You know that Christ is our mercy
seat, don't you? You know that. But you know,
the church and Christ are one. As he is, so are we in this world. You can't separate the head from
the body. Where he is, that's where they are. Where they are,
that's where he is. The church is in that way a mercy
seal. It's a place A calm, a sure retreat where
the gospel is heard. A place where the Lord Jesus
sheds the oil of gladness on our heads. A place that all beside
more sweet. Can you think of anywhere you
would rather be than where God's people are? A blood-bought church. A scene where spirits blend.
Friend holds fellowship with friend. No sundered fire. There's a mercy seat in Fairmont.
There's a mercy seat in Kingsport. There's a mercy seat in Madisonville. There's a mercy seat in the church
in Lexington and on and on it goes. And this is where we go. This is where we come, where
Christ is. Sin and sense seem to stop molesting
us here, where Christ is. It's like being hedged about.
It's the fold, isn't it? Not giving glory to the church. We are glorifying him who glorifies
the Church, who bought the Church with his own precious blood.
So thankful for his Church, the kingdom of God, the body, the
family of our Lord. 1 Thessalonians 1. Go back there. 1 Thessalonians 1. I had already prepared this message
before I chose the radio message to take to the radio. How many
heard the radio program this morning? I know some of you can't
pick it up, but if you can, you need to listen to it. It's not
only a blessing, but a great way to prepare your heart to
worship. And I had already prepared this message, and I went looking
through some of the old CDs, and I found 1 Thessalonians 1. So I thought, we're going to
have two witnesses witness this as a blessing, a blessed message. Verse 1, that Paul and Silas
and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians in God,
in Christ, church in God, church in Christ, to the church. The
word church, the term, is a blessed term. And I have learned, I hope,
to not use that lightly, to not apply it to a building and not
apply it to every religious organization. I've since learned that this
is a blessed term reserved for God's people, like family. It's like a family name. The
church. congregation or gathering, those who have been congregated,
gathered believers who worship God. They are disciples and lovers
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church which our blessed
Redeemer saved with His own precious blood. The church which He purchased
with His own blood of God. There was no denomination of
the church of old. No denomination. Every single
locale, Thessalonian, Thessalonica, Ephesus, Philippi, Corinth, Rome,
whatever, was simply called the church. Why? Because nothing, there were
no divisions. There was no difference in doctrine.
They all believed in one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one faith.
All of them. They all see eye to eye. Every
one of them. In Zion. The church of God. And he says from Paul, this is
from Paul. This is God's Word. God had Paul
write this. This is a blessed... Look at
chapter 2. Chapter 2, verse 13. Paul says, For this cause Also,
thank we God without ceasing to never quit thanking the Lord
and ceasing to be amazed by the fact and the grace of God that
when you received the Word of God, you heard of us. You received
it not as a Word of man, but as it is in truth, the Word of
God. I believe what Paul, that man
wrote right here, is the Word of God, infallible, without error. The Word of God. Don't you? Every word. Don't you? Do you
know how few people believe that today? Do you know how few people believe
that this book is the Word of God? Most people believe this
is just a book of Jewish fables. They don't believe it at all.
They don't believe the account of creation. They don't believe
the story of the fall. They just don't believe it. They believe the words of Paul
are just the words of a man. You can take them or leave them.
What about you? If you believe this is God's
Word, this letter right here, not the words of a man, but as
it is in truth, the Word of God, you're one of the elect of God.
That's one of the ways you know. Oh my. And Silas and Timothy.
You see that? Paul and Silas and Timothy. Paul
was an apostle. The apostles were gifted men.
They were chosen men. They were extraordinary men.
They really were. They were just men. Sinful men. Yet God endowed them with power
that had never given men before or since. That their words, what
they wrote, was the Word of God. No argument to be believed God's
Word. Their works raised the dead. Raised the dead. Not only the
preaching, but they actually laid hands on people, conferred
the Holy Spirit. I don't understand that, but
it's so. I do know that there are no more apostles. Paul, an
exceptional, a gifted man, a special man. Yet here it says Silas and
Timothy. Who were Silas and Timothy? They
weren't apostles. Their words weren't infallible.
