How good that is, Josiah Condon. What a blessing to sing with
the understanding, huh? Knowing if I loved thee, thou
must have loved me first. All right, 1 Thessalonians 1.
I came to the conclusion some time ago that the church should always be going
through the epistles. And we've gone through all of
them, some of them more than once. And we're going to begin
going through this one again. I was surprised to see that it
had been well over 20 years since we looked at it. Although we
read this, you remember one night we just read it? That was a blessing. Because the end of the book tells
us, I charge you, read this. And here's a summary of, it's
just five chapters in this book, here's a summary. And chapter
one, verse four, knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God.
Chapter one is how we may know our election. Chapter two, verse
one, says knowing you yourselves, brethren, know our entrance unto
you is not in vain. That is knowing your preacher. Chapter 5, verse 12, it says
the same thing. Know them, which labor among
you. That's necessary. Yet you might know you don't
have a false prophet. Chapter 3, verse 5, says for
this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your
faith. So you may know the faith of God's people. Chapter 4 is
knowing God's will. And then chapter 5 is No in the
end. So this is wonderful. Let me give you a little history
of this church. The history of the beginning of every local
church is a wonderful thing. How God establishes a church
is marvelous. As the Lord does it, it's a miracle
of God's grace. Like the church at Philippi.
Paul went there. Went in the synagogue and left
and went out by the river where there was some women praying.
All right, and he started preaching to them. And God opened one woman's
heart, Lydia. And she said, Would you come
home with me? And he sure did. He went home with her. Well,
they put Paul in jail and Silas at the Pillow Pipe. As they were
singing and praying, the Lord broke them out of jail, and the
Philippian jailer said, what must I do to be saved? The Lord
saved him. The Lord started that church
then. And on and on it goes, stories like that. Thessalonica,
Acts chapter 17. Look over there real quickly.
This is the story of the church at Thessalonica. And this will
mean something to you as we look at this letter. Because they
evidently went through great persecution. They threatened
Paul and they had to get Paul out of town. But these people
stayed there. That church stayed there. Look at it. Verse 1, they passed
through Epipolis and Apollonia and they came to Thessalonica
where the synagogue of the Jews and Paul as his manor was, went
in under them. Three Sabbath days, three weeks,
reasoned with them. out of the Scriptures, opening
and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen
again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach unto
you is Christ. And some of them believe and
consorted with Paul. Oh, they want to ask him and
talk to him and Silas and the devout Greeks, a great multitude,
and of the chief women. Not a few. So the Lord saved
quite a few people. But the Jews. as everywhere, believed not,
and moved within them, took unto them, looed the fellows with
a baser sword, gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar,
and assaulted the house of Jason." It was a believer that his house
joined to the synagogue, I believe. He had Paul in his house, Paul
and Silas, and they went to find Paul, and they couldn't find
him, verse 6, and drew Jason and certain brethren under the
rulers of the city and said, these men, these have turned
the world upside down, or come here. And Jason's received them. And they do contrary to the decrees
of Caesar. If there's another king, one
Jesus. And they troubled the people,
the rulers, and they took security of Jason and the others, and
they let them go. But the brethren sent Paul and
Silas by night unto Berea. And they went to Berea, preached
the gospel there, and then they went down to Athens, verse 16.
Now Paul was waiting at Athens for Timothy and Silas to come
to him, because they stayed at Berea. And that's where he wrote
this letter. Paul was waiting for Silas and
Timothy to join him, and he wrote this letter to the church. at
Thessalonica. And they were going through great
tribulation, great trouble. That's what the Lord told us
would happen, didn't it? He forewarned us that marvel
not, brethren, if the world hates you. He said, they hated me,
the disciples not, and above his master. They called him a
devil, and they'll call you a devil too, and they'll hate you. And
Paul was hated everywhere. There was not a more gentle,
well, our Lord Jesus Christ. Love personified. We're told
to speak the truth in love. Nobody spoke the truth like he
spoke it. With more love, more mercy, more
kindness. They hated him. Because man doesn't
like the truth. He hates it. And Paul, everywhere he went,
preached the truth. He preached Christ and salvation
by Christ alone. And men, they hated him for it. So he said unto us and Thessalonica
and Philippi, listen, he said to the Philippians and us, don't
be terrified. He said, let your conversation
be as become it the gospel of Christ. That you're with one
mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Don't strive
with me. Don't argue. Don't be full of
strife. But strive for the faith of the
gospel. And don't be terrified by your adversary. To them, that's
a token of perdition. Don't back down. Do it in love.
