♪ When I'm in your arms again ♪
Close to me, close to me ♪ Close to me, close to me ♪ When I'm
in your arms again ♪ When I'm in your arms again All right, now open your Bibles
over to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians 4. We'll not be
dealing with the book of Acts tonight. That led to go in another
direction. 1 Thessalonians 4. The text will actually be taken
from Isaiah 66. 1 Thessalonians 4. Now, it should
be the desire of every true believer, every child of God, everyone
listen to my opening remarks. It should be the desire of every
true believer, every child of God, it should be their desire
to please God Almighty. to please their Heavenly Father,
just like a child who looks up to and loves and adores and respects
and longs to be like and bring honor to their Father, so does
the child of God long to please their Father. In my pleasing,
when I say please, I look the word up just in the dictionary,
in the concordance, it means to be agreeable to. to be agreeable. Now, if you do something that
pleases me, if you act in a way that pleases me, that means that
what you do or how you're acting toward me is agreeable to what
I like, to the way I like things. It suits my character and my
personality. You understand where I'm coming
from? And what you do is agreeable to the way I am and what I like.
So to please God is to be some way or is to do something that
he likes, that suits his character, his ways and his thoughts. Now
let me ask you the question. Can we please God? Can we please
God Almighty? Well, we are exhorted to do so.
Aren't we? Look here in 1 Thessalonians
4, look at verse 1 with me. We are exhorted to do so from
God's holy word, this inspired word, verse 1. Furthermore, then,
we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus,
that as you have received of us, how you ought to walk and
to please God, so you would abound more and more. Back at chapter
2, verse 4, Paul is right in and says that he speaks, he says,
we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel,
and even so we speak, that we preach the gospel. Not as pleasing
men, but God. He says, in preaching I'm endeavoring
to please God, not men. If I yet be the servant of men
or yet seek to please men, I'm not the servant of Christ, he
said. Now turn over to 1 John with me. 1 John 3. In Colossians 1, verse 10, it says this, that
we need to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Did you hear that? That's another
exhortation, isn't it? that we need to walk worthy of
the Lord unto all, pleasing, pleasing to him. Look here at
1 John 3, read verse 22 with me. Whatsoever we ask or pray
to God concerning him, we receive of him, because, are you reading
it? Because, verse 22, we keep his
commandments. and do those things that are
pleasing in his sight. So can we please God? Yes. He wouldn't exhort us to do what
is impossible, would he? Now, here's the key. Hebrews
11.6 is the key. Anybody know what that verse
of scripture says? He that comes to God must believe that he is,
and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." The
last part of that verse says, "...for without faith it is impossible
to please him." There's the key verse to all of this thing of
pleasing God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Romans 8 says this, "...they
that are in the flesh cannot please God. The next verse, though,
says you're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. Look at verse 22 again there
in 1 John 3. It says, Whatsoever we ask of
him, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and
do those things that are pleasing in his sight. What is his commandments
that we keep? What are his commandments? The
next verse answers it, doesn't it? Verse 23. This is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as he gave us commandment. This is his commandment. This is first, this is foremost,
this is primary, this is that which brings acceptance with
the Father. This is that which pleases him.
without which we cannot please him, believing on his son. That's his chief commandment,
believing on his son. And doing those things is on
the next line there. And that we love one another. That we love one another as he
gave us commandment. Now this faith This faith or
this belief on the name of the Son of God, this faith which
alone can please God Almighty, this believing on his Son's name
is this. Listen to me. This is such a basic gospel message. It will
do you good. It will do your heart some good.
