Alright, 1 Thessalonians 1. Paul and Silas and Timothy under the church of 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. Make him mention of
you in our prayers. This is to the church. This is
unto the church. You know, every letter is to
the church. Those seven letters in the Revelation are all to
the churches, right? It says, He that hath an ear
to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. God's Word is His Word to His
people. So this is to the churches. Not
the world, but church, believers. This message tonight is to this
church. This church. Church of the Franklin-countians. Franklin-onians. Like the Thessalonians,
okay? You know, we gather on Wednesday
night, and I looked up wondering where it started. We've done
it all my life, and Dad, they did it growing up, and I looked
it up, Spurgeon did it, and it goes way back to the 18th century.
People began to meet on Wednesday night, churches, and they called
it prayer meeting. You remember calling it that when we were
young, prayer meeting? I actually remember, Tammy, you
may remember that, where several men would pray. before the preaching
of the word. I remember at the state prayer
meeting, which is a good thing. Most professing believers go
to church on Sunday out of duty, out of habits, to socialize,
whatever. Wednesday night is optional. By that, I mean, you know, we're
told to not forsake the assembly of ourselves together, and that's
on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week. That's the day
the church meets, but Wednesday is optional. It's by choice,
but I don't want to do anything else
to you. I'm glad we have this, aren't you? And so Wednesday
night generally is people that take great pains to get here. There's something in my eye. It takes some effort. It takes
some sacrifice to get here. Someone once said, if you want
to know the true church, go there on a Wednesday night. That's
a pretty good statement. People that really hunger and
thirst for the gospel. Paul kept thanking the Lord for
this church. Over and over and over. Both
letters. He kept thanking. Like Philippi.
Philippi. Go back there real quickly. Philippians 1. And we looked
at that, was it last week? But how the church at Philippi
got started with Lydia and Jailer and all that. And Philippians
1, he said in verse 3, I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you, always and every prayer of mine for you all, all of you,
making requests with joy for your fellowship. I thank God
for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. And he says the same thing to
this church at Thessalonica. verses 2 and 3, we give thanks
to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers.
Same thing. Chapter 2, look at chapter 2,
verse 13. He says, for this cause also
thank we God without ceasing. Because when you receive the
Word of God, you heard of us, you received it, not as the Word
of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God. And then verse
chapter 3, 1 Thessalonians 3, 9, what thanks can we render
to God again for you all, for the joy we're with you, joy for
your sake. And in chapter, the second letter,
it says it two or three more times. So he was so thankful
for the church at Thessalonica, and I'm so thankful for the church
at Franklin County, at Rocky Mountain, aren't you? So thankful. I pray for you, and you pray
for me, and I'm so thankful for you from the day I met you until
now. I thank the Lord for the church. The church is all churches put
together. The church in heaven and earth. I thank the Lord for all the
body of Christ, don't you? Every local church. I thank the
Lord for them. There's some people probably
listening right now. Bethel Baptist Church. Oh, I thank the Lord
for that church. Johnny and Tommy, if you're listening,
don't you thank the Lord for your church. That church there. Ginger. San Diego Grace Fellowship. Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church.
All in all, we could name them all, don't you? love God's church
and thank God for His churches. But I'm especially thankful that
I have a place to call my own, a family, a local body of believers.
Aren't you? I'm a member of this church.
I am. This is my church. And the little
flock that I've been united to by sovereign grace and amazing
providence. You have a story. I have a story.
how we were united. And I wanted to preach, actually
wanted to preach from Psalm 84, but I preached, I keep talking
about that over and over again. It made me think of this. Psalm
84, let me just quote you a little bit of it. One of my favorites.
It talks about the amiable tabernacles, how lovely God's churches are. He says, My soul longeth for
the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out
for Him. He went on to say that that bird that builds a nest
on the wall is blessed. She's found a place to raise
her young. How about you? I'm telling you, it's a good
place to raise your young. They're going to be well-fed
from God's Word. Well-fed. And led by example. Some godly, faithful people.
He went on to say, blessed are they that dwell in thy house.
How blessed are God's people that dwell in His house. He says, they will be still.
