Is that moment in my dreams?
For I'm living in the moment In the town before I grow old And the angels carry me home To the land where
I will be found Very worshipful. Very good. I love that tune,
too. Songs of hymns of worship deserve
music that is dignified and complete and irreverent and careless and
too much flesh in it. That's what's wrong with modern
music. All right, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. In other words, music
should be hit to what we're singing to. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.
Now, it's easy for me to deal with these verses because these
are my heartfelt feelings for this church. I've entitled this message, what
this is, what this letter is, is the title of the message,
a love letter to the Church. That's what this is. And as I
say it, I can deal with these verses very easily, or that is
from my heart, because that's, I feel just like the Apostle
felt for these folks at Thessalonica. I've been in many places, I've
been in many, many churches, true churches, and really there's
no sweeter fellowship and closer unity than what we have right
here in this group. And I'm not going to knock on
wood. There's no reason to believe
you won't contend it, as long as the gospel contends it. There
are those who love it, and that fellowship and unity should.
Paul, the apostle, had nothing but good things to say about
the church at that time. In both of his letters, he had
nothing but good things to say to them. Just at the very end of the second
letter, there was one brief warning about somebody who was unruly.
That was it. And in two letters, he had only
good things to say, and all that he had to say were words of exhortation
and words of comfort. And so this will be... Look over
Chapter 3. This will be very comforting. Chapter 3, verses 6 through 9,
he said, When Timothy came from you unto us and brought us good
tidings, just good news of your faith and love, and that you
have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as
we also to see you. And therefore, brethren, we were
comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your
faith. But now we live if you stand
fast in the Lord. And what thanks can we render
to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for
your sakes before our God." So he just rejoiced. And this was
written on behalf of Silas and Timothy. Paul wrote, in verse
1, he says, Paul, Silas, and Timothy. So all three of them
were together in their joy about the church at Thessalonica. So this is God, but this is God's
Word through Jesus' church. No, Paul wrote it, this is God's
Word to you. All right now, chapter 1. He
says, Paul and Silvanus, Timotheus, come to the church of the Thessalonians,
or the Centralians, to read Franklin Countians. Very easy to say that. Which is the church which is
in God. in God the Father and in the
Lord Jesus Christ. You remember Colossians 3, you're
dead, your life is hid with Christ in God. You're dead, you're in
God, you're in Christ, you're in God's purpose. Before the
world began, you were in God's purpose, each and every one of
you. Your very names were written in a book. You were in God's
purpose, you were in God's heart. He set His special on you. For whom He did for, no, that
means for, but yea, I must be with everlasting life. You were
in God's heart, you were in God's mind, and never left it. And
he says to those in God and in Christ, grace in you. All grace
from the God of all grace. Whatever grace you need. Saving grace you need. Sovereign
electing grace you need. Saving grace you need. Keeping
grace, you got it. Eternal grace, you got it. Provisional grace, you got it. I'm the God of all grace. Joseph,
you see, is in charge of the story. Our older brother, whom
we've sent to him yet. Remember his purpose? Remember
Joseph's purpose? It's all good. God said, I know
my thoughts for you. God speaks. So grace, all grace,
whatever grace you're going to be, he's going to give it. He'll
give it more of it. Whatever it may be, grace in
sickness, grace in trial, grace in death, you're going to have
God's promises. Grace, okay. And peace. And peace from God, our Father
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace, eternal peace with God.
Christ made it by the blood of His cross. God's not angry with
His people. The wrath of God doesn't abide with
His people, but the love of God does. You can say this to God's
people. Smile. God loves you. Yes, you can. Peace. Peace unto
you through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Eternal peace
and peace of heart and mind. Peace which passes understanding.
He said you'll have it. And the moment you say it, God
has ordained peace. Why do we have this sweet fellowship?
It's not because of me. It's not because of you. Isn't
it? If it was just you and me, we'd butt heads. Deacons and
pastors, they don't get along. You know, that's like opposites
opposed with a magnet. They just don't come together.