This believing on Christ, this believing on the name of the
Son of God, which pleases God, which alone can please God, this
believing on the Son of God. First, it's in the heart. That's
what Romans 10 says. That's where it is. It's not
just in the head, not just believing facts in the head, but it's believing
from the heart in sincerity, from the heart that God's Son
is those three names, Lord Jesus Christ. that he's the master,
he's the king, he's the ruler, he's Lord over all. That we're
in his hand, he's the sovereign ruler, and we bow to him. The
name of Jesus we every day bow, bows and every tongue confesses
he's Lord. Don't get the names mixed up
or backwards, he's the Lord first, or he's not Savior. Jesus, he's
the Savior, he's the one and only Savior, the only one. And Christ, the only Redeemer,
the only one who can save us, the Redeemer, the only one, and
other names that the Scriptures give him, mediator, as one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, one mediator, to
believe, to trust from the heart and look to and call upon that
one mediator, not Mary, not John, not anybody else, but to call
upon Christ. confidently believe that he'll
plead your case. The one mediator. He's the substitute. He's the substitute for sinners.
This is faithful saying. It's worthy of acceptation. That
we ought to trust this and we ought to look to him for it.
That he came to save sinners. The substitute. He became sin.
The Lord made him sin for us. He who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. He's a surety. He's a surety of an everlasting
covenant. He'll be ever mindful of that covenant. Only thing
that you read last Sunday night, he's ever mindful of that covenant.
Why is God ever mindful of that covenant? Because there's one
sits at his right hand that makes him mindful of it. The surety
of the everlasting covenant, the one that ratified the covenant
by his own blood. He cannot deny it if we don't
abide faithful, yet he does, and he cannot deny himself, cannot
deny his son, or his son does. The high priests, we have a faithful
high priest in all things who ever pleads his blood before
the throne of majesty on high. A high priest that we can come
to whenever we sin, and he will absolve us of our sin. We have
an advocate with a father. If any man, little brethren,
I write unto you that you sin not. But if any man sin, believe
in your heart. Trust in your heart. Know in
your heart. take great comfort and consolation
from this, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, the Son of the Most High, the advocate, the
one who pleads for the likes of us. Jehovah, all his names
of Jehovah, Jehovah Sidkenu, he's the Lord, our righteousness.
You believe that from your heart, John? Well, don't you dare try
to establish one of your own, not in any way, shape, form or
fact. You just trust Christ and you'll be all right from here
on out. He's Jehovah's Witness, what his name means. You're anti-Christ
if you try any other way. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our
peace. We can't make peace with God. He's the only one that can,
the only one that did, by the blood of his cross. He made peace. So to believe on the name of
God's Son, like it said there in 1 John 3, is to believe from
the heart, not just the head. Everybody in here agrees, at
least mentally, with what I was just saying. But it's to actually
believe in the heart, trust in the heart, and know in the heart,
and come to him from the heart. It has to be experienced from
the heart that Jesus Christ, God's Son, and he alone is all
my salvation, all my acceptance with the Holy God, all of my
righteousness, all of my holiness, all of my hope, and all of my
plea. Do you believe that? Then why
aren't you smiling? All of it. And without this faith, it's
impossible to please God. Without this faith. Anything
more or less than this, complete, absolute, implicit trust in Jesus
Christ and Him alone is self-righteousness, and God is angry with those wicked
people every day. More so than the openly immoral. Do you believe that? Scripture
says so, says many will come into him that day and say, well,
we've done this, we've done that. He said, get these workers of
iniquity out of my sight. He said it would be more tolerable
for Solomon Gomorrah on the Day of Judgment than these people.
