, in our flesh, dwells no good thing. In us, in our
flesh, we're sin. But in the Lord Jesus, in God
our Savior, we've been made the righteousness of God. In ourselves,
in the new man, you're holy, but you still have this body
of death so that you're not perfectly holy and never will be in this
life. But in Christ, we're perfectly holy. In Christ, we're perfected
forever. And the Lord promised us in the
Lord because we're chosen by grace, redeemed by grace, regenerated
by grace. He said nothing shall be able
to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Great
reason to rejoice evermore. We rejoice in hope. Romans 12,
12, he said rejoicing in hope, patience, and tribulation. What
is our hope? Christ is our hope. You know,
one of his names is the hope of Israel. God's Israel are his
people. Whether you're Jew or Gentile,
you're saved by grace, you're the Israel of God, and Christ
is the hope of Israel. He's the hope of every one of
his people. And so we're hoping in him. And
hope is not just wishful thinking. Hope is a confident, earnest
expectation based on the sure word of God, based on the promise
of God, based on the oath of God, based on Christ's blood. It's a sure expectation of what
we know will come to pass, what we know we shall have. Peter
said, You are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain tradition. He said, but with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot
who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world.
God chose him before the world was made and ordained him to
come forth and save his people. And it says, and he was manifest
in these last times, now listen to this, who by him by Christ,
do believe in God that raised him from the dead and gave him
glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Where's your
faith? The world's faith is in themselves. Our faith's in God. And the world's
hope's in themselves. Our hope's in God. That's why
Christ died. That's why we have been given
faith and hope by him that our hope, faith and hope might be
in God. So we rejoice in hope. We saw last time it's a helmet.
It's protecting your mind. It's protecting your mind from
from being cast down and overly sorrowful, because it's a helmet,
it's a protective helmet. You know, he called hope an anchor
of the soul. And hope is keeping you grounded,
it's keeping you anchored, like an anchor that is anchoring a
boat. That anchor's not in the boat.
If it's anchoring the boat, the anchor's not in the boat, the
anchor's outside of the boat. Well, our hope's not in us, our
hope's outside of us. the Lord promised, and he swore
by an oath. He could have just spoken it,
but he swore by an oath, so that by two immutable things, two
things that'll never change, it's impossible for God to lie,
and these two things will never change, so that we have strong
consolation, strong comfort, strong hope. We fled for refuge
to lay hold of the hope set before us. Now listen to what it says,
the Hebrew writer said, which hope we have as an anchor of
the soul, sure and steadfast, both sure and steadfast. Where
is it? It enters into the veil where
Christ has gone before us. He's the forerunner. He's gone
beforehand and entered in and sat down and your hope's right
there in Him, trust in Him. So we rejoice in hope. What are
we rejoicing in? Well, even in tribulation, as
we go through this life, if something troubling comes upon us, we're
rejoicing in hope because everything, we're saved by the Lord eternally,
but we're being saved every day by the Lord. And any trouble
that comes, our hope is the Lord's gonna save me out of this. That's
our hope. He's gonna save me out of this.
The Psalmist in Psalm 119, we've seen this. He said in Psalm 119,
116, Lord, I've hoped for thy salvation. We're hoping for the
salvation to come, but we're hoping for him to save us today.
Whatever trouble we go through, our hope is Christ gonna come
and save me. He gonna bring me through this.
And so that's our rejoicing. We, through the Spirit, are waiting
for the hope of righteousness through faith. We're waiting
for that day He comes and we're going to be perfectly righteous
in Him. But right now, we're waiting for His salvation in
any trouble we face in this world. And our hope's Him. That's why
we rejoice evermore. Has He failed you yet? Since
He called you, has He failed you? He hasn't failed you. And
He's not going to fail you. The Lord said this, I know the
thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end. That's why we have an earnest
expectation, because that's God's word to his people. Do you believe
Christ? Is he all your hope? That's God's word to you. I know
the thoughts I think to you, of you, to give you an expected
end. So we rejoice evermore. You know, the way might be strange
to us, and many times it is. And we just don't know what God's
doing, but we know he's doing it. And so we look to our Lord,
and God's gonna keep you rejoicing evermore in hope. Paul, when
he spoke about rejoicing and he spoke about the hope and rejoicing
in hope, he wasn't just saying, now you just muster this up in
you and you hope and you rejoice and you be happy. He said, the
God of hope fill you with all joy. The God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. That's how we're gonna rejoice.
