In the fullness of this trust,
that is, casting on Him all our care, asking for all that we
need, in the fullness of this trust, we shall lose every care. I'd like to learn that. Trust
it. Do not you find yourselves Reading
more and more, seeing that in the Scripture. Trust, trust,
trust, trust, trust. Oh, to trust Him more. 1 Thessalonians
5. How we love God's Word, don't
we? They truly are words of life. In a dead and dying world, the
Word of God quickens us. God just leads us, feeds us,
protects us. a breastplate to give us faith
and love and defense, like a helmet to guard our heads from all that
we're hearing. It gives us this great hope of
salvation. I love God's Word. We love God's
Word. The closing verses here are exhortations to the church. And nearly every person in this
room A profession to believe God, to believe Christ. This
is to the Church, is to the Brethren. Words of exhortation. The word
exhort means to come near. I want to tell you something,
something you need to hear, to urge. That's something urgent. You need to hear this. Come closer. Like our Lord, when He stood
up that day, He said, Come unto Me. All you that labor. He exhorts
us to many things here. Verse 14, And we exhort you,
brethren. He's writing on behalf of His
constant companions, Paul and Silas and Timothy. We exhort
you, brethren. Urge you, brethren, to warn them
that are unruly. And there's about 12 or 13 things
here in these verses. A couple of years ago, I took
this verse and wrote it down and put it on my desk. But I
left out that first line, warn the unruly. Why? Because that's
hard to do. And that's something I don't
like to do. And something, by God's grace, I thank God I have
very rarely had to, in the last, in the 30 years, 31 now that
I've been here, I can count on one hand the times I've had to
actually tell somebody and warn somebody. Unruly, somebody that
would not be led, somebody that would not. And I'm so thankful,
so thankful for that. So now I'm going to go on, but
I won't. It talks about the unruly. It
means those who will not submit to and be under the leadership
of those who have the rule over and follow direction. It's somebody
who causes some strife and some division. It's usually a very
subtle thing. It's usually in the way of criticism. It's usually in the way of innuendos
and suggestions. And I think, why don't we this? Why don't we that? I don't like
this. It's a subtle thing. tells us, don't let that go on. Don't catch it in yourself, and
if you hear somebody else say, brother, we don't need that. We need unity. Plenty of fault
to find in all of us. All right, let me go on now.
Comfort the feeble-minded. There's some who will always
be feeble for one reason or another. Old become feeble. And we're
all going to get that way. You know, there are only two
men in scripture, Caleb and Moses, who stayed just as strong in
body and mind when they were 80 years old as when they were
30. Just two men. Caleb and Joshua,
that's it. David was old and feeble at 70.
Most of us will grow very feeble-minded, almost revert back to our childhood. We will. It's sad, but it's true. So he
says comfort the feeble-minded. What's the comfort? Well, all
through these verses he's talking about the coming of Christ. Comfort
one another with these words. Yes, it's all about to end, but
no. It's all about to begin. Life is just about to really
begin. Life more abundant. Joy unspeakable. Verse 18 of chapter 4. Comfort
one another with these words. Verse 11 of chapter 5. Comfort
yourselves together. That's why we gather together.
Everywhere I look it tells us to gather together. It's a comfort. We comfort one another. No, we're
edifying one another. Many are spreading fear. We're
trying to build up faith, trust in our Lord. But comfort the
feeble-minded. Understand. I, more than anybody
I guess, need to understand that some are feeble-minded. Support
the weak. Support the weak. There are those
that are going to be weak in the faith. That's what that means.