Isn't it? Why? It's anti-Christ. It's putting oneself above Christ. It's adding to the personal work
of Christ. It's self-righteousness. It's
saying what Christ did wasn't good enough. It's saying Christ
didn't need to come. I can help out here. What would
I do? God is angry with that. He hates
it. And nothing short of absolute trust in Christ and Him alone
will please God Almighty. But you know, that's a very simple
thing. Or it should be. Just rest in the Lord. Just believe Him. And self-righteousness
is so subtle. It's so subtle. And we need to
repent of that. I think it was Bunyan that said,
so we haven't repented unless we've repented of our sin, sins,
and our self-righteousness. You don't hear the religious
world out there repenting of their self-righteousness, do
you? We need to repent of that. We need to repent of our repentance,
for lack of it. Because Christ and Christ alone
was the only man who ever lived who truly pleased God Almighty. God alone is pleased with faith. He's pleased alone with faith
in that Son. Christ said, I always do those
things which please my Heavenly Father, didn't He? So the only
man who will be pleasing to God is the man that looks to his
Son. John, he was the only—I'll talk to you. you're into this thing. The only
man ever approved of God Almighty, just one, Jesus Christ. God said that, didn't he? That's
what he said there in Acts 2. Jesus Christ, hear these words,
a man approved of God, the only man that he ever said from heaven,
this is my son whom I'm well pleased. He's altogether displeased
with us by nature. Because Christ was holy, just
like God, in thought, word, and deed, God's only begotten, well-beloved
Son, well-beloved and well-pleasing Son, we are accepted in the Beloved. What could be simpler? By faith,
merely by faith. I turn over Romans 8 with me,
Romans chapter 8, and let's look at that that I quoted a moment
ago, Romans 8, 8 and 9. Even this faith, people, is not
of ourselves, is it? That's the reason we have such
a hard time getting rid of self-righteousness. It's not of ourselves, it's a
gift of God. It doesn't come from us. God has to supernaturally
grant this faith, even. Many say they have it and they
don't. Because we have all together become filthy, God the Holy Spirit
has to quicken us, regenerate us, adopt us into the family,
call us sons, change us, grant repentance, grant faith, grant
works, grant us to walk in newness of life. Salvation is of the
Lord from start to finish. It's all his work. This recreation,
this recreating a son of Adam into a son of God is a supernatural
work that only God can do. Look here at Romans 8 verse 8.
He said, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. And
he said up there in verse 6, to be carnally minded is death.
In other words, those that are mindful of and think only about
the flesh is death. It proves that a person
is dead when all they think about is this world and the things
of it. It proves that they are dead.
God Almighty must change a man's mind, mustn't he? get him to
be thinking about spiritual things, or else he'll never think about
it. And also, the mining of the flesh is works of the flesh,
dead works. Flesh is dead, dying in it, decaying
in matter. So works of the flesh, dead works,
they're called, for acceptance with him. These things are either
in this flesh or they that mine dead works, that think they can
do anything to please God. They cannot please God. They
cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh,
but in the Holy Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell
in you. You are not in the flesh, but
in the Spirit, if so be that this Holy Spirit of God does
dwell in you. If he regenerates you, if he
teaches you, leads you, guides you, conforms you, then you are
not in the flesh. If any man have not the Spirit,"
now he changes the name of him, doesn't he? He was a spirit by
himself, and now it is the Spirit of God, and then it was the Spirit
of God, and then it's the Spirit of Christ. Do you notice that? Spirit is sovereign like the
rest. He's a spirit that does a bidding of God, and now he's
called the Spirit of Christ. That means that his chief and
continual work is to point us to Christ, the Spirit of Christ,
to take the things of Christ, like Christ himself said, and
show them unto us. In other words, to keep us looking
to Christ. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit. This tells me that all of this
going on today is not the Holy Spirit. It's another spirit,
because they very seldom make mention of Christ. But when the
Spirit of God is around, Christ is mentioned most. He takes the
things of Christ and shows them to us in all things. He keeps
men and women looking to Christ and Christ alone in all things. The Spirit of God never lets
a child of God take his eyes off Christ. And this is that
faith, this is that work of God, this is that faith which alone
can please God. Now, if you're not listening
to this tonight, you go back and you listen to this message,
you'll never hear a better message. I'm telling you, you'll never
hear a more comforting message if you don't have the capacity
tonight to enter into this. You take the tape and you go
home and listen to it. All right? The Spirit never lets
a child of God look to anywhere else but Christ. He teaches this
child in all things that his acceptance with God, God's love,
God's mercy, God's pleasure with him is all because of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Did you hear that? OK. All right. Now, it's also the
work of the Holy Spirit. He's the sanctifier. It's the
work of the Holy Spirit to make a man not only look to Christ,
but to make a man look like Christ. Not only to make a man look to
Christ, but make him look like Christ. We can't do it, can we? Try as we may. It's the Holy
Spirit's work to make a man or woman's character and works just
like the Son of God. Romans 8 says that very thing.
