First Thessalonians. These are Bible and wonderful
exhortations. You could bring a message, we
could do a study from every verse, but we're going to try to get
through all of them. And the first eleven verses,
you may remember, he is comforting us, and he tells
us to comfort one another with these words. He says in verse
9 that God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ. We have an appointment to meet,
and that's to be with our Lord. And it could be any day now.
We're going to meet him, and it says in verse 10, he who died
for us that whether we wait Whether we're here when He comes or fall
asleep, we will live together with Him. We will be together.
And all through this, if you notice, He keeps saying brethren,
brethren, brethren. What a blessed term. What a privilege. What an honor to call you my
brethren, to be part of the brethren. What a blessing. None of us feel
worthy. But we all feel blessed, don't
we? And so he says we're going to
be together with the Lord forever. He says comfort, verse 11, comfort
yourself together and edify one another even as also you do. You edify me when you just come
here. In Hebrews 10 it says, Forsake
not the assembly of yourselves together as a matter of some
end, but exhort one another so much more as you see the day
approaching, the day of Christ. And that's what we're doing here. We're getting together and we're
waiting on the Lord. We want to worship Him who died
for us. And isn't it wonderful just to
get together? I like to get together. at your
table and you at mine and get together and have get-togethers
wherever, whatever, but this is truly our fellowship is around
this gospel table with the Father and His Son. And if you are faithful,
it exhorts me to be faithful. comforting and encouraging. It
exhorts me to be that way. If you are serious and diligent,
it makes me that way. If you are edifying and building
up and upbeat and positive, it has that same effect on others.
And the opposite is true, too. If we're all downcast and doubtful
and fearful and worried about the world and all that, it rubs
off. Same way. If we gather together, it's an
encouragement. together. And our Lord said this,
he that gathereth not scattereth them. Oh my. But gathering together
is a wonderful thing. All right, look at verse 12. This is where we left off. This
picks up another section of this chapter. We beseech you, brethren,
to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the
Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love
for their worksake." Once again, this is difficult to deal with
because it's speaking to me. Like chapter 2, the whole chapter,
chapter 2, is speaking about the preacher. You remember we
looked at that and how Paul said, you need to, you know me. Paul
said, you know me. I'm not in this for money. I'm
not deceitful, and we know that about him, don't we? Well, we
need to know that. We need to know that about the
man who's preaching to us, don't we? Well, it's important to know
what kind of man it is that you sit under, who has the rule over
you, and love him, and you really, I'm sorry, but you really need
to like him. You won't listen to it if you
don't. You just won't. The reason we need to know the
man who's preaching to us is because so many false prophets
are going out into the world. That's what the Lord said. Paul
said this to the Ephesians when he left them. He said, when I
leave, grievous wolves are going to come in. And the Scripture
says evil men in the last days Evil men and seducers wax worse
and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And you know it's so.
You have your eyes wide open. You have good ears and good understanding. And it's just corrupt through
and through in religion. And the reason we need to know
this man is because this office, preacher and pastor, Not the
man, but the office. What is going on here is more
important than the President of the United States. That's just so. What comes forth
from this desk has more far-reaching consequences than what comes
forth from the desk in the Oval Office. Because it's more important where
your children attend church than it is where they attend school.
Infinitely more important. We're dealing with eternal things. And it says here in verse 12,
they're over you in the Lord. They're not Lords over you. But
this is, it must be somebody in charge. And admonish you. Admonish you. My, my. What a
difficult thing that is when you feel like such a sinner yourself,
to admonish your fellow sinners. But it must be someone. And how
do we do that? Through the Word. Through the Word. Verse 13, "...to
esteem them very highly, and love for their work's sake."
I knew it would be this way. Brother John Chapman, I have
great confidence in. He's just a fine man. He was
a faithful elder in the church where my father was. Faithful
man, a preacher, a good preacher. We all knew he'd end up somewhere
as a pastor. Just too faithful, too gifted. You know, he comes here a lot.
Right hand man to Henry Mahan. Pastured and Hurricane and John
and Debbie. Mike and Debbie. You all were there under him. Fine man. Man, you can follow
him. He went down there to the meeting. But I knew that the people down
there would just fall in love with John Chapman, and they did.
