Open your Bibles if you would
to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Now Paul came to this church,
came to Thessalonica after fleeing from Philippi. We are studying
the book of Philippians right now in Sunday School. And he
first came to this city after fleeing Philippi. This is a city
of about a quarter of a million people. yeah so it's a large
city it's quite a large city and he took the Roman road to
get here and he ends up here in Thessalonians by the providence
of God of course and by his direction and this is a new church that
he's writing to it's a new church and we're going to see in this
first chapter that He doesn't hold back from great doctrines
that point us to Christ. Some people say, I've heard this
said, well you shouldn't teach election to young believers because
they won't really understand it. I ask you this, do we fully understand
it? No. But we're going to see Paul here
talk about that very subject because it's a great truth of
the Bible. Because we know that if God hadn't chosen us, we'd
never choose Him. Right? Never. So it's by the mercy and
grace of God in Christ, shown to us as believers in Christ,
right? In this great doctrine of election,
it takes everything out of our hands. And that's why it's actually
that and total depravity. Those are the two of the most
despised doctrines from religious people and from the world. Because
total depravity says there's nothing you can do to save yourself.
There's nothing you can do. And then election comes along
and says, well, you were chosen in Christ, if you're a believer,
you were chosen in Christ and before the foundation of the
world. What does that do? that takes us out of the equation
again doesn't it so you see why these are two of the most hated
doctrines amongst unbelievers and amongst religionists too
religionists hate the doctrine of election especially and total
depravity because total depravity they don't want to hold on to
their will well I'd be the first to admit we have a will don't
we brothers and we got a will but it's tied to our nature isn't
it if we have a dead nature That's right, you chose to come here.
Yeah. But if you had a dead nature,
you wouldn't want to be here. Right? You're born again, you want to
be here. You made a decision, come here and listen to the gospel
tonight. See, after we're saved, we flee
to Christ. Because we're made willing in
the day of God's power. But see, folks don't like that. Now, we're going to see these
Thessalonians. This is amazing. Paul's going to commend them
for the very fact that they turned from idols because remember they
are in a Greek city the city in Macedonia where there's a so many different gods you've
got Greek gods, Roman gods being worshipped but they're all false gods and
here comes Paul by the grace and mercy of God
according to the will of God and according to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, right? Nothing catches our
God by surprise and he planned and purposed this, didn't he?
That Paul would go to those, that first of all he would have
to flee from Philippi and where did he flee to? Thessalonica
all according to God's providence because he's got some sheep over
there and no sheep are going to turn from idols and they're
going to serve the living God Jehovah Yahweh the one true God
and Paul is going to proclaim God incarnate in the flesh the
Lord Jesus Christ who is the only Savior of sinners the one
true living God see they were bound down to stones and idols
And Paul is going to proclaim to them, like I love what he
said in Marge Hale, the unknown God. Because it's unknown to
us. God's unknown to us unless He reveals Himself to us. But
when He reveals Himself to us, oh my, then we find out He knew
us, He loved us, He chose us before we ever knew Him. And
don't we just marvel at that, beloved? Don't we just marvel
at that? This makes our hearts sore, doesn't
it? Oh my, so let's look here. Paul and Silas and Timotheus
unto the church of the Thessalonians. So, Paul tells us here by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. Here's his little evangelistic
group. Paul and Silas and Timotheus.
They fled from Philippi. They are now in Thessalonians
Thessalonica and they preach the gospel now this letter though
is written to the Thessalonians and it's written from Rome when
Paul's in prison and he's writing them they have a they have a fear of what happens
to brethren when they die now our dear brother Joe Terrell
just went to glory on Monday. We know where he is. Because
his hope was Christ and Christ alone, right? And he preached
Christ, didn't he? Joe was one of the clearest preachers
we got. Man! And look at this, Paul, Sabirath,
and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians. So they're writing to a people.
Now the church there is not the building. We know that, right?
It's the people. The called out assembly, in the
Greek, the ekklesia, right? A called out group. Called out
of the world, yet still in the world, but called out of the
world. By the grace and mercy of God. Who made you to differ?