But strive for the faith of the gospel. Unto you it is given on behalf
of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for
His sake." He said, to have the same conflict you see in me. Now that's us. Okay? So we're His church, and Thessalonica,
they were persecuted for. And we're going to see how that
Paul said, This is a token of God's favor and love. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, Rejoice. He said, Blessed are you when
men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my name's sake. For so persecuted they
the Father. He said, Rejoice. Rejoice. All right. Verse 1. Paul in silence. Timothy, unto the church of Thessalonians,
and this was to be read to all the churches, it said, and that
means us. So this is to us. To the church
of Thessalonians, 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, the church.
This is to the church. Now, the term church is a blessed,
blessed term. And I have made myself, and you
do well also, to not call any old place the church. Because
the church is the assembly of the saint. The church is the
congregation of the righteous. The church is God's kingdom on
earth. The church. The church. It's
a blessed term. reserved for His people, His
elect. The church that is in God the
Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. How many times does Paul
say that? How many times does he write
that? The church in God, in Christ. What does that mean? Well, it
means salvation, doesn't it? To be found in Christ. That's
what Paul said. Oh, that I might win Christ and
be found in Him. Now, most of you in here know
what that means. The church in God. In God. In His heart. In His mind. In
His purpose. In His purpose. In His kingdom. In His covenant. The church in
Christ. In His heart. In His mind. In
His love. Crucified with Him. Married with
Him. Raised with Him. The Church in
His hands. In His hands. Your names are
in His hands. And your life is in His hands.
And you're in good hands. The Church. It's His Church.
It's His family. The Church in Christ. In His
family. This salvation is what it means
to be found in Christ. An illustration. I use it all
the time. Everyone in that ark of Noah
was chosen by God, brought in there by God, weren't they? Taught
of God. Taught the fear of the Lord.
They heard the blessed promise of God that there's salvation,
there's mercy found in the ark. And He brought them in and every
single one of them were in that ark. They were saved. They were
saved. They were shut up. sealed, and they reached the new world
when it was all over and God said so. That's what it means
to be in Christ. I mean, chosen by God, put in
Christ, given to Christ before the world began, taught of God,
brought to Christ, found in Him, shut up to faith, sealed by His
precious blood, And brethren, if you're in Christ, you're going
to make it to the promised land. You have God's Word on you. That's
what it means to be saved, be found in Jesus Christ. So we see it. Verse 1. Grace
to you. Peace from God our Father in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Every epistle of Paul begins
and ends with grace. Did you know that? Every single
epistle begins and ends with grace. Why? Because salvation
does. Salvation begins and ends with
grace. I just read Zechariah 4. Zechariah is all about Zerubbabel. He's a picture of pride. And
it says Zerubbabel is going to lay the topstone on the temple
when it's all over with shouts of grace unto it. That's Jesus
Christ. The foundation of salvation began
with God's electing grace, and Jesus Christ is going to lay
the topstone to it of grace. It's all of grace. Every epistle
begins and ends with grace, especially Ephesians. The whole first chapter
of Ephesians speaks of His sovereign electing grace, calling grace,
redeeming grace, keeping grace, inheriting grace, revealing grace. You wouldn't know salvation by
grace if he hadn't revealed it to you. It's a sealing grace. Believing grace. On and on it
goes. Grace on you. By grace are you
saved. Grace is a gift. It means an
undeserved gift. It's freely given. Not an offer.
It's a gift bestowed. And it's free and it's forever
and it's eternal. Grace. Grace on you. All grace. And peace. Peace. Peace with God. God is angry with the wicked
every day. I know you feel yourselves at
times be wicked and sinful. God's not angry with you. Why?
Because Christ made peace by the blood of His cross. You know
that, don't you? He is our peace. The chastisement
of our peace was laid on Him. Peace. Christ kept telling His
disciples that. Peace be unto you. Be of good
cheer. From God our Father. He said this three times in these
first three verses. Our Father. Our Father. If God Almighty is our Father.