I hope he hears this. But he's a man worthy to be followed. And I would. I would sit right
there. I'd love to sit right there under
his preaching. And for him to have the rule
over me, I'd love it. I could do that easily. But don't
esteem him too highly. Don't esteem him too highly.
He's just a man. He's just a sinner. If you esteem
him too highly, you're going to be disappointed. You're going
to be disappointed. All right, it says in verse 13,
be at peace among yourself. Be at peace among yourself. Satan
is a divider, one who causes strife. What he wants to do more than
anything is to steal and kill, steal you away from the fold,
take you out of the sheepfold. And he'll do anything and everything
he can. You've often heard me say this,
the number one way that he'll get you to quit hearing the gospel
is get you mad at the preacher. If he does, you're not going
to hear a word he says. Or, get you mad at somebody in
the congregation. Fall out with somebody in the
congregation and you'll leave the gospel. Isn't that right? And that's just human nature.
It shouldn't be. Not for the brethren. He says,
be at peace. This is why we're exhorted so many times in the
Spirit. Love like brethren. Brethren
can get mad at each other. Yes, they can. But you don't
quit being brethren. I believe I'm never coming back.
No. That's not what brethren do, is it? They hash it out. If you've got
any grace, you realize that you're partly to blame, if not all of
it. Blessed are the peacemakers. Peacemakers are called the children
of God, aren't they? That's who's called the children
of God. All right, so who are the troublemakers? The children of the devil. So,
be at peace among yourselves. Now, verse 14, we exhort you,
brethren, Warn them that are unruly. This goes right along
with that. Warn them that are unruly. We just heard about them that
have the rule over you. They're over you in the Lord.
Brother John wisely chose Hebrews 13 to read along with this text
tonight. And it says twice in that chapter,
doesn't it, to remember them or pray for them that have the
rule over you. And obey them. Well, I'll tell
you, there's a big difference. Some of you have been in reform
religion and you've seen some of that bondage and some of that
strict... I knew a young man that was in
that, and I knew his wife and him very well, and I preached
for him, and he came up here and they were in our home several
times, we were in their home several times, and all he wanted
to talk to me about was how to discipline people in that church.
That's all he wanted to talk, didn't he? He brought it up every
time. Things that hadn't even happened yet. He said, what are
you going to do if this happens? I said, you ask the Lord for
wisdom when it happens, but don't bring it up if it hasn't happened. I said, why do you
want to talk about discipline? Well, he did. That's what he
wanted to do. Until finally, he disciplined
all the sinners out of that church. The only one left was him and
his wife. He's out of the ministry. That old man. Why did I say that? Oh, it says, warn them they're
unruly. I'll give you an illustration. My father-in-law was such a meek
and humble man, and yet he wasn't weak. Meekness is not weakness.
He was very strong. Moses. was meekest man on earth. He went in front of Pharaoh and
he pointed his finger in his face and said, you let my people
go. And Pharaoh, the strongest, most powerful man on earth could
have had him put to death, but Moses didn't. Moses wasn't afraid
of Pharaoh. But meek means submissive and
in subjection to and humble. Well, my father-in-law was that
way. Some of you knew him. Strong man's man. A leader, he
was a leader, a business owner himself. One time, two men in
the church who were men of means, had money, and generally people
of means think they ought to have authority even in the church. They were men of means, they
were men of position, they had businesses, they had authority,
they were used to running things, but no, there was one man running.
And they were talking privately, they were disagreeing, they were
being critical of the pastor. And my father-in-law confronted
both of those men. And he said, brethren, and he
did it in meekness and warning. He said, brethren, I'd be afraid
if I was you to go against God's man. And well, it ended well, didn't
it? Both of those men ended up being
very meek and submissive and humble men. It took a while. But warn them they're unruly. Every one of us have a stake
here. Don't we? We need this blood. We need this
blood. We have a vital interest in it.
