Okay. Turn, if you would, in
the same book that Brother Travis read out of, 1 Thessalonians,
but we'll be in Chapter 2. The name of the message is Suffering
for the Gospel. Suffering for the Gospel. Now
these saints at Thessalonica, they were Gentile believers.
Many of them were idol worshippers. We know because in Chapter 1, In chapter one, the Holy Spirit
brings forth that they were at one time worshipers of idols. Look in verse six. Actually,
let's start in verse four. Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God. Now, this church was only about
a month old. Very young church. And what's
Paul doing? People often say, well, you shouldn't
teach young believers about election, about all that. Why not? It's
in the Bible, isn't it? This church is about a month
old, and Paul is putting an election right before them. Look at verse
four. Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. Now look
at this. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and
in much assurance, as you know what manner of man we were among
you for your sakes. And ye became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with
joy of the Holy Ghost. so that we were examples to all
that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place your faith to God has spread abroad,
so that we need not to speak anything." They started talking
to people about Christ. And that word went forth, didn't
it? For they themselves show of us what manner of entering
in we head on to you. Look at this. And how ye turn
to God from idols to serve the living and true God. So these
folks were idol worshipers. They were steeped in idol worship.
And they became persecuted by their own countrymen because
they had faith in Christ. And this will happen. the world
will persecute believers. May be subtle, may be subtle,
it may be open, but the world will persecute believers. And
God's people, they suffer for the gospel. Let's read verses
one to eight in chapter two. And so remember this, remember
that they had turned from idols to serve the living and true
God, and they are gonna be persecuted for their faith. So Paul will
sit here before them, the fact of suffering for the gospel.
For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance unto you. It was
not in vain. But even after that we had suffered
before and were shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, we are
bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much
contention. So Paul and Silas and Timothy
were being persecuted in Philippi. And then off they go, and here
they come to Thessalonica. And it says, for our exhortation
was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile. But look at this. See, this church has been entrusted
with the gospel. God's preachers are entrusted
with the gospel, and the churches that they pastor at are entrusted
with the gospel. What an honor, beloved. We're
entrusted with the gospel here. Look at this, it says, But as
we were allowed of God, now notice who allows the freedom and the
liberty to preach and proclaim the gospel, it's God. To be put
in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing
men, but God which trieth our hearts. So these preachers weren't
a bunch of man-pleasers. And no sent preacher of God is
a man-pleaser. I have one mission here. to preach
and proclaim Christ and Him crucified. That's the whole reason we exist
here, is for the gospel to go out from this place. And isn't
it amazing, isn't it incredible that we are from all different
places. You know, Annie's from Nova Scotia,
I'm from Ontario, you all from different places. Sister, was
it Arkansas? Yeah, that you were come from. All different places,
Michigan, All different places, and we're brought here together
right now. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that incredible? And here
we are, we're brought together as a body of believers, and we
gather together and we rejoice in the gospel of Christ, and
the fact that he saved us, washed us in his precious blood, and
here we are here for the furtherance of the gospel. So I'm sent here
to preach the gospel to whoever comes into this building, right?
and to be a servant of the church. Remember, the preachers, we're
not sent the Lord over the people, we're sent to serve. Right? God's leaders are servant
leaders. And we see that in the book of
Acts too, don't we? But my commission is to preach
the gospel, isn't it? Right? And then to serve all
of you. And look what Paul says. He says,
I'm not a man-pleaser. We weren't a bunch of man-pleasers.
We preached the gospel knowing that man would get... And no
preacher gets up and preaches the gospel to make people upset.
We just don't do that. We get up to preach Christ and
Him crucified. The only savior of sinners. And
what that does is it wounds man's pride. It wounded mine. When I first heard the gospel,
I'll tell you what, What? It's nothing to do with me? No,
nothing at all. Oh, my. My, oh, my. So we're not man's pleasers.