You remember when he said If you, then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children, do you like to do good
things for your children? You wouldn't dream of hurting
your children. Does it give you great pleasure
and delight to do things for your children? How much more? God, His ways
are higher above us than the heavens. So if God is our Father,
this is why Paul went on to say, how shall He not? With that unspeakable gift of
His Son, freely give us all things. God our Father. He told us. Our Lord told us. Pray. Our Father. He said, I go to my Father and
your Father. God our Father. And the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, God our Father has
made Jesus Christ Lord both of heaven and earth. He right now
reigns and rules among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants
of the earth. And we're His people. And we
have nothing and no one to fear. Nothing. Peace. Peace. Now, we give thanks
to God always for you all. Make Him mention of you in our
prayer. Thank for you all. Always pray, He said. Praying
always. Remembering without ceasing. Praying without ceasing. We thank
God for you all, Paul said. Paul was continually thanking
God for these people. If you know this chapter, and
you know the next chapter, and you know 2 Thessalonians 2, he
kept doing this, didn't he? Thank God for you all, all of
you. Because every member of the church
is a member of Christ's body, God's to be thanked for all of
His people, all of His people, all members, all serve the body
in one way or another, though all of us are different, and yet we're really the same.
But it takes all kinds, doesn't it, in the body, little toes
and big toes and big mouths. We ought to accept each other,
shouldn't we? We're accepted in the blood.
We ought to accept each other's strangeness. Shouldn't we? Thank God always for you all,
he said. Thank God for you all. It's a
mark of love. He prayed always for them, and
it's a mark of love to pray for someone. And to thank God for them. people pray for me in the past
and pray for their pastor. But then I've heard some thank
God for me. That means they really love me.
They thank God for me. There was a couple one time riding
along. They had two sons and one of
them was an obedient son. a good son, and the other one
was a wayward son. One caused them great joy, and
the other one caused them great sorrow and great pain. And they
were riding along in their car. And all of a sudden, the husband
pulled over to the side of the road, and he said, Honey, we've
thanked the Lord all these years for our good, obedient son, but
we've never thanked Him for that wayward child. Let's give thanks
for that wayward child. God sent him. God sent him. Give thanks for them all. It's
a hard thing to thank God for. But we should, shouldn't we?
Thank God. Thank the Lord. He prays for
us. All of us. So should we. Make him mention
of you in our prayers. Verse 3, remembering without
ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of
hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God for this work of faith
He's done in you. First of all, it means the work
that the Lord does in you, the power of God that makes you believe.
I thank God for the work of faith in you, and I thank God that
He's given you faith which works. Faith that works it. My love,
faith without works is dead. And God's people, they labor. They work. And everything done
for the church, for the gospel, I thank the Lord for everything
everyone in here does for the church, for the gospel. It's
a good work. It's a labor of love. The Lord
loves a cheerful giver. So many times I ask people to
do this and that and the other, and they cheerfully do it. I'd
be delighted to, I'd love to. I asked someone to read not long
ago, man, he said, I'd love to. And I know he really didn't mean
that, because it's a difficult thing. You know what I mean. What it was, it immediately put
fear in him, dread, his mouth went dry, his heart stopped,
but he really meant it. Because he loves God's Word,
he loves his people, though he feels insufficient to do it and
unable to do it. But he said, I'd love to. And
I love that. And the Lord loves that. The opposite is true. Reluctant,
begrudging givers and such. The Lord loves a cheerful giver. It's a labor of love. Love to
the Lord. Love to His cause, love to His
people. Patience of hope. I remember without ceasing, your
patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Patience in trials,
tribulations. So many, every believer has gone
through trials and will go through more. And maybe the hardest ones
are yet to come, but the Lord has brought I saw through them,
haven't I? The Lord, His grace is sufficient. Patiently endure these trials
as from the Lord, with the Lord sent it. Tribulation, patient
with others. You've been patient with me.
I started out as a very young preacher here, 33 years old. Patient with me, and I'm patient
with you too. Be patient with each other. We
should be, shouldn't we? The Lord is patient with us.