We need this. Our children need this. Our grandchildren
need this. Our unsaved loved ones. We need
this blood. We need this gospel here. Don't we? So we're to watch. We're to warn. Watch. And comfort. Look at verse
14. I have this verse on my desk.
I hope the Lord will print it on my heart. It says, comfort
the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. Wouldn't that be good to have
written on your heart? Comfort the feeble-minded, support
the weak, be patient unto all men. Generally, children are
Old are very feeble-minded, aren't they? When someone gets sick,
they become infirm or feeble-minded. Now spiritually speaking, there
are babes in Christ. In the church, there are babes,
there are young men, strong, and there are old men, strong
in the faith. But there are babes, and everybody
starts that way. And sad to say, some people stay
that way. So we're told to comfort the
feeble-minded. Comfort them. Those that are
of lack of understanding, comfort them. One newly come to the faith,
I'm always amazed how the Lord, His Word is so cohesive. We're going to look at Romans
14, Sunday morning. You know what the first verse
says? Him that is weak in the faith. I didn't plan it this
way. I didn't say, well, we're going
to start studying this and then bring them both together. No,
I didn't do that. One newly come to the faith,
we're to be comforting to that person, not critical, not condemning,
not condemning. And then there's the old, old
believer. You'd think an old believer would be just strong,
but I tell you what, it's just this is human nature. The older
we get, the more childlike we get. And then there are old, those
that have been under the gospel for a long time, that are strong
of understanding, and then others who are not. So we're told. to
comfort and make a difference, comfort the feeble-minded, support
the weak, support the weak. One time the Lord said to his
disciples, well, he'd been with them three and a half years,
you know what they saw? You know what they heard? There was no
excuse for their unbelief. There was no excuse whatsoever
for them not to absolutely trust and believe. Do you know what
they saw? And yet the Lord said to them,
After three and a third year, he said to Philip, he says, I've
been so long time with you, and you don't know me? You act like
you don't even know me. How about us? And then another time he said
to him, one time he said, if you had faith, there's a grain
of a mustard seed. That's a little bit. And another time he said,
why is it you have no faith? He said that to his apostles.
Why is it that after all that you have zero faith? You don't
exhibit any faith whatsoever. And brethren, that's all of it.
If every one of us were honest, we would admit that we're all
weak. Paul said that, who's weak and
I'm not weak. And we're going to go through
times. The strongest believer, the oldest believer, we're going
to go through a bad time where we feel like we're not a child
of God, or we act wrong, act bad, and we're going to need
somebody to comfort us, not condemn us. You know, somebody said this,
it's a good statement, to belittle is to belittle. Did you get that? To belittle to, you know, look
down on somebody and scoff at them and mock them and talk about
how ignorant, how weak and how, you know, how they're, what all
they do wrong is to belittle. And you know what I have found
personally, and I've seen from experience with others, that
that person who belittles someone else has worse, worse thoughts
than the person they belittle. Comfort. Support. Be patient
toward all men. Verse 14. Be patient toward all
men. Oh, my. He doesn't just say the
brethren. You know, you've heard this many
times. You know, when I saw Paul, the
apostle, was so merciful and gracious and kind and long-suffering
to his Pharisaical friends. They weren't friends to him,
but he was a friend to them, wasn't he? They hated him. They
wanted him dead, but he didn't want them dead. Why? He was just like them. He remembered. He was just a little white. He
remembered the pit from which he was digging. He remembered
how much mercy the Lord had had on him. So he said, he meant
it. I'm the chief of setting. I'm
not worthy to be called an apostle. He was very merciful to the other
Pharisees. And we don't know how many the
Lord saved through him, but some. So be patient unto all men. Be patient toward all. The thing
we need from our Lord more than anything, besides mercy, is patience,
isn't it? Isn't it? How long must I bear
with you, the Lord said. How long is he going to have
to bear with us? Hold on now. Hold on now. Don't you hope he
does? Well, he will, because Peter
said, the long-suffering of the Lord is our salvation. He said,
I'll never leave you. You may leave me, but I'm going
to come and find you and bring you back. Isn't he wonderful? Well, I want to be like that. Don't you? See that none render
evil for evil unto any man. Never follow that which is good,
both among yourself and to all." Didn't we just read that? Didn't
we just look at that in Romans 12? Didn't we? Why does he keep reminding us
of that? Because there's so much evil
all around us, and there's so much evil in us. Don't be overcome
of evil. That's what he said in Romans
12. But overcome evil with good. Oh, it is in us to so easily
get mad and lash out and to strive with other people, to argue and
fight. That won't accomplish anything. It will just escalate
the trouble on. It will just bring more trouble
on your head. Trying to get vengeance, it will never end. It will just
fall down on your head or somebody else. The root of bitterness
of Scripture says, whereby many are troubled, everybody is affected
by it, but a soft answer turns the way around, turns you of
the cheek, only the most hardened monster will keep bruising you. That's just wise counsel from
above. To all men, all men, verse 16,
rejoice evermore. Rejoice evermore. Here's comfort
for the feeble-minded. Rejoice. Well, dry your eyes
now and start singing. Don't you remember Psalm 13? Just quit sighing, start suing
the Lord for mercy, and you'll start singing. Quit your pining. Quit pining and start praying,
and before long you'll be praising. Quit asking how long. It won't
be long and you'll be saying hallelujah. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice
in the Lord. And again I say rejoice. Remember
when Paul wrote that to the Philippians? He was in jail. He was in jail. So this is comfort for the weak.
