Come back to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. We are going to finish up this
epistle of William this morning. I've titled the message, Final
Instructions. Final Instructions. Paul has
been instructing them through this whole epistle. And here we come up to the final
end of it. In this chapter, he had told them about the Lord's
coming and how it would be like a thief in the night. It would
be sudden. And that those who sleep in the
Lord, he's going to bring with him. It talks about the believer,
tells them and us to be sober minded, to watch, They put on
the helmet of hope. And he comes up to this verse
in verse 12. And he gives the final instructions.
And he instructs them concerning taking care and getting to know
their pastor. I've been reading over this for
a week. And I felt like this was a little
bit awkward I'm talking about taking care of your pastor. It makes it kind of awkward.
But you've got to be honest with the Word of God. One day I won't
be here. One day I won't be here. So I
thought about that. I thought, well, you just have
to deal with it honestly as the Scriptures teach us. Then he
deals with our attitude. Our attitude toward one another.
And our attitude toward all men. He says here in verse 12, And
we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you. And that's what a pastor does. He labors in the Word. He labors
in ministry to the people. And it is a labor. It's a labor
of love. That's different. There are things
that I labor in that I don't love. But I love doing this. I enjoy this. It's a labor of
love. But they labor among you and
are over you in the Lord and admonish you, they instruct,
they teach you the Word of God. Paul's saying here, get to know
them. He's saying, speak openly with
your pastor and you get to know them. It's not a hierarchy. You
watch the Pope. He comes out with a little hole.
He does his little hocus-pocus, and then he crawls back in. And
the people are all down there. He's perched way up here over
top of all those people. So that does it a little bit.
Then he slips back in. And the people just act crazy. That's not the way it is, is
it? The pastor is just one of you that the Lord has taken and
put over you. Not Lord over you, but over you,
as a shepherd over sheep. He's an under-shepherd, is what
he is. He's an under-shepherd. He's to instruct. He's to feed
the flock, the church, with knowledge. Knowledge of doctrine, knowledge
of Christ, knowledge of God, knowledge of the Scriptures.
That's what he's to do. And Paul says, get to know them. Don't be aloof from each other. It's a family. I know my Father. I know Him real well. I go home
and I talk to Him, sit down and talk to Him. I tell Him things
that I probably don't tell anybody else. Talk to Him about different
things. And that's the family. This is
God's family. And we're to speak with them
and appreciate them. That's what He's saying. Appreciate
them. They're the ministers of God. God's called them. God has
set them over you. He's given them a ministry. And
they are to watch over the flock. The Lord has made them under
shepherds. They are to guide the flock. They are to watch
over the flock. The pastor of the Lord's church
has a great responsibility laid on him. Just like a father raising
his children. That's a great responsibility.
Great responsibility. And to do this is a great responsibility. But it's one that you love. But seeing it's a great responsibility,
pray for it. Pray for it. You came here to
hear something this morning. I know you did. Did you pray
for it? Pray, Lord, give Him something
for us this morning. Give Him something to say to
us this morning. Pray for him. Pray that God will
bless his studies. There are so many things that
come along during the week that just get in the way, don't they?
Pray, Lord, bless his studies. Bless his meditation. I'm finding
out more and more that the best preaching I do is the one that
I just meditate upon for a good while. It's like cooking. It's
just like cooking. You're going to cook something.
You put it on the stove and you let it cook for a while. You don't
just warm up a sandwich. But something that you've thought
about. And you start getting some understanding.
You meditate upon it. Bless his meditation. And bless
him to speak a word. Now here's something. Bless him
to speak a word in season. Oh, to be able to do that. To
be able to stand here and speak a word in season. Or just in
conversation. To be able to do that. That's
a blessing of God. That's a blessing of God. And
then he says, be at peace among yourselves. Well, this makes
the pastor's job a lot easier. Be at peace among yourselves.
Nothing like having peace in the family, is there? Nothing
like having peace in the family. Don't get stirred up over trivial
matters. There's some people I know, not
here, but there's some people I know, they are stirred up over
anything and everything. It's just stirred up, you know,
upset. And he says, don't, be at peace.
