For our devotional this morning,
I've chosen an article in a previous bulletin by Pastor Tommy Robbins. And he titles his article, A
Good Hope. It is only when our Lord, in
grace and mercy, takes away our imaginary strength that we truly
look to Him and trust Him. This we do not learn in creeds
and confessions of faith. This we are taught by Him in
personal relationship and experience of grace. Pastor Robbins writes,
I only find hope in Him when there is no hope anywhere else.
It is easy to learn correct doctrine, but faith, hope, comfort rest
in Christ is a living experience. Justification, redemption, atonement,
sanctification and glorification are not only doctrinal truths
believed in the heart, they are truths experienced in the heart
in regeneration. Our Lord is our life and all
that is in Him is ours. There is no hope in what I know. My only hope is in Him and what
He has done. May God in mercy shut us up to
Christ alone. Paul puts it this way, I wish
to know nothing of you save Christ and Him crucified. There's a
reason for that. A very good reason. Please turn again with
me if you would to the letter that was written to the church
first sent to the saints of Thessalonica. We are all the church of God.
All of God's children. Thessalonians chapter 1. We are all God's children. This
letter was not just to the church at Thessalonica. It was to all
of God's church, all of God's called out. This building is
not the church. They called it the church house
in the old days. It's the house where the church
comes together to worship and praise our Savior for what he's
done for us. I recently listened to a message
preached by my dear brother and pastor friend, Norm Wells. Norm
has agreed to be here for our summer conference, which will
be the weekend of July 4th. He made a statement in last Sunday's
message, I believe it was, and it was in this fashion. He says,
I try to teach and preach by the book or by the letter. In other words, he takes, for
instance, Ezra. He's been going through the book
of Ezra for about two and a half years, and he believes today
will be the final message that he brings from that. He tries
to go through an entire book, an entire letter, rather than
jumping from subject to subject. And there's nothing wrong with
either way. It's still the gospel. There
was for a while there I did that. And then recently I started looking
into books. We looked into the book of Colossians.
We're looking into the book of Thessalonians. He tries to go
through the entire one so that all of the subjects in that letter,
all of the subjects in that book that the Lord had inspired men
to write, we don't miss anything. I would agree with that completely.
There was a couple other reasons there also. It's just good to go through
and read the whole story out. It gives the pastor a chance
to think about what he's going to preach on next Sunday throughout
the week, rather than, what am I going to preach on? What am
I going to preach on? Lord, what do you want me to preach on next
week? You know, I've gotten to that point where I got up Sunday
morning, and 4 o'clock in the morning, I'm sitting there wondering,
what am I going to preach and teach on today? 8 o'clock in the morning, I'm still
wondering what I'm going to preach on. With a book in front of me, I
can go through and read and read and read and pray that the Lord
will speak to me through it and we can come up with a message
for the next day, for the next Sunday. We recently began to
look at this letter that the Apostle wrote, commending those
dear brothers and sisters in Christ for their support. But
more importantly, for their love and patience of hope in our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Gospel. That's what we read in
verse 3 of chapter 1. Remembering without ceasing your
work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ and the sight of God and our Father. These dear
folks were under great persecution from the religious leaders of
that day. The very ones who were fighting to hold on to their
power. As we saw in our Bible study this morning, 5,000 people
in a two or three week period. Two messages that Peter and John
had preached. 5,000 of those who were going,
they were here one Sunday. And all of a sudden now, they're
not going over there anymore. The guys who stood in their pulpits
over there is going, what happened? What happened to all those people
that were here last Sunday? Well, they're over here listening
to the true, the message of the true and living God. The religious leaders of that
day didn't like that. They were listening to God's
true messengers. These folks declared the grace
of God in the face of His Son. They declared the gospel, the
good news, not in word only, but also in power, as we see
in the Holy Ghost in verse 5. It says, For our gospel came
not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy
Ghost. In Romans 10-15 we read it this
way, As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings and good things. I love hearing about the gospel. When I hear men stand up and
talk about works, and works only, With no grace, no gospel in it, it's like a burden. Because I
know I can't do those things. Practical godliness should not
be ignored. There is a place in God's Word
where these things must be spoken of. But practical godliness is not
saving grace. Knowing that John Reeves in the
flesh cannot accomplish practical godliness, I need hope. And there's no hope in me in
what I can do. It's like we just read in the
article, our only hope is in Christ. It's only in Him for
what He has done for us. And He's done it perfectly. Why
would we put any hope in anything else? I'm asking myself this question.