Even in his prayer, verse 26, the Spirit has to make intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And this is his work. The work of the Holy Spirit is
to make a man or woman just like Christ, make them fit to be partakers
of the angels in life, partakers of that heavenly calling, to
make them like Jesus Christ. That's an ongoing work of the
Holy Spirit. It's a lifetime work, and it's
never perfected until we lay down this body, this body of
death. I now look over at Isaiah 66.
I laid a large foundation, didn't I? Well, no other foundation
can any man lay than that which was just laid, that all your
hope and acceptance and salvation is in and because of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I'm not in any way, shape,
form, or fashion wanting you to look anywhere else but Christ
and him alone. Now, that's the work of the Holy
Spirit to make you keep looking to Christ. And, as I said, the
work of the Holy Spirit is to make us look like Christ. This
is his work. And this is how we are known
to be the sons of God. I started to read for our scripture
reading 1 John 3, by this shall all men know, and so forth. But
this is how we are known to be sons of God, by the Spirit that
dwells in us and manifests itself in Christlikeness. Christlikeness. or be like Christ. And what we
have here, what I'm giving you here, is a good balance of faith
and works. Okay? Without this faith, it's
impossible to please God. Without these works, you don't
have faith. You see what I'm doing? I'm giving a good balance
of faith and works here. Faith and work, both necessary,
both of the work of God, too. Let me keep reminding you of
that. The faith, this faith we just talked about, and the works
that go with it are synonymous. What I mean by that, I'll show
you what I mean. Who is a child of God? How can
you tell? Who is a child of God, and how
can you tell that they are? Look at verse 2 with me. The
Lord says, the last part of verse 2, where I'll dwell from here
on. To this man will I look. To this
man, this woman, this person, this human being, will I look.
To this man will I look upon in mercy, in love, in grace. Isaiah 66.2. You got it? The
last part of verse 2. To this man will I look. Look upon in mercy, in favor,
love and grace and salvation. Will I look at him and call him
and consider him my son, my daughter? To him that is poor, and of a
contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." Poor, contrite,
trembling. And he goes on to say, utter
these indictments against those who make outward forms of religion.
He that kills an ox or goes through the motions, he might as well
slew a man. He that sacrifices a lamb, he
might as well cut a dog's head off." In Isaiah 1, he says, I'm
sick of your this and that and the other. Without these things,
it's impossible to please God. To him that is poor, what does
that mean? Without money? Oh, no. If that were the case, then two-thirds
of the world would be saved, wouldn't it? Most of the world
lives in poverty. Poor means to be poor. Our Lord
said it, didn't he? Matthew 5, I think it's verse
5. He said, Blessed are the independent. Poor in spirit. Poor in heart. Poor in attitude. Not someone
who thinks they're somebody, but someone who knows and believes
in their heart they're nobody. That's poverty of spirit. Not
someone who thinks they can do some things, whatever it may
be, but someone who says, without me, I can't do nothing. Not someone
who knows it all, but someone who believes and truly knows
in their own heart that I don't know anything at all. Not someone
who has many things that maybe God needs, but someone who has
nothing. He's spiritually bankrupt. Do
we ever leave this state? Do we ever rise above this spiritual
bankruptcy? Do we ever start living a victorious
life and reach a point where we can handle things on our own
and don't need it? It says he that is poor, doesn't
it? Not was poor, not made a profession
of faith at one time, but is poor, stays poor like this before
God. Always. Lord save me or I perish. Lord Jesus Christ. And of a contrite
spirit. Look at that. Of a contrite spirit. That means broken heart. That's
what that means. Do you remember reading that
in Psalm 34? The Lord is nigh unto them that are
of a broken heart, and saith it such to be of a contrite spirit.
A contrite or broken heart, a humble heart, not a proud heart, but
a repentant heart, a heart that is always willing to change,
not a stony heart. One who has had that stony heart
removed and softened and given a heart of flesh is touched,
is sensitive, repents, is sorrowful, is easily made sorrowful. Something hard is unbending and
unmovable, but a heart of flesh is one that is easily made sorrowful
and repentant and ready to turn. Not proud, but contrite, broken.