Support the weak. spiritual, restore them, the
weak in the faith. You know, we're all, maybe all of us have some kind
of strong point and some kind of weak point. We all do. And
you may be stronger about something than I am. I may be, and vice
versa. But this thing of the faith,
Anybody in here feel like he has strong faith? Hmm? I have to act like I do. I have to encourage you. Remember Paul said, who's weak
and I'm not weak. David, I'm poor and needy, but
we're all weak aren't we? He says, support the weak. What's
our support? What's our stay? What do we lean
on? Where do we go to to need support,
to be lifted up, to be, you know, when we get cast down, we get
so ready to fall, to fail? God's aware. Be patient, verse 14, be patient
toward all. Oh my. See, brethren, I am so feeble
in all these areas. So feeble. I told the previous
second shift that my dad, you know, right now I feel I need
him more than ever, but he's not here. And I'd like to go
back, Mack. Wouldn't you like to go back
when you were a boy and really listen to what your dad had to
say? And I said to Stephen, we'd stay
at home until about 50. Let him do all the decisions. Oh man, I feel so weak. Patience? Patience. Who needs patience? And I don't need patience. Waiting.
Waiting on the Lord. Patience with all men. We all
love Titus chapter 3 where he says, be patient, he said, speak
evil of no man, don't be a brawler, be gentle, showing all meekness
unto all men, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish,
sometimes still are, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lust,
that describes everybody by nature, in pleasure, living in malice
and envy, hateful and hating, but after the kindness of God,
The love of God, our Savior, toward man, appeared to us that
He shed on us abundantly. We ought to be patient, John.
We ought to be patient with that. Look at the next thing. In 1
Thessalonians 5, verse 15, says, See that none render evil for
evil to anybody. It's hard not to want to lash
out. Our Lord. It says when He was reviled,
He reviled not again. It's hard to take in it, especially
when you're wrongly accused. Everything they said about Him
was wrong. False witnesses, everybody. He didn't deserve any of that.
We deserve, like Shimeicus David, we deserve a whole lot more than
that. Our Lord didn't deserve any of that, but He just committed
Himself to Him who judges righteously. Don't return evil with evil. Don't do it. Look at verse 14. Verse 15. Ever follow that which is good,
both among yourselves and all men. This is the best course.
This is the wise course. This is the only course. This
is what the Lord commands. And it shall be well. Don't render evil. Return evil
with good. Someone was going through a terrible, well, a failed marriage, and
the other person did not want to reconcile. And they were just
being very cruel. And this person said, what should
I do? I said, well, the Lord said, if your enemy hungers, You do what you know you should.
You have no control over what they do. But it may be that they
will be won by this gentle, patient, kind way. It may be. That's how the Lord won us in
it. So, verse 16. Rejoice evermore. Rejoice evermore. Oh, how I need this. You may not know it. Maybe you
do know it. But I am prone to melancholy. I confess, I hate it. Mindy's
all the time trying to cheer me up. I hope and pray it's a burden
that I have. And also, you know, my own sin
is ever before me. How would we need to rejoice
in all things? We have innumerable reasons to
rejoice. Paul said this in Philippians,
didn't he? Remember, he wrote the church
at Philippi. Where was he when he wrote that
letter to Philippi? In jail. He in silence. And he's writing to the church
telling them, cheer up! Rejoice! In everything, this
is the will of God in Christ concerning you. Rejoice. He kept
saying that. Finally, brother, rejoice. In
what? Why should I? In the Lord. That's what he said
in Philippians 3.1. He is Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. He is Lord. He's our Lord. He's
the Lord over all. Boy, the world looks dark and
full of anguish and trouble and fearful and chaotic. The earth
is large. It belongs to Him. Be reigning, ruling over all. Nothing and no one rules but
Him. It's His. Everything is going
exactly the way God has ordered it. Rejoice! Well, I don't like
this. Stop murmuring in your tents
and start rejoicing. You know, this rejoicing, I think
it has to do with singing. Singing, making melody in your
hearts unto the Lord, Paul said that when he was in jail. Okay? And I'm learning this. More and
more I'm learning this from Scripture. Singing. David was always in
trouble. David was surrounded by danger.
David was surrounded by enemies. David, oh, he was down. He was
always down. He said, I'm quiet as I cast
down, O my soul. Hope in the Lord. Get up, David. Rejoice. He kept trying to remind
himself. He's got nothing to be down about.
