Would you turn back to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5? Let's read this 24th verse again. Faithful. That's a description of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Faithful. Utterly reliable. Always the same. He never changes. Utterly faithful. In that sense,
utterly predictable. He's always going to be as he
reveals himself to be. I've heard people say, I don't
want to put God in a box. I'm not too worried about you
being able to do that. You and I can't put God in a box. But
we can be totally sure that he is going to be who he says he
is, utterly faithful. Faithful is he that calleth you. What a blessing to be called
by Christ. Not everybody's called by Christ.
Not everybody is. You see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh Not many mighty, not
many noble are called. He doesn't call everybody, what
a blessing to be called by his grace. Paul said, when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace. Faithful is he that calleth you. And the next statement is, who
also will do it. And this is what I found so attractive,
thinking about this passage of scripture. I'm just reading this,
I guess it was yesterday morning, and it just hit me like a ton
of bricks. I like what he says here a whole lot better than
if he said, faithful is he who calleth you, who also will enable
you to do it. It doesn't say that. You know,
I wouldn't feel that good about that. It says, faithful is he
that calleth you, who also will do it. He'll do it. Do what? Well, in the immediate context,
look in verse 23. And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, faithful as he that calleth you, who also
will do it. He's the one who will sanctify
you. Now, sanctification, I'm going to get into it a little
bit more later on in this message, but sanctification is the one
word that most comprehensively describes God's salvation. And most people have no idea
what it means. I've listened to several messages by people
on this verse of scripture, and they all made sanctification,
how it's God's grace in you, where you become, by His grace,
better and better, and more dead to sin, and more dead to the
world, and more like Christ, and more holy, and so on. Now, if it does mean that, then I'm
not saved. I'm not sanctified. Don't have
any idea what sanctification means, but that's not what it
means, I know that. The word sanctification means to take
something common and ordinary and set it apart for holy purposes. The vessels in the temple, you
know what they were? They were holy vessels. Why? Because God said they were. They
were set apart for holy purposes. The seventh day, the Sabbath,
was set apart. God set it apart. He sanctified
it. It wasn't any different than
Friday, but when God said Saturday's the day, it was set apart, wasn't
it? It was holy. The word means to
take something common and ordinary and set it apart for holy purposes. Now that describes what God does
for the sinner. I was set apart by God the Father
in eternal election. God set his hand on me before
time began and determined that I would be holy. That's true
of all the elect. Christ Jesus made me holy. On Calvary's tree, he made it
to where I don't have any sin and he's made unto me holiness.
God the Holy Spirit made me holy when he gave me a new nature.
Now this work of sanctification, look what he says. Paul says,
the very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now faithful is he that
calleth you who also will do this. Not he'll enable you to
do anything, although he does, but that's not what it says,
and I'm glad it doesn't speak that way. The emphasis is all on what
he does. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. Now, let's back back to verse
12, and we can say this about all of these things that he says
to us in this passage of Scripture. Now, first he talks about the
pastor. He says in verse 12, And we beseech you, brethren,
to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the
Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love
for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Now,
I always feel somewhat awkward dealing with a passage of scripture
like this when I'm the pastor. So bear with me, but I want to
give what it actually means. know them which labor among you and are over
you in the Lord and admonish you." Now there is such a thing
as a call to be a pastor. This is real. While I despise Clergy lady, I despise. When I'm out, I don't want to
tell somebody I'm a preacher, because I know what they're going to think of
me, because I don't like preachers either. I really don't. I mean, all I
can do is see a preacher, start talking to them, I don't like
them. And I know people won't like me. They'll change, they'll
start acting a certain way and start acting phony and everything.
So I just don't even tell them. And I'm always, well, that's
for free. The point is, though, that there
is such a thing as God putting his hand on a man and calling
him to pastor a local church. Turn with me to Revelation chapter
1. After this description of Christ
by John, He says in verse 16 of Revelation chapter 1, And
he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went
a sharp two-edged sword, and his depth was as the sun that
shineth in his strength. He had seven stars. Now look
down in verse 19. Write the things which thou hast
seen, the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter,
The mystery of the seven stars, which thou sawest in my right
hand, and the seven golden candlesticks, the seven stars are the angels,
or the pastors, of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks,
which thou sawest, are the seven churches. Now, there is such
a thing as a local church, and God making a man a pastor of
that church, and he speaks through that. It still pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. There
is such a thing as a God-called, God-ordained pastor. Now, look back on our text in
1 Thessalonians 5. Here's how they're described
in verse 12. Now, we beseech you, brethren,
to know them which labor among you. Now, this is what a pastor
will do. He'll labor in the Word. And that word labor means to
the point of exhaustion. That's actually what it means.
Any true God called pastor will be totally committed to preaching
the gospel and laboring in the word. And are over you in the
Lord. Now this doesn't mean that Like
some kind of, I'm your boss and I'm over you and you gotta do
what I say, it doesn't have anything to do, that's not what a pastor
is. I know that there are some preachers and they exercise what
they call elder rule and they come and check you out and see
how you're doing and see how, if you're spending your money
right and if you're giving enough or if you're getting into any
kind of trouble and that's not, that's ridiculous, that's foolishness.
