1st Thessalonians and I want to bring a message
today I've titled it seven attitudes seven attitudes and I'm going
to be using the book of Thessalonians to show these seven attitudes
when you find seven in the scriptures it speaks of perfection speaks
of completeness God worked six days and rested on the seventh.
So that means it's complete, it's finished, it's done. And
that's what it speaks of. And as we look at these seven
attitudes, seven aspects of a believer's life and their relationship with
the Lord, their relationship with God, though these attitudes
in us are not perfect, not perfect, But I know that in every heaven-born
child of God, they exist. They have these characteristics.
They have these seven different characteristics, attitudes they
have towards God and themselves. And like I say, they're not perfect
in us by no stretch of the imagination. We're like when Paul says, you
know, said, the will is present with me. I have the will. Oh, I've got the will. But how
to perform? I don't know how. I've got the
will, but how to perform, I don't know how. But I want to look
at these seven attitudes that people have, and I believe every
heaven-born child of God has them. And the first one I want
to look at is in verse 13 of chapter 2. We sung it this morning. Break thou the bread of life,
O thy Word of God that saveth me. Look what it says there in
verse 13 of chapter 2 This is the first
attitude you have receiving the Word of God for this cause also
Thank we God without ceasing because when you receive the
Word of God Which you heard of us you received it not as the
Word of men But as it is in truth the Word of God which effectually
worketh in you Now I know one thing about this, the first attitude,
how you have, you receive the Word of God as it is the Word
of God. Not what a preacher thinks about
it, not somebody's opinion, not somebody's thoughts or somebody's
theory, not somebody's philosophy, but you receive the Bible, the
Word of God as it is truth. And it says there that it also
effectually worketh in you. He said, you didn't receive what
I preached to you as coming from me. You received it as coming
from God. And I tell you what, it's by
the Word of God and it's by the Scriptures that we're born again. Only God saves His people by
the Gospel. He saves them by being born again.
Now you keep 1 Thessalonians and look over in James. James
is the first book after the book of Hebrews. Look in James with
me in chapter 1 and verse 18. You know, He said it works effectually
in you. You know, God doesn't fail. God
doesn't fail. When He sends His Word, He said
it's like the rain that comes down. He said, when I send my
Word, it'll accomplish what I send it to do. And He said also, it'll
not return unto me void. And so the Word works effectually.
It gets the job done is what it means. But look what He said
here in James chapter one in verse 18. of his own will, of
God's own will, begat he us. That word begat means to give
life to. Give life to. Being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the word of
God. By his own will begat he us with what? The word of truth. that we should be a kind of first
fruits of his creatures. And he said, since we're begotten
by the word and the word of truth by the will of God, listen, he
said, you be swift to hear. You be very, very careful to
hear what's, you listen. Be swift to hear. And I've listened,
and don't be so slow to speak and make a comment on what's
being said. Slow to wrath. And look what
he says down here now in verse 22. Verse 21, wherefore lay apart
all filthiness, and excess, superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with
meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. So it's by the word of God. That's
the first thing a believer does. He receives the word of God.
And I'll tell you, how many of you, the first time you heard
the gospel, you said, I've never heard anything like that. I didn't
know those things were even in the Bible. That's what people
say. Like that there, you know, beloved, knowing your election
of God. They didn't know that, but that's the truth. And I said,
we receive the word, and also it says over here in verse six
of chapter one, we receive the word in much affliction. It says
there in verse six, and you receive, having received the word in much
affliction. Now what in the world is that
talking about? That means that the Holy Ghost, when He comes
to bring the Word, He has to plow up. He has to have to empty. He has to do away with darkness. He has to bring light. He has
to plow up the heart. He has to change the mind. He
has to change the will. And I tell you, that's hard work
going on in the soul. That's easy for God, but it's
hard work going on in our soul. And the word of conviction, this
word conviction, being convicted of sin, is something that people
don't talk about anymore. But this is what, when he says,
you receive it in much affliction, God afflicts your soul. He'll
afflict your mind. He'll afflict your thoughts and
everything about you and bring you to where you say, that's
the word of God and I've got to believe it regardless of what
he's saying about me. And I tell you what, that's why
it's called the, the soil's got to be prepared. Soul's got to
be prepared. I mean you don't just go out
here and throw seed on the ground and expect it to flourish. You
don't expect to just go out here where things are and know no
hard ground and all that and expect anything to come up. So
God has to plow it up. He's got to break it up. He's
got to break that heart. He's got to break that mind,
break that will. He's got to do that. And that's
what he says, you know, being born of incorruptible seed. And
I'll tell you something else, not only about the word of God
we receive, but here's the difference between religion and a person
being born again. Well, look at it, 2 Thessalonians.