They never wrote any epistles. But they were faithful preachers. I started to say just preachers.
Well, if they're preachers sent by God, they're a gift, aren't
they? A great gift. Paul and Silas
and Timothy. See, these three men went everywhere
preaching, and they agreed eye to eye, heart to heart, mind
to mind, hand in hand. They believed. And, you know,
this is God's Word, yet Marvin and I, we believe it all. This is exactly what we preach.
You're going to hear from Marvin, you're going to hear what Paul
wrote, rather what God wrote. I'm going to hear from me. Hopefully
you're going to hear what Paul wrote and what God wrote. We
believe the same. Todd and I are in total agreement. And on and on it goes. His preacher,
Paul and Silas and Timothy, men sent by God, all taught of God,
and they all see eye to eye. They know the truth. And they
convey it. And he writes to the church.
This is all to the church, to the believers, God's people.
It's not to the world. False preachers apply all this
to everybody. That's what false preachers do. This is to the church. This is
to believers. This is to God's elect. That's
who this is for. This is a love letter from God
to His people. Oh, my, what a letter it is.
The church in God and in Christ. Now, that's what caught my eye. And when I read this, just for
my own enjoyment, the church in God, as many times as we've
looked at this, that still just really struck me. The church,
the people of God that are in God, in Christ. That's salvation. It's to be in His love. In His
love. If somebody is in love with you,
and you're in love with them, you're in their love, they're
in your love. Oh, depending on who it is, you're
a blessed, aren't you? If you're loved by God, you will
never cease to be loved by God. If God loves you, a new world is yours. It's all
yours. All things are yours. And nothing
and no one can separate you from the love of God, which is in
Christ. If you're in Christ, you're in
His love, in His heart, in His mind, God says of His people,
I know my thoughts toward you. Always on His mind. Always in
His heart. Is that not the way it is with
someone you love? You're married to, or your children, or your
parents, or whoever it is, Blood, relations you're in. You think about that person all
the time. Well, we're humans, you know,
we think on other things. But God, we're always in His
mind, in His heart, on His thoughts. David said, such thoughts are
too wonderful for me. Thy thoughts toward me... I just
can't get my mind around that. And he would think on me, what
is man that is mindful of Him? Let alone be thinking about us
all day long in His love, in His heart, in His mind, in His
covenant of redemption. God made a covenant before the
world began. And he's writing names in the
Lamb's Book of Life. He wrote Stan Anderson. Who? Does that thrill you? I know
one fellow that thrills thinking of that. The whole world thinks
they ought to be included. All of God's people think they
can't believe that He would include them. In the covenant of redemption,
elect according to the foreknowledge of God, for whom He did foreknow,
set His mind on, His love on, His heart on, His thoughts on.
Put them in the Lamb's Book of Life and nobody's going to take
you out. Gave them to Christ, the surety
of that covenant. His blessed Son, the Savior,
the Redeemer, the captain of their salvation. They're in captivity. I wanted to get through every
verse. Oh my, they're in captivity and
God sent Christ, go down and rescue them. Go down and get
Rahab out. I'm destroying Jericho. Get her
out. Tie that scarlet line in her
window. Bring her out, because I love
her. She's a harlot. I love her. See what it means to be in God,
in Christ? And you don't put yourself in
Him. How God are you in Christ? who is made unto us all things,
chosen in Him, accepted in the Beloved, redeemed in Him, to
the church in God. See that? And he says to the church in
God, in Christ, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father. He's not only the Father, He's
our Father. And Christ said that. The Lord
teaches us to pray. He said, OK. You trust me. You love me. You believe me. I'm all your salvation, Christ
said. OK. Pray our Father. He's my Father. And He's your
Father. Now, you call Him Father. And
He hears you every time. He's your Father. And all grace. He's the God of all grace. And
all grace is yours. All grace. Grace be unto you.
Every gift. Whatever you need, it's a gift.
It's all of grace. The God of all grace. And every
good and perfect gift will come down to you. He's promising.
Grace unto you. Electing grace. Chose you. Redeeming grace. Bought you.