Praise Him. John, you can read that two or
three ways, can't you? They'll be still. Be still and
know that I'm God. We say that over and over again.
We need to hear that all the time now. We need to come in
here, out of that wild place, out of the wilderness, and sit
down and be still and know that He's God. And it goes on to say,
they will be still praising Him. That is, from day one, the church
at Philippi, you thank God for them believing and receiving
the gospel from the day he met them until many years later. Lydia, John the jailer, Lydia
and Larry, John the jailer, his wife Jane, they all were faithful. I want to be faithful. I want
to die in faith. If I live to be 98, I want to
be sitting in that pew. I don't want to be standing up
here in that pew. I want to be sitting in that pew. And Josh
will be the pastor here. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Josh
would be a good name to lead God's church. But he went on to say in Psalm
84, Oh Lord, he said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper. I'd rather just
be a doorkeeper, a porter, a singer, a dishwasher in God's house than
it be anywhere else. How about you? I know it's so
with you. I see it in your face. Bethesda
and Nica, do you know the story behind that? We looked at Philippi. I go to Acts 17. Acts 17. Paul and Silas just
got out of jail in Philippi. Okay? They just got out of jail,
and they were preaching there, and the Lord raised up a church,
and they just got out of jail, and they left Lydia's house. They stayed with Lydia a good
while, and you know she didn't want to see them together. They
didn't have a pastor. And Paisley, and Silas, and Timothy
joined them, and they were leaving. Don't you know that was sad?
But the Lord gave them somebody, I think it was a paparazzi, who
got sick, you remember. But they walked 60 miles to Thessalonica. They walked 60 miles. They passed by two pretty big
cities. Passed through. Didn't stop. That's how the Lord does things.
He's got certain churches in certain cities, certain people
He's elect and He passes by. Our Lord passed through Jericho,
didn't He? One of the biggest cities of
that day. I don't know how many hundred thousand people, something
like that. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't even stop. He walked through
that. He healed a blind man coming in and Zacchaeus on the way out.
and cursed that whole city. That's sovereign election. The
gospel came here. The Lord Jesus Christ passed
by a lot of towns and came here with the gospel. Oh, how blessed
we are. Don't ever forget that. Don't
ever forget that. They walked 60 miles. You know,
I came further than they did to get here. And I did. 195 miles. You say, you drove. I know it. But I would have walked
if I had to. I really would have. And I came
through Central America. That's what five-mile mountains
like. When Ed Berry gave me directions,
I thought, I'm lost. I'm in Africa. Honestly. But, you know, John and Paul
were on a missionary journey. John Chapman and this Paul were
on a missionary journey back in 85. And Ed gave me direct... John stayed in Rainer Floyd preaching
and I came over here and he gave me... Ed gave me directions because
I was supposed to come straight to the church house. I thought,
I'm lost. I'll never get there. Okay, coming
down this road of 40 and I pulled out, no GPS, you know, coming
out, there it is. There's a church. Boy, I was
so happy to find it. Came in here, there's love at
first sight. Although, I only remember one person really well,
and it's Barbara Ross. That one was unforgettable. I
think she probably said something that embarrassed me. Could be,
couldn't be. But, oh, she loved the gospel,
didn't she, and you did, and some sitting right here that
were there then. And it was love, and Paul fell in love with these
people at this time. Acts 17, he came there in verse
3, and he preached three weeks, three Sabbath days, opening and
alleging, here's what he preached, verse 3, that Christ must needs
have suffered. He preached the gospel of Christ
and Him crucified. That's who we preach, and that's
what we preach. over and over again. And they must rise again
from the dead that this Jesus, this man named Jesus, God hath
made him Lord and Christ. That's who we, he said, whom
I preach unto you is Jesus Christ. We preach Christ in Him crucified.
Determined not to know anything else. Three don't. And some believe, verse 4, they
consorted with Paul and Silas. They talked to them. They asked
questions. They had fellowship with them.
They had them in their home. And to stay with them. They were
there three weeks. They needed some place to stay.
I stayed with the Barrys and stayed with Henry and Roberta. I believe it was Stan and Sherry.