Just turn over our 2 Thessalonians. Let me show you myself. Just
look at it with me. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2 and
verse 10. You see we receive the love of
the truth and that's the great difference between you know what
God does for a person in false religion. He said here in verse
10 that people are deceived with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth. He didn't say they didn't receive
the truth. He didn't say they didn't even
believe the truth. It says they didn't love the
truth. They didn't love it. They didn't
embrace it. They didn't cherish it. It wasn't
precious to them. That they might be saved. And
because they received not the love of the truth. Now they,
you know, a lot of people believe a lot of truth. And they'll agree
with you in a lot of things. But here's the thing about it.
If a man don't receive the love of the truth, I don't care how
much he says he believes, I don't care how much truth he says he
knows, but if he don't receive the love of the truth and embrace
it, love it, cherish it, got to have it, got to have it. And look what he says, for this
cause God shall send them to strong delusion that they all
might believe a lie. You don't love the truth? I'm
gonna give you a lie. And you know Isaiah said this,
said they perish with a lie in their right hand. got a lie in
their right hand. We watched a documentary the
other day about the most powerful richest preacher in America worth hundreds of millions of
dollars and him and his wife would go
off on these extravagant vacations and drink commit adultery and
fornication and have affairs and sit and watch one another
while they done it. And yet that place was the largest,
largest so-called Christian university in the world. Now I'm telling
you, hell ain't half full. You reckon those folks ever received
the word of the truth? You reckon they ever believed
the truth? You reckon they ever even know what the Bible said
about anything? Oh my, would you receive, listen,
if you love the truth, you know what you're gonna do with the
truth? You're gonna have it. You say, I've got to have that.
I've got to have it. You know, we love to sit down
to a great big fine meal. You know, we like a wonderful
meal and a good meal. But I tell you what, our Lord
Jesus Christ says, this is the bread of life. This is the bread
of life here. And we got to have it. And that's
why Simon Peter said one time, the Lord told him, launch out
into the deep and cast his net down for a great big draft of
fishes. Peter told the Lord, said, Lord, I fished all night.
and I ain't caught a thing. And I know something about fishing.
But he says, nevertheless, at thy word, nevertheless, because
you said it, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. And all right,
here's another one over here. Now look back with me in verse
chapter one. Here's the second attitude that
believers have. It says there in verse nine,
for they themselves show unto us what manner of entering in
we had unto you." And listen to this, how you turn to God
from idols. Here's the second thing, you
receive the word of the truth. And here's the second thing that
happens when you receive that truth and you receive the word
as it is the word of God. Do you know what the next thing
happens? You turn to God. You turn to God. And it says
you're turning from God turning to God from idols. Idols. You know Aaron last week, he
dealt with a bunch of idols. I mean he dealt very well with
a bunch of idols. And most people had idols of
their own making. Free will is one of the greatest
idols that men have now. That's one of the greatest idols
men have, free will. God loves everybody. Christ loves
everybody and died for everybody. Their ideas, their idols of their
own making. Merit. Though I'm worth something. I'm somebody. I can accomplish
anything in this world if I set my mind to it. That's a lie. That's just not true. But people
have this merit. And then they have this morality.
You know, you remember years ago that they had this moral
majority. And you know the moral majority,
they sent out a whole list of things that you had to believe.
And most folks think that patriotism and Christianity is one and the
same. But you can be a patriot and love America and love the
flag and salute the flag and put your hand over your heart
over the flag, but that's not Christianity. Don't even resemble
it. But a lot of people think patriotism
is Christianity. Huh? And I tell you what, they
had this moral majority. You gotta be against this, you
gotta be against that, you gotta be against this other thing,
you gotta be against this other thing, you gotta believe this,
you gotta believe that, you gotta believe something else. And they
said, there, there, there, we got a moral majority. So everybody
that believed what that preacher said and those preachers said,
they said, well, I must be all right. I'm in the moral majority. I believe what the Bible says
about this and whether the preacher even knows what the Bible said.