But look at this. And I love this about Paul. I
love this. I love this. Now, Paul, well, he was a smart
fellow. He was taught under one of the best teachers. He could
have spoken elegant words. You ever hear? Vicki and I, a
long time ago, before we were saved, we were at this church.
And this guy spoke. with words that I didn't even,
I had to go home and look them up in the dictionary. It was
useless. I want a preacher who preaches
to me in words that I can understand, do you? Right? Yeah, just plain words, right? So we can all, like you said,
so Gavin can even understand it, right? Just preach in plain words. And
why do we gospel preachers do that? Well, look what Paul says
here. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as
you know, nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness. They didn't preach
for money, right? Not like these televangelists,
right? Number one, they don't preach
the gospel. Number two, all they're looking for is money. That's
all they're looking for. Cloak of covetousness. See? Gain. God's preachers, we sent where
we're sent to preach, and we preach the gospel. I heard something
this week. Oh my gosh, I heard something
this week. Some preacher was asked to go to preach at a church. You know what the starting amount
he wanted to preach there? $5,000. That's a cloak of covetousness.
I'll tell you what, I'll go preach somewhere for nothing. Just put
a few people in front of me and let me talk about Christ. I'll be happy as a lark, I'm
telling you that. Right? $5,000 more. That's what Paul's meaning here
with a cloak of covetousness, right? Looking to make gain out
of it. No. No, I care more about your souls
than anything else. Than anything else. And that's
how it should be. And that's how Paul was. He says, I didn't
use flattering words, as you know. And he says, you know that.
You know, you heard me. You heard me speak to you. I
didn't use flattering words. Nor a cloak of covenant. And
then he says, and God is my witness. God is witness. Nor of man sought
we glory. He didn't seek to be glorified
by man. It's like when you guys say,
oh, I was really blessed by that message. I always try to say,
well, glory be to God. I want him to get the glory.
Now, I'm thankful you told me you were blessed. That's wonderful.
But glory be to God. He took these words, and he blessed
your soul. Somewhere between me and you,
the Holy Spirit got ahold of those words and blessed you.
Praise God. That's wonderful. That's wonderful
to hear. I'll tell you that. But he wasn't
seeking man's glory. It says, nor of man sought we
glory, neither of you. They didn't even seek glory from
them. Nor yet of others. Wherever he went and preached,
he didn't seek glory from man. When we might have been burdensome
as the apostles of Christ, what did he do? Well, he worked. He's
a tent maker, wasn't he? He didn't seek money off of them.
He was a tent maker. My, it's wonderful. But we were,
look at this. But we were gentle among you.
God's people are gentle people. You know, we're hard around the
edges, still in our flesh, aren't we? Anyone who says they're not,
they're just lying. But we generally are gentle people. Because God's made us that way.
And He's working on us. Do I still get upset? Don't ask
my wife. Right? We all do, don't we? You
want to find out. Spurgeon used to do this. Spurgeon
used to do this. He said, he said, when I, when
I ask, when I want to know about a man in the church, he says,
I don't ask the man, I ask the wife and the kids. Oh my. Oh my. Isn't that so true? Oh my. He says, but we were gentle
among you, even as a nurse cherished her children. So being affectionately
desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not
the gospel of God only, but our own souls, because you were dear
to us. And isn't it amazing? I've noticed in the last three
years how the Lord has just knit us together, beloved. This group
has become closer and closer, I see, all of us. He's just knit
us together, beloved, all of us. He's knit our hearts together. And it's a joy. It's a joy. Several of you said it's a joy
to come to church. It's a joy to be, sit and listen,
to have the freedom to be who you are. It's wonderful, isn't
it? It's absolutely wonderful. Well,
that's God's grace. That's the work of the Holy Spirit
of God, knitting our hearts together. There's no law here. There's no law here anymore,
is there? There's none. It's all about grace now. It's
all about God's grace now. No one's criticizing another
person. It's wonderful, isn't it? We're just here to worship
the Lord. We're just here to worship the
Lord. And Paul's talking about that, that because you were dear
unto us, we become dear to one another. The more we grow in
grace, the more we become dear to one another. That's what happens,
beloved, because the Lord knits our hearts together now. And in these days we find ourselves,
as in the days of the past, until that last great day that
God has ordained for all to finish, for all to wrap up. All who are
the people of God, we need revival, don't we? We need to be revived.