Saving grace. Providing grace. Preserving grace. Keeping grace. You don't keep
yourself. kept by the power of God, the grace of God, restraining
grace, teaching grace, leading grace, growing grace, grace unto
you, peace, peace. Folks, this earth and these heavens
are reserved for fire. And the more I see it and hear
it, the more I'm certain that's going to fall soon. You cannot
look around you and not see how utterly corrupt the whole earth
has become as in the days of Noah. Oh, my. And God has said this. This is
not fable. It's not fiction. Preserved under
fire the day of judgment. God is angry. the peace unto you. There's no wrath to you. There's
no judgment to you. There's no anger. God is not
angry with you if you're in Christ. My, my. Who makes us to differ? What makes us to differ? The
grace of God, the Word of God, the Christ of God. Peace. Peace. Peace with God. How? How? Blood. The blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, my. Peace of heart. Peace
of mind. I'll just be honest with you. Every time I turn on the TV or
turn on the computer and I look at what's going on, it troubles
me. It vexes me. And it's starting to make me
like Jeremiah. What they're saying about our
Lord and what it's doing to our children
and the nation that we live in. It is not one nation under God. It's an untoward generation. And our children are going to
perish in it unless God does something. And this is how He
does it. Luke, thank God for the Gospel
and those who preached it. Because this is the power of
God unto salvation. This is what God uses. We're in the latter harvest.
There's very little truth to be heard, to be found. Churches
are little small places like this, laughing stock of this
world. We have peace. God is not angry
with us. That's what he says in verse
3. Verse 2. We give thanks to God. Forgive me. You know how I don't
like emotion up here. How could you not hear this? Or hear this without emotion?
Huh? We give thanks to God always
for you all. Make him mention of you in our
prayer. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift for Christ. Thanks be unto God for his church,
his people. Thanks be unto God. We give thanks
to God always. He said that in verse, well,
we read it in chapter 2, verse 13. He said, For this cause always
we also thank we God without ceasing. to the next letter,
he said, We're bound to give thanks always to God for you,
brother. This is what the church needs
to do. The church needs to give thanks
to God. Church worships God, the church
is thankful to God, the church meets together to praise the
name of our God. He well deserves it. He's worthy of thanks be unto
God for everything, all things, chief of which is His Son, the
Son of His love, the gospel of His Son. Thanks be unto Him.
I give thanks that I give thanks. Don't you? There was a time when
I did not give thanks. I didn't know I was the one whom
I should be giving thanks to. But now, here I am, giving thanks. Thank you, Lord, for making me
know that I need to give thanks. If you weren't in Him, you wouldn't.
If you weren't in Christ, you wouldn't be in here. It goes
without saying that if you're in God, in Christ, you'll be
in His church. Doing what? Giving thanks. When
I was really young, didn't know the Lord, didn't know Christ,
I was forced to go. I wanted out. Go out in the world. Oh, blessed be God. But God,
who is rich in love, for His great love wherewith He loved
me, even when I was dead in sins, quickened me. Oh, it's by grace
that I'm saved. Brought me to His Son. Brought
me into the fold to give thanks, and now I'm here by God's choice
and mine. Made me willing. I'm here because
I want to be. And I wouldn't want to be if
He hadn't chosen me. Thanks God. Thank the Lord. We
never thank people for coming to church. False preachers will
do that. Because they're hirelings. They're
men-pleasers. God's people, God's preacher
always thanks God, always. For you all, I like that. For
every one of you. The body. For the little toes,
big mouth. Oh, every member of the body.
For you all. I thank God for you all. For
you all. Each and every member of His
body. Loved by God, loved by Christ, and loved by me. Different
as we may be, I can say it from my heart, I love you all. I do. Thank God. And then Paul commends
the church in verse 3. He says, Remembering without
ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ is in the sight of God and our
Father. God is not unrighteous to forget
your Labor and love. That's what Scripture says. Someone
argues, you shouldn't praise men. You should never praise
and commend men for anything. That's not right. That's not
true. We first and foremost thank our
God. Yes, we do. Bound to give thanks
always to God for you all. It is God that worketh in us.