That's how we're gonna abound in hope. What if we're persecuted
for believing and preaching Christ? He says rejoice evermore. What
if you're persecuted for preaching Christ? The Lord said rejoice
and be exceeding glad. For great is your reward in heaven,
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. In everything
rejoice, rejoice evermore. When tribulation comes, you think
of all the things Paul suffered. He gave that list of being beaten,
and being shipwrecked, and going hungry, and all the rejection,
and all the things that he suffered. And he said, as sorrowful, these
things make you sorrowful. If you're afflicted in body,
or you're afflicted in the world, or you suffer some trouble in
the world, you are sorrowful. But he said, as sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing. How can you be sorrowful and
rejoice? That's just the life of a believer. That's just the
life of a believer. We're the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, have
no confidence in the flesh. Every morning when you get up,
you think about who God is, who our savior is, what he's done
for us, what he's worked in us, what he promises he shall do,
and go through the day rejoicing. Rejoicing. We have everything
in our Lord. And everything promised to us.
His command. Men won't always talk about His
commands. Listen to His command. Delight
thyself in the Lord. That's His command. This is His command. Rejoice
evermore. Rejoice evermore. Alright, next He says, and pray
without ceasing. pray without ceasing. Paul called
it continuing instant in prayer. Now, this doesn't mean that we're
gonna be praying every hour of every day, but I tell you what
it does mean. We live in constant dependence
on the Lord. We live in continual dependence
upon God and we do pray throughout the day. God's people don't just
pray one time and like it's a duty and we got it over. God's people
pray all day. You find yourself just thanking
God for things throughout the day or asking him to help you
or just to be, make his presence known in your heart throughout
the day. Believers don't pray only when we're in need or only
when we're in distress. We pray in the good times, we
pray in the bad times. We pray when the way's clear,
the same as we do when we're in the trial. Paul said in Philippians
4.6, be careful for nothing, be anxious for nothing. Be anxious
for nothing. But in everything, By prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
unto God. Without ceasing means in everything. That's one of the things he's
talking about here. Pray without ceasing. It means in everything
be praying to the Lord. Always casting your care on the
Lord. Always looking to the Lord. You
go to God, you know trouble comes and we immediately won't pick
up the phone and call somebody. Go to God before you go to anybody
else. Go to Him. He's the only one
really that can help you. Christ is a friend that sticks
closer than a brother, and He'll help you. He'll help you. It'll
be a spiritual help in the heart. Don't think He's just going to
magically give you whatever you want. No, it's going to be a
spiritual help in the heart. He's going to set you on Him
and make you know you have great reason to rejoice. He is able
to save them to the uttermost that come to God through Him,
seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. You see,
He's interceding for us. He's praying for His people,
whether we're praying to Him or not. But He's going to continue
to keep you looking to Him and praying to Him and coming to
God only through faith in Him. What does Paul mean, make supplication? Think of that word, supplicate.
It means just what it sounds like. It means God supplying
what you need. Ask God for the supply. Supplicate
God and ask him for whatever it is you need. This is what
Paul said, my God shall supply all your need according to his
riches in glory by Christ Jesus. There's a difference between
a need and a want, but he will supply all the need of his people. All the need of his people. Listen
to Solomon. He prayed in 1 Kings 8.59, and
he said, Lord, let these words, my words, wherewith I have made
supplication before the Lord. Let them be nigh unto the Lord
our God day and night. that He maintain the cause of
His servant and the cause of His people Israel at all times
as the matter shall require. That's our need, that He maintain
our cause. And that's what God's promised
to do in and by Christ Jesus. You know, and when you go and
you supplicate to the Lord and you pour out your needs before
Him, He already knows what we need. He already knows what we
need, and He's already purposed what He's going to do. You can
go read Ezekiel 36, and you'll hear Him tell that to Israel.
He told them what He was going to do for them. He already has
it determined. It's been determined before the
world began. He knows exactly. Before you ask Him, He knows
what you need. But He will have you ask Him.