We need to be, we come in here after a week, And we need to
be revived, don't we? We need to rejoice. We don't
need to be beat down. See, I remember in religion,
you walk in the door, I came in feeling pretty good, and I
left feeling horrible. You know, but ever since I heard
the gospel, when I hear a gospel message, I'll be feeling down. And then by the end of the message,
I'm uplifted in my spirit. I may still be down a little
bit about things, but I'm uplifted in my spirit then, right? Because
we've heard the wonderful things about Christ. And from here, How are we revived? Through the preaching of the
gospel, hearing about what Christ has done for us. That every,
and I mean every single one of our sins is forgiven. There's
not one left out, beloved. Even the ones we haven't committed
yet. Well, people say, how can you say that? Because every one
of my sins was future in Calvary's cross. Right? And either he forgave me for
all my sins or he didn't forgive me for any. Well, praise God,
he forgave me for all my sins. And yours too, if you're a believer.
Every one. Isn't that amazing? That doesn't
give us a license, so does it. See, some people say, well, you
preach like that, folks will think they can go out and do
whatever they want. No. God's people don't work that
way. It's the love of Christ that constrains us from sin now. It's thinking about what He's
done for us. It's thinking about His suffering for us. How He
bled and died for all my sins. And how can we be revived? Well,
by preaching that Christ is the only Savior. He's the only substitute. If we stand in front of God in
our own selves, we're condemned, aren't we? But in Christ, God says, well done, thy good
and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of my rest.
My, all because of what Christ has done. Now the only one, the
only difference between Wayne here, the redeemed one, and Wayne
who was born dead in trespasses and sins, is God. And it's the
same for you. Isn't that amazing? Now that's
amazing grace, isn't it? That's amazing grace. And what
else does the gospel preacher preach? What else did Paul preach?
Well, he preached that Christ was raised for our justification. That now we can stand before
God as believers, fully justified in Christ. And you know that
God has forgiven us for Christ's sake? That's the only reason
we're forgiven, is because of what Christ did. There's nothing we can do to
save ourselves. But hallelujah, we're forgiven of all our trespasses
and sins in Christ. And see, Paul spoke like this. He spoke in plain words. He could
have used elegant words that made people's minds kind of fizz,
but he didn't do that. He wanted to be understood. He
spoke in plain words. That's one of the things I love
about Brother Henry Mahan's sermons. He spoke in plain words. Easy
to understand. And his message never changed.
It never changed. It's wonderful. Lord saved me
listening to Brother Henry in that simple gospel message. That
simple gospel message. God's ordained the foolishness
of preaching to man. To man, a man standing up and
preaching about Christ to a natural man, that's foolishness. But
to us, it's the power of God unto salvation, isn't it? Oh,
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. It's
absolutely wonderful. Look at verse four again of chapter
one. Look at this. Look at this. And
we're going to verse five too. Look at this. Knowing, brethren
beloved, your election of God. Somebody might say, well, I don't
believe in election. I heard a preacher say, somebody
came up to him and said, I don't believe in predestination. And
he said, really, you don't believe in predestination? He goes, no. And he goes, the preacher said,
well, then you don't believe the Bible. And he says, oh, no, I
believe the Bible. And he goes, instead of saying, I don't believe
that, we should say, I don't understand it. I thought that
was a great point. I want to bring that out today
because I thought that was a great point. Now, there's words we
come to that we don't understand, do we? But when we when we look
them up, when we hear them defined as God's people, words in the
Bible, we believe them. We believe them. We believe them. I don't always understand everything
in the word of God. And I don't think anybody ever
will. But I believe the word of God. Look at this, in elections,
scriptural, no one beloved your election of God, that's choosing
in the Greek, to be chosen. For our gospel came not only
to you in word only, but in power. In whose power? In the power
of God the Holy Spirit. in the power of God, the Holy
Ghost. And look at this, and in much assurance. See God's
people, we're saved by grace. And we have much assurance, much
assurance, much assurance. Now, this is wonderful news. And think of this too, our brother
Paul, he's on a missionary journey. He's sent by God. Our Lord Jesus
Christ has appointed him to go to these different places. He
was ordained by our great, majestic, all-knowing, all-powerful God
before time began. Before time even was, this was
all planned and purposed by God. How do we know that? Well, because
in the book of Acts it says, as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. When was that ordained? Did God
just ordain it five minutes before it happened? No. He ordained it in eternity, beloved.
