Thank you, James. Let's open
our Bibles to Acts chapter 17, the book of Acts chapter 17. We'll be going back to the book
of 1 Thessalonians in just a little bit, but let me introduce the
message by reminding you of how this church got started. It is the church at Thessalonica. And then, of course, two letters
were written to that church. This is the second missionary
journey of the Apostle Paul. He has a man with him. His name is Silas. The scripture
says here in Acts chapter 17, verse one, and by the way, this
is about 50 AD that this happened. Now, when they had passed through
Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was
a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was,
went in unto them in three Sabbath days, reasoned with them, that
is, he preached to them. He reasoned or preached to them
out of the scriptures, opening and alleging, that is, to open
means to give understanding. Alleging means to set before
someone the very truth of God with absolute confidence. It's
one thing to preach the truth. It's another thing to preach
the truth with the confidence that it is the truth. It is the
truth of God. And that's what he did, opening
and alleging that Christ must needs. He must needs have suffered. He must needs do it because God
ordained it. He must needs suffered and risen
from the dead because that's the only way our sins could be
put away. It's the only way we could be
saved. It's the only way we could be reconciled to God. It's the
only way we could be redeemed. So he must needs have suffered
and risen from the dead. And then he said, and that this
Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. That is, he is the
Messiah. He's the one all the Old Testament
is about. And the scripture says in verse
four, some of them believe, and they consorted with Paul and
Silas. That is, they joined in with
Paul and Silas to have fellowship with them, to listen to them,
to benefit from their preaching. And of the devout Jews, a great
multitude, and of the chief women, not a few. And since this man Paul and Silas,
since they were there three Sabbath days, we can safely conclude
that they were there about three weeks, maybe even a little bit
more, but at least three weeks preaching the gospel. And God
worked in a magnificent way. Don't ever think that God's arm
is shortened, that he cannot save it. If it's God's will,
he can turn the city upside down or he can turn a group of people
upside down and convert them, give them a new heart to believe
the truth, and they're converted by the grace of God. And God
did something for this group of people. Now, later on, and
we don't have the time to go into it, but for safety's sake,
the other believers escorted Paul and Silas out of the city,
and they went on to Berea. But there in Thessalonica, and
also in Berea, God established churches. And the Lord, about
a year later, About a year after the establishing of this church,
which was about 50 AD, so in about 51 AD, a year later, while
Paul and Silas and Timothy were in the city of Corinth, God laid
it on his heart to write a letter to the saints of God. in Thessalonica. In fact, he actually remained
in Corinth long enough that he wrote a second letter to them
as well. Timothy is the one who delivered
the letter and then he brought He delivered the first letter
and he brought news back to the Apostle Paul that things were
going really well in the city of Thessalonica, that is, among
the people of God, and they were persevering in the faith, they
were growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And it was evident, very evident,
that God did a mighty work for those people. and whose hearts
he were. Now go back to 1 Thessalonians
chapter one, and let me just show you a couple of things,
because we're eventually gonna wind up chapter five. But if
I were gonna give a title to the chapter that Joe read to
us, I'd say it's the very power of the gospel. Because here's
what the apostle Paul does, he kind of, He puts in a nutshell
that which God had done for these believers in Thessalonica. He says to them in verse five,
chapter one, verse five, he says, for our gospel, that is the very
truth of God, the glad tidings of the finished work of redemption
of Christ accomplishing everything the Father gave Him to do, the
salvation that we have through the Savior. He says, for our
gospel came not unto you in word only. Stop right there. But it
did come in word, first of all. because we read back there in
Acts chapter 17 that the apostle Paul on the three Sabbath days,
and we would assume throughout the week as well, though he did
work while he was there, that he kept on preaching the gospel. He kept on setting forth the
word of God. So they did hear the word of
God. They did hear the gospel. In
word, you've got to hear the truth. Faith comes by hearing,
hearing by the Word of God. How shall they hear without a
preacher? You've got to hear the message
of grace. You've got to hear the message
of God's salvation by the substitutionary work, the satisfaction of the
Lord Jesus Christ whose sacrifice appeased God. and redeemed his
people. So he says, our gospel came not
unto you in word only, though it did come in word, but it also
came in power. That's what's gotta happen. We've
got to have the power of God. The Lord himself must take the
gospel word, the incorruptible seed, and he must do a work of
grace within our hearts. He says, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance. That is, the Holy Ghost has to
do the work, and he's got to give you the confidence in your
heart, the blessed assurance in your heart, that this is the
word of God. This is God's gospel. This is
not the message of Paul. It's not the message of Silas.