You're in the moral majority. You know, you can be immoral
about a lot of things and still be in the moral majority. But
let me tell you something. You can't be a believer and not
be moral. But I do know this, you know,
and man, you know, he says, I'm doing the best I can. I don't
know why in the world. I heard a fellow say one time,
I've believed the Bible all my life. That's believing it too
long. That's believing it too long.
And I tell you, you know, they don't know turning to God from
the self-righteousness. One thing our Lord talked about
and was very, very strict about was a man trusting his own righteousness. He says, you know how a man knows
a man's trusting his own righteousness? He says, those that are righteous
They look down on everybody else. The self-righteousness, they
look down on everybody else. It's like the Pharisee. You know,
he thought he was so self-righteous, he was more righteous than the
publican over there. And that's what men are. They
think they're more righteous or they think they're as good
as anybody else. Well, that has nothing to do with the relationship
with God, believing you're as good as anybody else. Well, nobody's
any good. What good does it make to you
if you're as good as anybody else? Ain't nobody good. So, oh, listen, I'm as good as
anybody else. Well, whoop-dee-doo. You ain't accomplished nothing.
I'm serious about that. You know, you're talking about
this here, turning from God. Paul the Apostle, when he was
on the Damascus Road, he was a Pharisee. He was in tight with
the high priest. He went to the high priest. of
Israel and got his letters to go arrest people. So he was as
high up as you could get in religion. And he felt good about himself.
And he was on his way to put men and women in prison. God
put him down. That's why I say plowed up that
soul. Put him in the dust and kept
him in the dust. Well, he would become an apostle.
He said, I'm an apostle. He said, then he said, I'm the
least of the apostles. And then he said, I'm the less
than the least of all the apostles. Then he says, though I be nothing. So he started way up here and
ended up down here as nothing. Now that's what I'm talking about,
what God, that's turning from, that he had all these idols and
he turned from all them idols and he turned to God. And you
know what he said when he get ready to leave this world? I'm
the chief of sinners. Of all the people I've ever met
in my life, I'm the chief of sinners. And I tell you what,
now they start down here, you know, and they just keep going
up, up, up, up, up. That's what they want you to
do. They want you to, you know, you can go up, up, up, up, up.
And God says down, down, down, down, down. turn from idols,
and look what it says there, to the living God, you turn to
the living God. Oh, listen, the living God, you
turn from your idols and you go to the living God. Takes the
place of self. Takes the place of self-idols.
Well, whose self? False beliefs and traditions.
Oh, my self-love, selfishness. Oh, my, and you know our Lord
said, a man cannot serve two masters. He said, you can't serve
two masters. You can't do it. Either you're
going to love this one over here and he's going to be the most
important one to you, or you're going to love this one over here
and hate that one over there. And that's what most folks have.
They have just enough religion that they can't enjoy the world.
And they have just enough religion that they can't enjoy fellowshipping
with the Lord's people. So they in this place, you know,
I can't enjoy myself in the world and I can't enjoy myself in the
meeting. So they're in this place here,
they got just enough religion to make them miserable. Oh my, but these folks turned
to God from idols. I tell you, I had idols. I've
had lots of them in my life. And the greatest idol I had,
more than anybody else, was me. And God's got to make you turn
on yourself. When you turn to God, the first
thing you turn from is yourself. Self. Oh, self. Self. Self ain't worth, as old
Scott said, a warm pitch of spirit. That sounds awful gross, but
that's what he said. You know what self's worth? You
know what you're worth? And that's what he said one time.
So turning to God, here's the third attitude. Look in verse one here,
chapter one. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus
unto the church. Now he's talking about the church
of the Thessalonians. Now he could have put in there
the church Crossfield, Tennessee and on Lantana Road he could
put that on there the church That's in Crossfield, Tennessee
that meets in on Lantana Road Which is in God the Father and
then the Lord Jesus Christ So what he's saying is that the
church wherever it's at Whoever they are, and the church is made
up of people. The church, we have a dwelling
place, we dwell in God. Dwell in God the Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ. The church is in them. You know
this is, you're talking about a refuge. A dwelling place, we dwell in
God. The church dwells in God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is their refuge, this is
their resting place. And when a soul receives the
word of truth, turns to him idols, to the living God, he's in God
and in Christ. And I'm gonna tell you something
else. God's in them, and Christ in you is the hope of glory.