Let those things go. Learn to let it go. Learn to
let it go. Be ye merciful, even as your
heavenly Father is merciful. But I wrote this down last, I
think it was last night, when I was going back over this. Let
everything go that you're not going to take with you. Let everything
go that you're not going to take with you. And that's a good way
to let things go. And then he says, warn them that
are unruly. You parents, you don't let those
little kids just go. There's nothing worse than a
bunch of unruly kids. They'll ruin a good visit, won't
they? They'll just ruin a good visit. He says, warn them that are unruly.
I'm telling you, my dad, when he said, be quiet. I mean, you were quiet. I remember
one time he stopped. He preached for several years
back years ago. One time he stopped right in
the middle of a message and shut me up. He said, boys, stop it
right now. And when I got home, I got it. I got it. He never forgot it.
I got it. Warn them that are unruly, because
God's going to deal with them. You take an unruly person in
a congregation, sooner or later, God's going to deal with that
person. And He's saying here to the people, He's saying here
to the pastor, warn them. It's better to get a warning,
isn't it, than to get the end result. I'd much rather I learned. It didn't take me long in life
to learn. I'd rather have Dad warning than the end result of
that warning for not heeding it. That's what he's saying here. Warned them that are unruly.
It's very unbecoming to one who professes to know God to be unruly. But he's saying here, warned
them that are unruly in spirit. Always talking about something.
Always got something going. Unruly in doctrine. Paul says, warn them. Don't let
it go on. Censor them. That's what he's saying. Censor
them. Stop it. Put a stop to it. Don't let it
keep going. Comfort the feeble-minded. You know, some people are feeble-bodied.
And when it's like that, we help them, don't we? We just automatically
just want to help them. You know, Dad had been sick for
the last month and he became real feeble-bodied. He couldn't
get in and out of bed. And we would go over there helping him.
in bed, to get in and out of bed, we were right there. But
you know, when somebody's feeble minded, we don't do that, do
we? We say, I'll suck it up. Get strong. Really, we don't
have that much patience. But you know, the mind is part
of this body. And when people are feeble minded, Paul says,
comfort. Don't just say, I'll get over it. Comfort. Comfort them. Comfort the feeble-minded just
like we comfort somebody that's feeble in body. And then it says, support the
weak. Don't run them off. Don't shun them. Support them.
Those that are weak in faith. You know, if faith is genuine,
if it's genuine, God gave it. He didn't give the weakness of
it, but He gave the faith. But some people, their makeup
is You still have your personality and a lot of things there that
get in the way. They get in the way. And he's
saying here, support the weak. Don't run them off. Support them. Be kind to them. All of us are
one step away from being feeble-minded and weak. I thought of that last
night. I'm just a step away from it.
Just let a certain thing happen. I can be people-minded and I
can be weak. And that's why Paul says support
him. But here's the key. Here's the key. Be patient. He was going over a lot of my
messages. I thought I don't need to preach very long at all this
morning because you heard a lot of it in the Bible class. But
be patient. But you know what? Paul wrote
that to the Thessalonians. He wrote to the Romans. He wrote
to every church he wrote to. He wrote to the same thing. Same
thing. Be patient. I like it. I really like it when people
are patient with me. I don't know why it is even impatient
people don't like impatient people. They don't do it. An impatient
person can't stand an impatient person. But I like it when someone's
patient. Henry was patient with me in
preaching, I tell you. He was patient with me. Be patient. We all have our infirmities.
We are all men and women of like passion. We all live in this
body. We all live in this flesh. We all live in this world of
sin and corruption. We live in it. We all have these problems. David said this, teach me how
frail I am. Lord, teach me. Well, what a
prayer. What a prayer. All you hear about
nowadays, Lord, make me rich. Lord, bless me. Give me a better
job. Lord, give me this. Who ever says, Lord, teach me
how frail I am so that I'll depend on You, so that I'll look to
You? That's a different prayer, isn't
it? That comes from the heart of
a believer who wants to know God and doesn't want to get carried
away with these other things that will take you away from
the Lord. And he says this, be patient
toward all men, not just the brethren. They're out there on
the job. You know, I'm around them more
than I'm around you. I'm out there working, and you are too.
You work around this world, with this world, more than you're
here. He says, be patient with all men. Remember this. The sun shines on the just and
the unjust. And when you and I hated God,
the sun still shined on us too. And we can all say this, but
by the grace of God, there go I. But by the grace of God, I'd
act just like that. I'd be acting just like that. You know what patience is? A
demonstration of love. You're far more patient with
your children than you are with other people's children. You
really are. That's because you love them. There's a love there that you
don't have for others. It's just so. Patience. Is not the Lord long-suffering,
the Scripture says, to usward? Not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance? What if He were not long-suffering?