This is supporting the Look, we can comfort for the feeble
mind. Rejoice. Rejoice. You have much to rejoice
in. Rejoice. The Lord is King. He reigns. He rules. He controls. Everything is for our good. Evermore,
verse 16, evermore and always, at all times, verse 18, everything
give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. So rejoice evermore. Rejoice.
Somebody says that's impossible. It's impossible to rejoice. When you're sad, when you're
sorrowful, when you're cast down. Well, let me remind you again
that Paul wrote this and Paul practiced this. Do you remember
when Paul and Silas were in jail at Philippi and they had been
beaten bad? They were hurting bad. They had
strikes. And they were sitting in darkness,
and it looked bleak, and it looked hopeless, and they were hurting.
They were, you know they were, they hadn't done anything wrong,
they hadn't done everything right. But they were hurting. So what'd
they do? Brother Silas, let's call on
the Lord. This is the Lord. The Lord did
this. We wouldn't be here if the Lord
hadn't put us here. Something good's got to come
out of this, Brother Silas. Let's pray. And so they pray,
Lord, help us. Get us out of this downcast spirit. Lord, we know you put us here.
Show us what good is going to come out of this. Amen. Amen. So let's sing, Brother Sal. What
shall we sing? Rejoice, the Lord is King. You know what happened? The chains
start falling now. The bondage. Remember Job. was in captivity to sorrow, and
sadness, and self-pity, and all of that. And when he started
praying for his friend, the Lord delivered him from that captivity.
And their bonds started falling off, and the doors started opening
up, and a light came in, and the jailer said, what y'all singing
about? I want to know what you all have. Oh, Paul said, that's
why we're here. That's why we went through this
trial. To bear witness to our Lord. His Word won't return void. Somebody heard it. That's why
we're here. So somebody hear the Gospel.
We wouldn't have done it this way. I wouldn't have suffered. I didn't want these stripes.
Anything but this. But the Lord knows what He's
doing. That jailer washed his stripes. Took him to his house, and the
Lord saved that man's whole house. Isn't that something? Ask Paul
later on, was it worth it? Ask Paul and say, was it worth
it, all you went through? They said, we'd do it again.
We'd do it again. In everything. Verse 17, pray
without ceasing. Oh my. How often does it say
this? Pray without ceasing. Our Lord
said men ought always to pray. And he talked about the importunate
widow, didn't he? Begging the unjust judge to avenge
her of her adversary. We've got an adversary. And we
think, how long, oh Lord, how long? He said, shall not God
avenge His very elect that cry unto Him day and night? He will. Keep calling. Praying without ceasing is a
test, you know that? It's a test on how serious we
are about that. Pray without ceasing, always,
at all times, all day. Why? Because our adversary never
sleeps. Satan, sin, and self, that unholy
trinity is against us. It's always against us. And we
desperately need the Lord to help us at all times, every hour
of every day. As soon as we let down our guard, we're assaulted in everything. Pray and pray always, pray at
all times, pray without ceasing. You don't have to be on your
knees, you don't have to... Spurgeon one time, he was a wise
man, there was a fellow that came to him and said, Brother
Spurgeon, I was praying on my knees, I was reading the scriptures
on my knees for two hours and he said, I didn't get a thing
out of it. Spurgeon said, get up off your knees and sit in
a comfortable chair. You're probably trying to impress
Spurgeon that he was on his knees. When you tell somebody how long
you've been praying and what you've been doing, you're bragging
about it. Don't tell anybody, because we're
not praying to be seen, we're praying to be heard by our Lord.