Separated from the world, right? Still in the world, but separated
from the world. Oh, it's amazing. And this is
all by the power of God. All by His power. Look at this. Which is in God. In God the Father
and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at that. In God the Father
and in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the head and we're what?
The body. That's right. That's right. And He chose us in Christ. The
Father did, didn't He? My, makes your heart sing, doesn't
it sister? Oh my, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. Look at this, and here's a very
important part, let us not just skip by this. In, in the Lord Jesus Christ. So this letter is written to
believers. This letter is written to born-again,
blood-washed believers who are in Christ. Not everybody's in
Christ, are they? No. Folks that say Christ died
for everyone, that's not true. He died for his people. His people. Oh my! And we see here, this
letter is written to the church. And this is also for us as believers
now, two thousand years later, right? Here we are reading this
and receiving the blessing out of this too. And this is instruction
for us as well. Instruction for us. Now the key
there though is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you in Christ? You
can't put yourself in Christ. God must put you in Christ and
he must have done it before the foundation of the world. Isn't
that wonderful? And I'll tell you what, everyone
who's in Christ will believe. Will believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, the Holy Spirit shall be sent to them. How do
we know that? How can you say that? that the
Holy Spirit will be sent to them well my oh my I'll tell you how I'll tell you how over here in my I can't see it here where
is it now look at that over in Galatians there it says God has
sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts whereby we now cry
what? Abba Father Abba Father. Now, does everyone cry Abba Father? No. Look at Galatians chapter 4.
Look at this. Look at verse 4. Starting in
verse 4. This is wonderful. And this is
who Christ died for. These folks in Thessalonica who
are the Ekklesia. The called out ones. And who
are we? the Ekklesia here in Elmont,
aren't we? The called out ones. This is
wonderful. Look at this, Galatians chapter
4 verse 4, But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. So that's Christ
coming into this world, born of a virgin, sent into this world. Look at that. God sent forth
his Son. That means it's God the Son,
who's come to redeem us. Look at this, and what did He
come to do? Look at this, verse 5, this is wonderful. To redeem
them that were under the law. See, we could not free ourselves
from the law's demands. We couldn't even pay for one
sin. Right? So Christ comes, what? To redeem
us. To redeem we who are under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And now here,
look at this, verse 6. And because you are sons, notice
that. Not because you made a decision.
Not because you walked an aisle. Right? It doesn't say any of
that, does it? It says because you were sons.
How long have we been sons? From before the foundation of
the world? Now, isn't that amazing? And because you were... Jane,
because you were a son, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into
your heart, and now you cry, I have a Father. Look at that,
let's read that. And because you have sons, God has sent,
now look at it, God sent. See, we weren't looking for Him.
God sent the Spirit of His Son. God sent the Holy Spirit to regenerate
us. Because we're going to find out,
just like these Thessalonians, we were a bunch of idol worshippers.
Somebody says, well, I never bowed down to a piece of stone.
Well, you sure worshipped yourself, didn't you? I know I did. Look
out for number one. Remember all that? All about
me, me, me, me, me. That's all of us. But praise
God. Praise God. Look at this. Because
you're sons, Brother Brian, Sister Leonard, because you're sons,
God has sent forth, He sent forth the Spirit of the Son. That's
the Holy Spirit of God. Into your hearts, you're born again.
And now you cry, I have a father. I have a father, have mercy on
me. Have mercy on me. Isn't that
wonderful? Oh my, I'll tell you what. And
then look, let's go back to 1 Thessalonians. Grace be unto you in peace. Grace,
and every time we see this, Paul's writing, grace always precedes
faith. Okay? So if you don't have, if
God hasn't given you grace, you'll never have peace. Peace with
God. Peace with God. That's what's
most important. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father. See? It's a gift. It comes from
God. It doesn't come from us making
the decision. It doesn't come from us doing something. It comes
from God. And it's bestowed upon us. We
don't merit it, do we brother? We don't merit it at all. It's
totally God's unmerited favor shown to us. Sinners. From the
top of our head to the bottom of our feet. Right? Sinners.