both the will and do of His good pleasure. He's the one that deserves
the praise, okay? But whenever God does work in
someone, He does works through them. Those He works in, He works
through. Those He makes His servants,
they serve others. And whatever service we receive
at the hands of one of God's people, whatever it may be, a
cup of water, God said, will receive a disciple's reward. Just a cup of cold water will
receive a disciple's reward. Everything. Our Lord commends
His people. Though He's the one that did
the work in them, He says to them, Well done. I remember this one. My daughter
was very young and now and my granddaughters. But I taught
them everything and her everything and gave her everything. And I would teach her to do things
and she would do these things. I'd be right there, hands on,
showing her how to do it. And she'd be doing it. And she'd
mess up, you know. But I'd commend her. That's just
what you do, isn't it? Good job, honey. You know, and
then she'd leave and I'd have to do it over again. But I'd
commend her. I'm encouraging her. And obedience
and service and anything like that needs to be commended. It
does. It's not bragging, it's just
commendation. That's what the Lord does. The
Lord said to do this, render honor to whom honor is due. Tribute
to whom tribute is due. If someone renders you a service,
you thank them for it. You acknowledge them for it. Spurgeon used to say, the worst
thing you can call someone is ungrateful. It's ungrateful not
to thank someone for something, whatever it may be. It's ungodly
not to. A cup of water, anything. He
says, I remember, remembering without ceasing, remembering
in prayer and remembering in my own heart and mind, your work
of faith, your labor of love, and patience of hope. Your work
of faith. That's what Brother Mahan preached
on this morning. Work of faith. Faith works. Faith
without works is dead. Faith works. Faith is something
that God works in us. It's a work of God, and whatever
He works in us will come out of us. Work of faith. Faith is love. Faith is love. Love to God. Love to Christ. Love to His people.
Love to His Word. Love to His truth. Faith is love.
Love for Him. Labor of love. Faith which worketh
by love. The law says this is what you
must do. This is what you ought to do. Grace, or true saving faith of
work in a person. Grace says, what can I do? Law
says this is what you must give. Grace says, Can I do more? We were going to give somebody
that came and preached here some money, and I told Max to give
them this and this amount, and he called me a little while later
and said, do you mind if I give a little more? Oh, my, that's grace, isn't it?
Grace. Faith which worketh by love,
your work of faith, your labor of love. And we heard this of
Lydia. Do you remember Lydia? The Lord
worked and opened Lydia's heart. The Lord did a work in Lydia,
a work of faith, a work of love, a work of the gospel in her heart. The Lord opened her heart. So
what did Lydia do? Opened her home. She opened her
home. She realized now that everything
she had was given to her of the Lord, and she thought, I freely
receive and I want to freely give. And every time Paul and
Silas and Timothy or whoever came through, every time she
heard the gospel from Paul, and every time Paul came through
that town, she said, oh, would you please stay with me? Yes,
sir. He stayed there often. Like Martha
and Mary and Lazarus, our Lord was there. Faith which worketh
by love. The works we perform are in service
to our Lord, but he's in heaven. What can we do for him? He doesn't need anything. But
his body does. His people do. And his labor
is of love to him and to his people and service toward them.
Oh, Paul, say we remember without ceasing your work of faith and
labor of love. What of all the sacrifice that
people have made for you and I to sit here in comfort and
read this word and in safety? And what of all the blood that's
been shed so that we can have this book, so that we can sit
here without fear? Don't we owe a debt of remembrance
to these people? I can't bring it up Martin Luther
and others, because I love that man. I'm so thankful that he
endured such hardships, Paul and all of them. I'm so thankful. And if they were here, I'd tell
them, thank you, sir. Thank you. I am standing here
today because that man right there was a faithful preacher
of the gospel for years. Tammy, you too, right? Mindy?
Anybody else? But we've all been an indirect
recipient of that. Oh, thanks be unto God. And I thank you for that work
of faith and labor of love. Thank you, Pastor. We're going to realize someday
what gifts our Lord gave to us. When He ascended on high, led
captivity captive, He gave gifts unto men and women. Undeserving
people, He gave gifts. He gave men, real men, in a world
full of tyrants, evil men, seducers that wax worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived. And He gave us a true preacher. There are people right now sitting
under phonies and fakes who are out for their money. They don't
care about them, don't care about themselves. Wolves in sheep's
clothing, aren't there? Thousands, yea, millions under
those people. Who makes such a difference? Thanks be unto God for this gift,
and I thank the men who He raised up, that work of faith, and you. each one of you, for all of you.