Because that's what I can do. You see, I have something inside
of me that I believe everybody here has. It's called pride. It's called pride. Read with me, if you would, once
again, beginning at verse 1 of Thessalonians chapter 1, and
let's read through to the end. in Silvanus and Timotheus unto
the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God
always for you all." You folks thought that was just
a southern phrase, didn't you? Y'all. We give thanks for you
all. making mention of you in our
prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and
labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ
and the sight of God and our Father, knowing, brethren, beloved,
of your election. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost,
and as much assurance as ye know what manner of men we were among
you for your sake. And ye became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction,
with joy of the Holy Ghost. So that ye were in samples to
all that believe in Macedonia and Achai. For from you sounded
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad,
so that we need not speak anything. For they themselves show us what
manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to
God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for
His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus,
which delivered us from the wrath to come. Our text will be verse
9 and 10 today, and my title is, Turned from Idols. Turned from Idols. Before you start thinking about
a little wood carving, or maybe a large wood carving,
or something that's been manufactured out of gold, what is an idol? An idol is anything, anything that we might worship
other than the true and living God. I don't worship anything else.
Really? Are you sure? What about our pride? What about our pride? One of the Well, I'm not quite sure how
to say that, so I'll just put it out point-blank. I may offend
some people with this, but people who worship their own works,
and that's what will-worship is. When you say, it is my will,
it is my decision, You have taken the worship away from Christ
Jesus and you have placed it on yourself. When you say, I
walked the aisle and made a decision for Jesus, you have taken the
worship away and you have placed it upon yourself. You have made
yourself to be a God, an idol. When you say, I got baptized
When you say, I came to the table, when you say, I have said a prayer,
I turn my heart over. I, you have taken the worship off
of the One who has done the work. Salvation is of the Lord, not
of you and the Lord, but of the Lord. Not of John and what John
has done, plus the Lord, but of the Lord. Look at, I know I'm saved. Look at how much different I
am now than I used to be. Look at all the good things I
do now. I help out my neighbors. I feed the poor. I go preaching
in the low places of the city. Whatever you want to put in there. You know why it's not of works?
Lest men should boast, because we will boast. We will boast. And that's all
there is to it. It's our nature. It's what we
do. We feel good about what we've
done. Let me tell you about how good the things I've done, because
I feel good about it. As it had been in earlier days,
these highly religious people had began to mix with the outside
peoples of the world. And the result of that mix was
their worship was now mixed with the worship of heathens. The
people of Israel had begun mixing the heathen religions with their
ceremonies, and they had turned their ceremonies into their own
pollution. And their worship had become
an abomination. That's what the Christian religion
in this country has become. It's become an abomination, a
religion that worships men for what they have done. Their own religious ceremonies,
their own means of worship have become their idols. I put on
the right clothes every Sunday. I get down on me. Do you think those people were
all just... I'm just kidding. It's not real.
No, they believed it. Ask Mike and Shirley, they believe
they were serving the Lord. Ask Steve Doyle, he believed
he was serving the Lord, praying to Mary, holding the beads, going
into the box and confessing his sins. Now, I didn't believe I was worshipping
the Lord, but I didn't think I was worshipping anything else.
I didn't have a God. Now that I look back, I see I
was my God. It was all about me. You've heard
me say that before. Our religious generation is no
different than them in those days. They take their religious
beliefs and they make that their God. You know why we can't find
any remains of the Ark? I know people say they could.
Because God knows that as soon as somebody finds a piece of
it, they'll worship it like it's a god. Same thing with that cross
that the Lord hung on. They'll worship that wood. You
think I'm crazy? What about the piece of toast
that looked like the hippie Jesus? You've all seen it. You all heard
about it. Every one of us here were old
enough to hear about that time. The whole Catholic Church went
absolutely nuts and worshipped a piece of bread. Folks, that's how foolish we
could be. I'm no different than anybody
else out there doing those kinds of things. If it wasn't for the
grace of God, I'd be right there with them. Rather than worship the true
and living God, they worshipped the means. They worshipped the
temple. They worshipped the golden inlays.