Deacons and pastors, they always fight. Have we ever had a fight
in 12 years? Because God has ordained peace in history. And
there's going to be, there is peace. There is peace. Verse 2, he says, we give thanks,
Paul, Silas, Timothy, we give thanks to God always for you
all. Making mention of you in our
prayer. We give thanks to God for you
all. Paul, this is a common language
of Paul. He says this in many places. We're bound to give thanks to
God. We thank God always. It's said three times in the
letters to the Thessalonians. You see, God's people thank God
for making them His people. Not, we don't thank men for making
Him whole. No. God's people, true worshipers,
Thank God, not me. There's no thanks due to any
of us for anything done for God, anything done in our salvation,
anything. No, we thank God always. You see, always, for everything. Look at chapter 2. Chapter 2,
this is, you need to mark this. It's easy to remember, people. 1 Thessalonians 2.13 and 2 Thessalonians
2.13 are virtually identical. Look at 1 Thessalonians 2.13.
But this calls also, thank we God without ceasing. Because
when you receive the word of God which you heard of us, you
received it not as a word of man, but as it is in truth, the
word of God, which is peculiarly worked with also in you that
believe. 2 Thessalonians 2.13. You have
it? We're bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren and beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief in the truth. See how similar those
verses are? We always thank God without ceasing. We give thanks to God always
for you. We don't thank you. We thank
you for doing something for him. We thank you for doing something
for me. I thank you for doing something
for him. I thank you for doing something
for them. After we've done all that's required
of us, the scripture says, after we've done all that's required
of us, we're still what? Unprofitable. It's our reasonable
service. If you don't thank the servant
for doing what they're supposed to do, that's what they're supposed
to do. Nevertheless, we render honor and give honor to whom
we do. All right, verse 2. So he says, we give thanks to
God always for you all. For every one of you. Every one of you. Making mention
of you in our prayer. Every single one. There's not
a person in this room, right now, whose name hasn't been brought
up in there. Young, old, male and female. Not a person in this room. Constantly. Not just about me. Or you all. And I've said this many times. Who would we, who are we willing
to do what we have? I wouldn't have you look around.
You know who's here. Prince Tanks. He could be any time of year. So, who are we willing to do
that? Let's sit here. Well, there's
me. Jesus sent me. No way. I could not have done that. You'd be sitting in a pile of
dust right now. Well, let's see, who can we do that? Who are we
willing that they'd live and wouldn't miss it? Now, we're
all members of the body. If you lost a little toe, you'd
greatly miss it, wouldn't you? Just a little toe, just a toe
nail. Huh? Just a toe nail. I lost my toenail
one time. Oh, I protected it. Everything
hit the floor. Boy, I was jumping. Scared to
death. Guarding that toe. Thanks. We thank God for you all. Nobody
in here insignificant. None. Make mention of you in
our prayer. Every night we call him to pray.
Verse 3. Remembering, without ceasing, your work of faith. Now Paul does remember, he does
commend them for their work of faith. But he's commended this,
a man commended man. Thanking them for what they've
done for the cause of the body. The work of faith is what you
do for others. You remember what Job said? He
said, if I do good or do righteousness or whatever, how does that affect
God? If I do sin or evil? You can't
do evil. God has everything, is everything. We can't add anything to it,
we can't contribute to His work. You understand? Or Him. But Christ
said, as much as you've done unto the least of these my brethren,
you've done unto me. The works that we do in faith
are for one another. All right? Now, he says, we remember
without ceasing your work of faith. We remember, what we need
to remember is people's, is everyone's assets, and we need to forgive
their liabilities. You know, we need to forget each
other's faults and remember our assets. When you look around, you see
many admirable traits in your brethren. Not yourself. Forget
your assets. I mean your own. Don't think
that. But forget others' faults. All right, Paul says three things
that he gives thanks for in this church. Three things. He says,
number one, I give thanks without ceasing for your work of faith.
Now, whatever is not of faith is what? Sin. Whatever is not
done by faith in Christ is sin. Do you understand what that means?