All of you. Thanks to everyone for everything
that you do. The work of the ministry. Paul
wrote to the Corinthians, he said, therefore seeing we have
this ministry, he said to the Corinthians. Paul couldn't have
preached if Priscilla and Aquila hadn't kept him in their home
and fed him. Unless they had supported him,
he couldn't have stayed there. And he commended them. He said,
I commend unto you Aquila and Priscilla. They laid down their
lives for me. They stuck out their neck for
me. And 16 names he named, in Romans 16, people that he commended. He said, you need to thank these
people for what they did. And I do. I thank you, everyone
in here. Too many names to name, but I
thank you for the work of the music that you perform for us. It's a labor of love, and it's
tough, people. Anybody want to play the piano
Wednesday night? Anybody? Got any volunteers? If you volunteer,
raise your hand. No takers? Well, we have some ladies that
do it with them. Aren't you thankful? I thank
you for the music. The work in the CDs and the tapes,
all that you do is sending those out. There's some people. There's
an old lady, 80-some years old down in Texas, Georgia Gibbs,
that receives these CDs, and she keeps writing for more. She
just can't get enough. I know we're not the only ones
she gets them from, but thank you for sending them. She thanks
you. She's very, very thankful. Work
in the treasury. Anybody want that job? Can you
balance your checkbook? What about everybody else's?
You want the job? When's the last time you thanked
these people? It's been too long for me. Thank
you. Thank you. Thank you, John. Thank you. We've had people. We've had the Swords, Andersons. Now, Mac, the treasurer and the
Ogle band, thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. I don't want to leave anybody
out, but I'm going to. I'm sorry. But you don't want credit for
it. You really don't take any credit for it. Housing people,
we have people come through and many of you put them in your
houses. Thank you. Thank you. I was a
recipient of that for years. I stayed in the house of Obed
Anderson, Anderson Edom. The Lord blessed the house of
Anderson that the gospel said. The house of Barry, the house
of Davis, the house of various ones, parks and fountains and
on and on it goes. Mayhem. The Lord blessed the
houses, opened their houses, cleaned them, those that cleaned
this building. Believe me, you don't want to be here if somebody
doesn't clean it. Thank you. Thank you. From the
snow removal to the carpet sweeping to the opening of the door and
closing of the door. I'll just be honest with you. Sometimes
I come over here real early and open it. But there are times
when I come and it's already been opened. And the heat turned
up. And somebody did that. And I'll just be honest with
you. Sometimes I'm ready to go home. And somebody closes up. Somebody closes up, turn the
lights out. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for that. Remembering without ceasing.
Your work of faith, labor of love, and it is. Love to our
Lord. Patience of hope in our Lord. He's not commending anybody for
their patience. That's of God, isn't it? We don't
have any patience. It's God that gives us patience,
but how does He give us patience? Trial. Trial of our faith worketh
patience. Wait, submit, bow, patient, experience,
experience, hope, hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my, a good
hope. We've got a good hope, don't
we? A sure hope through grace. We've got a good hope because
we've got a surety. And all who do, listen to this,
all who are in God, all who are in Christ, all who receive the
grace of God and the peace of God and perform works of faith and labors
of love and hoping in our Lord Jesus Christ, it's all in the
sight of God. God sees this. It's all in the
sight of God. And that means you're one of
the elect. These mean that you're one of the elect. Verse 4, knowing,
brethren, beloved, your election of God. I know you're one of
the elect for these reasons. I know you're in the Lamb's Book
of Life for these reasons. Now, we can't open the book,
can we? We can't. We can't see our names
in that actual book, can we? Well, didn't John say? We know we've
passed from death unto life. Hereby we may know, didn't he
say that? And here, Paul said, knowing,
brethren, your election of God. Now, I'm interested. How do you
know if you're one of God's elect? How do you know? Can you know?