And I did with many of them. And I've been friends ever since. Brothers and sisters, so did
Paul and Silas. It says the devout Greeks, a
great multitude, Jews and Greeks. See, God breaks down that barrier. I thought there's an old saying,
opposites attract. No, not by nature. But the Lord
Jesus makes opposites attract. He makes Jews and Gentiles, couldn't
get more opposite. He brings them together with
one common bond, one tie that binds the gospel of Christ. He
breaks down that wall, that enmity and makes a two, one man. And
old, young, male, female, black, and white. Old brother Henry
Sword, when I first came here, he was, he was, I don't know,
30, Joe, 25 years older than me. But we were bosom buddies. Nobody I'd rather spend time
with. Nobody. And God breaks down and He makes
two, one person united, and Paul was united to these people. And it says that the chief women,
not a few, but the Jews, the diversified, believed not, unbelievers,
moved with envy, and they caused trouble. And Paul's going to
write about that. how they suffered persecution,
and they grabbed hold of a man named Jason. And finally, Paul and Silas were
kicked out of town, like Philippi. That's the way it is. Now he's
away. Now go back to 1 Thessalonians.
Now he's away, and he writes to them, thanking God for them
and expressing His love and Silas and Timothy's love for the people
there. All right, so let's look at it.
This is the letter. How do you think the people were
reading this letter? The people at this time? How do you think?
They didn't have a Bible. It was a letter, a handwritten
letter from Paul, whom they hadn't seen in a long, long time. They
loved him. They learned the gospel from
him. How do you think they listened to this letter? on the edge of
their seat. And after somebody read it, I
don't know who read it, somebody said, just read it again. Read
it again. Same thing. You know it? And
to write the same things to you is not grievous to me. It's our
love in it. This is our love. So he says
to the church at Thessalonica, the church at Rocky Mountain,
The church at Kingspool. Grace be unto you. Peace, grace,
all grace. God of all grace. Peace from
God our Father. Peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
who made peace by the blood of his cross. Christ said, My peace
I give unto you. My peace I leave unto you. Leave
with you. My peace I give unto you. Peace.
We have peace, don't we? We have peace with God. There's
no peace anywhere else. We have peace in Christ. We have
peace. Our Lord reigns and rules. That gives us peace. I can sleep
at night. For Thou only makest me to dwell
in safety. He's our Lord. He's our Savior. He's our Christ, Messiah. He's
coming back for us. Verse 2, We give thanks to God
always for you all. Prayer. Prayer is a mark of love. If you really love someone, you
pray for them. And it's the best thing you can
do for somebody. Pray for them. I earnestly covet your prayers
for me. Spurgeon, someone asked him one
time what he attributed, this is what they asked, what he attributed
to the success of his ministry, and he said, The grace of God
and the prayers of my people. They pray for me. But, you know,
it's hard to pray for your enemies, isn't it? Be honest. I try. There's some people that, well,
I wish the Lord would either save them or kill them. But the Lord said, pray for them. Pray for those that despitefully
use you. And you know what happens when
you do that? It softens you. It softens your heart. It humbles
you. Pray. Pray. He said we pray for
you always, making mention of you in our prayer. Verse 3, remembering
without ceasing your work of faith. Three things he is thinking
of and thanking God for, their work of faith, Their labor of
love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, the sight
of God and our Father. Work of faith. You wouldn't call
worship in support of the gospel work, would you? You'd call this
work. It's rest. But this is a good
work. You know that? Meeting together
is a good thing. It's a good thing. Give thanks
unto the Lord, to sing His praises, to meet together, to support
the gospel. You don't call that a burden,
do you? Sacrifice? To support the gospel? To support me so that I can sit
in that study and study and study and study so I can feed you?