And you know, we're in God and we're in Christ. You keep this,
and look with me in John chapter 15. Look in John chapter 15. You know, God is our dwelling place. God is our refuge. He's our hiding
place. And we dwell in God. You can't
be in a safer place than dwelling in God. And the church dwells
in the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's our refuge,
it's our resting place. But look what our Master says
here in chapter 15, verse 1. I am, he says that seven times,
the true vine and my Father is the husband. He's the one that's
gonna take care of the vine and take care of all that's in that
vine. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit He takes away. He takes it away. And every branch
that bears fruit, He purges it, He trims it up, that it may bring
forth more fruit. Now let me quote you a verse
of Scripture in John 15, 15, it says this, no you're not,
you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you and ordained you that
you might bring forth fruit. But then He goes on to say, now
you are clean, been purged, been pruned through the word which
I have spoken unto you. Abide ye in me, and I in you,
as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
the vine. No more can you except you abide
in me. I am the vine, and you're the
branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, and this is what
he says. to nail it down for all of us.
Without me you can't do nothing. He said, well he didn't say you
can't do much. He said you can't do nothing.
You can't bring food, you ain't got life. You can't abide in
Him. Without Him we can do nothing.
And that's what he's talking about here. You know Christ is
our life. He is our life. I don't like
this thing. You need to make Christ everything
in your life. You need to make Christ the priority
in your life. He is our life. When Christ,
who is our life, shall appear, we're going to appear with Him
in glory. You take Christ from a believer,
and what does he have left? Nothing but sin and shame. Oh listen, you take Christ out
of the Bible and you got no gospel. He's our life. He's our life. That's what he said. You can't
do nothing without me. And oh listen, he said, and he's
our strength. You know what he said about us?
My strength is made perfect in your weakness. Anybody in here
got any strength this morning that Christ didn't give you? Huh? Oh, if we got strength to
worship, if we got strength to pray, if we got strength to desire,
everything He gives, He's our strength and His strength is
made perfect in our weakness. Oh my. He's the vine, we're the
branches. And we're satisfied. I'm satisfied
where I'm dwelling, ain't you? I like it. You know, some folks,
you know, they want to sit. I need to get out of here. I
need to get out of here. I can get out of a lot of places, but
this is one place I don't want to get out of. In fact, there ain't no embarrassment
to let you in or let you out. He's the door. And once he shuts that door,
ain't nobody getting out. And when he opens it, everybody
gets in. I'll tell you what, let me show
you what he said in Jeremiah 17. Let's look at Jeremiah 17
about this. You know, it's Jeremiah 17, in
verse seven. Look what it says here about
what God does, dwelling in God. We're satisfied in our dwelling.
Oh, I don't want to get out at all. I don't want to get out
at all. What kind of a comfort and assurance
it is if you preach to somebody that if they're saved, they can
lose their salvation. That couldn't be comforting to
anybody. But look what he said here in
verse 7. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope
the Lord is. Now watch this. If he trusts
Him, and he's hoping in Him, he shall be as a tree, planted
by the waters, that spreadeth out her roots by the rivers.
And when it gets hot, oh, his root, he's not gonna wither.
Her leaves gonna stay green, shall not be careful in the year
of drought, and they won't cease from yielding fruit. All right, let me give you the
fourth attitude. The fourth attitude. Look down
here in chapter 1 verse 9. We turn to God, we receive the
word of truth. We dwell in God. The church dwells
in God. God dwells in the church. But
look what it says in verse 9. For they themselves show of us
what mannering in we had unto you. and how you turn from idols,
now listen to this, to serve the living and true God. To serve
the living and true God. You know, and what he's talking about is
like a son that loves his father and does what his father says.
It's like a husband loves his wife and wants to serve his wife. It's like Shirley and I. We love
one another. She loves me and I love her.
So she wants to serve me and I want to serve her. And that's
what he's talking about here, to serve. And you know, our Lord
Jesus, when he washed the disciples' feet, he said when he washed
them, you see what I've done? Do you understand what I just
did? He said, I'm the Lord of glory. I'm the God of heaven
and earth, and I stooped down here and worked all these disciples'
feet. And he said, you know what I've
done? He said, I want you all to do the same thing. I want
you to wait on one another. I want you to serve one another.