And this grace is given to us. This is wonderful. Grace beyond
a year and peace from God our Father. It comes from Him. And
from the Lord Jesus Christ. It comes from Him as well. Is
He not the one that earned it for us? He did, didn't He? Oh, he made peace with God for
us, for our sins. The sinless one, the spotless
one, the perfect one, paid the price that God demanded for our
souls. Now look at this. Now this will
cause you to rejoice, won't it? We give thanks. Thanks to who? To God. That's who we give thanks
to. He's done it all. He didn't leave
us where we were, brother. My, it's wonderful. So we give
them thanks, don't we? We get together and talk and
we give them thanks. Look what God's done. Praise his mighty
name. We give them thanks. Thanks to
God always. Now he's speaking of them. They're
in his prayers. They're in his prayers. Always
we are making mention of you in our prayers. So Paul and Silas
and Timothy, they're all praying for this church. And we know
other ones too. I can't tell you how many...
I was talking to Drew and he said, man, I'm getting phone
calls from preachers I haven't heard from in years. Just saying, you
know, we're so sorry about what happened with Joe. Please tell
Bonnie and Mary and give them our love and Nathan. Give them
our love. Isn't that wonderful? We're praying for them. It's
wonderful. Now, he's going to tell them
why he's praying. Look at this. Remembering without ceasing your
work of faith. Now, I was reading Spurgeon on
this and he said, He said, here's three divine things that come
from God. Look at this. Your work of faith. Faith's a gift of God, right?
Your work of faith. Faith goes into action, doesn't
it? We worship Christ. Not in any works way for us to
gain salvation, but our salvation is looking to Christ. Joseph
told me a long time ago, I'll never forget this, and tell me
if it's true. Just nod your head. He said the
hardest thing for us is just to enter into the rest of Christ.
Just to rest in Christ. That's the hardest thing for
us to do. But see, faith will cause us just to look to Christ.
Right? God-given faith. See, natural
faith. Right? When trouble comes, it
turns from God. But true God-given faith, it
looks to God. At all times, whether you're
on the mountaintop or whether you're in the valley, it looks
to Christ. And I'll tell you what, the more
we're in the valley, the more we usually look to Christ. Right? We're on the mountaintop, we
tend to be a little, we do it just different. when we're going
through the valley. That's why, like Scott Richland
said, the believer's either in trouble, coming out of trouble,
or going into trouble. Because the Lord just keeps us
relying upon Him, doesn't He? We just keep having to look to
Him. Look to Him. It's wonderful. Look at this though. Remember
when I was saying your work of faith? That's the work of God,
right? God gives us faith to believe.
Look at this, in labor of love. Now this is the love that we've
been talking about, that can't be counterfeited by Satan. This
is the love of God, shed abroad in our hearts. Right? That God, the Holy Spirit, works
in us. Now we have a love for Christ, a love for the Bible,
a love for God the Father, a love for the brethren, that we didn't
have before. This is the labor of love. And
also the laboring for the Lord in love for the Savior. Why do
we come and attend the services and listen and desire to hear
the gospel? Because we love the Savior. Why
do we support the work? Because we love the Savior. We
love Him. We want the gospel to go forth
into the world, don't we? We desire it. And God uses means. Don't forget that, too. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. How shall
they hear without a preacher? Right? That doesn't mean anything
special about me at all. I'm just blowing a trumpet, right? That's all. But God uses us. He uses the church here. The
gospel is going out in the world every month. My oh my. I'll tell you it's amazing. It's
absolutely amazing. Look at this. So your labor of
love and then patience of hope. I read something this week before
even Joe passed away and it was in the study, it was last week
actually, in the study for the Philippians study and the commentator
said, when someone dies, it's amazing, I read this before Monday,
he said, when someone dies, we don't sorrow as others who have
no hope. We have hope. And it was actually about Stephen
too, dying, and how they were carrying Stephen away and they
had great sorrow over the loss of him in their presence but
they also had great hope knowing Stephen was gone home to be with
the Lord and knowing I was talking to the Lord this week after Joe
died and I said Lord I'm going to see my brother Joe again by
your grace and mercy I'll see him again It's not the last. The last time I saw him was here
when we had him here. But I'm going to see him again.