It's not the message of Timothy. It's the message of God, the
message of God. And he said, as you know what
manner of men we were among you for your sake. And he says, this
was the result. You became followers of us and
of the Lord. You received the Word. Even though there was much affliction,
there's a lot of trouble. There were people who stirred
up the group, a bunch of people in Thessalonica that, as I've
already said, that led to some of the brethren taking Paul and
Silas, putting them on a boat, getting them out of town for
their safety. But these people, they received the Word of God,
even in the midst of opposition. Why, the Jews, the Jews in that
area, they stirred up the government, and they were very much opposed
to the gospel. And they got some people in the
city all worked up and got them aggravated. And this was the
atmosphere in which the Word of God had gone forth, but even
the afflictions couldn't stop the success of the gospel. For you see, when God makes bare
his mighty arm of grace, no power on earth can stop it. Not even
afflicting, not even persecuting the people of God. If you believe
this, you'll lose your job. That's what happened to many
of them. If you believe this, you're gonna be cut out of the
family. We'll consider you as dead. They believe the gospel
anyway. In the midst of affliction, that's
what he said. You became followers of the word,
you received the word and followers of Jesus Christ. These were people
who believed the word that the Lord, he sent unto them. One thing about the gospel, it
will find God's elect. It will absolutely search out
and find the people of God. You don't have to browbeat people.
You don't have to twist their arms. You don't have to beg them
to make a decision. You don't have to sing five or
ten stanzas of just as I am waiting for people to come down the aisle.
The gospel will do its work. And we've got to have absolute
confidence in the Spirit of God to take the Word of Christ and
Him crucified and make application of it to the hearts of those
to whom we speak. And this is what the Apostle
Paul is saying. The Word of God did its job within
you. Look over the second chapter
in verse 13. The second chapter in verse 13. He says, for this cause also
thank we God without ceasing. Because when you receive the
word of God, when you receive the word of God, which you heard
of us, you received it, not as the word of man. You didn't receive it because
I was an apostle and Silas is my associate. You received it
not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. Now watch it. Which effectually
worketh also in you that believe. The word effectually means it's
operative in you. And you go back to the book of
Ephesians, and we don't have time to go to it tonight, but
in Ephesians chapter one, the apostle Paul talked about that
the saints of God believed according to the exact same power that
raised up Christ Jesus from the dead. Believing the gospel, laying
hold of the Lord Jesus Christ, being enabled to see he's the
only savior, he's the only hope you've got, his blood and his
righteousness, believing, receiving the Lord Jesus is no little thing. It takes a mighty miracle. It
is the raising of the dead. That's what it is. It takes this
very same power that raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead
to be at work within you to cause you to believe the gospel. I
know men ought to believe the truth. Everybody ought to believe. But nobody will believe unless
there's an operation of grace. We live in a day of make your
decision for Jesus. I tell you, somebody needs to
stand up and say, there needs to be an operation of grace.
There needs to be the very power of God working within us, effectually
working within us. Effectual means it gets the job
done. The word here literally, which
effectually worketh also in you, it's energy. There's an energy,
the energy of God at work. You think about the energy of
God. That's what it takes to raise
a soul. That's what it takes to save
us. The energy of God is gonna take more energy than you've
got. It's gonna take more energy than I've got. It takes the energy
of him who raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead to cause
you to live spiritually forever. This is what the apostle is speaking
about. And it is this faith This embracing
of the Lord Jesus, that is the evidence of election. You see, he even said, go back
here in chapter one in verse four, he says, knowing brethren
beloved, your election of God. Knowing brethren beloved, your
election of God. Say, Jim, how do I know whether
I'm one of the elect? Well, you know, this way, are
you a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? If you're a believer,
well, I can tell you, you're one of the elect. You believe
because you're one of the elect, and your faith is evidence of
it. There's no other evidence. That's
why we preach the gospel to everybody. I preach the exact same message. Alan preaches the exact same
message, the gospel of God's grace to everybody without discrimination. We preach the grace of God, the
blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ. We preach it to everybody
and those who believe, that's who the elect are. That's the
only way you know. And I'll tell you this, the way
of salvation is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle would say later,
this is his second epistle that he wrote, the second letter that
he wrote, I should say, first one's Book of Galatians, and
then most likely the Book of First Thessalonians was the second
one. But later, at the end of his ministry, when he wrote his
second letter to Timothy, he said, I know whom I have believed.