I've been gone a long time ago. All of us would. But God, He
says He's long-suffering. Patience. and see that it put
forth great effort, put forth great effort, that none render
evil for evil. You don't act like the world,
you don't run with the world, you don't act like it. That none render
evil for evil, listen, to any, any man, believer or non-believer. Scripture says the wrath of man
never works for righteousness. Oh, God never does. We take it
too far. We're just trying to get even.
You know, when God's anger, it's just. And it's the execution
of justice. We get angry and we start doing
something about it, it's just a get-even attitude. That's what
it is. Here's what we are to do. Here's
what Paul says. This is what you do. This is
to the believer. This is to the church. Ever follow
that which is good. Step back and just look and say,
is this good? Is this good? Ever follow that
which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. Let's always,
always, always be found pursuing good. The good of each other. Always pursuing the good of each
other. And the good of all men. Pursuing someone else's good,
whether he believes or not, you're pursuing their good. You know, the gospel of grace
teaches us to be kind to one another, doesn't it? The grace
of God teaches us to deny ungodliness. Far different from the law that
says, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Eye for an eye, tooth
for a tooth. I thought last night, what do
I need with another eye? You have no place to put it.
But I tell you what, showing grace and mercy and kindness
and love, that makes a difference. Taking someone's eye, because
they did something to your eye, that doesn't make a difference.
That just creates another rebellion. It just creates more trouble.
That's all it does. Then Paul gives these seven final
instructions. Here, starting in verse 16. He
says, Rejoice evermore. He spoke of that. Rejoice. You
covered it well. Covered it well. But rejoice
evermore. Live in a state of rejoicing. You say, that's not, is it? That's
not possible? Yes. In Christ it is. In Christ, a believer can rejoice
on a rainy day or a sunny day. You can rejoice in Him. But you've
got to know Him. You've got to know Him to do
it. You have to know Him to do it. Rejoice evermore. Rejoice in Him. Rejoice in His
redemption of you. Think about that. You've been redeemed. You've
been bought back. by the blood of the Son of God.
You've been regenerated. You've been made the righteousness
of God in Him. Meditate on those things. Meditate. That'll help you to rejoice evermore.
It'll enable you to do something. We always have a reason. Always. We always have a reason to rejoice
in the Lord. A lot of these things in this
life that I've experienced and come along, I don't have a reason
to rejoice in a lot of things in this world, but I have every
reason to rejoice in the Lord at all times. All times. And
pray without ceasing. Live in an attitude of prayer.
That doesn't mean you're going to be on your knees all the time.
You couldn't get a job if you did that. You couldn't go to
work. But I tell you what, a believer, can always be lifting up his
heart in prayer to the Lord. I don't care what he's driving.
He could be at work. It's that communication. It's that thought
of Him. Look over here in Malachi. Let
me read you something out here out of Malachi. In Malachi 16, it says, Then
they that feared the Lord spoke, or faith, Often, listen how they
speak, often one to another. They speak often one to another
of Him. He was their conversation. He was their interest. They spoke
of Him. And the Lord hearkened and heard
it. He hears our conversations. You know, Moses said this to
the children of Israel. The Lord heareth your murmurings.
He heareth your murmurings. And He heareth Your conversation
is concerning Him. The Lord hearkened. He listened
and He heard. And a book of remembrance was
written before Him for them that feared the Lord and that listened
and that thought upon His name. Thought upon His name. Imitated
upon His name. And they shall be mine, saith
the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. I'm
looking at some jewels. Rare, I'm looking at some rare
jewels. I'm looking at some priceless jewels. There's no price to be
put on this crap. When I make up my jewel, my special,
look over in the margin if you have it there, special treasure.