You don't call that work, do you? It's a privilege. Anything that needs to be done
around here, most of you do it with such willingness and such
love, but our Lord calls it a good work. He calls it a good work,
a work of faith. You really believe God and you
want to support his gospel and those who preach it and just
want to have a place to meet and you want to entertain, be
hospitable to the saints when they come and feed them, don't
you? That's not work. Is that work? Our sister, you
know who it is, I ask her, I thank her all the time for feeding
people. She said, no, it ain't nothing. Every time, it ain't
nothing. She just prepared three tons
of food. It ain't nothing. It is something. It's a good work. It's a work
of faith, isn't it? The Lord acknowledges it. Work
of faith. David said, let me be a porter,
let me be a singer, let me be a sweeper of the streets of God's
house. It'd make me real happy. Somebody said there were two
angels sent down from heaven, one to rule a country and the
other one to sweep the streets. And neither one of them argued
over which job they got. Both were under the Lord. Both needful, vital, one as much
as the other. Right? What a privilege. And whatever is done in faith
and love to our Lord and His people and His house is a good
work. The very first message I preach
to you, the very first Sunday, is your pastor from 2 Corinthians
4, therefore seeing we have this ministry. We. Not me. We. We. It's us. We're in this thing together.
The work of faith. And he thanks the Lord for their
labor of love. Their labor of love. I love to
study. But much study is a weariness
to the blade. This is where I'm sitting down there. I've got
this nice window and a bird feeder and trees and little benches
out there. Those little benches are constantly,
all day long, calling my name. Come out here. But no, I've got
to study. I get to study. I get to go to
work. I get to study. And sometimes
I think, well, I wish everybody was here right now. I think I'm
in the inners, the holy of holies. But it's a joy and if the Lord
blesses the preaching of it, it's a privilege. It's a privilege
and it's a labor of love to study and to feed you and you feed
me. It's a labor of love. It's a
labor of love. Do you not love God's people,
the house of God and the worship of God? Mary chose that, and
God said it's the best part. Christ said she chose the best
part, and you know what He said? It will not be taken from her.
It will not be taken from her. Mary chose to sit at Christ's
feet. By the grace of God, she chose, because Christ chose her.
But she chose, this is where I want to sit, at His feet. And it's where you found her
all the time. And you know where you found her right now? seeing
his feet. That's where I want to be found.
Don't you, Kelly, when it's all over, don't you want to be sitting
right beside Mary Magdalene? It's Rahab between Rahab and
Mary. At the feet of our Lord. And
then he said in verse 3, we give thanks always to God for your
patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Patience
of hope. Scripture says the trial of our
faith worketh patience. And patience experience. Experience
hope. Patience of hope. What that means
is patiently, believingly, in faith, submitting to and bowing
to the Lord's will in everything, in trial. Patience. Waiting on
the Lord. Hoping, believing, trusting in
the Lord. Trusting Him. Sunday I talked
about the purpose of trials, didn't we? In the first message.
I told you, and it's true, the first reason, the primary purpose,
is that we might exhibit a good testimony, witness a good profession. It says of our Lord, He witnessed
a good profession before Pontius Pilate, didn't it? He willingly... Do you know how
much pain he was in? No, you don't. Every inch of
his body was hurting him. Blood poured down his face. They
beat him in a stomping, you know how much pain he was in? He just
took it. The pilot was so impressed. He
said, no, the man. Never seen a man like that. I
want to wit, this is a good profession, don't you? Well, you have. I've seen it. I've seen many
patiently endure, hoping in His mercy, patiently endure in this
trial. I've seen many. I've seen people
deathly sick, riddled with cancer, attending every service until
they couldn't come again because they couldn't walk again. I've told you this several times,
but my sister was just emaciated from cancer. A healthy, robust
woman, a vital member of the church. The Lord gave her cancer.
And she wasted away down to about 90 pounds. Of course, she was
bedridden, couldn't get out of bed. She was in every service
until she couldn't get out of bed. And some of her dying words
were, Life is not worth living if you
can't go worship the Lord. I want that to be my diet, don't
you? And it isn't. What's life about? Christ is life. He's life. These are words of life. Words
of life. I've seen many deathly sick.
Many. Many. I've seen many deathly sick in
the worship service until they were unable. I've seen many lose
their spouse, lose a child, and be in the next
worship service rejoicing in the Lord. My buddy, that's of
the Lord. And that's a good testimony.
That really brings him glory. It really does. Patience of hope. That dear couple
right there lost a son, and I preached at the gravesite, and they're
both smiling at me. Hearts breaking but smiling because
you believed the promises. You had hope, didn't you? In
God's mercy and grace. Patience of hope in our Lord.