Something is broken. Something that is broken is breached.
Leaking. Leaking out. And so does the
heart. Always leaks out to God, and
God pours things in. Always empty. A broken heart's
always empty. You see what I mean by something
that leaks? It always stays empty. So it needs filling. Constant
filling. Keep filling. If you have a broken
base, you'd have to keep filling it, wouldn't you? Well, that's
what the Lord has to do with a broken heart. A contrite or
a broken heart is not a righteous heart, not one that thinks he's
righteous, but a sinful, a sinner, one that feels his sinfulness.
The last thing he says here is one that trembles at my word,
trembles at my word. When the word of God comes, this
is not one who is resentful of the word. but repentful at the
Word. Repentant upon hearing the Word. Not resentful, but trembling.
Not just a quoter of the Word. A lot of people can quote the
Word, but keepers of the Word. Keepers of the Word. Quoters
of the Word have it only in their head. Keepers of the Word are
doers of the Word. Right? Not just readers of the
Word. Many people Everyone who professes
to be religious reads the Word, not just readers of the Word,
but weepers over the Word. Not just part-time believers
of the Word, but full-time keepers of the Word. Not just believers
in the head, but the fearful and trembling in the heart, that
when they read the Word, when they hear the Word spoken to
them, they actually tremble, and it breaks them. no matter who or where, when
they hear it, they tremble at it. And you know, these are, all
these terms here, this man is poor and contrite spirit and
tremble at that my word. These are just other words for
what? What would you say that all these things could be wrapped
up in one word? Humility, is that what you say?
humility and meekness. Christ said, in Matthew 11, 29,
take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Learn how I was, learn what I
became. He became meek and lowly, the
meekest and lowliest. He became a worm. He said, I'm
a worm and no man. He was made sin. You couldn't
get any more lowly, could you? He was made meek and lowly. He
came down from the majesty on high, was made meek and lowly.
Instead of high and lofty, he was made meek and lowly. He condescended
to be a worm for worms. Less than that. Made a little
lower than the angels, even. Meek and lowly. Learn what he
did on behalf of us, and learn how he was. He said, Take my
yoke upon you and learn of me. I am meek and lowly in heart.
And he said, And if you do so, you will find rest for your own
souls. Not only rest in peace in knowing what he did or believing
or trusting or looking to him who was made sin for us, became
meek and lowly for us. That's that faith I was talking
about earlier. Rest in that way in knowing why he came, what
he did. But rest in your own heart, in
your own life, in your own well-being, in your own lifestyle, in your
home, in your family and everything by becoming like Him, meek and
lowly. You got that? If you didn't,
get the tape. I don't have time to go back
over it. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest
for your soul. rest in his soul in every way,
rest with God, rest spiritually, rest from fear of guilt and condemnation
with God, rest from freedom of fear of the world, rest from
tribulations and trials and sufferings. He said, Lord, I'm meek and lowly,
and you'll find me at rest. To this man will God look, to
the man who looks to Christ. To this man will God look. To
the man who looks like Christ. You got that? Listen. To the loving, he'll show himself
lovely. To the merciful, he'll say, I'll
be merciful, I'll show myself merciful. To the gracious, he'll
give more grace. To the forgiving, forgiving one
another as God for Christ's sake keeps on forgiving you. To the
forbearing, how long shall I bear with you,
he said, as long as we keep bearing with one another. How long shall
I suffer with my brother, Lord, if he trespasses against me?
How many times? Seven times? Well, let me ask you this, Peter,
how long shall I suffer with you? I'll suffer with you just
as long as you suffer with him. To the forbearing, he will forbear.
To the long-suffering, he'll stay long-suffering. To the kind,
he'll show himself kind. To the compassionate, he keeps
being compassionate. To the tender, he'll be very
tender. To the peacemakers, blessed are
the peacemakers, they'll be called the sons of God, children of
God. To the gentle, he'll act gently. To the considerate, it's just
the way of your own children, isn't it? Is this what you long
to impart in your own children? If you don't see it in them,
you act accordingly. To the considerate, he shows
himself considerate. To the courteous, he shows himself
courteous. Are all these characteristics
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and much, much more? So do you see
what I'm saying? To this man will I look, to him
that looks to Christ. To this man will I look, to him
that looks like Christ. Is this good counsel? Faith and works. Faith without
these works is dead. Faith without this fruit is barren.