Last time on this earth I saw him was here. But I'm going to
see him again by the grace and mercy of God. My oh my. Oh my. Now look at this here.
So your patience and hope in what? In our Lord Jesus Christ,
in the sight of God and our Father. So God sees us. He sees us resting,
trusting. And remember, Christ isn't just
someone who we trust on Sundays and come to church on Wednesdays
and worship Him. We worship Him all the time,
don't we? He is our life. He is our hope. Right? All the time. Sunday, Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. 24 hours a
day. He doesn't sleep. You ever think
of that? That even when we're sleeping,
He's watching over us. And even when we're shedding
tears, He's watching over us. Comforting us. When we're happy,
He's watching over us. He's protecting us. He's providing for us. He's leading
us. He's ever watchful over us. I
remember when Joshua was little, man, I kept my eyes on him like
a hawk. I didn't want him to wander off getting hurt. Now
sometimes he did, he'd get hurt and he'd pick himself up and
he'd either be shedding a few tears or run to mama or run to
me and then later on he'd be fine. We run to our king, don't
we? We run to our father, don't we?
My oh my. Remember, he's our father. He's
a loving father. A caring father. My oh my. Now look at verse 4, remember
before I said that this is a young church, but Paul is going to
bring this great doctrine here, look at this, he just lays it
out. Knowing, brethren and beloved, your election of God. In the
Greek that means chosen. I was talking to somebody this
week, I said, why do you refuse to believe what the scripture
says when you say you're a believer? Like Norm said, oh, if we'd only
believe the Bible. Now, the first time I heard about this and I
was in religion, I was totally against it. I have to admit that. But after I was born again, I
embraced this wonderful doctrine. I didn't understand it. And Brother
Zane, do we understand it still? No, we don't, do we? We're just
amazed. Yeah, when we're there, when
we're in glory, we might get a little more understanding.
But I think we're going to be amazed about that forever. I
think that's something that's just going to, we're going to
delight in that. Because we know that we never
would have chosen Christ. But by His mercy and His grace,
He bled and died for us and saved us from all our sins. Look at
this, this is wonderful. For our gospel, verse 5, came
not only unto you in word only, so not just spoken word, right?
If the word comes only, if the gospel comes only in word, it
won't do anything. If my voice is the only voice
you hear in the preaching of the gospel, it won't do you no
good. It must come with power. You must hear the voice of the
shepherd in the preaching. The voice of Christ. Look at
this. For our gospel came not only
unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost.
There's the key right there. That's the key. The power of
God the Holy Spirit, who is the only one who regenerates. You
must be born again, Christ told us in scripture, right? Told
Nicodemus. It tells us in Scripture, you
must be born again. How? By the power of God, the
Holy Spirit. By the word coming not only,
by the gospel not only coming in word, but in power. This means
they were born again. Oh my, look at this. And along with that, in much
assurance. Much assurance. The more we learn
about Christ, the more we learn just to rest in Him. the more
assurance we have. Now there's some times we're
on shaky ground, aren't we? But if we can just get a hold
of the fact that Christ, when he saves a person, they're saved. If they're truly born again.
I'm not talking about folks who make a profession and you never
see them again, ever again. I'm not talking about people
like that. I'm talking about real believers who love the gospel,
love the fellowship with God's people. I can't tell you how
many people I've met who said, well, yeah, I made a profession
and now I can go out in nature and enjoy God. I don't need to
fellowship with anybody. You do not know Christ. I don't care what anybody says.
God's people will want to be where the Bible is being preached.