He is our hope, isn't He? He is our hope. We hope in his
mercy. We hope in his goodness. We hope
in his wisdom. We hope in his providence. We
hope in his sovereignty. We hope in his blood and his
righteousness. We hope, we hope, we hope, we hope. It's not a
hope, a hope, a hope, a rabbit's foot hope. It's a good hope. It's a sure hope. The only reason
it's called hope is because we're not there yet, but we're as good
as there because Christ is there. We're seated with him in heaven.
It's hope. We're saved by hope. And our
hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Dare not trust this reason. And he said this in the sight
of God, verse 3. It's in the sight of God and
our Father. We don't do things to be seen of men, do we? Huh? But I know this. God the Father
sees us. I used to think my father was
omnipresent. I couldn't get by with anything. My mother, I thought, had the
keenest sense of hearing and smell, because I couldn't get
by with anything. Our Father sees all, knows all,
hears all. David even said, there's not
a tear that I have shed that God hadn't put in His bottle. Didn't you hear every cry of
those babies when they were born? Didn't you know what was going
on, huh? Were they ever out of your mind
or your heart? No, we are God's people. You may be 50, 60, 70
years old, 80, 90 years old, but you're still His little child. You're still His little child.
If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more? Whatever grace and love you have
and show to your children, you've got it from God. And His is infinite. Infinite greater. He sees. He
knows. He knows. What was I about? Oh,
listen to this. Paul wrote to the Hebrews and
he said this, listen, God is not unrighteous to forget your
work and labor of love which you've showed toward his name
in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. Did
you hear that? God is not unrighteous to forget
your work and labor of love. He knows. He knows. There's nothing
anybody's... He said it. There's nobody left.
Houses and land and father, mother, son or daughter or anything,
for my sake and the gospel, they won't be rewarded a hundredfold
in this time with persecution, but an eternal life in the world
to come. He repays every kindness. Every
loan, he repays with interest. Every gift, you can't out-give
the Lord. You cannot out-give the Lord. He delights. He's more blessed to give than
to receive, and he's the blessed one. He does it. He giveth and
giveth and giveth again. So, he sees it. It's all done
in his sight. Look at our text. Knowing brethren,
verse 4, beloved, beloved of God, beloved of Paul, beloved
of mine. Knowing brethren, beloved of
the Lord, your elect, your election of God. I know you're one of
God's elect. I know you are. I know you're
one of God's elect. I know you are. Say, Paul, Paul,
can you read the Lamb's book of life? Yes. Have you ever thought this is
the Lamb's Book of Life? There's one book, really. You
know that? Are you with me? This is the
Lamb's Book of Life. This is where His people's names
are written. This is how you know you're in
His Kingdom. Is your name written here? What's
your name? Senator? And your name's written
in the blind book of life. Faithful saying. Christ came
to save sinners. I know you're one of the left.
You say, you can't read. I had a fellow actually take issue
with me over there. But he's not taking issue with
me. He's taking issue with Paul. Paul said, I know you're one
of the left, God's elect. Paul, have you read the book?
Yes. Right here it is. Listen. Here's what John said. Listen. One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight verses. John said, Our Lord said first,
By this shall all men know you are my disciples. Didn't he?
You have loved one today. John said, Hereby we do know
that we have passed from death unto life. Didn't he? John said,
We know that we have passed from death unto life. Hereby we do
know that we know him and are in him. That's true. Are you
with me? This is in this book. Hereby
we do know that we are of the true. Hereby we know that we
dwell in Him. These things are written that
you may know that you have eternal life. He said we know that we
are of God and the whole world lies in the wickedness. We know
that the Son of God has come and given us an understanding
that we might know Him as true. In Him that is true. Paul said,
Know ye not your own selves how that Christ is in you, lest ye
be a reprimand? Is Christ in your heart by faith? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Do you? Your name is in the Lamb Book of Life. That's
who's in the book. Do you believe Christ? Do you
believe Christ is all your salvation? Do you? No, you don't believe
Him like you ought to. No, you don't believe Him like
you want to. No, you don't believe Him like you're going to. But
do you believe Him? Why? Your name's in the book. You can read your name in the
loud book of life. It's for believers. Believer. Is Christ your only hope? Is
Christ your only plague? What is it that puts away sin?