He's patient with us in our old age when we... You ought to know
something by then, that He still has to be very long-suffering
with us, doesn't He? Patient. So shouldn't we be the
same? Well, God's people are, and thankfully,
hopefully, we're growing. In patience of hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ. Hope. Our hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Isn't that right? That's your
hope. Patience of hope. We're not going to quit. By the
grace of God, we're not going to quit. We're waiting on our
Lord. In the sight of God. All of this, verse 3, is in the
sight of God and our Father. It's all in His sight. His eyes
behold, His eyelids try all men. But His eye of love and mercy
and approval is on His children. I've got to read you this. I've
had too much time on these verses, but it's been good. But I've
got to read you this. Psalm 33 says this. It says,
The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that
hope in His mercy to deliver their soul from death. Just like your eyes on your children,
His eyes especially on His. And everything done in the name
of Christ, for the sake of Christ, toward His people, His cause,
His glory, God is well-placed. Well-placed. Alright. Brethren, verse 4. He
says, Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. Knowing,
beloved of God, your election. I know your election. Can you know someone's elect
without seeing their names in the book? Their names were written
in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world.
That's clear, isn't it? And all of God's people know
there was an election before the world began. All of God's
people know that. They're all taught of God that. All God's
children. They know that the purpose of
God according to election must stand, shall stand. They know
that. They know that salvation began this way. It was his choice, his will,
and his sovereign election of a people. They all know that,
but most of them, if not all of them,
sometimes doubt their election. Simon Peter said, get diligence
to make your calling and election sure. So that's how important
it is. And Paul says, knowing your election,
that you can know you're one of God's elect. And they all want to know. Don't
you want to know? I want to know. I know there's an elect. I know.
And they're going to be saved. And I want to know if I'm one
of them. Can I know? Well, he says, yeah. Now, there
are names written in the book, in this book you have in front
of you. This is the book of life. You're looking at the book. The
book is open. And you can read your names in
it. Know that? You just read it tonight, John.
You read our names. Who God chose. Didn't you? Did you read it with me, brother? 1 Corinthians 1? The foolish have not God chosen
the foolish. Is that you? Is it? The weak things have God
chosen. Is that you? The base things. Is that you? Things that are not nothing. Is that you? Our Lord said, I
didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners. Is that you? This
man receiveth sinners. Is that you? Spurgeon one time said, I'm glad
my name Charles Spurgeon is not in the Bible. He said, because
there's other Charles Spurgeons and I just wouldn't think it
was me. It must not be me. It must be that other one. But
since it says sinners, I know that's me. Huh? A dog? Fear not thou worm. Jacob? That's you? What's your
name? Jacob? Worm? Well, found your
name in the Lamb's Book of Life. But here are four or five or
so marks of election. Evidences, okay? In just a few
minutes, I'll give you these evidences of election. You don't
think I'm going to get through it. Verse 5, he says, we know
your election because our gospel came unto you. Not in word only,
but in power. Not in doctrine only, but in
power. Now the word of God, the gospel
does come by the preaching of the word, by preaching. Man and
I were just talking about this, and John just read it in 1 Corinthians,
that God had pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, and
the world won't have it if we don't want to hear this preaching.
And Paul said, we preach, we preach, and Christ came preaching.
And he sent his apostles out preaching, didn't he? And he
raised up preachers to go preach, and those that hear the gospel,
The true gospel, the living gospel, they're going to hear it from
a preacher. And they love to hear the preaching of the Word,
the preaching of the gospel. From that day forward, they live
on it. They need it, don't they? Where would you be without the
preaching of the gospel? Like the Ethiopian eunuch said, how
can I let some man show me? I live on it. I feed on it myself.
Our gospel came. But not in Word only. Word only
or doctrine, but in power. Our gospel. You know what Paul
said? He said it's another gospel.
It's not the gospel in Galatians 1. But our gospel. The gospel. The gospel of God. Our gospel
came. The true gospel. Sovereign elect
in grace and particular redemption. Our gospel came unto you. In
power. Do you remember when you first
heard the gospel, not just in word, not just a sermon, but
in power? A man sitting right in here one
time, just like the eunuch, came over to my house. Finally, he
sat for a while, sat for a while, he went somewhere else for a
while, and his wife came here, and she loved the gospel. He
came. He sat for a while, and he'd go somewhere, and he'd come
back, and finally he heard the gospel in power, and he came
over to my house and said, I've got to baptize me. I didn't ask
him. I didn't plead with him. The
gospel came in power. Heart-convicting, sin-convicting,
heart-piercing, life-giving, eye-opening, ear-opening, mouth-opening
power. And I pray that the Lord may
exert that power again and again that some have not experienced.