Do you understand what that means? Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. That means whatever is not done
by faith in Christ, that is, looking to, believing, trusting
a mediator, trusting him in your righteousness. The scripture
talks about even the plowing of the wheat fields. He's on
the side of the law. There's a man out there right
now probably cutting, baling hay. There's a man out there
right now, bailing hay, a farmer, probably a fine man, hard working,
family man, probably religious, quite sure of that. But he's
bailing hay right now. He's not worshiping God. Well,
he's got to get his hay up. No, he doesn't. Post not thyself with tomorrow,
if ye don't know what tomorrow may bring. Remember the approval,
and thy approval this night, shall thy soul be required of
thee. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God, and his righteousness, and he'll get you hastened. Uh-huh,
all these things we have to do. A man who doesn't worship God
perfectly, conformably, whatever he does is evil. I don't care
how honest the language is. You understand? That's what that
says. When whatever is not done by faith in Christ, you believe
in one God, you do well. Heaven believes in truth. But
apart from Christ, it's evil. It's sin. Remember when Paul
said in 1 Timothy 1, he said, I was before a flask came to
me. He believed one God. He read the Bible. He could quote
it. He could practice all of the
commandments. He kept the commandments. He didn't believe Christ. He
didn't look to Christ. So he's a blasphemer. He's an
evil man. He's a sinner. So these works
of faith are done by faith in Christ. And grace, and this faith
is the grace of God. It's the grace of God. And what
we do, we're here unscathed, these words of faith. As let's
take, I mentioned Vicki cleaning this building. Why does she clean
this building? We sure don't pay her much, but
because she loves the gospel. She appreciates the gospel. It's
her reason of service. I know she feels this way. John
too. It's a work of faith. We appreciate
and love the gospel. We've got this place God has
given us to worship where the true gospel is, and it's a work
of faith, you see. And you notice he said, he's
talking to the whole church, and he says, your work, that works. And your work of
faith. So in other words, Whatever is
done, from that glass of water to whatever, some grape, some
thing, it all makes up one work, you see. It's all the work of
the gospel. Whatever it may be. And Paul
talked about this in Romans, 1 Corinthians 12, about members
of the body having differing gifts and purposes and uses. And because a little toe can't
be the head, doesn't mean you don't need it. Because the eye
is not the mouth, you know, is he disappointed? No, you need
everything. And there are many members that
all have different gifts, but all necessary. I remember our
sister Virgin used to always complain to me that, she said,
I don't do nothing. I'm getting too old. I'd say, Virgin, if you pray
for me, I said, Virgil, I value that more than anything else,
anything else. They asked Spurgeon one time,
they said, with the grace of God, mercy of God, providence
of God, what do you attribute the blessings upon your preaching
to? He said, my people, pray for
me. That's what Paul said, brethren,
pray for me. So whatever it may be, Virgi had limited resource,
a widow, very little income. She prayed for me, head, ears,
and tail. And then there's people with large earning power, and
they can give a lot of money, that's needed. It's people who
speak to the needs of the building. It's people who this and that
and the other. It all has to be together to
make one work, you see? No work is more important than
another. All together is one work. Work,
I think. The work of building up of one
another. All those folks told me that.
You understand? All together. My work, preaching, is no more
important than that man making the tapes. It's all one word. All right, read on. He said,
For your work of faith, and labor of love. Thank God for their
labor of love. No, it's laborious. It is laborious. Preaching is laborious. It really
does. My dad called me on the phone
yesterday. I said, what are you doing? I said, well, I'm studying for
a message. He said, you about to get it? I said, well, I'm
trying. He said, I know what you mean.
He said, let's study this where it is in the flesh. And he tells
me over and over again, 50 years ago, he just read it. But, it's
a labor of love. It's a labor of love. Cutting the grass and so on,
I don't care. I bought a new ride home the
other day. And cut my grass, cutting time
in half. Or more than that, make it fly. And cut it in half. Somebody
says, well, don't you really enjoy cutting the grass now?
I said, no. Still cutting the grass. It doesn't
matter what you're sitting on, it's still cutting the grass.
It's still glorious. But it's a labor of love. It's
done in love. It needs to be done. These bows
look so good, I appreciate it. It needs to be done now. It's
a reflection of what we think about this place. All right,
the third thing. He says, in your patience of
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, your patience of hope. We all endure things, endure
trials, afflictions. Go through different things,
the Lord sends our way. Try with your faith, work with
patience and hope. We endure all things in hope.
And if you thank God for this patience, without faith, you
wouldn't have that patience. Without love, love for the truth,
love in the heart, you wouldn't have that patience. Patience
is what we need, and we endure all things in hope. We endure
all things in hope of our Lord's soon coming and His blessings
upon it, whatever it may be. No matter how difficult the trial,
we endure it with patience in hope that it's good, that God's
purpose is being accomplished. And he says this, you know, of
your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father. God sees us. This is God's work. And I'm not
contradicting myself here, I'm just, you know, I'm just saying,
this is God's work. I just said God doesn't thank
us, but this is God's Word. Remembering without ceasing in
the sight of God and our Father. God sees us. In all of the letters
to the churches in the Revelation, every one of you said, I know
your words. Right? I know what you're doing.