Knowing, brethren, your election of God. All right, stop right
there. When I read What went through your mind?
Your heart. When I read from God's Word,
it talks about election. What did it do to you? In your
mind, in your heart. I don't think there's a person
in here who got mad. I hope not. I don't think there's
a person in here, I'm looking around, who did not like that. Don't talk about that. This is
where you start. This is how it all started. Election
is not salvation. It's not believing the doctrine,
per se. But this is where it started.
This is where salvation started. God, from the beginning, chose
you. God elects, according to the
foreknowledge of God, before the world began, God chose a
people, elected a people before the world began. He chose and
elected a certain number of persons to save them. What do you think
about that? What do you think about
that? If that fills your heart and
your mind and your soul with love and gratitude and wonder
and joy and rejoicing, knowing reverence, your election of God.
Who believes election? The elect do. Who loves that
God chose a people? The elect do. Only the elect do. When you stand
up, a man stands up and says, God elected a people, and out
there will be two fellows, and one of them says, I hate that,
and the other fellow says, I love that. Who's the elect? That's not an infallible proof,
mind you. Some do love the doctrine, but
that's where you start. This is what we heard, Brother
Henry, wasn't it? This is the gospel we first heard,
all of us. I heard it from when I was born.
I never knew any other gospel, at least in my head. But when
you were in false religion, they hated this, didn't they? They
hated this. You hated it, Roberta, didn't
you? You hated it. Don't talk... I don't believe
that. But God one day said, Roberta, I elected you to thank me for electing you. to bow to the truth that I am
God. That's what makes God. That's
the difference between our God and their God. The God who is
God and the God who wants to be God. The God they must let
be God. Our God chooses whom He will
because He will, and none can stay His hand or so you can't
do that. What do you say to these things? Do you let love it? Love Him, rather, who chose us. Elect. That's our gospel, you
see. That's where our gospel differs
from their gospel. Our gospel. Elect. This is the
love of the truth. It's the truth. It's the truth.
It's throughout God's Word. God chose a people. It's the
truth. Do you love the truth? Praise God for His sovereign
electing grace. If He hadn't chosen me, I would
have never chosen him. Praise God for revealing to me
the truth. If He hadn't revealed it to me,
I'd have never figured it out. Praise God for giving me a love
for the truth. If He hadn't, I would never have
ceased to hate it. Praise God. Election is a person. Election is in a person. You
see, you know who God's elect is? It's Jesus Christ. That's
where it all started, in Jesus Christ. God said, I love My Son
so much. He's my elect, my servant in
whom I delight. And so God said, I'm going to
make a world, I'm going to make a universe to the praise and
the glory of my only begotten well-beloved Son. All for Him,
His glory. I'm going to hang a sun in the
sky to show His glory. A moon to put under His feet.
An earth for Him to walk on. My Son, my beloved Son. Hear
what God says about himself. He said, I've chosen him, I've
loved him, I've set him forth as my all and in all. Now, I'm
going to choose a people. and give them to Him, and put
them in Him, and make Him their covenant head, and make Him their
surety, and make Him their Redeemer, and make Him their righteousness,
their wisdom, their sanctification, their holiness, their everything.
I'm going to make Him their Messiah, their mediator, their high priest,
their lamb, their everything. It's all wrapped up in Him. What
do you think about that? Mine elect, my part. This is Him.
God said, I'm not pleased with anybody or anything but Him. But if you're in Him, you're
accepted. What do you think about that?
Rather, Him. God put all of His everything
in one person. Mine elect. See, we're chosen
in Him. Loved in Him. Found in Him. Accepted in Him. Election's a
person. person. That's our gospel. Our gospel. If you're one of the elect, you
love His truth, His gospel. You love God being God. You love
Christ being all. You love salvation by grace.