And I'm persuaded he's able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. I know whom I have believed.
Salvation is in whom? It's in Christ Jesus. So these
people, they believe the gospel. He goes on to say in chapter
one, they were examples to others. Look at verse seven of chapter
one. He says, so that you were examples or examples to all that
believe in Macedonia and Achaia. People of God are examples to
others. We're examples of what the grace
of God does for people. We drank iniquity like water. We enjoyed walking in darkness. We didn't love the scriptures.
We didn't love the word of God. We didn't love about the grace
of God. We didn't love to gather and
hear about Jesus Christ and him crucified, but now we do. Now
we enjoy meeting together and we love to open up the Word of
God. And when the minister gets up behind the pulpit and opens
the Holy Scriptures, we're anxious to hear what he's got to say
because he's speaking about our beloved Savior. He's speaking
about the God that we love. The Lord has done something for
us. He's changed us. He's changed us. And we try to behave ourselves.
We try to walk in the light as he is in the light. So, Paul
begins this letter by identifying these people as being the elect
of God. Now, what was the reason for
him writing this letter? Well, I can't give you all the
reasons, don't know all the reasons, but I do know this, when he first
preached in Thessalonica, he would have preached the first
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the second coming. And when
he preached about the second coming of the Savior, he talked
about it's imminent. That means it's gonna be soon.
Be on the lookout, the Lord Jesus is coming back. People thought,
well, it's gonna happen any day now. And a year goes by and he hadn't
come back. So there were some in the church
who began to question, is this right that he's coming back?
And what happens to those who died before he does come back?
There are a lot of questions that were raised about the second
coming of our Lord Jesus, and so he writes this. He writes
this epistle. Go over to chapter five now,
and let me give you some thoughts here on the subject appointed
to salvation. Appointed to salvation. Now remember,
he's writing to give them some understanding of the coming of
the Savior. The second coming of Jesus Christ. So he says this in chapter five
in verse one. But of the times and of the seasons,
brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. Now, is he
saying there's no need for me to write about the second coming
of Christ Jesus? No, he's not saying that. Because
the people of God are always encouraged to hear the message
that Christ is coming back. It's necessary that we speak
often about His first coming and His second coming. By His
first coming, He redeemed us. By His first coming, He reconciled
us to God. And in His second coming, He's
going to glorify us. First coming, He justified us.
His second coming is going to glorify us. Our Savior, remember,
he comforted his disciples by speaking of his return in John
chapter 14. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may
be also. The angels, they declared his
return. When the Savior ascended from
the Mount of Olives, he had blessed his disciples and then he began
to go up into the heavens in a cloud, the angel said, why
stand you here gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus shall
so come again in like manner as you have seen him go. He's taken up into heaven on
the basis of having finished redemption, having saved and
justified his people, having put away our sins, having died
that God might be just and the justifier of all who believe
him. Now, this same Jesus, the one
who saved us, the one who's gone back to heaven to be our advocate,
to be our antecessor, to be our great high priest, that Satan,
Jesus, shall so come again from heaven as you've seen him go
into heaven. And in this epistle, the apostle
writes, often mentioning the second coming of the Lord Jesus.
Go back to chapter three, chapter three. Look at verses 12 and
13. And the Lord make you to increase
and abound in love one to another. Now remember, this is a letter
they write to the church. Timothy delivers the letter and
he says to them, he says to these believers in the church at Thessalonica,
and he says to us this evening, the Lord make you to increase
and abound in love one toward another and toward all men, even
as we do toward you to the end, that he may establish your hearts
unblameable in holiness before God, even our father, at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Watch it, with all his saints. He's coming back, but he's not
coming back by himself. All the saints of God, all those
who've gone to glory, from the very first one, from Abel, Abel,
who was murdered because of his confidence in the Lamb of God. He was murdered because God had
respect to his offering and didn't have respect to Cain's offering.