They want to be with the assembly of believers. Now, if they can't
be, Like Marcus and Michelle in New
York and Jake and Liz out in Colorado, they're tuned in and
listen. Or they download the messages. Because they want to hear the
gospel. They desire to hear the gospel. Look at this, in much
assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you for
your sake. They were gentle. They were just there, they preached
the gospel in love. In love. Look at this. So we see that the word came
with much power. What's the result of the word
coming with much power? Notice there's nothing about
walking an aisle or making a decision in any of these words. Have you
noticed that? It's all God. Look at this. And ye became. They became. They weren't before. One minute, they're not followers. The next minute, by the power
of God the Holy Spirit, they become followers. By a miracle
of grace, right? Born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. Think of ourselves. There was a time when we were
not followers. May have made a profession. I
don't mean I made a profession. Learned all kinds of religious
doctrine. Learned all kinds of good doctrine, too. Not born
again, though. And then one day, I was born
again. And God saved me. And I'll tell you what. Vicki
and I often talk about this. And you've heard me say this
in preaching. You know what I do when I make my election and call
and share? Who am I trusting right now? Who am I trusting right now for
the salvation of my soul? I'll tell you, I'll confess it.
The Lord Jesus Christ in Him alone. In His shed blood, which
redeemed my eternal soul. I'm not looking at anything I'm
doing, because if I look at that, I'm going to despair, right?
Who am I trusting? Who are you trusting right now,
brethren? Christ and Christ alone. Right? Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. And see, we became followers. We weren't followers by birth. I've often talked to somebody
one time, and I said, when were you a Christian? He said, well,
I was born a Christian. I said, I ain't never met one
of them. I ain't never seen one of them
in the Bible. He kind of looked at me and said, no one's born
a Christian. Now, you must be born again.
But no one's born a Christian. And a few years later, after
that fellow said unto the gospel, I said, who do you trust in?
And he said, Christ alone. Christ alone. He knew he wasn't
born a Christian then. My oh my. Isn't that wonderful?
He became a follower. by the grace and mercy of God.
How did we become a follower? Brother Brian, you're driving
down the road, man. One second you're not a follower,
and then you, I believe, Lord. Born again. Just like that. No altar call, no nothing. I
believe. Lord, I believe. You became a follower by the
power of God, the Holy Spirit. Isn't that wonderful? You just
heard a gospel message, right? Heading home. Isn't God wonderful? I'm amazed. I love hearing stuff like that
because it's just amazing. One of our sisters, I've told
you about it, she told me, she said, one second I was dead and
the next second I believed. She became a follower by the
power of God the Holy Spirit. One second she's despairing about
her sin, the next second she's got forgiveness in Christ and
she's rejoicing in Christ. She became a follower, like you
became a follower. And that's the same for every
believer. We became followers of Christ, not by anything we've
done, right? But by the power of God, the
Holy Spirit. Just like we've seen in verse 5. And notice,
notice the fact of regeneration before they became followers.
That's important. Because nowadays, religion says
that if you believe, then you're born again. I've heard many people say that.
Well, you can't believe unless you're born again. Let's read
verses 5 and 6 together and we'll see this. For our gospel came
not only unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the
Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us,
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with
joy of the Holy Ghost." Look at that. They were born again,
and then they became followers. And then, they're being persecuted,
and this shows you here too, people try to make up joy. Oh,
I've got to be more joyful. Well, look at this. The joy of
the Holy Ghost. What's one of the fruit of the
Spirit, Brother Brian? Joy, right? There you go. He got to work
that in us. And they're in the middle of
being afflicted for what they believe. They've turned from
idols. People are turning against them. Their families are turning
against them. Some of them are probably losing jobs and stuff.
My oh my. Look at this. So much so that
they put their faith in action. Right? Look at this. So that we were examples to all
that believe in Macedonia and Archaea. For from you sounded
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Archaea,
but also in every place your faith to God's word is spread
abroad, so that we need not to speak anything." They went around
proclaiming Christ is the only Savior. Isn't that wonderful? So Paul
goes into a place, well, they already heard. That's what he's
saying. Look at this. Look at this. Look
at verse 8, for from you sounded out the word of the Lord not
only in Macedonia and Archaea but also in every place your
faith to God were to spread abroad so that we need not to speak
anything. My oh my. God's people will proclaim
Christ when the Lord opens the door. Look at verse 9, for they
themselves show of us what manner of entering in unto you We head
unto you, now look at this, and how you turn to God, look at
that, turn to God. Do you know we must be turned
to God? How do they turn to God? Well,
verse 5, for our gospel came not only unto you in word only,
but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.