In eternity. Isn't that wonderful? And so
here's Paul. He's on a mission to preach the
gospel. What's he doing? He's preaching
the gospel. The door has been opened for him to go and to proclaim
the gospel in Macedonia. And it was all according to God's
perfect plan because God had some sheep there. that must hear
the gospel. They woke up that morning and
didn't even know they were going to hear the gospel. Well, God does have a plan, doesn't
he? God does have a will. God does
have a purpose. And that purpose and that will
is in Christ. It's all wrapped up in him. And Paul is a preacher
of Christ. He goes and preaches and proclaims
Christ. So that door was open for them
to go into Macedonia, all according to God's perfect plan. And then
Lydia's heart was opened. Remember Lydia? She's down there
at the river. Ladies are having a Bible meeting. She attained to Paul's words,
but who opened her heart? Paul spoke the words, but who
opened her heart? God opened her heart, didn't
he? God opened her heart, beloved. And in the painful scourgings
from these wicked men in Philippi, Paul and Silas received, they
were scourged for preaching the gospel. The suffering for preaching
the gospel. Thrown into prison. But you know
that was all part of God's plan because there was a Philippian
jailer there, one of God's lost sheep, who had to hear the gospel. And when he said, what must I
do to be saved? Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. And you know what? The Lord saved
him. Isn't that wonderful? But that was all, all that suffering
that Paul and Silas went through was all planned and purposed
by God. All that suffering. But I'll tell you what, at that
exact time that that Philippian jailer would cry out, What must
I do to be saved? There's a gospel preacher put
right there. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shall be saved. Now that's grace, isn't it? That
Philippian jailer was going to kill himself. Because if he lost
any prisoners as a Roman prisoner keeper, Or whatever you call him. What
do you call him? Warden. He'd be the one fully responsible.
His head's gonna roll. So he's ready to fall on his
sword. No. God says no. You're mine. You're mine from eternity. Chose
you and my son from eternity. Now he didn't know that, did
he? He probably learned that though, didn't he? And would
he be in awe and wonder that God had put Paul there at that
perfect time? My, oh my. God himself directed
Paul and his company to go to Philippi and then to go to Thessalonica. And the opposition from those
who hated Christ were just as much as part of God's ordained
plan as his elect who received Christ. Look at verses 1 and
2 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. For yourselves, brethren, know
our entrance unto you, that it was not in vain. But even after
that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated, as
you know at Philippi, we were bold in God to speak unto you
the gospel of God with much contention. See, God had a people there.
He had told Paul, you know, he said, you go and preach. You
go and preach the gospel. And Paul's doing what he's told,
isn't he? Now the same could be, the same
events that we see here with Paul and his life occurs in every
preacher's life. And occurs in every one of God's
saints' lives. All believers in any given generation
have an appointment with God. And the gospel preacher is sent.
And they are brought to a place, Brother Charlie and Sister Denise,
they were brought here. They were brought here out of
a place that said, bow your head and repeat this prayer. And they
told me, they said, they lied to us, Wayne. But we're so thankful
that God brought us here. And they heard the gospel by
the grace of God, beloved. But it's God who opened their
hearts, wasn't it? It's God, the Holy Spirit, who did that.