They worshipped the candles, the dress. They were worshipping
their own good works, and they began mixing it with all the
things that fit their needs from the outside world. This is the
nature of mankind. What can I do? How can I add
to my salvation? These dear folks in the church
at Thessalonica had turned from this folly. The world around
them had heard of this change in them. Those guys down the
street in that little church, a couple of people hanging out
in that church, they don't get all dressed up like we do. Why, that pastor, he drinks a
little wine after church on Sundays. Do you know what I heard him
say? I heard him smash his finger. You don't want to know what he
said. These folks at Thessalonica had
turned from their folly and the world around them. It would be
as radical as if you'd heard the Catholic Church had suddenly
threw out all the statues of Mary. What? Really? Even that 30 foot one
down there in the Bay Area where you can go down there on a Saturday
morning and there's 20 people standing out there praying to
it? That one? Imagine that if the Catholics
did that. We'd talk about it, wouldn't
we? This statue that they call Mary,
the mother of Jesus, and all of its worldly relics. Look again with me at verses
7 and 8. So that ye were in samples to
all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia, for from you, from
you folks there at Thessalonica, From you, brothers and sisters
in Christ, who no longer follow after the ways of the Jewish
religion, but are now turned to the living God, you sounded
out the Word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place your faith to God is spread abroad."
Do you know how many places the Word of God goes out from just
from this little church here? Don Fortner used to travel all
over the world. We had a guy come up to Pastor Gene. Pastor
Gene was over in a place, I believe it's called Kingsport, Tennessee,
preaching over there. And I think it's Paul Mahan is
the preacher over there. I can't remember who the pastor
was there. Pastor Gene had preached his
message and gone and sat down afterwards. And some guy come
up to me, he goes, Are you from that little place in California
called Rescue? Oh yeah, my wife and I, we lived
there for 40 years, almost 40 years, oh yeah, yeah. Isn't that where that guy who
has something called Free Willard from? Yeah, yeah, that's Mike
Loveless. Yeah, I like that. That's some
good gospel stuff there, brother. And Pastor Gene was like, oh
my goodness, I don't even know who this guy is. He's not even
from Kingsport. He came over from South Carolina,
North Carolina or something to visit. We don't know where the
Lord is going to take our stuff. We send bulletins to Canada. I don't know who the guy is in
Canada at all. Never talked to him. Don't have a phone number
for him, but we have an address. We send it to that address and
it never comes back. So I'm assuming the Lord's going,
doing something with it. Ron Halsey, you all know Ron
Halsey, right? Comes for all the conferences.
He's been missing the conferences since the COVID thing was here.
He gets all of our CDs. And after he's listened to them,
he makes a couple of copies and he goes out and he puts them
in the post office bulletin boards. And then he'll go back the next
day. or the day after. And eventually they come up missing.
He had no idea where they were going. One day a lady called
us here at rescue after Jean had left. She's down in Alabama,
elderly woman, she's down living with her daughter anymore, we
don't really know what happened to her. But when I got a hold of a friend
of hers up there in or in Arkansas, he said, yep, she had to go and
live with her daughter. But she listened to a series
of messages that I gave on the characteristics of Christ. And
it just blessed her socks off. She said, I've listened to those
CDs so much, they're all worn out. I go, where'd you get them
from? She goes, from the post office
there in Arkansas. Isn't that something? The Lord
takes His word and He does what He feels, where it needs to go. For from you, Paul says in verse
8, sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and
Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God is spread abroad,
so that we need not to speak anything. Henry Mahan wrote this,
he says, Evidence of your election is that you, by your faith, by
your works, by your love, become examples and patterns for all
believers. Though young in faith, you set
an example for others. Examples in worship. We meet
on Sundays. We don't worship works. We don't preach about our good
deeds. We preach about Christ and Him
crucified. We preach salvation is of the
Lord. Examples in worship, examples
in faithfulness. Faithfulness is this. And it's
a faithfulness that God has given me to lean on my Savior. To have no confidence in my flesh. Examples in holiness. Don't look to me. My holiness is in Him. Examples of conversation and
conduct. You become witnesses, goes on
here to say, evangelists and missionaries. A person who has
been chosen to salvation and brought to a living and vital
union with Christ will carry a great burden for all people.