You feel like a special treasure? You know, a sinner saved by grace
doesn't feel like a jewel. No. He doesn't feel like that. He feels like a piece of coal,
a black lump of coal. That's what he feels like. But
not a special treasure, not a jewel. He says, when I make up my jewels,
I'll spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him. Oh, he says, pray without ceasing. There in verse 17. Pray without
ceasing. An attitude of prayer will help
you to rejoice ever more. You see how these all connect
together? It's like a puzzle. You take one piece out, it just
doesn't work, does it? It doesn't work. You take a piece
out of a puzzle and it's not a complete puzzle. And you think,
well, what goes there? Well, we have here. What goes
there? This all goes together. It's
an attitude of prayer and it will help you rejoice ever more
because your mind, if you really like that, you can do that. The
Lord enables you to do that. It's evident your mind is upon
Him. Your mind is upon things above where Christ sits at God's
right hand. And in everything He says, give thanks. Is there
anything, anything from now, as long as you've lived,
that you cannot thank God for? Is there anything you can't give
thanks for? He said, in everything give thanks,
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Our Lord can do no wrong. He can will no wrong. Therefore,
in everything that comes our way, give thanks. Give thanks. Because of this. It's the will
of God. It is the will of God. Thank
Him for His grace. Thank Him for His grace. Thank
Him for His wisdom. Thank Him for His blood. He came
into this world, became flesh, so that He could shed His blood
and wash us from our sins. And His blood is the only blood
that will do that. Thank Him for that blood, the blood of
the Lamb, that cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Thank Him
for that righteousness of His, His righteous obedience, His
death. Thank Him for that. Lord, thank
You for that righteousness. And thank Him for His wise dealings
with you. He deals with his children wisely. Wisely. I didn't always deal
with my sons wisely. I can say that. I didn't always
do that. He always deals with his children wisely. He gives
us exactly to the measure what we need every day. Every day. If we can do these first two, this one will be automatic, won't
it? This will be automatic. Cole has learned to say that
word, automatic. Everything he says now, he says, does it automatically. Rejoice evermore, pray without
ceasing, and if you can do that, you can do that. This giving
of thanks will be automatic. It will be automatic. And then
question not the Spirit. That doesn't mean that you have
control over the Spirit of God. He does as He will. But it is
speaking here of the gifts. Every one of us has been given
gifts. The Holy Spirit has given several,
it says, gifts as He will. Every one, every child of God
has a gift, but through neglect, through other interests, you
get carried away with other things. You can quench that. You can
quench that. He says don't do that. You rejoice
evermore, you pray without ceasing, and all these things give thanks,
and these things will grow. Love will grow, kindness will
grow, joy will grow. But when you take them up with
these other things, these things start to cool down, don't they? And that's why he's saying here,
don't quench those things. David said this in Psalm 51,
Restore unto me the joy Well, how did he lose that? Did
the Holy Spirit not do his job? He did it by sin, didn't he?
He got taken up with another woman. He got his attention and his
mind and his desire and his heart set upon a creature instead of
the Creator. That's what happened. And it
can happen so subtly. So subtly. And then despise not
prophesying or preaching. Don't ever get tired of preaching.
A man said one time that was going to a church up in, I don't
even like to call it a church, but it was up in West Virginia
over in the Huntington area. He said, man, we had such good
services last night, the preacher didn't have time to preach. You've
got to be kidding. They had a lot of singing going
on. They had quartets. They had all that stuff. He said the preacher
didn't have time to preach. And I bet that preacher was glad
too. I bet he was glad he didn't have time to preach because he
didn't have anything to say. He was just going to have to
wing it. Most of them, that's what they
do. They just wing it. They don't take the Word of God and dive
into it and bring up things out of the treasure there. Things
new and old is what the Scripture says. Don't ever get tired of preaching.
Don't ever substitute it for something else. It will always
please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And it will always be through preaching that you're
edified and instructed. Always. Always. It's not sharing,
it's preaching. If you want to share something,
go get your psychiatrist. But if you want to hear something
from God, go listen to a preacher. And then prove all things. All things that I have to say
right here, this way of saying it, everything I have to say,
prove it by the Word of God. Take the Word of God and prove
everything that you hear me say or Frank or anybody else say
in this pulpit. Take the Word of God and prove it. I've heard people say this
several times over the years, people I've worked with. Well,
my preacher said this. What does the Word of God say?
I hope your preacher is saying the right things and I hope what
he's saying is right. And I hope you can say, well,
my preacher, this is what he preaches. But what does the Word
of God say? Usually when you pin him down
with that, it's like, well, I don't know. I don't know. The one thing that I can say
when I heard Henry, and I've told you this before, when I
heard Henry preaching, on television. Then when I came down and I started
listening to him preach, it matched exactly what I was reading. It
matched what I was reading. But if I hadn't been reading,
I wouldn't know. Read it and take what I've said and take
it to the Word of God. This eye is not prophesied. And
prove all things by the Word of God and hold fast that which
is good. We do that by nature, don't we?