I'll never forget. They came here for the first
year. They kept asking me, is there something we can do? And
I said, just sit and listen. Just sit and listen. Second year came,
and they said, well, is there something we can do now? I said,
just sit and listen. And then the Lord saved them. They go,
now we know why you told us to sit and listen. See, religion, they get people
involved right away, do all this, do all that. Just sit and listen.
Listen to the gospel. That's what's most important,
isn't it? And that's what's most important. Look what Paul writes here, though.
He says, For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance into you, that
it was not in vain. And how this truth must have
blessed Paul's heart and the hearts of the Thessalonian believers.
What joy this must have brought them, knowing that when Paul
came to them, it was not in vain. It wasn't in vain. Paul knew
that he could plant the seeds of the gospel, but it's God who
must give the increase, right? It's God who must give the increase.
And now the earnest, sincere desire of all God's preachers
is to see sinners come to Christ by the gift of God's faith. But
we are the ones who are called of God to preach his gospel.
We know that the Holy Spirit must do the work. I can't make
anyone come to Christ, neither can you, right? If we could,
who would be the first people we bring? Our children. Then
our family members. Then our friends, right? But
we can't save anyone, can't even save ourselves. So we pray that
God, the Holy Spirit, we lift up our children, don't we? We
lift up our friends, we lift up our family, praying that if
it's God's will, that he'd send the Holy Spirit to them and reveal
Christ to them, that they'd be born again by the Holy Spirit
of God, that he'd make the gospel effectual. And God's ordained
by the foolishness of preaching. See, to the world it's foolishness,
isn't it? But God's wisdom far exceeds the wisdom of man. See, man look at preaching the
gospel and say, that's just a bunch of foolishness. But isn't it
amazing that God takes the words of the preachers, like I said,
in between you and I. See, what they negate is God
the Holy Spirit. He's the one who does the work.
They think getting up and just preaching Christ is foolishness.
But it's the power of God and salvation when the Holy Spirit
gets a hold of it, isn't it? when he applies it to your heart
and my heart, and we are blessed by the words. That's a miracle,
beloved. That's the Lord doing that. That's
the Lord God at work. That's the Holy Spirit at work.
He can only make it effectual. He can regenerate one who's dead
in trespasses and sins. Therefore, the gospel must be
preached. It has to be preached. It must be preached. And it cannot
be compromised. It cannot be compromised at all.
Woe to the preacher who dares to water down the word of God.
Woe to the preacher. The wages of sin is death, right?
And what does that lead to? Hell. It's a real place. But the wages of sin, why do
we die? Because we're sinners. That's
why we need to be saved. And praise God. He sent His Son. The Father sent the Word of God
to die in the room and place of sinners. That's amazing. That's incredible that God would
do that. And now look here too. It says
that they were gentle. They were gentle among the people.
Let's read that portion again. For yourselves, brethren, know
that our entrance unto you, that it was not in vain. But even
after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated,
as you know, at Philippi, we were bold in our gospel to speak
unto you the gospel of God with much contention. So even though
they were suffering for the gospel, even though they were facing
opposition, they still preached the gospel. For our exhortation was not of
deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, but as we were allowed
of God." Now look at that. God allowed them to be entrusted
with the gospel. Again, as I said, what a privilege. God's allowed this church to
be entrusted with the gospel of God's free grace. My, oh my. We were bold in our
gospel to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.
Again, sorry, I went back too far. But as we were allowed of
God to put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not
as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither
at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak
of covetousness, God as witness, nor of man sought we glory, neither
of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome
as the apostles of Christ, but we were gentle among you. Look
at that, we're gentle. Gentle. Now being gentle doesn't
mean not being mean. It doesn't, they were just gentle. They were just, what I meant
to say, being gentle doesn't mean they didn't hide the truth.