You love whatever God says. You love it. Our gospel. Not their gospel. Not another gospel. You hear
it. That's about all you hear out
there. Our gospel. Because God gave it to us. Entrusted
me with this gospel. What a blessed trust. A pearl
of great pride. A treasure. God forbid, woe is
unto me if I preach not this gospel. Woe is me, Ty, if I don't
stand up here and preach Christ. God demands it. Sinners need
it. The church rejoices in it. Oh, we don't come here to acknowledge
man. We come here to acknowledge our
God. We don't come here to thank men for doing something for God. We thank God for doing everything
for us. Christ. Our Gospel. It came unto
you, and I've got to quit. It came unto you not in word
only. There's a time when all you hear
are words. There's a time when all you hear
is a sermon. There's a time when all you see
are words on paper, words out of the mouth of a man, a sermon. But if it's in God's good time,
if you're one of His elect, in the fullness of time, power. It's God speaking, not a man.
It's not words on paper. It's a sword in your heart. A
hammer on your hard head. A fire in your bosom. Did not
our hearts burn within us? You're lukewarm, or you're dead,
and then all of a sudden, God sends the fire. Not this, you
know, not this wildfire, all stuff's going on, but the Word
of God, the Gospel of God, the grace of God, the Christ of God,
power, oh, life-giving power, life-changing power, heart-breaking
power, ear-opening power, eye-opening power, mouth-shutting power. I love seeing it happen. And
that's what it takes to take God's power, God's gospel. It
did me such good to listen to this young man read those Scriptures
and pray from his heart. It reminded me of myself. You're
me. We're blood, didn't we, Ken? And I'm sure I remind my dad
of himself. And on and on it goes. It took
the same power to save an Armenian, died in the war, Armenian, Southern
Baptist preacher, 24 years old. An evangelist named Ralph Marner
came in one day with a gospel of God's sovereign electing grace
and slew a young man, a young preacher. Wiped out everything
he knew. Destroyed everything he used
to preach and gave him the truth. And he started preaching it.
Well, here this prodigal son sat under his preaching, sat
under it. Now, when I get age, I'm heading out. And I did. Robin, I can't preach without
saying, but God, I just can't do it. But God. Slew me. That same gospel. Luke, that's your story. One
day. One day. Doesn't matter who it was, where
it was. Same gospel, same power. Power. The Holy Ghost who takes
the things of Christ and shows them unto you. who gives regenerating
grace, or a new creature who opens your understanding, puts
fruit, repentance, faith, love, hope, joy. And much assurance. Much assurance. I mean this when I say this.
I have full assurance. I have full assurance. I have no assurance in myself. I have nothing in me to give
me any comfort or hope at all that I'm a child of God. I mean
that. About the time I think I've made
some progress one step forward, you know, two steps back. Assurance is being sure of who
God is. Assurance is being sure of that
you're a sinner. Here's assurance now. This is
one thing I am sure of. I'm a sinner. I mean, I'm a bona
fide sinner. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. And I can't do anything good. I can't even think a good
thought. I know that. And this I'm sure of. I'm just
sure that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. This is my hope. This is the
gospel. I have full assurance that salvation
is by grace. 100% by grace. And it's in Jesus
Christ. Okay? That's assurance, people. Well, how do you know? But how
do you know if you're in Him? I don't know. I don't have assurance
that I'm in Him. Hold on now. Do you believe God's God? Do
you believe you're nothing? Do you believe Christ is your
only hope? What else is there? I didn't
say look in, see if you can find some reason to believe that you're
in Him. I said look to Him. Nobody's ever looked to Him that's
been left cast out. Your assurance is in a person.
And I wanted to bring this out here, too, because something
happened recently. It goes on to say, you became
followers of us, received the Word, much affliction, joy of
the Holy Ghost, became examples, the Word sounded out, and you're
spoken of throughout the world, and you are. John Chapman is
coming here to preach in March. when I'll be in Louisiana. And
every man I ask to come here, they act like they just can't
wait to get here. Every one of them say there's
no place I'd rather preach than that. I know the feeling, because
there are other places for me like that, like Lantana Grace
Church or anywhere like that. But that's what he said. I'd
no place I'd rather preach than there. John did. That's because
your faith is everywhere spread abroad. It's known by everybody.