We try to keep things that are good We try not to let it go.
Well, do the same thing spiritually. If it promotes spiritual growth,
hold on to it. Hold fast to it. If you're giving
something truly good, hold fast to it, because there's not many
things truly good but the gospel. It is. Don't let it go. Don't
be like Esau and sell it for a bowl of soup. Hold on to the
good news of the gospel. Christ crucified, Christ risen,
Christ seated at God's right hand. The doctrines of the gospel. God chose a people. And then
He called us in Christ, loved us in Christ, chose us in Christ,
redeemed by the blood of Christ. Hold on to those things. That's
good. That's good. And He says, abstain from all
appearance of evil. He's saying, don't even get close
to it. And I thought of this last night.
Remember this. Curiosity is what killed the cat. But I want to
read you an excerpt out of Henry's commentary that I read. And this fits what he's saying
here in verse 22. Abstain from all appearance of
evil. He says here in his commentary, I know that many interpret this
as suggesting that we avoid any conduct behavior and actions
that while they may not be wrong for us, yet they give the appearance
of wrongdoing, this is good advice to abstain from them. But that's
not what the Apostle is talking about. He's speaking as in the
preceding verse of doctrinal evil. For example, when there
is preaching, teaching, and interpretation of Scripture, which when tried
by the Word, does not appear to be false or wrong. But there
is an unhappy suspicion in the mind, a doubt or fear entertained,
a concern that there's poison somewhere. He said, avoid it.
The truth of God is clear and give glory to His name. I thought
that was a good interpretation of that scripture. That's a good
interpretation of it. That's why he's saying, abstain
from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly. And I pray, God, your whole soul
and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Nothing like being blameless,
is there? Blameless. You can go to sleep
at night with that. Blameless. I didn't do it. Well, if you're not the one that
did it, you can go to sleep, can't you? If you hear the sirens at
nighttime running up and down the road, sometimes at night
I can hear the sirens going off. The police running down the road.
I thought, well, they don't need to stop here. I didn't do it. Blameless. That's how Christ
is going to present every one of His children before the throne
of God, blameless. Blameless. And He's going to
present us blameless, listen, body, soul and spirit, the whole
thing. One day we're going to stand before God in the body,
And we're going to stand there blameless. And Paul says, I pray God that
He keep you. That the very God of peace sanctify
you holy. I can't sanctify myself, but
He can. He can make me holy. And I pray God your whole spirit,
soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Faithful! Faithful is He that calleth you
who also will do it. Count on Him. Trust Him. Look
to Him. Continually look to Him. Continually trust Him. He'll
do it. He'll do just as He said He would.
You know, if we studied the Word of God, I know there's going
to be things we're going to see, we're going to be amazed. But
you know, if you really studied the Word of God, you shouldn't
be surprised, should you? He's going to do just what He said.
We shouldn't be surprised. You know when you're surprised
because you didn't really believe Him. But if you know the Word of God,
if you know Christ, you learn and study Him, there shouldn't
be any surprises. Amazement! And there'll be things
we'll see that we just can't comprehend right now, but He'll
do just as He said. And He said, Brethren, pray for
us. Always pray for one another, but especially the one Preaching
the Word of God to you. Pray for him. God give him the
message. Give him the message for us this day. And greet each
other with a holy kiss. Greet all the brethren with a
holy kiss. We should always be glad to see
one another, shouldn't we? We should be thrilled to death
to see one another. Always. If not, there's something
wrong. And I charge you, he says, I
charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy
brethren. Paul wasn't afraid to use that
word, was he? And Paul was not afraid to call those who believe
on Christ holy. Holy. I'm looking at holy brethren
made holy in Christ. I'm looking at it. And he said,
I charge you to read this epistle. It's not private. This is not
a private book, and it's not a private letter. For years,
the Bible was kept out of the hands of the common people. It was never meant to be that
way. Give it to them. Read it to them. Read it to all.
Read this to all the brethren. Read it to them. And here's the way to end it.
And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you. That's the best way to end a
letter. And I say that, I say that to you now. May the
Lord's grace be with you.