So, pray without ceasing. A believer should be, and is,
always in an attitude of prayer. Don't you find your mind, your
heart just always going up? Lord, help me. About all I can
find to say all day long is help me. Help me. Help me. I'll tell
you what. He's an ever-present help. And
we should because we're weak. We are helpless in ourselves.
But He is our only help. Without Him, we can do nothing.
So pray always. In everything, verse 18, in everything
give thanks. In another place, Philippians,
he said, in everything, by prayer and supplication, make your requests
known to God, and in everything give thanks. I told you this brother Bruce,
Bruce Crabtree, man, I love him so much. Somebody came to him
and called him on the phone and said, we're thinking about getting
a dog. And he said, we're going to pray about it. And after they
hung up, Bruce thought to himself, pray about a dog? I mean, that's just what I would
think. Why don't you pray about a dog? Everywhere. Just find
you a dog. Take him home. But then Bruce
said, well, you know, I got to thank him. He said, might be a biting dog. I don't want a biting dog. Oh,
man. Well, that's right. I don't want it to be a liability.
Wouldn't be a good dog. Anyway, in everything, my prayer
ends up with the little things. We can't handle little things.
You know that? We can't make the smallest decision,
I say. Can we? Why? Because there's
so much of self in it. Isn't it? How's this going to
benefit Me, that's generally the first thing we think about.
That's not the first criteria. That's not the first criteria
in determining anything. How's this going to be for the
glory of God? How's this going to affect the gospel? How's this
going to affect the church, my brethren and all that? How's
this going to affect my family? And then, what about that? So, in everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. In everything give thanks. This
is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Cheap illustration. A illustration, not the cheap.
Joseph, his brethren, treated him bad. And to be treated bad
by a brother is the worst thing I know of. But he was treated
bad, man, wasn't he? They put him in a pit and they
sold him like a piece of meat. And he was beseeching them, he
was crying out to them and they would not hear his crying. That's
how cold hearted they were to him. And then they sold him to
some pagan people and then he got later on mistreated by Potiphar
and got put in prison. Oh my! And they weren't kind
to him in that prison. How do you think Joseph was handling
that? Lord, Joseph's such a type of
Christ, isn't he? Lord, I don't know why I'm here. I've been treated wrong. I don't know why I'm here, but
you put me here. And I hope and pray this for good. It must be
for good. Was it? When it's all over, the Lord
brought all His brothers back to Him, made Joseph Lord over
everything. Now that's a type of the greatest
picture of all, isn't it? Our Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen
to what He said in the garden. He's sweating blood. And none
of us will ever. We have not resisted sin, striving
under blood, resisting sin. None of us have and we never
will. But He did. He sweat blood at the thought
of sin. Not his own, but ours. He wasn't doing that. He wasn't
suffering for himself. And he said, Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. And then what did he say? Nevertheless,
not my will, but thy will be done. Oh, was that good? Was that the will of God concerning
him, concerning us? It sure was. Did it turn out
good? Was it good for us? It's our
salvation. Was it good for him? John, he's
got a name above every name right now, seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high because of that. So in everything, if
we can just remember that, that we'll never suffer like our Lord
did, nor even like some of our brethren did. But it is the will
of God, so endeavor, try, try, try, by the grace of God, to
give thanks, to say, Lord, this is your will. Make me thankful,
like old Brother Mews would always say, God is sovereign, and we'll
be thankful. God is sovereign, and we'll be
thankful. One time he was with a brother
in a car, and that car flipped over the hill, rolled over the
hill, and they were laying on the side. And his brother thought
Brother Muse was dead. And he looked over and said,
Brother Muse, are you OK? Are you OK? He said, God is sovereign,
and we'll be thankful. I want to be like that. I want
to trust Him. He's good. He's merciful. It's going to be good. No matter
how bad it appears, it's going to be good. I want to believe.