And what do they turn away from? Look at this. And how you turn to God from
idols. They were idol worshippers. They
were pagan idol worshippers. They worshipped the false god
of Rome and the false gods of Rome. And actually in this city,
emperor worship was huge. Like the Roman emperor, they
worshipped him as a god in this city. But it says here they turned
to God from idols. Who made them turn? Amen, brother! The Holy Spirit
of God made them turn. We can't turn on our own, can
we? But if He turns us, we're going to run. We're turned. Yeah,
look at that. Oh my! How he turned to God. Now they turned away from something,
didn't they? It says, from idols. To what? To serve the living
and true God. That's our God. Our God is the
living and true God. Brother Brian, our Redeemer is
the living and true God. Sister, we're redeemed by the
blood of the living and true God. God incarnate in the flesh,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He has redeemed us from all our
sins. Purchased us, as we saw earlier,
out from under the law. Out from under the law. It's
wonderful, isn't it? Oh my! Absolutely wonderful. And then what do they do? After
they've turned to God by the power of God the Holy Spirit
from idols to serve the living and true God, Will they wait,
look at verse 10, and await for his Son from heaven, whom he
raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from what?
What did he deliver us from? The wrath to come. He delivered
us from our sins, which deserve the wrath of God. We've been delivered from the
wrath of God, beloved. that should have justly fell
upon us, and it fell upon our Redeemer. No wonder the saints of God praise
His name in heaven. In perfection, sinless. Our brothers and sisters who
have gone home to be with the Lord are praising Him in perfection. We praise Him with sinfulness
here, right? But they're praising Him perfectly. Can you imagine
what that's going to be like? To see the King. To behold Him
in His glory. Upon the throne. And to be saved. We're delivered.
We're rescued, beloved. We're rescued from the wrath
to come by the precious blood of Christ.
When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Oh, that blood cries, mercy,
mercy, forgiveness, pardon! No wonder we sing victory in
Jesus. No wonder we sing, there's a
fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners
plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. All
of them! Praise God for the fountain of
Christ's blood that washes all our sins away. Turn if you would
to Psalm 100. Oh my, we'll look at this one,
we're close. Look at this. Vicki and I were
talking about this today, and I just wanted to go here after
reading it and everything. Look at this, Psalm 100. And this is amazing. If we looked
at all the blessings that we have in Christ, in this joyful
noise, this isn't screaming and jumping around. This is just
praising our Savior. This is praising Him for His
goodness and His mercy and His grace towards us. Saving our
eternal souls. Redeeming us with His blood.
Rising again to justify us so that we might be in the presence
of God when we die. Clothed in His perfect spotless
righteousness. And this will cause us to have
a joy. Look at this. Make a joyful noise
unto the Lord, unto Jehovah, unto Yahweh, right? All ye lands,
serve the Lord, serve Jehovah with gladness. Now that's a peace
that passes all understanding, that's in our hearts, right? Come before his presence with
singing, praise his mighty name. Oh, what a merciful God! What mercy He's had upon us!
I love what Tom read a couple of weeks ago, that we've obtained
mercy! We've obtained mercy, beloved! Oh my! And then coming to his presence,
we're singing that portion that Brother Brian heard, there's
one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself a ransom for all. We come into his presence,
beloved. When we come before the throne of grace, we're coming
in the presence of the King. The King of kings and the Lord
of lords. The only mediator between God and man. Oh my. Know ye, That the Lord,
He is God. Remember those Thessalonians?
They turned from idols. They turned to God from idols. To serve the one, true, living
God. They're the best. And see, God's
people only know that He is Lord God by the Holy Spirit revealing
it to us. We don't know that by nature,
do we Zane? We don't have a clue about it by nature. We were dead
in sins. But look at this. Know ye that
the Lord, He is God. He's God. No matter whether people
believe it or not, He's God. He's the one true living God. My oh my. Look at this. It is
He that hath made us and not we ourselves. Why? And this is
true of all of us. Why are we so proud? God made
us. We didn't make ourselves. God
made us. And see, we who are the people
of God, we realize that now, don't we? That we're but dust. And look at this. This is one
of my favorite portions. Here. I know I say that about
almost every scripture, but it's okay. Look at this. And the She. We are His people. Look at that.