Everybody. They know. They know what manner
of entering in we had unto you. They knew who I was, where I
came from, and how I got here. Miracle. And you turn from idols
to serve the living and true God? Every church. is made up
of people that were in false religion, that God had to take
them out of that. Every grace church, true church,
is made up of people who were idolaters like Abraham and turned
from those idols to serve the God who is God and wait for his
Son in heaven. What do we do? What are you all
doing for the Lord? Well, we're waiting for the Lord. We come here to
wait. Wait on Him. Oh, my. Waiting is a hard thing to do,
isn't it? Patience. But one point I wanted to bring
out where he said that you became followers of us. That's an amazing thing. Amazing
thing. I'm sure Paul never got over
it. Timothy, Silas, Peter, James, John, all of them. Let the Lord
raise them up. Use them to preach. Not only
preach, but lead people. I used to be a leader. My mother
thought I was running with the wrong crowd, and she didn't realize
I was the wrong crowd. They were running with me. And
you became followers of us. Somebody says, you're not supposed
to follow men. Well, that's not what the Scripture says. And
I was going to show you several places. There's Thessalonians 1 and 2
and 2 Thessalonians. He said, you became followers
of us. 2 Corinthians 11, I believe it was. He said, follow me. Paul
said, you follow me as I follow the Lord. As I follow the Lord.
If somebody is following Christ, you can follow him. If the Lord
raised up an under-shepherd, If the Lord is your shepherd,
then your preacher is your shepherd, and you can follow Him with confidence. There you can. You don't put
all your confidence in Him, mind you, but you can be confident
that God has sent you a faithful preacher, and you can follow
Him. I got a letter from a young man not long ago who heard me
preach a few times, and we had a conversation. And in the course
of that conversation, and the letter, he was trying to straighten
me out. And that all didn't bother me
too much, considering the source. Just an ignorant young man, knew
just enough Bible to make him a self-righteous Pharisee. Trying to straighten me out,
and I didn't answer it. But then he said something to
me, because in our conversation, I brought up my faithful pastor, and I had some commentaries that
the Lord used him to write, which I love those commentaries. I
love them. And they've been used greatly,
mightily by God. And that young man said in that
letter to me, he said, and I just brought up my pastor, I said,
I'd like for you to have some of these. You could greatly benefit.
I said, the Lord used him to teach me the gospel. And he did. Paul one time said to Timothy,
Timothy said, don't be ashamed of the gospel or me. Didn't he? I'm ashamed of me. Well, anyway,
that young man said in this letter, nothing bothered me until he
said this. He said, you're just following a man. You're just
preaching what a man taught you. And he said, that's being man
centered and not Christ centered. And I'll just be honest with
you, it made me really mad. A real man. It offended me personally, number
one, because I am not preaching a man-centered gospel. If there's
anything I'm not doing, it's not that. You won't find my name
anywhere. I've got one thing to do, and
that's what I do. By the grace of God, preach Christ. Do I do that? Please. Okay. But then it made me mad because
he despised my pastor, my preacher. Well, it made me briefly mad. Then I started considering the
source. And I thought, why don't I strive with a pot shirt? Don't
get mad at a barking dog. Don't worry about it. He doesn't know anything. He's
just ignorant. So I started praying for him. I don't know what the
Lord is going to do with him. But the point is, the Lord raised
up men to preach, and I'm so thankful. I wouldn't have heard
it. I wouldn't have heard the gospel. Faithful men. They're following Christ. You
can follow them. And this is proof. This is one of the proofs of
election. Men like, you know, down through
the years, John Knox and Calvin. People hate John Calvin. They
hate him. They hate the mention of his name. I love him. I'm not ashamed of John Calvin.
I'm ashamed that I don't stand up more on his behalf. And on
and on it goes. We have some in our day, men
who are hated. And you're hated. He said that. You received the
Word with much affliction and were persecuted. And you are.
What for? Why does your family hate you?
The truth, for Christ's sake. He said that's good proof that
you're one of the elect. The world receives and loves
its own. But if you're in God and you're
in Christ, they're going to hate you like they did Him. That's
proof. And many more proofs that our
Lord gives us. Thanks be unto God for His Word,
for His Gospel, and for those who preach it. And for you, I
thank God for you, for all that you do for me and for His Church
and His people. All right. Brother John, if you'll
come, number 186. We couldn't sing a better hymn
than this. One hundred eighty six.