Why? That's for our benefit. That's
for our good. That's to make us submit to the
Lord. and trust the Lord to provide.
That's for our benefit. He told Israel, I'm going to
increase Israel with men like a flock. Thus saith the Lord
God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to
do it for them. He said, I'm going to do it.
He already determined it before. But he said, but they're going
to ask me to do it for them. That's for our benefit, to know
that we have nothing but what He gives, and we need Him to
do for us. That's the purpose of prayer.
So in everything, when you make supplication to God, do it for
all saints, do it not only for yourself, for all your brethren,
making the needs known before the Lord, even for unbelievers. We don't know who God's people
are, we don't know who who his elect are. And for rulers and
for people that are leading this country and leading, you know,
people that are leading you in life, your boss and others, supplicate
God for them too. And then look thirdly now. He says, and in everything give
thanks. in everything give thanks. Verse 18, in everything give
thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. Now I started by saying that last phrase applies to everything
that went before. Rejoice evermore for this is
the will of God in Christ concerning you. Pray without ceasing for
this is the will of God in Christ concerning you. And this is too,
in everything give thanks. Everything we have It's the gift
of God. Everything we have came from
God. Everything. So in everything, give thanks
to God. It all came from God. Giving
thanks to God is blessing God. That's praising and glorifying
God for everything we have. That's why we give thanks to
Him. Thank you is a gracious word. Let somebody know you're thankful.
This is the will of God concerning you. The will of God is that
his people give him the glory for everything, for all things. According as it's written, he
that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. We don't have anything
of ourselves. We have nothing of ourselves.
Our natural lives were given to us by God. Everything we have
in our natural life, everything carnally, temporally speaking,
was given by God. Every ability, every talent you
have to do anything in his life was given by God. But concerning
all spiritual blessings, everything is the gift of God. John said
a man can receive nothing except to be given him from above, from
heaven. So believers give thanks always
for all things because everything came from him. Now, here's where
this gets difficult for us. This means whatever God sends
to us in providence. Everything that comes to pass
is God's hand working, his mighty hand. And it means whatever God
gives in providence at any time, thank God for it. Because that's the will of God
concerning you. The happy times and the sad time. The providence that brings comfort
and the providence that hurts. God worked it. He worked it,
and it's God's will concerning you, whatever that providence
is he sent, good, bad, happy, sad, it's God's will concerning
you. That's God's will for you at
that particular time. And it's God's will that you
thank him, that you thank him. You know, when things are good
and things are calm, Children, little children, play with their
toys. They're focused on their toys.
Everything's happy. And when anything troubling comes,
what do they do? They start crying out for father
and mother. We're the same way. Times are
good. Everything's calm. We're focusing
on our earthly toys. And so sometimes God sends a
trial. for the reason of making us look out of ourselves to Him
and begin to call on Him and submit to Him and look to Him
and trust Him. Somebody wrote this, Affliction
is the godly man's shining moment. Affliction is a godly man's shining
moment. Affliction served to convince
us more deeply of our own weakness and insufficiency, and to endear
the person, the grace, the promises, and the salvation of our Redeemer
more and more to our hearts. Do you see why that's a good
reason to thank God? That's a good reason to thank
God for affliction. Now, you look at Christ. On the
cross, our substitute bore more affliction than anybody's ever
borne or will ever bear. He said, Is there any sorrow
like unto my sorrow, which is done to me? You look at the cross,
you see all these wicked men about the cross, and they nailed
him to this tree, and they're cursing him, and they're spitting
on him, and they're doing all these vile things to him. And
you say, you know, you look at all these, the instruments doing
this to him. This is what he said. Is there any sorrow like unto
my sorrow which is done unto me? Wherewith the Lord hath afflicted
me. Wherewith the Lord hath afflicted
me. In the day of his fierce anger. He glorified God. He said
God did this. God did it. God used men, but
God did it. When God took Job's family and
took his possessions, Job, thank God, he blessed God. He gave
God the glory. He said, naked came I out of
my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and
the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
The Lord had took all his possessions. The Lord took his children. The
Lord ended up taking his health. And he said the Lord gave it.