His blood was shed from that man who died to the very last
one who dies before our Lord Jesus Christ comes back. All
of those believers, their souls, They're coming back with the
Savior in the air. The Lord Jesus goes into this
again in chapter four in verse 13. Look at chapter four in verse
13. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. Remember,
and I've already said this, there were people who died during that
interval between Paul's establishing the church there and a year later
when he writes this letter. And there was some issues, questions
among the people. What's happened to those who
died? The Lord hadn't come back yet
and they died. What happened to them? Where
are they now? What's gonna become of them?
So he writes and he says, but I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep. See, there's no death
to the people of God. Our death died when Christ died. There's no death for us. He said,
I'm the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me
shall never die. We don't die, we fall asleep.
The body falls asleep, the soul goes back to God who gave it.
So he says, I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning
them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others who
have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. They're coming back. They're
coming back. For this we say unto you, watch
it, by the word of the Lord. God told me to say this to you
is what he's saying. You've heard preachers say, God
told me to tell you this. Well, don't believe any of them,
but you can believe this guy, he's an inspired apostle. And
he says, for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord,
that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord
shall not prevent. What does that mean? Shall not
precede, shall not go before them which are asleep. For the
Lord Himself, He shall descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump
of God. The dead in Christ shall rise
first. Their bodies are going to be
raised from the grave, wherever they are. Many of them, nothing
is left but dust. What about the body of Abel?
You think there's anything left of it? Microscopic. But God knows where every speck
of his dust is. Because the Lord not only redeemed
Abel's soul, He redeemed Abel's body. And He redeemed all the
bodies and all the souls of those given to Him by the Father in
the covenant of grace. So it says, The dead in Christ
shall rise first, then we which are alive, gonna be some of God's
people alive and remain until he comes again. It may be us,
may not be, I don't know. God's people been dying 6,000
years. But there is gonna be a generation
of God's people still gonna be alive when the Lord Jesus comes
back. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. We're going up to meet the Lord
in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And he says,
now comfort one another with these words. This is very comforting
to the Lord's people. I know this body, it's getting
older, It's decaying, it's dying. It's appointed unto men once
to die. And the body must be buried.
But our souls go back to God. The souls of all of the Lord's
people go back to God. And he gives us a heavenly body.
in which we will worship Him until that time which He has
designed, which He has ordained, and nobody knows but our God,
and then He'll come back and we're going to come back with
Him. He says, this is comforting, this is comforting. We'll come
back. So he's encouraging these believers. So he says, he's not saying of
the times and seasons, you have no need that I write unto you.
He's not saying, there's no need for me to write unto you of the
second coming of the Lord Jesus. He's saying, there's no need
for me to write unto you of the times and the seasons. If you're
looking for signs, he says, no need for me to write to you about
that. As I understand the second coming
of the Lord Jesus, there's one more thing that's gotta happen.
Oh, you say, rebuild the temple in Israel? No. China's gonna
invade? No. None of those things. One more thing's gotta happen.
All the elect of God have got to be brought into the fold of
salvation. That's it. That's what we're
waiting on. And maybe the last of His elect
has already been born. Maybe the last of His elect won't
be born for a long time. I don't know. Nobody knows. You say, well, it's such an ungodly
day. It's been ungodly all along.
It's just things are more open now. But this much I know, He is coming
back. He says this, watch in verse
two, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord is so
cometh as a thief in the night. What is the day of the Lord?
The day of the Lord. You don't need to turn over there,
but in Revelation chapter one, when John wrote that letter,
from the Isle of Patmos. He said, I was in the spirit.
Do you remember what he said next? On the Lord's day. On the Lord's day. Now, this
is the first day of the week. And we, this is what John was
referring to. He was saying, this is the Lord's
day. That is Sunday. Now we know,
in fact, every day is the Lord's day, right? Every day belongs
to him. But it's on this day, the first
day of the week, because this is the day that He arose, this
is the day that His people get together to worship Him and honor
Him and exalt Him. That's the Lord's day. You know
what the day of the Lord is? The day of the Lord is the day
when all will worship Him and all will exalt Him and every
knee shall bow to Him. Every tongue shall confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The day of
the Lord is just one day that lasts forever. That's the Lord's
day. That's the day of the Lord. And
in that day, nobody will count for anything except for Jesus
Christ alone. He will be all. Now He's all
in all to us. He's all of our hope. He's all
of our righteousness. He's all of our reconciliation.