And it does say, where does it say, He's not unfaithful, forget
your faith. He's not unfaithful, forget your
faith. He acknowledges. You cannot,
God recompenses. God recompenses with Him every
work done in the name of His Son. Huh? Wouldn't you? Somebody kept doing good things
for your son, Stancy. Just kept it. Just kept it. Complimenting,
kept doing things for them. Just all the time doing it. Would
you love Him? Do you reckon you'd do anything
for them? Sure you would. So does our Lord. Alright, verse
4. He says, Brethren, I know your election of God. I know you're one of God's elect.
Here He says we can know God's elect. Knowing your election. How? Well, there's several ways
here he mentions. Number one, verse five. We know
you're one of God's elect because verse five says, Our gospel came. Our gospel. You understand? Our gospel. Not the God you work
with. That's another gospel. Our gospel. The gospel. Right? God's gospel. Paul called it in Romans 1. Paul
said, I'm separating unto the gospel of God. God's gospel. It's His gospel. It's the gospel
of His glory. It's the gospel concerning His
Son. concerning His Son, concerning
who He is, what He did for us, not what we do for Him. Our gospel,
another, our gospel. He said, I know you're elect,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because our gospel came to you. This gospel, the true gospel,
came to you. You see, wherever the gospel
is, the elect are. wherever the gospel, the true
gospel is, the sheep are. And he said, this gospel came
not in word only, verse 5. I know you're one of the elect,
he said, because the true gospel, our gospel, came unto you not
in word only, not unto you in word only. That isn't doctrine
only. You don't just believe it in
your head. It's saying, well, you weren't
catechized into believing. You weren't convinced by a man. You weren't taught by a man. But God and the love of the truth
shed upon your heart. You received, Brother Walter
mentioned it, the love of the truth. or the truth of God's
electing love. Particular love, particular redemption
came not in word only, not in doctrine, not in letter, but
in power. The next word is power. I know you're one of the elect,
brethren, but our gospel came, true gospel. And not just in
word, not in word only, but in power. Life is in regenerating
power. I've seen it in the faces of
Well, every believer in here, but I've seen it happen since
I've been here. I've seen the gospel give eyes
and ears. I really have. I've looked into
the faces of the priests, to some who obviously were dead,
who obviously had ears to hear, but they could not hear. And
then one day, I said, you know, For a long
time before that, you know, the lights were on and nobody was
hungry. And the lights were on. The house was dark. The tabernacle was dark. No one was standing in any eyes
whatsoever. That's what I live for. I don't pay any attention to
what people say, what other people say about me. What, uh, especially
relatives. I don't pay attention to that.
I pay attention This right here, this is the power of God. This
is how God works. And when the gospel, when God
begins to use the gospel in power, you know, it's pretty obvious
to me, I'm not saying, you understand what I'm saying, I'm looking
at the faces of everybody. If somebody's hiding behind the
person in front of them, then I'm interested. Uh, somebody's
not here on regular, but somebody's asleep on camera. Somebody starts doing this. Somebody
starts asking Sammy to take this. Uh, somebody leaves me at the
door with a big smile on their face. Power. That's what came. Not a word, only, oh, I believe
that. Only power. Power. Read on. And in the Holy
Ghost. The Gospel comes through the
Holy Ghost. He's the one who exerts His power. And the Holy Ghost teaches. He
teaches the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit... Their speech changes. It starts
diminishing. Just many things start changing.
The Holy Spirit teaches, He said. He'll lead us and guide us in
all truth. Old things pass away. Old heresy passes away. Teaching, leading
of the Spirit. Men, women, young people begin
to get some wisdom. Ah, better not do that. Whereas
before they didn't. take any thought of what they
should do, where they should go, the leadership of the Spirit,
the fruit of the Spirit, the truth of the Spirit. And
these are lifelong things. Yet, you say these things happen
in your brethren. And in the Holy Ghost, when He
takes the things of Christ, I love it when somebody Opens the scripture
and says, you see that? Look at that. Let me show you
something right here. That's Christ right there. Yeah, it
is. I never saw that before. You see that? That's good. Yes,
it is. They teach it in the Holy Spirit. Read on. Higher gospel came unto
you, not in word only, but in power and the Holy Ghost and
much assurance. Assurance in Christ. That's what
assurance is. It's not assurance in ourselves.