And this is why David, I think, all through the Psalms, says,
sing, sing, sing. He ordered singing. He made himself
sing, didn't he? I'm learning this. You can't
be too down when you start singing. You can't. Rejoice in all things. Paul and
Silas went to Philippi to preach the gospel. The Lord sent him
there. He's the Lord. He had a church
there. They didn't know it. He was there
for a while. Nobody wanted to hear what he
had to say, so he was sitting in his room and he heard that
there were some women down by the river. Just a few women. He went down there and preached,
and I believe maybe just one opened in her heart, Lydia. Okay? Well, Paul started preaching
and the people in town didn't like it. So they threw him in
jail. Alright, he and Silas. So they're
in jail. Wondering, why did the Lord do this? They knew the Lord
did it. It's all of the Lord. It's everything.
Silas, Brother Silas, at midnight, they had chains on. At midnight. Paul woke up, and Silas said,
Silas, get up. Come on. Come on, let's start
singing. Rejoice, the Lord is King. The Lord and King adore. Rejoice, give thanks, and triumph
ever. They start singing all that.
You know what happened? They're changed and all. Those things that had them down,
sorrowful, trouble, the gates are open, like old Pilgrim in
Pilgrim's Progress, and doubting despair, and giant despair, and
doubting casualty. It's all right there. Rejoice
in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. The jailer
came running in. He heard them singing, and the
prisoners are hearing them sing. He woke everybody up. The jailer
came running in. What happened? The Lord saved
that old boy. In everything give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. They didn't know it, but they
did what they're telling us to do. Sing. The Lord's in this. This is happening, he said in
another place, to the furthest of the gospel. Silence. The Lord
has sent us here. Painful it may be. We're perplexed, but we're not
in despair. Let's sing. and buddy the chains
below." Hallelujah, Lord, get that here. Rejoice every moment. You see, it said there in verse
9, God has not appointed us to wrath. You know why God sent
this plague? Wrath. It is. Don't let anybody say it's not.
It is. But it's not wrath, God's people.
There is no wrath on God's people. That fell on Christ at Calvary
Tree. It's all good. It's all mercy.
It's all grace. I'm already seeing it, aren't
you? Read on. It says in verse 17, pray without
ceasing. Pray without ceasing. The Lord
said this, men ought always to pray. He did. The previous message
was from Luke 9 where it says the Lord was alone praying. He
woke up all the time, a great while before day, to pray. Get
along with his God and he prayed. Now if he prayed, if he felt
the need to pray, how much more should we? Pray without ceasing. He's the one that said men ought
always to pray. And he gave that parable of the
widow who was being treated unfairly and needed help. came to an unjust
judge and kept pleading and kept pleading to avenge her of her
adversary. And the judge finally said, unjust
fellow, okay, give her what she wants. I'm tired of her coming.
Give it to her so she'll go away. And our Lord said, shall not
the judge of the earth, shall not God avenge his very legs
which cry on him day and night? Lord, don't you hear it? Yes,
yes. He hears every prayer and every tear is in His model. But He's going to have to wait.
And you'll see. You'll pray it will be answered.
Pray without ceasing. Oh, pray without ceasing. This
letter began with Paul praying for them. He said, we give thanks
to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. In chapter 2, verse 13, he said,
for this cause we thank God without ceasing. You heard the Word of
God as it is in truth, the Word of God, not the words of man.
In chapter 3, he said, what thanks can we render to God again for
you? All the joy, night and day, praying exceedingly to see you
again. He tells us to pray, and He did. Always to pray. We need to pray for those that
aren't praying. That's what Job did for his children. Will God hear the prayers of
some for others on behalf of others? Yes, He will. On the cross, that prayer he
prayed was for those that hung him there. Father, forgive them. And the effectual, fervent prayer
of that righteous man availed everything. That's the word telling
that broke my proud heart. He doesn't know what he's doing. Brethren, pray. Pray, pray, pray. And he ends this, remember, by
saying, pray for us. Pray for us. If God's going to
save our children, our grandchildren, our friends, our neighbors around
here, it's going to be through the preaching of the gospel.