He's all of our salvation. We know that, but there are other
things going on in our lives, right? Sure. But in the day of the Lord, he
will be all. It's all about him, the day of
the Lord. In the day of the Lord, everybody,
even the wicked, will be made to realize it's all about Jesus
Christ. Because God the Father has purpose
to honor His Son before the eyes of men, wicked men, righteous
men, before all of the angels, elect angels or fallen angels. God's gonna honor His Son. But when He comes back to many
people, His coming will be as a thief in the night. The Lord said, you know why a
thief comes? To kill and to steal. That's
why a thief comes. And I tell you, he's coming back,
and we don't fear his coming. But I'll tell you what, he's
coming back, he's coming back to kill. He's coming back to
get vengeance. See, the day of the Lord read
in Isaiah 2 and throughout the book of Isaiah, the day of the
Lord is a day of vengeance against them who know him not, those
who won't worship him. You can talk about and dream
about and imagine sweet little Jesus who'd never heard a fly. He's coming back in vengeance
against those who know not God. Those who despise him. Those
who would exalt their own righteousness and put it up in competition
to the majestic, perfect, glorious righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's coming back as a thief to
kill. And he says in verse three, and
when they shall say they, who's the they? The wicked, the unbelievers. When they shall say peace and
safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon
a woman with child. And I'll tell you some sad words. They shall not escape. That's why we read in Hebrews
the second chapter, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation? There won't be any escape. But
now watch verse four, but ye brethren, now he's speaking again
to the Thessalonian believers. He says, but ye brethren, you're
not in darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief? You're all the children of light.
You're children of the day. We're not of the night nor of
the darkness. You know, I know by nature we're
all alike. But there are some of us, by
grace, who are not like the world at all. No, there's a big difference. It's a difference grace has made.
It's a difference God has made. We're not all alike. We're not
children of the night. We're not children of darkness.
We're children of the day. We're children who love holiness. We love righteousness. We love
God. We love Christ. We're not like
everybody else. We're different. Grace has made
us different. That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians
4, who maketh thee to be different from another? You are different,
aren't you? You are different, aren't you?
I hope you are. I'm different. I'm not what I
used to be. I'm not what I used to be. I
used to be dead. I'm alive. I used to be blind. I see. I used to be deaf. I hear. I used to be robed in my own
self-righteous rags. I'm robed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm different now. God made me
different. He put within me his life. That's
a life that'll never die. It's a life that loves holiness
and hates evil. Therefore, he says in verse six,
let us not sleep as do others. Let us watch and be sober, be
watchful, be alert. Be serious about the things of
God. For they that sleep, they sleep
in the night. And they that be drunken are
drunken in the night. I know there's a literal drunkenness. And those who are habitually
drunk don't know anything about the grace of God. And they're
not going to enter into the kingdom of God. It says that 1 Corinthians
6, the drunken are not gonna enter in, but I think this is
talking about another kind of drunkenness, of which there's
two kinds. People get drunk on the things
of the world, the pleasures of the world. They're absolutely
intoxicated by the world and all that's in the world, the
pleasures of the world, the treasures of the world, the knowledge of
the world. All of those, they're just drunk
on the world. And then there are those who
are drunk, intoxicated on the false gospel of Babylon. They drink in the intoxicated
beverage that she serves up to all of those who are under her
care, or who commit themselves to her, and they're just drunk.