I want you to care for one another. I want you to do for one another.
And I'll tell you something. You know, if you got the best
master in the world, you don't mind serving him, do you? Anybody got a better master
than ours? And when it talks about serving,
let me tell you something. We've been set free to serve. We was in bondage to sin, we
were slaves to sin, and now we're free. Christ set us free. He set us free to serve. And
we gladly, joyfully, thankfully, you know, now we're free to pray.
We can pray for one another. We can witness. We're free to
witness. We're free to give. We're free to labor in the gospel. We're free to serve one another. Set free from selfishness and
self-centeredness. Oh, listen. Oh, what a blessing
it is to serve our Master. Just like I said last week before
last about Mary. She wanted to be with Christ
even if He was dead. She wanted to be where He was.
And I tell you, this is the most wonderful thing, is to serve
and wait on one another. you know that's just that's just
you know there's a there's a family here there's a family here and
I've never seen anybody that's more loving to serve and do for
other people than a particular families in this congregation
and I'm not going to say who they are but they love to wait
on one another and do things for other people. They devise things that they
can do for somebody else I tell you these Thessalonians
are a pattern for us and their character of service you know
what kind of service they had? look what it says here in verse
3 look at their character of service remember them without
cease here's the first thing of their service it was a work
of faith what they did was a work of faith they believe God they
believe the scriptures they believe They were believers. They had
faith. Faith that works by love. Then
look what else it says they did. Oh, everything they did was a
labor of love. It was a labor of love. All they labored, it was a labor
of love. Listen, you know if you love
somebody, it's not hard work. Oh, no man anything but to love
one another. And not only was it work of faith
and labor of love look what else it says there in verse 3 a patience
of hope in patience of hope You know Hope here is talking about
hope in the New Testament always speaks about Looking for Christ
always deals with the resurrection the future that we have in Christ
always does and we have patience of hope I've got a hope, you've
got a hope, a blessed hope, a glorious hope. But we have to patiently
wait for that hope. We're waiting, we've got hope.
Oh, we've got a hope, but we've got to wait patiently for it.
We wait patiently, patiently. And then look what else it says
about them. It was in the sight of God that their work of faith,
their labor of love, their passion of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ
was in the sight of God. They done this with God watching
them. They said, oh, listen, God's watching me. And you know,
they said, they done this in the sight of God. They didn't
say, well, nobody's watching me, so I can sit down on my bucket. White buckets, you know, there's
no white buckets. You know, when the boss leaves, you turn the
bucket upside down and you sit down on it. And well, when the
boss, you hear he's coming down the road, you jump up and go
back to work. Now that's the way it is, you know, folks, they
go off and lollygag and all that and they say, well, I see the
boss. They go back over here and go back to work. Now these
fellas wasn't that way. They knew that God was watching
them. And that didn't keep them from a work of faith and a labor
of love and a passion of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh
my. It wasn't eye service. We got
a master. Oh, we've got a master. We've
got a Lord. We've got a Savior. And it's
Him, Him we seek to please. Oh, Lord, help us to honor You,
please You. Let everything we've done be
good. Let us do it in faith. Let us do it in love. And we're
patiently waiting for You, Lord, to come and get us. And then look at the next thing
it says there in verse 10. It says, and to wait for His
Son from heaven. Even He raised from the dead,
even Jesus who saved us from the wrath to come. We're waiting
for the Son of God. That's what He says, patience
of hope, waiting for the Son of God. Where's He going to come
from? Same place He went to, from heaven.
That's what they told Him when He ascended up to glory. Those
two angels said, you men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into
heaven? The same Jesus who went away, He's going to come back
the same way. You know what faith does? And faith says he's coming. You know, it's like a fella coming
home from the army or the marines or something. He gets to come
home on leave. And everybody knows he's coming. And they believe that he's coming. But you know what hope does?