Don't look for assurance in yourself. Don't look for assurance in your
faith. Don't look for assurance in your work. Don't look for
assurance in your whatever. Assurance is not found in us.
If you look, Luton's told, when I turn my eyes within, all is
vain and dark and wild. He said, can I deem myself a
child? But don't look. God says, don't
look at me. You look to Him. You keep looking to Him. You
keep listening to Him. Him. Don't listen to your conscience. I mean, listen to... Your conscience
is conviction, conviction, conviction. Satan is the accuser of that.
Look to Him. Listen to His Word. He said,
God made all you. Labor and everything. This is
the faithful saying, but worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus
came to the world to save sinners. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous, but I'm not righteous. Well, it sounds good, doesn't
it? But sinners to repentance. Yeah,
this man received... Is your name Edith? Edith? This man received a sinner
named Edith with faith. Jacob, Jacob, much assurance
in Christ. That's what happened to him.
Someone begins to hear the gospel, they begin to say, hey, it's
not in me, it's in Christ. Assurance in Christ. You know,
you can have full assurance if you keep looking at Christ. It's a shame. You can have full
assurance. He's accomplished full salvation.
Assurance of the truth. Assurance. Much assurance of
the truth. Are you more persuaded now, John,
12 years later, that this is the truth than you were 12 years
ago? Huh? Are you? Him? John? Are you, I mean, more persuaded?
You know that you believe and you're persuaded and he's able
to keep it more than you did. Much assurance. It's not in you. You feel like the worst sinner
you did twelve years ago. So your assurance is in Him.
Assurance of the truth. Assurance of love. By this shall
all men know you're my disciple, and herein shall we know that
we've passed from death unto life. We love the brethren. Do you really love... Barbara,
do you really love Roberta Solomon? Really? And not just taking it
like these religious women, you know. That's assurance. You can have assurance. That's
a God. That's a God to take people that
are so different. You know, fledgings. Blessings,
war, butt heads, I'm right and you're wrong, I'm bad and you're
worse. You know, that's flesh. I'm starving, you're ignorant,
I'm hurting, you're dumb. You know, that's flesh. Pride.
Lovers of self. And when the power of the gospel
comes in, it makes you a hater of self and a seemer of others.
A hater of self and a lover of others. That's the power of the
gospel. That's not in us. That's the
power of God. Much assurance of love. That gives me assurance. I can
actually say that I love no low-down, yellow-bellied, no good, worthless,
snake-in-the-grass life. And you me. Right, John? Much
assurance. And you know, he said, with the
verse five, and you know what manner of men we were among you
for your sake. Turn over to the next, to chapter
two. It all ends in the whole next
chapter. Well, we're talking about true
preachers. And I sure don't want you to
think about me, but think about The men you know so well, Henry
Mayhem, Scott Richardson, Todd Nyberg, Tom Hardy, just the salt
of the earth. See, when the true gospel comes,
he sends true people. They're not fakes. They're true
men. When the true God makes his true
preachers, He sends a true gospel through true preachers to his
true sheep. Chapter 2, verse 3 and through
5, Paul said, Our exhortation was not a deceit. You know, it's written all over
the faces of these guys today. You wonder how people can be
taken in by this. Don't you wonder? Evil men and
seducers do much worse and worse at deceiving and being deceived by them. Our hesitation is not
of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor of guile. As we were allowed
of God to be put in trust with the gospel, that's what we do.
How do you know the true preacher of the gospel? He preaches the gospel. How do you know a man that's
sold out for the gospel, separated under the gospel? Paul said,
I'm separated under the gospel of God. How do you know? He's
separated under the gospel. That's all he does. That's all
he does. That's what we do. So we speak.
Not as pleasing man. There's nothing in the gospel
that pleases man, is there? If you're a gospel preacher,
you don't believe me. But God, it pleases God. It pleases
God, which tries our hearts. He tries us. He tries the preacher.
I've seen many of them try and fail. A young man went down,
he came here to preach. A young man came here to preach.
We fell in love with it. And he preached the gospel, at
least in word. And he took a little church down in Alabama, about
the size of this block. And he was a young charismatic
young fellow, you know, with all the gifts and all that. And
he came out of big-time religion. Learned doctrine, and it was
like a new toy, you see. It didn't get a hold of his heart. He obviously didn't feel like
the gospel was all there is. However, anyway, went down to
that little place in Alabama, and because people weren't excited
about it, because there weren't enough new people coming in,
he began to just do something else other than preach the gospel.