Give me one word. Blood. Really? You believe that? When I see the blood, it's written. I'll pass over who? He doesn't
give a name there. He doesn't give a particular
name. A surname, a first name. He says, You! I believe the blood. You! Your name's in the name
of the man. That's what Paul said. I know
your name. He said, our gospel. This is the gospel. There is
no other gospel. It's the gospel of Christ. The
gospel of a sovereign God. The living and true God who is
God. Who chose you. Who are the elect? There are people that know God
doesn't elect you. Do you know how few people believe
that there's an election, that God made an election before the
world began? All of God's people do. There's
not one exception. All the elect of God whose names
are in the Lamb's Book of Life believe that it was God that
chose them and they didn't choose God. Every one of them. Ask somebody, Abraham, did you
choose God or did you choose Jesus? He'd say, Seriously? Are
you kidding me? He said, I was seventy-five years
old and I had doctors steeped in my idolatry. came by one day and said, Abram,
you're mine. Simon Peter, did you choose God
or did He choose you? Seriously? Boats were my life. Nets were my life. Fishing was
my life. I never gave God a thought. But
one day, Jesus Christ walked by and said, follow me. He chose
me. Just name someone. Jacob, you
love God or He love you? Who's elect? Every one of them
know God did the electing. And the gospel, our gospel, you
see this is part of the gospel and it started with the gospel,
the salvation of God's people started with God choosing the
people before the world began and put their name in the Lamb's
Book of Life. And sealed it. And it'll never
be opened and it can't be taken out. Christ came for those elect and
He died on Calvary's tree and shed His precious blood for the
remission of their sin and put away every single one of their
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Nothing else did it but Christ
on the cross and His blood. Nothing. And His righteousness
was imputed to them. Do you believe this? Is this
your hope? Do you know how few people know
or care about the righteousness of Christ? The heart and soul
of the gospel is not. And then Christ rose proving
who He was and what He did is effectual and went back to the
right hand of the majesty on high and sat down and the Holy
Spirit comes through the preaching of the gospel. That's how these
people at Thessalonica heard the gospel. Paul preached it
to them. Where did you first hear the
gospel? A preacher? Yes, you did. Yes, you did. I did. I did. Because that's
how God, that's what God chose. The foolishness, what the world
calls foolishness. The world says, don't preach
to me. You know what I say? Preach to me. Please. Our gospel came, the gospel,
unto you, not in word only, not in doctrine only, not in words
on paper, but in power. You know, I'll never forget when
the Lord first began to speak to me, but He's been speaking
to me in power ever since. Not always, not every time. You
hope, you wish. You know, when I preach, before
preaching, I beg the Lord, let me preach with some authority,
some power, and it doesn't always work out that way. Or does it?
Because it's not me, it's not my abilities, it's the Word.
It's what God does with the Word. Sometimes the Word of God comes
home to your heart. That's how it began then. That gal right there steeped
in religion, that Jew right there, steeped in religion. My mother,
both of them, from Alabama. Steeped in religion, Southern
Baptist Methodist, all right? She said, she came, when she
first came, she heard me say, that's all she heard me say,
that God doesn't love everybody. And she said, I'm going home
to prove him wrong. I'm going to get my Bible out and read
you. And she did. You know what? She couldn't prove me wrong.
And she came back. And there she sits, believing. My mother, My mother was in Southern Baptist
religion. Listen to this, Robert. This
is hilarious. She was a secretary for one of the largest, E.J.
Daniels, one of the biggest evangelists known in the South at that time.
She was personal secretary. Went to Bob Jones University.