Hope runs and jumps up on the couch and looks out the window
and says, I'm watching for him, I'm looking for him. And then
when you see him, you say, oh, there he is! Oh, wait for the day that he's
coming. And there he is, there he is. That's what we're doing
with the Lord Jesus Christ. We're up on the couch looking
out the window, looking for him to come, looking for him to come. Oh my, you know our Lord said
he would come again. He said in my Father's, if you
believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. But I go and I'm gonna go prepare a place just for you,
just for you. And he said, after I prepared
that place just for you, I'm gonna come again. And I'm gonna
come and get you. And you know what I'm gonna do
after I get you? I'm gonna bring you to be with me. Right? Oh
my. He said he'd come again. And
he said he'd come to get us. Oh. So I'm looking, I'm looking,
and I'm waiting. We look for the glorious appearing
of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We live
like He's going to come. We do like He's going to come. We act as if our hour is always
at hand. David said, my expectation is
from the Lord. Huh? Oh what a blessed future
we have. What glory we have to look forward
to. We're waiting, waiting for the
Son from Heaven. We're waiting. He'll come. Just wait. He'll come. We're
waiting. He'll call. He'll call. We're waiting. And He'll take
us one day to be with Him where He is. And oh my, we'll be with
Him, with Him, with Him. We want Him now, His presence
now. But oh my, to be actually, and
He's promised us that. That's one of the most glorious
promises in the Bible. I will come again. And I'll come
to get you. I'm not coming to get somebody
else, I'm coming to get you. That's why when I hear about
a dear, dear brother or sister going home, I can't help but
rejoice. I just can't help but rejoice.
I can't help myself. This is the best news, this is
what wonderful news. Somebody got to go home. Mothers and daddies and brothers
and sisters and husbands and wives, when a loved one's gone
for a long, long time and they get to come home, they just delight
in it, they rejoice in it, and they love them and they wait
on them hand and foot. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ said,
I promise you that I'm going to come and get you, and while
I come and get you, I'm going to serve, I'm going to take care
of you until I come and get you. And I tell you what, there's
only one place I want you to be. Only one place I want you
to be. Where's that? With me. To be with me. I like to be with a lot of people.
I mean, there's some folks that I just really, really enjoy being
with. But this ain't nothing to compare
with this. Oh my. Well, let me give you
another. I've got two more to go. Two
more to go. Maybe hurry on with them. Look
over in chapter four in verse nine. Look in chapter four in verse
nine. Then we're talking about learning of God. Chapter four in verse nine. But as touching brotherly love,
you have not need that I write unto you, for you yourselves
are taught of God. And I want to talk about taught
of God, learning of God. God's our teacher. You reckon,
you hear people say, God's trying to teach me something. Here,
it says you're taught of God. You learn, God taught you. You
know, who hath called you into his own kingdom? All thy children
shall be taught of God. You know, you read Isaiah 54,
13, 14, and 15 when you get home. You read them. When it says,
when God teaches His children, you know the first thing that
they have? Peace. He said, all thy children shall
be taught of God, and great shall be their peace. And the next
thing it says about them is, is that they shall be taught
righteousness. That they'll have a righteousness.
And all thy children shall be taught of God. You know John
6.44 says this, Our Lord says no man can come unto me except
the Father which hath sent me drawing. And as it is written
in the prophets, they shall all be taught of God. You know what
he says? They that are taught of God, everyone that is taught
of God shall come unto me. That's one thing He teaches you.
He teaches you there's only one place to go and that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now I'm going to tell you something
else about this here being taught of God and learning of God, learning
from God. There's no graduates in this school. Have you graduated
yet? You know here's the thing about
us. We learn, we go to school, we learn The same lessons over
and over and over and over again. And about the time we think we've
learned it, we forget it, we gotta be taught again. And over
and over, we just have to be taught the same thing over and
over. I do, don't you feel like that? There's no graduates in
this school. You see these people, you know,
they call them, they have these master of divinity degrees. Can
you imagine the arrogance and pride and self-righteousness
to call yourself a master of God? A master of God and His
divinity, His divineness? Can you imagine some more than
that? Author W. Pink. I love Pink. I got everything that he ever
wrote and I got all that hardback now. I've been years collecting
it. But here's the thing about it. They offered him a doctorate
degree. And you know what he said? He
said, Paul didn't have a doctor's degree. Peter didn't have a doctor's
degree. James didn't have, nobody in
the Bible had a doctor's degree. Our Lord Jesus didn't have one.