Paul wrote about this in Romans 9, verses 1-3. He says, I say
a truth in Christ. This is Paul, a man who wrote
the books of God in the letters to the Thessalonians and so on.
He says, I lie not. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost that I have a great heaviness and
continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according
to the flesh." Simpler means, Paul is saying this, the world,
he would rather be accursed himself than to go through the pain of
seeing and watching his fellow brethren die in their sins. If you would, Lord Hussain, take
me and save my kinsmen." And again, Paul writes in Romans
10 verse 1, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is this, that they might be saved. The called of God will
be witnesses to others and cheerfully support those who preach the
gospel." The world around you will take
notice of who you are and how you walk. They'll notice that you've been
born again, a new man, a new creation, a new spirit, born
of grace. Born of love. The love for God
and for His people. A love without end. A love that's
everlasting. Because He loved us. Because
of His love for us, we no longer love idols of this world, and
that includes our own pride, our own self-righteousness. We now love His Word. It's not a burden for me to sit
down and look into God's Word, to come up with a message. Folks, I can never share with
you all the blessings I get from studying. Even when I'm sitting
down and just reading a study of Don Fortner's book. Even that. We now love His Son. We love the Lord Jesus Christ,
God in the flesh. We love the fact that God became
flesh for you and I. For us. How can you not love
a God who died for you? I'll tell you how. If He doesn't
love you first, that's how. We love his righteousness. Oh,
how I want to be as righteous as my father. There's a day coming when I'll no longer have this
body of death. And I'll be perfect, perfectly loving him the way
I want to. Oh, I know. He looks on me as
righteous as his son right now. I am so thankful for that. Because
if he looked on this flesh, he'd see exactly what you do, a sinner.
A worm. A man who is unworthy to
even stand before people and preach. Yet God. We now love His sacrifice. A perfect sacrifice. A sacrifice
that accomplishes something, not something that you would
get if you took an animal and slaughtered the animal and fed
the blood somewhere. That never saved anybody, but
it pictured the one who did. The one whose blood accomplished
its purpose. He saved his people. We love His death. That's kind
of an odd thing to say, isn't it? It's an odd thing to read,
actually. We love His death. But if it wasn't for His death,
and sad as it was, it breaks my heart that the Lord had to
go through what He did. But I'm thankful He did because
I would be the one going through that if it wasn't for Him. I
would be the one receiving what I deserve if it wasn't for Him. We love His ascension. I love
the fact that death could not hold my Savior. His death accomplished
my redemption because He's not dead anymore. He's on His throne
now. He laid down His life. He took
it up again. That's the power of God. And I love His Lordship. You hear people say, I'll not
have a God that rules over my will be my God. I love a God
who rules over my will. Because I know the darkness that
my will was in for 40 years. Do you? Do you know the darkness
that you once walked in? Do you not see the love of God
in His grace? How He came to us when we were
dead in trespasses and sin and gave us life? Three times in the Psalms we
read this. In Psalms 80, Turn us again,
O Lord, God of hosts. Cause thy face to shine, and
we shall be saved. In Lamentations, we read this,
chapter 5, verse 21, "...turned thou us unto thee, O LORD, and
we shall be turned." These folks, people could see that they had
turned from the idols that they had once served, and they serve
the living and true God now. I'm going to talk a little bit
about James Luper. What a joy to my heart it is
seeing a man who I'd have never thought. I'm kind of glad he's
not here today, because I don't want to embarrass him. But what
a joy it is to see that that man came here for a different
reason, to meet another man who never showed up. And he sat here,
and for the very first time in his life, he heard about the
true and living God. He heard that there was another
Jesus being preached in other pulpits. One who had no power.