But this is the power of God. The gospel is the power of God
in salvation for everyone that believes it. And our gospel came
unto you. This is how you know you're elect.
And it wasn't a one-time thing either. If it ceases to be the
power of God, if it ceases to... Break your heart, and heal your
heart, and open your eyes, and open your ears, and open your
mouth, and make your heart beat. Perhaps it never came. But our
gospel came in power and in the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost. What
does that mean? Our Lord said what it means.
He said the Holy Spirit will convince of sin, righteousness,
and judgment. God's people, when the Gospel
comes, He convinces them of that. And I don't have time to go into
that. But you know what that means, don't you? And the Holy
Spirit takes the things of Christ and shows them unto you. When
the Gospel comes, our Gospel, Paul, comes, when the Gospel
is preached to you in power and the Holy Spirit comes, He opens
your eyes to see Christ. See Him as all in all the Scripture. You begin to read the Scripture,
and on every page, On every line you see Christ. You never saw
Him before. Why? You were blind. Then our
gospel came in power and the Holy Spirit moved on you and
opened your eyes and quickened you. And now you see Christ. Like looking at the sun. If you
ever look at the east side, from that time on you'll have spots
before your eyes. If you ever see Jesus Christ
in this book, you'll see Him everywhere. That's how our gospel comes.
Our gospel comes in power and the Holy Spirit and in much assurance.
Do you have any assurance in yourself? Do you feel better
than you were when you first heard the gospel? Do you feel
now that you've made some real progress and so now you have
this assurance? That's not assurance. Our assurance
is in the surety. See, the Holy Spirit gives you
assurance of faith in Christ. Like that leper standing there
where the high priest was doing everything for him. If the high
priest left anything undone, he's not going to be cleansed. But he did it all. He's our assurance, and that's
the assurance He gives us. Are you sure that Christ is salvation?
Are you sure about that? Hell and hope? Are you sure about
that? You're one God's elect! And that's assurance. As you know, and you know what
manner of men we were among you, for your sake, meaning, And he's
going to go through this in chapter 2, meaning not a beggar, not
a pleader, not like these phony soul winners, you know, mealy
mouthed, just a man who stands up and preach the gospel, and
that's all he does, and stand back like Simon Peter at Pentecost,
stand back and watch the Lord work. Verse 6, and you became followers
of us. Here it is. Followers, disciples,
students, learners of us. Paul. Silence, timidness. Of
men? Oh, we're not supposed to follow
Me. Hold on now. That's what Paul
said. Follow Me. Didn't he? And Hebrews, it says, whose faith
follow. Remember them, they had the rule
over whose faith follow. Follow men that follow Christ.
They ain't followers of us. Brethren, I'm a follower of Joseph. In the Scripture. Daniel. Isaiah. Don't you follow his teaching?
David. Don't you? Knox. John Knox. Calvin. Newton. Edwards. Henry. Scott. Why? Those men are following
Christ. And that leads you to Christ. Look at the next end
of the Lord. Why didn't he say the Lord first? Huh? Because it's a greater evidence
that you're following the Lord if you follow the man that the
Lord sent. You haven't seen the Lord. Moses. The Lord sent Moses. And the
Lord said, if they listen to you, they're going to hear from
me. If they reject you, they reject
me. And it was a miracle of God's
grace to turn a hard-hearted, stiff-necked rebel, murmuring,
complaining, into a Caleb, a faithful dog, and to follow him. Joshua. He loved Moses, didn't
he? Followed him. That's proof that
God made him a disciple. Do you understand that? That's
why he said that. God sent Moses. And the people
followed him, but some didn't. And you know, Paul wrote up in
Corinthians and said that they persecuted Christ because Moses
was his man. Well, boy. So they became followers,
and you became followers. Having received, here it is another
time, received the Word in much affliction with joy of the Holy
Ghost. Here's a proof of election. You
receive the Word with affliction, and much affliction, but with
joy. Oh, my. Just believing and receiving
the Word, you'll receive, you'll get persecution. All experience
it. Every single believer, once he
hears the truth, and he starts telling the truth about God,
about man, about salvation, truth from God's Word, Folks don't
like it. And they won't like you. Right? You tell it plainly, even in
love, but the truth, you see, the truth brings man's pride
down. The truth puts man in the dust. The truth puts salvation in the
will and in the hands of God alone. And man doesn't like that. And it took the power of God
to make you like it and love it, didn't it? Love it. You don't want salvation in your
hands. Well, and you receive it with affliction and yet with
joy of the Holy Ghost. Joy of the Holy Ghost. Oh my. All through this epistle, we're
going to see how they were persecuted and yet Paul kept reminding them,
this is evidence that the Lord has chosen you. Look at the next
thing. You became examples. Verse 7.