So what do you think I'm going to do with one of them? I don't
want it. But you know, who is more used of God than people
in the Bible? None of them ever said, Paul
said, I'm nothing. I'm a master of divinity. I'm
a doctor of divinity. Ah, he wasn't even a good nurse. Oh, I'll tell you what, it's
a wise man who comes and learns from the Lord Jesus Christ who
sets the defeat of our God, sets the defeat of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the Holy Ghost is our teacher. And the chief lesson
is right here in verse 9, the chief lesson that the Lord teaches
us other than coming to Christ is this, as touching brotherly
love, you need not that I write unto you, you yourselves are
taught of God to love one another. You've been taught, God taught
you to love one another. To love one another. Our Lord Jesus said, take my
yoke upon you and learn, learn of me. Mary chose that good part
and let me give you the last one the seventh attitude chapter 2 verse
12 that you would walk worthy of
God who hath called us into his kingdom and glory oh listen How
worthy is God? How worthy if He is our attitude
and our worship. And He says, I want you, well
you gotta live in this world. And this word walking means to
live. It means to live. It means to go about your daily
life. You're walking. You're moving. You gotta be.
So while you're walking through this world, walk worthy of God
Almighty. Something that'll honor Him and
glorify Him This is a, what a blessed occupation this is. People, you
know, some of you folks in here, you all got occupations. You
got jobs, you got occupations. And when you have an occupation,
you want to be the best at your occupation you can be. You know,
your occupation's in insurance. Somebody else's occupation is
something else. You got an occupation, you got
a vocation. You got an occupation, and you
get up in the morning, you start your occupation that day, and
you go to, and you want to do a good job. Well, he said, you
want to be a worthy, doing a job, being a good, do
what you ought to do in your occupation. And you walk, but
here he says, now listen, what's God worthy? He's worthy of the
most glorious, blessed walk we can have in this world. Walk
as you've received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him. Walk as
becoming sons of God. Oh my! Walk as becoming sons of God. Look in Philippians. I know I'm
taking too long, but I'll tell you what. I rarely preach this
long, but let me show you this in Philippians 2, 14, 15. Philippians, back over to your
left just a little. We're sons of God. We're children
of God. Walk in His love. Walk in His
fullness. Walk in His power. Walk in His
grace. We can't do anything without
His grace. But look what He said here in
Philippians to in verse 14, do all things without murmurings
and disputings. Oh, don't murmur, don't argue,
don't dispute, don't go around complaining and murmuring around.
Don't go around arguing with people. And this is the reason
why, that you may be blameless. Blameless. Well, I heard them
folks arguing. Heard them folks murmuring. That
fellow said he believed in the sovereignty of God and all things
work together. But I heard him murmuring. He didn't like God's
will, but oh, that you may be blameless, harmless, the sons
of God, so nobody will ever have to rebuke you. You're dwelling
in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, and oh my, shine,
shine, shine as lights in this world. Oh my. Oh, don't be discontent,
don't complain, don't be stingy. Don't argue, don't dispute, don't
envy, don't hold grudges. These are not walking worthy
from God. And I'll tell you something,
if there's any worthiness that we have, it comes from Him. And it's by His power, by His
power. I'm gonna close with this, Ephesians
chapter four and verse one. I'm gonna close with this. We
need to look at this right here, not close. Look what he says, all worthiness
comes from him, it's by his power. I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord, beseech you, watch this, that you walk worthy of the vocation
or occupation wherewith you are called. And this is how he says
to do it, with lowliness of mind. Let your mind keep you down. Long-suffering for bearing one
another in love. by His indwelling of the Holy
Spirit that we're made to walk worthy of God. And that's why
our Lord Jesus Christ said, follow me, follow me. I think every
child of God has those attitudes. And when you listen to what I
had to say today, you say, boy, yeah, I think that's right, I
think that's right. But I go, I miss it by a million
miles. But that ain't no sign that we're not going to do what
it says. No, no. Our Father, our blessed
Master, our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for meeting with us
today. Thank you for the great love with which you loved us
even when we were dead in trespasses and sins. That you gave us life
together with your blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh Lord,
bless this message if it would please you. Bless it to hearts,
bless it to understandings. And oh Lord, it's in our hearts,
it's in our hearts to walk worthy of you, walk worthy of what you're
worth, what your gloriousness and your power and your grace
and your love and your kindness and your patience and your longsuffering.
Oh God, Let us not shame you, dishonor you, with what we say,
how we act, or where we go. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. See you tonight, God willing.