One who was waiting for men to do something before he could
accomplish his own will. James says, that's the God I
ran from 30 years ago. I left the church never to go
back to it. This is my church now." And he
said that in tears, right here in the back room. He says, I'm
coming here. And you've seen it. The Lord
has done a work in that man. That's what happened with these
Thessalonians. God did a work in their hearts,
just like He has done a work in ours. And He did it because
He loved us from everlasting. How is it we are turned from
idols of this flesh and turned to the son of the true and living
God? Is it something we just got smarter
about? No. No. According to the word of truth,
we were dead and totally depraved. We were depraved of any ability
to bring ourselves to Him. We had no desire for Him. We were enmity to His ways. We were not subject to His laws,
nor could we be. It is only through the preaching
of His Word, the Word of Truth, the Spirit of God reveals the
Son of the living God to the lost dead sinner. We read in
Ephesians 2.4, Probably verses that every one of us here could
quote without ever blinking an eye, but God, but God, who is
rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us, hath given us life, quickened
us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved, and hath raised
us up together and made us to sit in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kingdom toward
us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are we saved through
faith, and that not of ourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works,
lest men should boast. It is grace. It is all grace. It is God's grace. We merit nothing. Salvation is of the Lord. The
works of our flesh merit nothing, and in fact, our works can become
our very idol. Lord, turn us again. Shine Thy
face in mercy and grace upon us. Guide our steps to give You
the glory. How are we turned from idols?
How are we turned from our pride? How are we turned from our self-righteousness? We are turned by His grace and
love for us. John 15, 9, we read this, And
as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. God loved us. It bothers me when
somebody stands on the street corner crying out to everybody
walking by, Jesus loves you. I want to yell back at him, how
do you know? How do you know? Look at the verse on the front
of today's bulletin with me, if you would, please. And we know that the Son of God
has come and has given us an understanding that we may know
Him that is true. And we know and we are in Him
that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true
God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Amen. Now look with me again
at verse 10 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. and to wait for His
Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which
delivered us from the wrath to come." These dear folks in Thessalonica,
not only were they professing who the true and living God was,
they were waiting for His Son from heaven. The very one that
Israel had put to death, but God had raised from the dead,
this Jesus. who had delivered us from the
wrath that we deserve. We turn from our idols to love
and serve God, who lives and is the true God. We turn from
our eternal idols, our pride, our self-love, our lusts, ambitions,
rebellion, to submit to His will and providence. When we say the
collapse of the towers in New York was God's will, people look
at us and say, how dare you say that? Our God is love. He would never do that. To say your God has no power
to do what He wants is an abomination. Our God rules everything. We
submit everything to His will. We turn from our external idols,
not only of false ideas of who God is and religious ceremonies,
but from materialism. I don't worship this. I do this to remember what he's
done for me. I don't worship this. I did this because he told me
to do so. to declare to those around me
that I believe in Him. I don't come here on Sunday and
worship the day that I'm here. I worship the One who made Sunday. We look forward to and await
the return of our Lord and Savior who died for our sins, who was
raised from the dead and is seated at the Father's right hand. He
will come again. You believe this and wait on
His coming? Let me close by reading three
sections of our Lord's Word. In John 14, 3, And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto
Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. That's the Lord's
Word. He's talking to us. Do you believe? Acts chapter 1, verses 9-11,
And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He
was taken up, And a cloud received him out of their sight. And while
they looked steadfastly towards heaven, as he went up, behold,
two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye
men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come
in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven." He's coming
again. I believe it. And although I wished it would
be tomorrow, my true wish is Thy will be done. His will be done. If that means
I need to suffer this body a little longer. Look at how long suffering
He has been with us. And I'll close with these last
words from Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. God, who
at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the world, who being the brightness of his
glory, and the expressed image of his person, and the upholding
of all things by the word of his power, when he, this Jesus
Christ, This One who we put all our faith in because He has loved
us and given us the ability to believe and have faith in Him,
when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right
hand of the Majesty on high. Declaring that, the very sovereignty
of our Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The world looks at that and says,
huh? How can you say that? I have a will. The people of
God look at that and say, that's the power of God. Stand with me if you would.