He began to do this, he began to do that, he began to start
taking the... We started hearing it, didn't we? We go down and
we hear something's not right here. And in my personal conversations
with him, he began to put question marks on scriptures that read,
absolute truth. I remember thinking, what's going
on here? God tried to harm us. Are you determined to preach
the gospel to only three people? If that's all God has, that's
all the sheep He has, and there's one power of God, there's one
thing He tells you to do, preach the gospel, are you going to
keep doing that? Or are you going to become a
clown? And become a musician? And want to become this and that?
Or are you going to preach the gospel? You've got to preach
it to Him. You've got to preach it to Him. If you try it, it hurts. Read on. Verse five, he says,
"...for neither," chapter two, "...neither at any time use with
flabbering words, as you know." As you know. Oh, yeah. Oh, you know, somebody like old
Scott could say that, couldn't he, huh? You know, I haven't used any
flabbering hurtful words, as you know, nor a cloak of penitence. Oh, my. My father, when he was
young, 34 or 35 year old, struggling preacher, with four young children. Me, I was a baby. And three other young ones, struggling
to get by. When the gospel was being, the
ground work was being laid, and the church was being formed,
and people were doing it, know, you know, how to do things, don't
know how to give, don't know what to do, and don't see needs
and meet them. Struggling, just struggling to
get by, tooth and nail, skimping, you know. A big insurance company
in Oldsburg, Kentucky offered him Christmas 19, In about 1958, a big insurance
company offered him $25,000 a year just to be on the board of directors. Because he's a smart man, intelligent
man. He could have brought some business. $25,000 a year, 40 some years
ago. They would have required him
to be out of town a few times, possibly on a weekend. We need not think about it. We need not think about it. Covetousness. God is witness. God is witness. Nor of men, verse 6, thought
we glory. All right, back to the text, chapter 1. He says, Here's more marks of the elect.
Verse 6. You know what manner of men we were. You know what
manner of men are true Christians, don't you? Don't you? Yeah, you do. In verse 6 he says,
and you became followers of us and of the Lord. Followers of
men? That's what he said, isn't it? I asked myself, why did he put
it in that order? Why did he do that? He said,
for a reason that you became followers of us and of the Lord.
It seemed like it would have read the other way around, doesn't
it? But let's tell you why. Think about it. When you hear
the gospel, who are you going to hear it from? A man. You're going to follow His teaching.
You're going to have to submit to that man. Yeah, you ought
to remember them, that group of them. It's a very humbling
thing. It's a very humbling thing. Isn't that the first thing God
does to His people? To this man when I look at him,
this broken contract. Very humbling. To submit to the
leadership of another man. But you can count on it. That
man is going to point you to Christ. You hear it from a man
and you follow his leadership. This is why Barnard said to young
preachers, Barnard said, oh, I think about this all the time.
Especially when somebody reminds me of something I say. I always say, whenever somebody
says, I remember what you said one time, oh, what did they remember? Oh, it's good. When Martin used to say to the
young preachers, be careful what you say, somebody's going to
believe you. Be careful what you say. Somebody's
going to believe you. That's the reason it better be
about 95% of what you say better be just right there. The other 5% is just coming. That man's going to point you
immediately to Christ. So that, I believe, is why he
put it in that order. God humbles us first, you see? And God is, Christ is the shepherd
and he has his own shepherd. And our Lord said this, they
receive you, they receive me. They won't hear you, they won't
hear me. John said even here it does.