Armenian to the core. She was secretary. Well, they
had a parade and they had this big devil, this big puppet devil
on a wagon, and she was in on it. And they ran the devil out
of town. Didn't you? She was right in
the middle of that. Run the devil out of town. And mom said later,
he came back. From that to this, daylight and
dark. Death, life. Religion, Christ. That's power. Steeped in it,
her parents were in it. God saved both of them. My dad
was an Armenian preacher. God loves you, Jesus died for
you. Power. Ralph Barnard. That's what Barnard
said. He stood up. And he said, the
two biggest lies ever been told at a tent meeting in Ashland,
Kentucky. A tent meeting. Everybody from every church in
that county came to that tent meeting, not unawares of what
they were going to hear. John the Baptist came to town.
And Barnard got up and the first thing he said was, the two biggest
lies ever been told. One is that God loves everybody.
The other one is Jesus died for everybody. He said, ain't neither
one of them so. And dad said, you could hear everybody's jaw
hit the floor. Well buddy, God took that and
just split hearts and split churches. Power. Our preaching was a demonstration
of the Spirit of God. And it's power that saves, it's
power that calls, it's power that brings us, it's power that
keeps us. We're kept by the power of God.
The gospel is the power of God. That's all we do here. That's
all we've ever done here. That's all we ever will do by
the grace of God. Is that going to keep you coming?
You better believe it. You better believe it. Power. The gospel is the power of God.
Ready to have a human being say, I don't want you to do anything
but preach the gospel to me. While the whole world's saying,
OK, we've heard that, let's do something else. Not God's people. Throughout eternity, there's
a gospel in it, it's crying. Kept by the power of God, a Holy
Ghost, he said. The gospel came through the Holy
Ghost. What's the Holiest Ghost do?
We just looked at this. Our Lord told us what the Holy
Ghost does. He takes the things of Christ and shows them unto
you. And keeps showing to where you absolutely believe He's the
Christ. You absolutely trust Him with
all your heart. The Holy Ghost. And much assurance.
Don't you like this? Verse 5. Much assurance. You
know, sometimes I have full assurance. I have full assurance part of
the time. You know when I have full assurance?
When I'm hearing the gospel preaching. Because assurance is in Christ
the surety. That's the root word of assurance. If Christ is your surety, if
you believe in Him who is the surety of an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and what? Sure, then you've got assurance.
Because it's nothing you do, it's everything He did. It's
nothing you do but everything God promised and gave to Christ
to do on your behalf. That's assurance. There's two
things I'm absolutely certain of. Two things I have full assurance
of. That I'm a sinner and Christ
is the only Savior. That's assurance. That's assurance. I got to quit. He says, you know
what manner of men we were among you. You became followers of
us, verse 6, and of the Lord. Can you follow a man? Well, Paul
said for them to follow me, follow those that follow Christ. We
follow the example of Abraham. We follow the example of Jacob.
We follow the example of David. We follow the example of Paul,
and Peter, and James, and John, Henry, Henry the sword, Henry
Mayhem, Scott, and you name it. Examples of the faith. In verse
6 he says, you received the word in much affliction. When you
first heard the gospel, you went home, you told your family, you
told your former friends, you told your neighbors of gospel,
what happened? Did they love it? Huh? Did it make them happy? He says in verse 7, you were
examples. You remember the trouble that
we read about in Acts 17? And from you sounded out the
Word of the Lord. What do you talk to people about?
What is it? Why do you want people to come to this church? Is it
for the music? Is it for the youth program,
the programs for our youth? Is it for our summer vacation
Bible school? Huh? What is it? The Word of the Lord. It's the
Word. If you want people to come here,
you'll hear God's Word. You'll hear the Word. The Word
of the Lord. Amen. And your examples sounded
out the Word. And your faith, verse 8, I've
got to quit, your faith to God where it is spread abroad, you
left your idols to serve the living and true God, and you're
waiting on His Son. And he says over and over again,
we thank God for you. And he said, I don't have to
talk about you because everybody knows you. That's what he said. He said, the church is everywhere.
I've heard of the church at Thessalonica. Same here, isn't it? Everywhere
I go to pray. Doesn't matter where it is. Tell
that John Davis I said hello. John is not a church I go to
that don't say that. I know he is. I read him. Is
that Kelly Pender still going to? Yep. Tell him I said hello. And on and on it goes. Thank God for this church. Thank
God, because he gets all the glory. It wouldn't be one of
us sitting here if it wasn't for his grace. All right, stand
with me.