You can trust him. Quench not the Spirit, verse
19. Quench not the Spirit. Now, he's
not talking about the work of the Holy Spirit. You cannot quench.
You cannot stop. You cannot thwart the work of
the Holy Spirit of God. It's not like these false preachers
say. Now, nobody disturbs the Spirit
while every eye is closed, every head bowed. Don't move or you'll
mess things up. If God's working on a person
tonight, He'll be working on it tomorrow morning. If God's
doing the work, you can't stop Him. If God says, I'll work,
then who will let Him? Who will stop Him? He's not talking
about thwarting or stopping the Holy Spirit. He's talking about
the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ. When He's present
in the church, He promotes love, He promotes peace, He promotes
joy, He promotes faith. He's talking about the graces
of the Spirit. And we quench that by a bad attitude that we
have. We come in here with a bad attitude. It's supposed to be
a spirit of worship. We come in here with some kind
of root of bitterness toward our brethren or something. It's
supposed to be a spirit of love in it. That's the Holy Spirit.
We come in here with feeling down and sorry for ourselves.
We're supposed to be rejoicing in the Lord. And what we do is
bring other people down. That's quenching the spirit.
Or after the service. If the Lord blesses the preaching
and people say, didn't our hearts burn within us? And you walk
up to somebody and they say, did you see who won the ball
game yesterday? What's the weather like today?
What are you going to do tomorrow? It just douses water on that.
It just douses water. Don't be guilty
of that. Don't be guilty of that. The Spirit leads and guides us
by His Word, by His person, through a conscience. He gives us a conscience.
We quench the Spirit when we don't heed it, when we don't
listen to Him, when we don't follow Him. We hear what He says
and yet we... I'm going to do this anyway.
And then, you know what happens? If we belong to Him, we'll be
like David. We'll end up like David in a
bad, bad, bad way. And then we'll be crying out,
saying, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right
spirit within me. And then we'll say, cast me not
away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. That's where we'll end up. That's
where we'll end up. And then after that, hopefully
we'll say, Lord, when you speak to me, please let me follow what
you say. Let me listen. I know that from
experience. Despise, not prophesy. Verse
20. Despise, not prophesy. Don't make light of it. Don't
take it lightly. Don't be indifferent to it. Prophesying
in the King James generally speaks of preaching. I'm declaring future
events. We've been talking about the
Lord's coming. I'm prophesying. I'm declaring future events.
I'm telling things that people out there in the world don't
know. But the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of prophecy. To
preach Christ and His coming is prophesying. Preaching is
what it is. Just preaching. Even our ladies, you know, the
prophetess in the Scripture wasn't a woman that stood up in a pulpit
and preached to people. No, sir. You won't find that.
And yet, like Anna, she was always around the temple, and anybody
that came around, she'd witness to them. She'd witness to them. She was always there, just like
our ladies. You can be around any of our ladies at any length
of time, they're going to witness to you. That's prophesying. That's
preaching. It says don't despise it. Don't
despise it in anyone. Paul told young Timothy, let
no man despise your youth. Preach with authority. Young
Cody Henson comes here and preaches, doesn't he? How do you look at
him? Oh, he's a nice young man. Let's give him a hearing, you
know. He's trying his best. Oh, don't you dare think of him
like that. If God blesses him, he's just
as much God's man as Elijah. Isn't that right? He's got something
to say. Don't take it lightly. It's not just another sermon. Oh, when the Gospels preach,
when the truth preach, it's not just a sermon. It's words of
life. It's life and death. It may be
your last message. It may be the last message you
ever hear. That's how serious it is. I preached many people's
last message. It wasn't just another sermon.
In fact, who was it? Dad. And whoever, someone died in
a congregation. Oh, it was my brother. When my
brother was killed in Vietnam, my dad went back and looked at
the notes from the last message my brother heard. He said, I
want to be made sure. That bridge crashed down. It's not just another sermon.