He's of God here, isn't he? What a responsibility. Verse
six, you became followers and you received the word in much
affliction. You received the word. And when you did, just
as soon as you believed the gospel, our gospel, just as soon as you
started going to the old church, the old church, there'd be all
of us, maybe some of that. Have you heard of this one, the
old church? This happened up in Athens. A
fellow was at work. And somebody asked him where
he went to church. He said, 13th Street Baptist
School. Honestly, folks, we thought about changing the name of this
building some years ago and didn't. I don't like the name of that
one. But, nevertheless, people know what this place stands for
and what this place has been preaching for years. For 30,
almost 30 years. People know. When you tell them,
where do you go to church? Central Baptist Church. Right? O. O. Church. When you, as soon as
you start believing our gospel, and go to the other church, you're
going to get this affliction. You're going to receive this
affliction. They loved you before. You could be an out-and-out pagan
idolater. And they love you. And you're
one of their buddies. But turn from your idols, verse
9, you turn from your idols to serve the living and true God,
and they'll hate you. They'll hate you. That's one way you know all this
stuff today is false. There's no offense in it. There's
no hate. There's no persecution. Where's the offense in God loves
you and Christ loves you? Where's the offense in that? Everybody's all right. God loves
everybody. There's no offense. Where's the offense in that? Well, he said you receive
the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. Where
there's affliction, the Holy Ghost sends his assurance and
joy. And you, Brother Seddon, were
examples to all who believe in Macedonia and Achaia. And from
you sounded out the Word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and
Achaia, but in every place. Your faith to God was spread
abroad. We don't need to speak any of that. Everybody knows
you. All of our sister churches, they
know you. They sure do. They know you all. They know you by name. Not just
me. Not just me. Paul said, I don't
need to say anything. Everybody that comes here and
leaves here is talking about you. Uh-huh. Yeah, they are. Well, he says in verse 9, they
themselves show of us what manner of entering in we have of you.
They tell us. Others tell us. They bear witness
of it. your true conversion, how that you... And here it is,
people, here it is. And this is another thing I look
for. This is what Paul said he saw
in the Thessalonians. You turn to God from idols to serve the living and true
God. When somebody hears the gospel,
the truth, our gospel, it's so plain, it's so particular, it's
so narrow. Yes? Narrow. Didn't Christ say
it is narrow, straight, narrow? It's the way that leadeth unto
life, and few there be that find it. Many are called, but few
are judged. It's so narrow. The truth is narrow. It's just
as narrow until your eye gets single. One. It's one. One. You just
take one. One truth. One law. One faith.
One baptism. One way. One righteousness. One
thing. Hm? One God. Hm? One subject, one mediator. That's
one. You get down to everything's
one. You know, I just thought, when
you point, when you say one, what do you do? You point to
another. One. You get so narrow, so... I remember,
I remember where bigoted, the term bigoted came from. Like,
by God? Begotten, Latin, by God, so that
I wouldn't bow to neither the Pope. He said, by God, I will not bow
to the Pope. I bow to God only. That's where
the term bigot came from. Where bigot is narrow. You turn to God from idols. This is something I look for
when people come and hear this gospel, our gospel, the gospel. They renounce their past religion. Everyone without exception. They
renounce their past religion. That past profession of faith,
that past, that other gospel I used to think was a gospel,
they renounce it. You know that's what you do when you get in that
boat. That's one thing you do when you get in that water up
there. That's another way, I know. People
are willing to get up there. You see, most everybody's baptized.
Most everybody's been baptized when they were young, confessing
that idol, that Jesus, you know, was outside their heart store
and they baptized Him. Professing that, what Jesus said
in that Gospel that was just a general author of amnesty. Were you back then? Before? Were you? Were you? No. You? Yes. Before? How was
that? Were you? You're the Gospel.
You're getting that full. Just watch all that. Watch all
that. I serve the living and true God. I'm serving God who is God now. I believe Christ is his Christ.
I believe the gospel is his gospel. I believe salvation is at the
same. I believe eternal means eternal.
I believe righteousness means righteousness. I mean, I believe
blood puts away sin. And to wait for His Son to come
there. Just wait. God's people will see. It's calm, quiet. The older you get,
you should be more patient. Slow to move. You know? It's not just because of your
rheumatism. It's hopefully because of your
wisdom. Look out! Let's go! But just wait. What do you think
about me? Tell me something. Well, let
me think. Give me a minute. Oh, we'll be here tomorrow. She's
gone away. Oh, look at that baby, look at that. Let's go, let's
go, look at this one there. This one, this fella. Let's go
see this fella. Eh, let's wait. You understand? Eh, let's wait
and see how he turns out. Two years later, he's in prison. Eh, let's just wait. Wait on the word of the Lord.
I got a revelation here. Let's just wait. Let's see what
the Lord tells us. He will tell us. He will tell
us the mystery of this book. All right, now we give thanks
to you for the love of the Lord. Let's sing. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank
you for all your grace and mercy to this congregation. I personally
thank you for every member of it. Ask your rich blessings,
ask a wish above all things that they might prosper. and be in
health even as their souls depart. As for your mercy, your grace,
your saving mercy and graces on all our children, all of them,
and our spouses and our loved ones and friends, Lord, save
for your glory, and we'll give you all the praise and honor
and glory because salvation is off the hook. In Christ's name,
amen.