No, they proclaimed the truth. They didn't hide the truth. They
proclaimed it. But they were gentle in the way
that they spoke it. They were gentle in their communications
with one another. Their love was real. It was a
brotherly love that only comes from God. See, Satan can counterfeit
a lot of things, but Satan cannot counterfeit the love of the brethren.
He cannot counterfeit that. There's false gospels, right? There are a lot of false things,
but he cannot counterfeit the love of God that God's people
have for each other. And we who are the born-again,
blood-washed saints of God, we do not want the truth to be watered
down. We do not want the truth to be
held back. No, we want the truth to go forth,
don't we? And Paul is going to address
the consequences of preaching the gospel in this chapter. If
you read this whole chapter, you see that he addresses the
consequences of preaching the gospel. And there's a cost to
preaching the gospel. There's a cost to preaching the
gospel. Paul and Silas, they were cast into prison for preaching
the gospel. And we can count ourselves blessed
that we live in a place where the preaching of the gospel,
where we're not thrown in prison when we gather together. It's
not so in all the world. There's places where people gather
in secret because otherwise they're gonna end up in jail. What a
blessing we have that we can come here and sit with God's
people, hear the word of God preached and proclaimed, and
have no fear of being thrown in prison. That's an honor. That's a privilege. Now there's some in Paul's time
who thought it was their duty to kill anyone who named the
name of Christ. Remember, Paul was one of them. Remember? He was going along,
with letters to cast believers into prison, to persecute them
for what they believed. And now he's preaching the gospel. If God saved Paul, rest after
a hard day. If I work hard that day, I sure
like to rest. Well, this is eternal rest, beloved.
This is eternal rest our Lord speaks of. Let's turn there,
Matthew 11. I was almost going to preach
there this week. Matthew 11, but this message here was placed
on my heart. Paul came in meekness, didn't
he? He came in meekness to the Thessalonians, gentle, but he
had one thing to proclaim that he would never compromise on,
and that was the gospel. That was preaching Christ and
Him crucified. He would not, he would not Compromise on that. Do you know if the gospel's not
preached, no one will be saved? No one. Because faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, right? God has used,
he's ordained the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Do you know if the gospel wasn't
preached, we wouldn't know anything about Christ? Because number
one, we don't have any interest in God. The true and living God. unless God regenerates us, right?
So think of this. If you have an interest in God,
rejoice, beloved. Rejoice. If you have an interest
in God, rejoice. God gave you that interest. God
gave you the faith that looks to Christ. Rejoice. We didn't
have it before. And now when the gospel is preached,
what do we do? We rejoice. You mean Christ died
for all my sins? Yes, all of them, if you're a
believer. My. If the gospel's not preached,
people don't hear. How shall they hear without a
preacher? How shall they hear about Christ without someone
proclaiming him? This is all ordained by God,
beloved. And you know that if the gospel's
not preached, no one No one will believe that Jesus Christ by
himself purged our sins, and he did it. And we believe it,
don't we? By God-given faith, we believe
it. He purged my sins. I'm washed
in the blood of Christ. That's why I love, and you notice,
we sing them a lot, you know, what can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Christ. There's nothing but the blood
of Christ that can wash our sins away. Nothing, beloved. What
can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Christ.
Well, how were they here without a preacher? Right? And we'd never have learned about
that. We wouldn't have learned. We would not have known about
his obedient life, fulfilling the law for us, that Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness. We wouldn't know that if the
gospel wasn't preached. And if the Holy Spirit, number
one, if the Holy Spirit didn't make it effectual. But if there
was no preach of the gospel, we wouldn't know that. We wouldn't know about his sacrificial
death upon the cross, that he's the Lamb of God, slain for my
sins, personally, right? We wouldn't know that unless
the gospel was preached. And we wouldn't know that it
was God's will that moved him to send his son, that his blood
would be shed for the remission of our sins. the sinless one,
the spotless one, the perfect one, the holy one, dying in our
room and place, beloved. We wouldn't know any of that
if the gospel wasn't preached. But it's the foolishness of preaching.