We are His people. Now, We are, is italicized, so
we can say this, He made us, not we ourselves, His people.
We're His people. And the sheep of His pasture,
He's the Great Shepherd. Christ is the Great Shepherd,
but I'm saying we're His sheep. We follow, but a sheep of His
choosing. Oh my! Sheep of the Father's
choosing, given to Him, is a love gift. Oh my! Look at that. That's definite. His people. There's a people who are His
people. Not everyone is God's people. My oh my! My oh my! And look at this, our dear brother
did this on Monday, enter into his gates with thanksgiving and
into his courts with praise, be thankful unto him and bless
his name. Now our dear brother Joe just
did that on Monday, he literally went into the gates of heaven. And he's praising the Savior
along with Sister Gaffney, along with Brother Wayne Carrick, many
other saints. My, oh, my. My, oh, my. Enter into his gates
with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto
him and bless his name. Now we have so much to be thankful
for. And when we think of the great
forgiveness of our sins, We can bless his holy name, can't we?
It just comes natural, doesn't it, for the believer. It's just
like breathing, right? To praise our great God for what
he's done for us is now as natural to us after we're born again
as breathing. Praise His name for what He's done for us. Glory
to His name. I don't care. If you're in your
house, just praise His name. If you're out in the street,
walk it, praise His name. You don't have to be going down
the street doing it. Just praise from your heart.
Right? Driving down the road, praise
His mighty name for what He's done for us. My, it's wonderful. We can praise Him anytime we
want. Look at this. For the Lord, for Jehovah, is
good. I like what Norm says, all the
time. He's good even with what just
happened to Joe, that was for his good. Or for our good and
for God's glory. He's good all the time. Good
for Joe, wasn't it? He's gone. He's home. Sad for
us. But we don't sow as those without
hope, do we? No. Give the same hope, joy. We're going to see Christ. And
see, heaven, it's funny when folks always say, and you always
tell religious folks, well I can't wait to see mama and dad and
grandpa and Fred and all these people, right, that they don't
even know if they're in heaven or not. Right. But you know who I want to see
when I get into heaven? Christ. Amen, brother. That's the most important one,
isn't it? Now, I have a few folks that I believe went there, and
I'll be happy when I see them, but I want to see Christ. And
heaven wouldn't be heaven without Christ, would it? My oh my. You know when I heard Spurgeon
say this, I thought this was pretty funny, I'm going to mention
it. He said, anyone that doesn't totally understand the sovereignty
of God or doesn't fully believe what it is, he says, they're
going to become instant believers in the sovereignty of God the
moment they step into heaven. Instantaneous believers. He called
them instant Calvinists. It's true, isn't it? We're going
to fully realize that He's absolutely sovereign when we get to glory.
Oh my, I'll tell you what. And we're going to be glad. Look
at this. His mercy is everlasting. We're
going to be with Him. Think of this too. Every saint
of God is a monument to His mercy and His grace, right? And that's
going to be everlasting. We're going to be in heaven for
eternity. We will be monuments to the mercy and grace of God.
for all of eternity. Isn't that wonderful? It's everlasting,
isn't it? It doesn't end. His mercy is
always... Oh, it's wonderful. I'll tell you. And look at this.
And His truth endureth to all generations. Now, He's got a
people. Until that last sheep is saved, He's got a people,
right? Spread out. All through time. Every generation. He's got a people. My, oh, my. When that time comes, when the
Father has set for it all to be over, and no man knows the
hour of the day. I'm telling you, if someone tells you they
know the season, just say, absolutely not. You do not know anything.
Because we don't. That's being kept from us. Just
like the day of our death. It's kept from us. Right? We have an appointed time when
we came into this earth, and into time, and we have an appointed
time when we leave time and space and leave this earth. And then we enter into the gate
with thanksgiving without sin, with praise without sin. Oh,
what a glorious, glorious, glorious time that will be. Brother Brian,
can you close us in prayer, my dear brother?