Examples to all that believe. Macedonia and Achaia, from you
sounded out the Word. In other words, you just couldn't... you had to tell somebody what
the Lord had done for you. You love to talk about the truth.
You love to talk about the gospel. What the Lord's done for me.
Nothing he'd rather talk about. Paul said, we don't have to tell
anybody. It leaked out on me. Examples. You know you can't
help but speak the things you've seen and heard? You know that? And that's what you'll speak
about. And if you've seen His glory, if you've heard His voice,
that's who you'll speak about. Men did. And I saw a bald eagle
the other day out at Philpot Lake. And how many of you did
she text about that? I mean, have you seen a bald
eagle? It's a sight to behold, isn't it? Goreous bird. Is it
any wonder that our Lord is liking unto that magnificent, majestic
animal, the bald eagle? How many people do you text?
How many people do you phone? How many people do you text?
I saw a bald eagle! Well, buddy, like I said, if you ever see
His Christ's glory, if you ever see yourself for what you are
and see the salvation of God in Christ, that's who you're
going to talk about. That's who you're going to talk
about. And you sound it out. And you become examples of witnesses. That's what that's talking about.
Examples of those that love this gospel. You see, we don't need
to say a thing versus, hey, you don't need to In every place
your faith to God will be spread abroad. Every one of our sister
churches knows most of you well by now. And I don't have to say
a thing. Verse 9, they themselves show
of us what manner of entering in we had unto you. Here's proof
of God's elect. He turned to God from idols to serve the living and true
God. How do you know somebody's elect? Because when they meet
the living and the true God, God who is God, when they meet
the true Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, like Saul of Tarsus on
that road to Damascus, when they meet Him, bloody hell, sound
it out, and they won't be ashamed of Him, and they'll turn from
their idols. They'll reject all of their religion
like Saul of Tarsus did. He said, I didn't know God before,
I do now, and His name is Jesus Christ. I didn't know God before. I thought about Jesus, and I
thought, He's just a man. I know now He's not just a man. He's Lord. I used to think I
had a free will, Saul said, but I know now that it's all according
to His will. Right? And he left his idol,
his false god, his false religion, and he grew up. He's a Hebrew
of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees, and he dropped it. He said, now,
I know the living and true God. I'll serve His cause. Now verse
10, now here's the last mark of the elect. He'll wait for
his son to come heaven. You remember that song? Now,
Lord, what wait I for? What are you waiting for? Your
ship to come in? For some of you, It ain't coming in. I'm here
to tell you. You're in your 60s, close to 70. It ain't coming
in. But Christ our artist... We're waiting for His Son from
heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come. That's what we're doing when
we come here to this place, waiting on the Lord, waiting on a word
from the Lord. And like the disciples of old, when the Lord was ascended
to heaven in the clouds, and they all stood gazing, and the
angel, and I am your angel here, The angel said unto them, ye
men of Galilee, why gaze ye in the heaven? This same Jesus shall
so come in like manner. So go back and get together and
hear his word and read his word and break bread and all that,
and just wait. He's coming. Just as sure as
he's living, he's coming for you. Me? Yeah, he's elect. Am
I his elect? Well, did you enter into all
that? Okay. Stand with me. Our God, our God, our Father,
we thank You for Your blessed Word. You said that all Your
children shall be taught of the Lord, come to Christ, and great
shall be the peace. Oh Lord, You told me to comfort
Your people, and there's only one source of comfort, and that's
Your Word. Blessed promise, exceeding great and precious promise. And
Lord, these promises are to all your elects, all the seed in
Christ's church in God, church in Christ, elects from every
nation. I hope your people have been
comforted tonight. You've been glorified. Give us
peace, a passive understanding, and cause us to endure these
trials with patience. Wait for your coming. And even
so, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. In Christ's name, amen. Thank you. Thank you. Andrew.
Right here. Right here. Please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's what the editors are for.