God uses the foolishness of preaching. What man calls foolishness, God
uses. He's so much wiser than all of
us, isn't he? He's so much wiser. My, oh my. Look at this. In Matthew chapter
11, look at this. Look at verse 25. At that same
time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father of heaven
and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise
and the prudent, has revealed them unto babes. You know, we're
just babes. He's hid these things from the
wise and the prudent. People who are full of self-righteousness,
who don't think they need Christ. He's hid these things from them.
He says, I didn't come to heal the whole, did he? But the sick,
and you know what that means? The sin sick, that's me. Is that
you? Oh my. He's revealed them unto babes.
Even so, Father, for it seemed," what? Good in thy sight. It seemed good in his sight.
Isn't that amazing? To reveal Christ to sinners such
as we. The Father was pleased to do
that. You know, and Brother Travis
brought out, over there in 2 Thessalonians, I'll read a verse quick that
Brother Travis highlighted. in chapter 5, verse 9, for God
hath not appointed us to wrath. Now, we come into this world
born dead in trespasses and sins, but we're not appointed unto
wrath. It says, but to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ. I had a friend of mine who was
reading that yesterday to me. Went out for breakfast with him.
He took me out for breakfast. I'm finally feeling better. And
he was reading this whole chapter, and I said, well, you need to
look at verse 9. He looked at that verse, and
I said, look at that. It says, God's not appointed
his people to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then I took him to chapter 1, verse 4, and I said, where's
that word election, my friend? He didn't know what to say. See, all we have to do is present
the Word of God, don't we? And just let it sit, beloved.
Just let it sit. Look at this, so back to where
we were. Even so, father, for it seemed good in eyesight. All
things are delivered unto me of my father. And no man knoweth
the son, but the father. Neither knoweth any man the father
save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. Come
unto me. Are you burdened by your sins,
maybe things you did in your past? Come unto me. He doesn't say reflect on your
sin, does he? He says, come unto me. Come unto me. All ye that labor
and are heavy laden. And I will. I will. Now I might. Now I have to think about it.
I will give you rest. Oh, my. Take my yoke upon you. You know,
they used to yoke up animals, right? Put a yoke upon them. And learn of me. And those yokes
were heavy, but look at this. And learn of me, for I am meek
and lowly in heart. And ye shall find rest unto your
souls, for my yoke is easy. It's easy. It's easy, beloved. And my burden
is light. Why is it easy? Because it's
all about what Christ done. Come unto me. Are you laboring? Are you labored down by sin?
Are you labored down by law works? Are you labored down by life?
Come unto me. Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden. W-I-L-L, will give you rest. We don't deserve it, do we? But
the master said, I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to give it to you.
My oh my. So Paul, in preaching the gospel,
Paul, in preaching the gospel, faced much contention. But he
also had a rest, didn't he? He had a peace that passes all
understanding. That kept his mind on Christ. That's why you hear us gospel
preachers continue to say, keep looking to Christ, beloved. Keep
looking to him. No matter what's going on in
our lives, whether we're suffering, just keep looking to him. That's
the only hope we have is Christ. And I know it's not always easy,
I know. I know there's times we wake up, it's so hard. We
may be going through things mentally, physically, in anguish, in pain,
but we have to keep our eyes on Christ, don't we? And not
on the circumstances. Turn, if you would, to Acts 16.