And it's this life. Pray. Verse 18. And everything
gives thanks. Everything gives thanks. This
is the will of God in Christ concerning you. The will of God
in Christ Jesus concerns you. Everything. Everything gives
thanks. Look at 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter chapter
5. This is good. What is going on
right now is very serious, isn't it? It's very, very serious. Very deadly. But for that matter,
there's even more death I gave you lots of statistics that people
just aren't seeming to listen to, but 600 and some thousand
people die a year in the United States alone from heart failure. 600 and some odd thousand people
die every year from cancer. And on and on it goes. A thousand
some odd people. A hundred and some people a day
commit suicide, and on and on it goes, just in the United States
alone. People can't see the forest for
the trees, but death is all around us, and this is a serious time,
it is. But the cause of Christ is being
served. The purpose of God is taking
its course, and the cause of Christ And what I see, see this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning His church. You, right now. What I see, I
myself personally, I'm calling on Him more than ever. Like Psalm
107. It seems that we really call
only when we get in trouble. Guilty? We're all guilty of that,
aren't we? I find myself calling. I find
myself just immersed in the Word more than ever. Lord, I need
answer. I need help. I need help. I need
help. I need help. I need help. I need trust. I need faith, Lord. I believe. Help my unbelief. It comes by
the Word. Just keep reading. And everything
I read is full of exceeding precious promises. Trust me, trust me,
trust me, trust me. Fear not, fear not, fear not,
fear not, fear not. Don't fear, don't fear, don't
fear. How many times are you going to tell us that? I guess
you're going to have to tell us all our lives. When this is gone,
something else will come up. What are we going to do? Read.
You know what he's going to tell us? Fear not. The thing we all fear more than
anything else, and we lie if you don't say you do, is death. If we really believed Him, we
wouldn't fear death. We wouldn't look forward to it,
sister. Wouldn't we? I wanted to preach
from 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 1, where Paul said, I have the
sentence of death in myself. Meaning, I'm ready to die. I know it's coming, whatever
the Lord sends or uses, the means of my death. He says, I'm ready
to depart and be with the Lord, which is far better. He says,
I have a desire to depart and be with the Lord. That's what he's saying. Brother
Mack, I'm not there. I think I have it. But not like
I want to. Because we have this fear of
death. Our Lord said, you'll never die.
Your mother's more alive than we are, Helen. My sister, my
dad. Man, we're down here in this
land of the dead. They're living it up. No fear whatsoever. And He keeps
telling us that. What did I tell you? 1 Peter
5? Yeah, look at verse 10. Now, the God of all grace who
hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that you have suffered a while, that he sends, he's going to
send it, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. Him
be glory and dominion forever and ever. And the last thing
he says, peace be with you. All that are in Christ. Amen. Now, what happened to Simon
Peer? Right after this. Crucified. He didn't hold his life dear.
He wasn't afraid. Oh Lord, help us in everything. Give thanks. This is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Go on. Quench not the spirit. Quench
not the spirit. I think this goes with giving
thanks. If we have a murmuring and fault
finding and melancholy and downcast spirit and attitude, it rubs
off. He said beware of the root of
bitterness. Let the roots of bitterness spring up and trouble
you, and thereby many are defiled. It affects everyone. It rubs
off. Fear breeds fear. Worry breeds worry. Bad attitude, being downcast,
breeds that. Strength breeds strength. Peace
breeds peace. And on and on it goes. He says,
quench not the Spirit, the Spirit of God. We're here to worship. We're
here to give thanks. We need to hear from our Lord. And we need to, first thing,
deny ourselves and leave ourselves in the car or home and come in
here to worship, to give thanks, to sing praises, to hear from
Him. and go home rejoicing, hopefully.
Anything less than that is going to bring our brethren down. It's going to quench their spirit.