Don't despise prophesying. Don't make little of it. Prove all things, verse 21. Oh,
this goes along with knowing the preacher and where you attend
and all that. Prove all things in light of
false prophets and prophesying. And all these so-called prophets
out there, prove them. How do you prove preachers? How do you prove them? 1 John
4, isn't it? Try the spirits. How? Right here, buddy. Right here. Put them to the test. And Paul
said, we're not as many which corrupt the Word of God. He said
we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. If our gospel is hid, we are not hiding it because
we are not men of trickery or guile or not trying to slip something.
Oh no, we say it loud and clear exactly what this Word is saying,
exactly what we mean. There won't be any doubt what
the man is saying. He'll hide nothing. And what
we need to do, People need to do like the Bereans. Go home
and search the Scripture and see if these things are so. Prove
it. Prove them. Prove all things. So much false
religion, false prophets, and false people. Prove them. Prove
them by the Word of God. So many lies, so many false witnesses
in a day. It's sport to slander people. It's sport to slander people.
Nobody thinks you used to could sue people for slander. Not anymore. Anybody can say anything about
anyone. And you know, as soon as an innuendo
comes up, a suggestion, as soon as somebody's accused of something,
they're guilty. Aren't they? They've planted
in your mind about somebody. And there's nothing Satan wants
more in the people of this world for this man and for you to go
down. And they'll make up lies. And
people will believe it. Prove it. Prove it. A true witness is somebody, I
was there, I heard it, I saw it by two or three witnesses.
Prove it! Isn't that good? Don't you want that done about
you? Where to be more honorable than
our, like JBS, where to be more honorable? Prove it. I don't believe that. You love
somebody, you know somebody, I don't believe what you're saying
about them. And even if it is so, they might be just going
through a bad time. Okay? Even if it is so, partly so,
probably not, probably a misunderstanding, but even if it did happen, they're
going to be sorry for it. That's just not them. And it'll
get through this. I know them. I love them. And
don't say it again. Isn't that the way? Prove all things. Hold fast that
which is good. Hold fast that which is good.
The Lord said to Satan about Job, and I want to be like this. He said he's a just man. He said
he's a perfect man. He's upright. He's one that eschews
evil. Fears God and eschews evil. And
after all the Lord put him through, Satan did what the Lord did,
didn't he? And Satan came back, and here's
what the Lord said about Job. He said, have you considered
my servant Job? He holds fast his integrity. He's holding fast. Boy, what
does that say about me? Don't you? Well, I've got the
same Lord as Job. He holds fast that which is good.
Holds fast his integrity. Holds fast to the gospel. Hold
fast to Christ. Hold fast to His good word. Hold
fast to good principles. This is the good way. This is
the right way. This is the truth. I don't care if the whole world
goes against it. I don't care what all the world is saying.
Let God be true in every man alive. This is good. This is
right. This is true. This is just. It's
proven. There's a great cloud of witnesses
who've walked this way and they've proven the Word of the Lord is
right, it's just, it's good, it's not just a way, it's the
only way. Hold fast. And as I say, though
the whole world forsakes the way, Brother Ed, Sister Jeanette,
we're going to hold fast to that which is good, by God's grace. Read on. Abstain from all appearance
of evil. I've been too long, but I've
got your attention. Nobody's asleep yet. Wake up. Here, want a drink of water?
I do. It says abstain from all appearance
of evil. Oh, my. You know, this is in
context here about prophesying false prophecies and so forth,
proving all things. Hold fast to the truth, that
which is truly good, and God, and abstain from all appearance
of evil. That is the principle. First and primary meaning of
that is not join in with evil religion. Now, I don't preach against Halloween. Never have, never will, okay?
I did it. My child did. Children did. Okay? I'm not against that. Somebody,
one of our children, children out there doing it, our children
sitting here probably wish they were out there. I don't know.
But it's not. We've got better things to do
than stand up here and preach against Hallelujah. But I tell
you what religion is doing. They're incorporating that into
their Wednesday night service. Huh? Truck or treat and all this
crap. In the name of God, we're going
to sneak them in here, let them have fun, and we might slip something
in on them. That is so corrupt that we should
separate the worship. This place is for one thing,
and all the world needs to know that. We need to separate ourselves
from every appearance of the religious evil in this world.