He gave me all that. The Lord took it from me. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. When Paul and Silas were beaten
for preaching the gospel and they were thrown in prison for
preaching the gospel, at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang
praises unto God. They were thanking God for that. If that trial, whatever it is,
if it turns you to pray to Him and makes you to see that He's
all your salvation, makes you see all over again that everything
you have, He gave it, makes you cast all your care on Him, draws
you nearer to Him, that's great reason to thank God for the trial,
for the affliction, no matter how painful it might be. Just
like we saw in Psalm 119, we say, it's good for me that I've
been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. It's good,
it's good. So in everything, give thanks
for this, whatever the trial is, this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. And it's God's will that we thank
you. Rejoice evermore. Like Paul said,
sorrowful, ain't it? But we're still rejoicing. It
hadn't, like the Psalmist in Psalm 119 kept saying, Lord,
I hadn't forgotten your gospel. I still remember your word. Rejoice evermore. Sorrowful yet
rejoicing. Pray and continually casting
it all on him to save you. Hoping in him and thanking him
for it. What will God do? Paul said,
the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep
your hearts and mind through Christ Jesus. That's true, that's
true. It's a peace that you can't understand,
but beyond that, how, this is what you can't understand, how
could I be suffering and sorrowful and in such affliction? and have
this peace and this rejoicing. That's past understanding. Only God can do it. Only God
can do it. Above all in this, you know what
we're thanking God for? For His unspeakable gift. We're
thanking Him for Christ because it's in Christ that we have everything.
That's what we're thanking God for. And that's what it's all
about. He's going to keep you trusting
His Son and glorying in His Son. Paul said, we give thanks to
the Father which hath made us meet, fit to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in life. Fit right now to enter
into glory with God. He delivered us from the power
of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son. We have redemption through His blood. We have forgiveness
of sins. And He's going to keep you. And
one day He's going to present you holy, unblameable, unreprovable
in His sight. Why? Because right now, without
you doing one thing, it's what faith believes. Faith lays hold
of Christ. And here's the gospel declared
right now. You are complete in Him. That's
right. Completion's not in me and you,
it's in Christ Jesus. And that's why this word's sure.
We have reason to rejoice and be thankful. Oh, give thanks
unto the Lord for he's good, for his mercy endureth forever.
Psalm 69, 30 says, I'll praise the name of God with a song,
I'll magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord
better than an ox or a bullet that hath horns or hooves. We
get to looking at all the big things and all the sacrifices
we think we need to make and we start trying to please God
and do all these other things and completely forget. God said,
thank me. Just thank me. and praise me
for what I've done for you. This will please me more than
any ox or any bullock you could sacrifice, more than any sacrifice
you could make. God's saving us to glorify His
Son, and that's why He saved us. By Him, therefore, let us
offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the
fruit of our lips, giving thanks unto His name. Let me give you
this last scripture. This is from First Chronicles
2911. Listen to this prayer and this rejoicing and this thanksgiving. Listen to this. He said in First
Chronicles 2911, Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the victory and the majesty. For all that
is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom,
O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches
and honor come of Thee, and Thou reignest over all. And in thine
hand is power and might, and in thine hand it is to make great
and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank
thee and praise thy glorious name. That's everything. That includes everything. Beginning
of time to end, the beginning of your life to the end, the
beginning of salvation to the end. It's all of his hand. So
let's thank him. Our Father and our God, thank you, Lord, that you've
given us this great reason to rejoice evermore. Father, keep this joy in our
heart, this joy and peace in believing, this rejoicing and
hope in Christ Jesus. Father, we thank you that you've
given us access to your throne of grace where we can come through
the name of your son, our great high priest, and pray to you, open our hearts
to you, pour out all our need and what a great benefit and
privilege you've given to your people. We don't have to have
an earthly high priest anymore. Now we can come through our great
high priest, Christ Jesus, right into your holiest of holies,
and you'll receive your people. Lord, we thank you. We thank
you that you've given us this access through the blood of your
dear son. And Father, we thank you for everything you've given
us. We thank you for every act in
providence you're performing. the things that make us happy
and the things that make us sad. Lord, you've brought us to cast
our care on you, you've brought us to believe you, and we thank
you. Keep us, Lord, we ask you by
your, according to your promise, we ask you all these things for
the sake of your dear son, in his precious name, amen.