Do you understand what he's saying? I really do. Verse 20, despise
not prophesying. That's preaching. Why would anybody
despise preaching? Why would they do that? Well,
God's little children don't, and that's why he said here the
word is little children. From, yes, a man, as a little child, eager to hear,
eager to learn, appreciated, preaching and a preacher. You
know, only a Pharisee tries to find fault with a preacher and
preaching. Only a proud Pharisee, that's
what they did with the Lord. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
finding fault? with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what they came to try to catch Him up at His Word. How much more did they do that
to Simon? Poor old Simon and James. Fishermen,
you know. Paul said, I'm a vain fabbler. You say, my bodily presence is
weak and your speech is contemptible. And nobody knew that more than
him. He said, my preaching, my speech
and preaching was not with persuasible words of man's wisdom, but a
demonstration of the Spirit and the power. And that's just what God uses. And for anybody to despise the
means of the man, the message, despise means said it not, said
it not. Most people do. I don't need
that. You can't tell me anything. Most
people do. Not in the church. But he tells
his people, don't do that. Receive it as a little child.
Verse 21. Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good.
Prove all things. Prove all things. Try everything. Try things that differ, he said,
in another place. A more excellent thing. Prove
everything. Everyone and everything you hear
and see, prove it. How? By God's Word. By God's Word. That's what John
said. Verse John 4. Test. Try the Spirit. See whether
they're of God. Try the world. You will find
that God hath made foolish the risen Israel. If you prove it
and try it by God's Word, you'll see. There's nothing new under
the sun. Nothing going on right now that hasn't gone on generation
after generation after generation after generation. You'll see.
Just read. Well, there it is. Look. Exact
same thing. You know, God is true. And every
man's a liar. That's what you'll find. You'll
prove it by God's Word, and you'll prove it from experience. My experience has been that God
can be trusted. I'm 64 years old now. Margaret is a little older now.
She said she just got her Medicare card. We both looked at each
other and said, this can't be! No! Actually, I'm kind of excited
about it. I got my ARP card in the mail
one time, and I showed it to me. Look, look, get discounted. Cracker barrels! She says, are
you crazy? But really, we're closer to being
with the Lord. But here's what I found. Through his word he showed me,
told me exceeding many precious promises, promises, promises,
promises, promises, and he's kept every one of them. Here
I am 65 years old, I haven't missed a meal. Far from that. I'm rich and increasing
goods. I've been sick, he said, and
he's healed me. Ain't been killed today in my
life. He's true. His word's true. I've proved it by experience. 40 years, 50 years, 60 years,
70 years, 80 years. You know, you're 80 years old,
you ought to have perfect faith. Isn't that enough time to believe
that? What have I got to worry about?
He's proven himself time and time again to me. That's 10 more
years and I'm supposed to have 70, 80. My mother's 95. You know
what I'm... Do you listen to this, Ma? I'm still having to build her
up on this thing. When are we going to trust the
Lord? I don't guess we ever will. Fully, we will. Aren't you glad your salvation
doesn't depend on your faith? Your faith? Man, boy. Surely, we would have a lot more
peace if we could prove all things. Prove the truth. Prove the gospel. Prove it by the word. Hold fast
that which is good. Hold fast this gospel. There
is no other. There is no other way, truth,
life. There is no other hope. There is no other salvation.
There is no other name. Jesus Christ. Hold fast. The
beginning of your confidence. Steadfast to the end. Salvation
by grace. Hold fast. Right there. Don't
be moved away from your hope. Don't do it. Hold fast. Read
verse 22. Abstain from all appearance of
evil. This goes along with that verse. to prove all things, hold
fast the gospel like Martin Luther. Here I stand. I can do no other. This is why I'm going to die
believing. Abstain from all appearance of
evil. That's what Luther tried to go
about bringing down and exposing all that evil religion all around
him. I said one time, You know, we
cannot take part with false religion. We can't do it. We cannot. To some, it may give the appearance
of good. Well, they're going to have a
prayer meeting, a countywide prayer meeting. Brothers, we
don't pray the same God. No, we don't. I can't gather
with them. On and on it goes, that Lord's
acre sale, you know. We're going to have to sell our
junk and give it to God. That's evil. It's evil. They're doing it in
the name of God. Look at what we're doing for
the Lord. It's evil. The Lord called it evil. Don't
go near that. They have no part in it. That's
what they, in content, that's first what they say. I'm not
going to join with them. Well, they're going to think
of you as a troublemaker. That's what they said to Elijah.