Barren. Peter said that in 1 Peter. Add
to your faith virtue and the virtue of knowledge and so forth.
If these things be not in you, they would make you barren. And
they are within every child of God to some degree. And I'm ready
to quit here. They are within every child of
God to some degree, or he or she is not a child of God. If
we are devoid of these things, at least to some degree, we are
not a child of God. And they're all wrapped up in
one word. And you tell me, not humility now, but all of these
things are wrapped up in one word. He said all the law is
fulfilled in this one word. Somebody say it out loud. Huh? And what is faith but love to
God? And what are these works that
he tells us to perform? Love one another as I have loved
you. This is my commandment, he said.
Faith is love to God's person and his work. Highly esteeming
Christ's person, his work, and him alone for our salvation,
that pleases God. and these works in love to God's
people and love like God's love. Love like God's love. How does
God love? And I'll put it on this note. How does God love?
Does he love the unlovely? Does he love those who deserve it? What does he love? You say it's a contradiction,
Preacher. No, it's not. No, it's not. No matter how we
try to be all of these things I mentioned above, we fail miserably. And there are times when we're
very unlovely. Thank God he still loves us.
He keeps loving us still. Thank God his mercy endures forever,
even though ours doesn't. Nevertheless, the commandment
stands sure with the merciful. He'll show himself merciful.
But the love of God is to the unlovely. The love of God is
to the undeserving, isn't it? Say he or she, they haven't done
anything to deserve my love. Did you? To deserve God's love? To this man will I look? To this woman will I look? This
is the person I'm going to look to. I'm going to look upon, I'm
going to smile on with favor. Now, did I give us any great
work to go out and do? I didn't, did I? Did I bind any
heavy burden upon us that you're not able to bear? Did I? Like the Pharisees did? I just
merely repeated what our Lord said, didn't I? I merely repeated
what he said. Does this man what I love? Those
that look to Christ, I look upon them with mercy and favor. and
doesn't look like Christ. We don't look, we don't bear
his image to him, we never did look to him. And looking to him
is the only thing that will make you look like him. You go home and learn what that
means. I'm not going to elaborate on that any further. You go home
and learn what that means. He said, didn't he say, I'll
not take sacrifice. Sacrifice and offerings, I wouldest
not. But a broken heart, mercy. To this man will I look. Go home
and learn what that means. The more you look to Christ,
the more you'll look like him. If we quit looking like him,
for some reason we've taken our eyes off of him. We've forgotten. We've forgotten who he is and
what he's done for us. Any of this helpful to you? All
right, stand with me. Our Heavenly Father, we are so
thankful that even now, in our cold, dead, dull, lifeless, loveless,
lukewarm frame, that you, your Son, ever live
to make intercession for us. We can deal with such glorious,
infinitely wonderful truths that regard our person and our everlasting
state before God Almighty. We can regard them with indifference,
yet you regard your son, and because of him we are still accepted.
What an ungrateful people we are, what an unworthy, undeserving
people we are, all of us, from me, preacher on down. Lord, have
mercy upon our souls through the blood and righteousness of
Christ. Take these things, take one word and seize them and and
implant them within us, instill them within us, make it a living
principle. One word, just one word. There
have been many verses of scripture read, there have been many biblical
words expounded or declared. Take one word and make it a living
principle within us, not just a head knowledge and a doctrine,
but a living, vital, life-controlling influence upon us. Lord, grant
it in me. Grant it in me. I pray for everyone else as well.
More than a doctrine, this is a doctrine of Christ and what
it means to be like him, to look to him. Grant this, Lord. Don't
let this word seep out. Let us not be stony-ground hearers,
forgetful hearers. Let this fall on good ground
tonight. There are good things to be had
here as it should. Blessed. You and you alone can
water and give the increase. In Christ's name we pray, amen.