We're going to look at that Philippian jailer, Acts 16. Let's look at
that Philippian jailer there. Now, he was ordained by God's
almighty purpose that he would be saved on that day. And here
he had, he didn't know Paul and Silas any different than any
of the other prisoners. He just knew he had a prison
full of prisoners. Look at this, Acts 16, 25 to
31. And at midnight, Paul and Silas
prayed. So they'd been thrown in jail because they were preaching
the gospel. It says here, and at midnight,
Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners
heard them. And suddenly there was a great
earthquake. So the foundations of the prison were shaken, and
immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands
were loosed. Now what would happen if all
the prison doors opened in the prison nowadays? Man, you would
be seeing dust behind these guys' feet, wouldn't you? And they
would be gone. I mean, if every door opened
so that they could get right out into the public, that prison
would empty in record time. But look at this. And the keeper of the prison,
waking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he thought,
what I just said, he thought, well, they're all gone. Every
one of them have taken off. But you see, God can restrain anyone, can't
he? He can restrain. And he drew out his sword and
would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had fled.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, do thyself no harm, for we are
all here. Every one of us is here, not
one runaway. Then he called for a light and
sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Silas and brought them out saying, sirs, now look at these words,
what must I do to be saved? Now, if there was anything for
that man to do, whether it be baptism, whether it be circumcision,
whether it be anything else, right? It would have been in the word
of God, right? But see, we're not saved by anything we do.
We're only saved by Christ. So Paul, being a faithful preacher
of the gospel, being a faithful preacher of salvation in Christ
in him alone, says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shall be saved. My. Now I believe that man was
already regenerated before you asked that question. You know that? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And what happened to him?
Well, he believed, didn't he? He was given faith to believe.
He'd already been coming to Christ right there. What must I do? Well, there's nothing you can
do. Look to Christ. Look to Christ and be saved.
And he believed. Then he went home and told other
people in his family, didn't he? And they believed too. And they were baptized. Not because
it saved them, because it didn't. He was already saved. Baptism
in no way saves people. Now Presbyterians use this portion
and they say, well see, and his household was saved too. That
includes the babies. It doesn't say that, does it?
That's putting something on scripture that's not there, beloved. That's
not there. We don't even know if he had
any babies. Right? But you see how man could creep
in with things, false teachings, put things in there that aren't
there? My oh my. And the word baptism
in the Greek means to submerge, not to sprinkle. Now baptism in no way saves.
It in no way saves. It doesn't save at all. What's
most important is what Paul said. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shall be saved. Was the thief on the cross baptized?
Where is he? We don't know how free we are.
We really don't. We really don't. We are the most
free people in this whole world, beloved. We've been set free
from sin. We've been set free from the
guilt of sin. We've been saved from the punishment
of sin. One day we're going to be set
free from the presence of sin, beloved. Alright, Sister Kay,
she's, she's not feeling no sin now. Is she? Not at all. Not at all, beloved. She got
no more COPD, right? She got no more troubles with
her lungs and with her heart. It's gone. All because of what Christ done.
All because he washed us clean in his precious, precious blood,
beloved. In one day, our faith will be
made sight. I was watching something last
night, and the folks were talking about, well, when I get to heaven,
I get to see mom and dad. Well, you know what? You know
what the thing I want to see when I get to Christ, when I get to
heaven? I just want to see Christ. Oh, my. There he is, the one
who saved my soul, the one who redeemed me with his precious
blood, the one who had his hands pierced so that his blood was
shed for the remission of my sins. Heaven is heaven because of Christ,
isn't it? Heaven is heaven because of Christ
and Him alone. Glory be to God. Heavenly Father,
we thank Thee for Your goodness and mercy and grace
towards Your people. We are so undeserving, but Lord,
we rejoice when we hear the gospel preached and proclaimed, when
we hear about what You've done for us. leaving heaven and coming
to this sin-cursed world and shedding your precious, precious
blood to redeem our eternal souls. All because of the will and purpose
of the Father and all because you willingly did that for us. Glory to your name. Glory to
you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for thy eternal plan of salvation.
for the planning of it and for the execution of it. And one
day we'll be seeing you, Lord, by thy grace and mercy, face
to face, and our faith will become sight. Oh, what a day that'll
be, Lord. What a day that'll be. We love
you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.