You don't want trouble in Israel, Archbishop. That's what they
said about Elijah. Ahab, here he comes, he's troubling
Israel. No, Elijah is saying, Israel's in trouble because of
idolatry, because of false religion. All this is happening because
of that. And I'm here to tell you about
the living and true God, isn't it? And, this means, every appearance
of evil, abstain from them. Staying firm. Walk circumspectly.
Read on. And he said, the very God of
peace. God of peace. Christ made peace
by his cross. We have peace with God. And the
God who has declared this peace for us through Christ. He says,
he's praying here, sanctify you wholly. Well brother, I thought
we were sanctified completely. We are. Well, what does this
mean, what it says? I wouldn't explain this away
for anything, because this is what I want. I want to be totally
separated, consecrated, completely given over, dedicated, everything
about me wholly. That means completely to the
Lord. Read on, verse 23, I pray your
whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless. Well,
he is able. He's the only one that can, isn't
he? What Paul is saying here, that the dross needs to be taken away. We've got too much of it. We
need to be completely consecrated and set apart unto the Lord. to the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what he meant by that. Let your conversation
be in heaven. Let your conversation be without
covenants. Let your conversation, your walk,
your talk, your speech, the things you talk about, things you look
forward to, things you talk to one another about, let it be
about where we're going and who we're going to be with. The coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Read on. Now, here it is. Verse 24, Faithful is he that
calleth you, who also will do it. Faithful is he that calleth you.
Whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate. Whom he predestinated,
he called by our gospel. Whom he called, he justified.
Gave him faith. He justified him. Whom he justified,
he glorified. And faithful is he that calleth
you, he also will do it. It is God that worketh in us
both to will and do of His good pleasure. He's faithful. He'll do it. He's not calling
on us to do something to save ourselves. He's calling on us
to call on Him who must save us. Are you with me? who said, without me you can
do nothing. And now we go right back to prayer.
We go right back to where we started. Because without Him,
we can do nothing. Nothing. Nothing. We can't even
hear. We can't believe. Nothing. And so He concludes by saying,
Brethren, pray for us. Right where He started. Pray.
Call on Him. He's truly His Word. He's truly
His promise. Now in closing, greet all the brethren with a
holy kiss. I love the fact that we're still
hugging each other. I love that. It says kiss here,
but I guess we'll practice a little bit of social distancing. Fear not. Fear not. Greet the
brethren. Why? Because it might be the
last time we see one. Might be the last time you see
him. Ever wish you could have your old mom and dad one more
time, give them one more hug? Huh? If you knew it was the last
time, would you hug them? Would you kiss them? Would you?
You wouldn't want to let go, would you? Huh? You probably
did. I held my dad. It might be your last time. Who
knows? Really? This might be it. Hell, it might be the last time
I see it. Now, verse 27, I charge you by
the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.
Well, we need to read it. We ought to read it. He says,
this is a command, read it. Putting out everything else. I put it away. It's worthless. And read, read, read, read. I
tell everybody all the time, I say, if you read and it convicts
you, keep reading. It'll comfort you. It ends with this, the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. We're saved by grace. We're kept by grace. Everything is His grace, even
the trials, the sicknesses, the troubles, He gives them. And
some way, somehow, it is grace. It is good. It's the will of
God in Christ Jesus concerning us. He doesn't give anything
but what is grace. Good. Why can't we see that? He loves His people infinitely
more than we love our own. Sister Jeanette at the time,
I love my daughter and my granddaughter so much, I think, I don't see
how anybody could love someone more. Well, he does. We have a hard time believing
that, don't we? He's just not going to do anything to hurt
us. That's not good. He can't. He can't. It's not possible. Oh Lord. May the ends be one
word. Amen. It's so true. Oh, let's believe. Stand with me.