We're not going to join in with that. They have a Lord's Acres
sale over here every year, don't they? About to have it coming
up. Or Lord's Acresave, where all the so-called churches get
together and bring their junk to sell to make money. To make money, and it's in the
name of the Lord. Don't go there. We're not going
to take part in that. We don't give to the... 2 Samuel
24, 24, David said, I'm not going to give to the Lord that which
cost me nothing. We don't bake pies for the Lord. He doesn't eat our pies. Why
am I getting upset? You're not doing that. But here's
the thing. We're not going to join with
that. We want the whole world to know God meets our needs. We don't sell stuff for God.
The Lord came into the temple and the first thing He did was
plant a rib and clean it out. You're selling stuff. You're
supposed to be worshipping God, preaching the gospel, singing
hymn, reading the Word. One thing! He made an inn of
thieves, making merchandise of men's souls. It's evil. Religion is evil. Couched in
niceness and sweetness and kindness, but it's of the devil. His ministers
have cloaked themselves as ministers of righteousness. The Lord soothes all through
them all. He gives us eye. We'll see through it too. We'll
see right through that. God's people give sacrificially,
and they don't do it to be seen of men. They don't write the
church name all over a bus so they'll be proud of their church.
Put t-shirt, I'm a member of Central Grace Church. That's vile. I tell you how we bear witnesses
of the truth of Christ. We preach the word. We witness
to people and we do it in our attitude and actions and so on
and so forth. Oh my. Abstain from all appearance
of evil. And that also means, that absolutely
means, that watch what you do, watch what you say, watch where
you go. Don't be where you shouldn't be. Don't be doing what you shouldn't.
Are appearances important? There's nothing we can do about
it, but people judge by appearance. So you can't go wrong with being
upright and honest, and that's what we want to be. Circumspect. Walk circumspectly. Dress modestly. Act humbly and talk sparingly
and talk graciously. Let your speech be seasoned with
soul, with grace. As becoming saints, huh? Be where you shouldn't be. Somebody
might be innocent, but they don't know it, so don't do it. That's
what I mean. Should we care what people think
about us? Well, if it brings reproach on the Lord, we should.
Shouldn't we? We're going to deal with that
in Romans 14. That's the subject in Romans 14. Paul said, nothing
is unclean of itself, but if it's an offense to a brother,
I'm not going to do it. It's not worth it. So that's what
that means also. And the very God, verse 23, he
ends up with a prayer. Very God of peace, sanctify ye
wholly. Sanctify, it means, we looked
at this, this is the will of God in chapter 4, even your sanctification. Every one of you may know how
to possess his vessel. And this is what he's talking
about, the whole man, I pray God, your whole spirit and soul
and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the prayer. That's what
we wanted. Aren't you glad for this next verse? Faithful is
he that calleth you who also will do it. You can't present
yourself faultless. You can't keep yourself, but
He can. That's why we need to pray without ceasing. And He will. He will. That's
our true heartfelt desire. Greet all the brethren with a
holy kiss. You do this. You know, there's
some that you've seen of men that literally kiss on the mouth. I don't want you doing that to
me. I'm sorry, don't do it. But it might be holy, but you
should do somebody else, okay? I'm being honest. But if you
did, you know, you love me, thank you. But what this just means
is make your brother feel loved. A holy kiss as opposed to a passionate
one. A holy kiss, you know. Aren't you glad to see your brethren,
man, and there's nothing more hurtful than to think somebody
doesn't want to see you? Some folks won't speak to you
unless you speak to them. That's hurtful. That's just hurtful. Greet all the brethren. I charge you, verse 27, by the
Lord, that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. You
remember one time the Lord said so much through, it was Matthew
24 and 25, I believe it was, or maybe Matthew 13, all the
parables. Is that it? After all the parables. Yeah. He said many parables.
And then he said, have you understood all these things? And they said,
yes, Lord. No. No, they hadn't. No, they
hadn't. So, have you understood? Do I? No. So what should we do? Go back and read it. Go back
and read it again. And read it again. We can take
in so much. Read it. Verse 28. Oh, here's
a closing. And this is my prayer for you,
for me, for us, for all our brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you. Amen.