You can't reason with them, you can't talk with them. They're drunken in the night. But he says, but let us, look
at verse eight, but let us who are of the day be sober. There's a time for humor. I like
humor, probably use it too much. Sometimes I'll get humorous up
here and I go home and I beat myself up for it. Really, when
we sing and we preach, though you can use, a preacher can use
humor And I try to use it this way to make sure I get you back,
bring you back to alertness. But we're to be sober-minded
people. We're talking about heaven and hell now. We're talking about
life and death. We're talking about salvation
and damnation. Those are not things to be joked
about. Be sober, he says. Be sober. Be serious. Those of us who are
of the day putting on the breastplate of faith and love. Faith and
love. Faith in Christ Jesus. Love for
Christ Jesus. And for a helmet, the hope of
salvation. We have a good hope through grace
based upon the certainty of the word of God. Watch this. For
God has not appointed us to wrath. He's not designed us for wrath. He's not destined us for wrath,
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what
he's saying to the Thessalonian believers. You people who believe,
you get, you know, he sent this letter by Timothy and it rolled
up in a scroll, you know, and they began to, somebody, probably
Timothy began to open the scroll and read it to them. And he reads
this and he says, listen, you're not appointed to wrath. You're
not destined to wrath. Do you know why you're not gonna
taste of the wrath of God? Because God did not destined
you to partake of the wrath of God. He destined your savior
to take it in your stead. That's substitution there. God
hadn't, he hadn't designed us for wrath. He's designed us to
obtain salvation, to have salvation freely given to us by our Lord
Jesus Christ who died for us. He's the one who died for us
that whether we wake or sleep, whether we are alive when He
comes back or whether we've already gone back to be with Him. It
doesn't matter, because we're gonna live together with Him
forever and ever. If you die, you're gonna live
with Him. If you're here when He comes back, you're gonna live
with Him forever and ever. So it really doesn't matter whether
you die or you live. That's why Paul said, for me
to live is Christ, to die is gain. And so, verse 11, wherefore,
comfort yourselves together. and edify one another even as
also ye do. How can we be comforted? We're comforted in knowing this.
Because of the work of Christ Jesus, one of these days when
we close our eyes in death, we're gonna see his face and we'll
know him. We'll know him. Because he's
the one that redeemed us. And we're going to be with him.
You're never going to lose consciousness. Not your soul. Your body may
lose consciousness. It may very well lose consciousness. You might go into a coma. I don't
know. Nobody knows what's going to
happen to you or to me physically. But I know this. When we breathe
our last breath, that soul that we are will immediately enter into the
presence of the Lord. And if I understand what happened
there to Lazarus in the book of Luke, the angels of God gather
around our bedside at our death or wherever we might happen to
be. Might be a car wreck, nobody knows. but the angels of God,
and they're always there. Isn't that right? They're always there. They're
here now. I don't know how many, but they're
here. They're around you and around
you, all the people of God here. We have numberless messengers
from God. who are the ministers to those
who are the heirs of God's salvation. They guard us, they hedge us
about in some way. God uses them to encourage us,
and they're there. And when we breathe our last
breath, they take us, our soul, right into the presence of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that sweet? That's one
of the sweetest things I can think about, is absent from this
body, present with the Lord. And when the angels take us to
glory, I guess they come back and get another one. Paul says, comfort one another
with these words. Comfort and edify one another. We need comforting in this old
world. I used to go hear a preacher
several years ago, a long, long time ago, in the early 70s. And I mean, he would just, he
would scald you. He'd just take the hide right
off of you. He'd preach about what you don't
do and how you're living wrong and you're not holy enough and
you're not living up to the right standard. Well, I know I'm not
holy as I ought to be and not living up to the standard of
perfection. It's one thing to be reminded
of our responsibilities. It's another thing to fail to
pour in the oil and the wine of the gospel. Listen, I'm accepted
by God not for anything that I've ever done or anything that
I'll ever do. I'm accepted for Christ's sake.
And I know preachers used to say, I've heard a lot of preachers
say this. I'll tell you, when the Lord
comes back, you better make sure you're serving
Him. And don't be somewhere where you'd be embarrassed to be if
He came back and found you there. Well, first of all, He knows
where I'm at at all points anyway, all times anyway, so nothing
gonna shock Him. But it doesn't matter what I'm
doing. I may be reading the Bible or
I may be reading the newspaper. I may be in my office studying
or I might be at home watching golf on television. It doesn't
matter what you're doing when he comes back. because God isn't
going to accept you for anything you've ever done. He accepts
you for Christ Jesus' sake, for what He's done for you. He said,
we accepted in the beloved. We always have been, we are now,
and we always shall be. So let's be comforted in that.
Find some comfort in the promises of God. And let's edify, let's
build up one another, don't tear down one another. I told somebody
the other day, I said, I've done some tearing down in my ministry
and I'd like to stop doing the tearing down, I'd like to build
up, I'd like to edify some people. And I'm trying to go by that
old adage, if you can't say something good about somebody, then just
don't say anything at all. So try to edify. Be comforted, be comforted in
these things.