But they're over you in the sense that they, preach the gospel
to you. They're your guides. They bring
the Word of God. They're over you in that sense.
And he says they admonish you. They admonish you. They instruct
you in the gospel, and they admonish you. That's what—now, nobody
here I can't make a good pastor to myself. I've got a pastor,
Brother Mahan's my pastor. Nobody makes a good pastor to
themselves. There's some people who try it,
but I guarantee you're a failure at it. Nobody can pastor themselves. This is the way God has ordained. And he says, know them, know
them, and verse 13, and esteem them very highly in love for
their work's sake. Now, this is a difficult calling. being a pastor. This is a very
difficult calling. While in some respects it's the
best calling in the world, I told Lynn just, I think it was this
week, I get to do what I love. How many people get to do that?
I get to do what I absolutely love. I love being in the Word.
I love sermon preparation. I love to preach. I love that. And if you're called to preach,
it ought to be that way. I get to do what I love. Now, that being said, there are
some difficulties with regard to being a pastor that you don't
know anything about. So, pray for me. Pray for me. Esteem me. Highly. For my work's sake. The preaching
of the gospel. Now, that's not self-promotion,
that's not tootin' my own horn, but the Bible tells us that. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
13, verse 7. Remember them which
have the rule over you. Now that word have the rule My
marginal reading says they're your guides. That doesn't mean
they're ruling over you and telling you what you can and cannot do.
They're your guides. I preach the gospel. I'm your
guide in that sense. Listen to what I'm saying. Be
persuaded. Look what it says. Remember them
which have the rule over you, who have spoken to you the word
of God, whose faith follow, considering the end or the goal of their
conversation. Look in verse 17. Obey them.
that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they
watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that
they may do it with joy and not with grief. For this is unprofitable
for you." Now, when I pray for you, I better pray for everybody
here. When I pray for you, do I give
an account of you with grief or with joy? He said, if it's
with grief, that's not profitable for you. So this is Paul giving
us the proper instruction regarding the pastor. Know them, esteem
them, pray for them, love them, submit yourselves. And that's
not talking about me saying, you need to do this, submit.
No, that has nothing to do with it. Be persuaded by what I'm
saying if I'm telling the truth, if I'm preaching the gospel.
Now, faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. He'll enable you to do that.
Now back to 1 Thessalonians 5, now it talks about the church
members. This is pretty interesting. Verse 14. Now we exhort you, brethren,
warn men that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the
weak, Be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for
evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among
yourselves and to all men. Now here he gives five descriptions
of people in the church. Now while the church is the beautiful
bride of Christ, and this describes every believer, without spot,
wrinkle or any such thing. When God looks at me, he looks
at someone who is perfect, without sin, justified in His sight,
because Christ put away my sin. It's gone. He gave me His very
righteousness, and every believer is the very righteousness of
God. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. When Christ looks at me, He looks
at me as a perfect bride. perfectly beautiful no spot nor
wrinkle or any such thing according to Ephesians 526 perfect in Christ
Jesus. Holy and unblameable and unapprovable
in his sight. That's the description of every
believer because of what Christ has done. And isn't it true that
we're still sinners saved by grace. Yes, we're perfect in Christ
Jesus. And while I'm talking to you right now, I'm painfully
aware that I am nothing more than a sinner saved by grace. You know one of the glorious
things about the church? It's the only society. I'm not going to call
it an institution because it's not an institution. It's a living
organism made of God's people. But the church is the only society
where the entrance requirement is being the chief of sinners.
That's the entrance requirement. You can't be a part if you don't
take your place as a sinner. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. And he names five people
within the church, the unruly, the feeble-minded, the weak,
those that we need to exercise patience toward, and those who
have wronged us, and our first thought is we need to pay them
back. He mentions those five people as to how we should deal
with them. Now this is a reminder to us
that the church is made of sinners, saved by grace. You know, no
one should ever leave a church because they say, well, they're
just too sinful there. I mean, the things they do, the
things that's going on, I'm getting out of here. Oh, oh, what kind
of attitude is that? It's an evil attitude. It's a
self-righteous attitude. Yes, there are problems with
every, you got men and women together. You got simple men
and women together. And look what he says. Warn the
unruly. Warn the unruly. Now let me,
the unruly is a military term. It's insubordinate. It's breaking
rank, is what the word really means. Breaking rank. Now, let
me remind you once again, everybody in the church, starting with
the preacher, is a sinner. A sinner saved by grace. Somebody
says, well, what are you doing preaching if you're a sinner?
I don't know any other way to preach. But as a sinner saved
by grace, I know that's what I am. Well, what do you mean
by being a sinner? Well, I mean this. All I do is sin. I cannot not sin. Now somebody
says, you must be a really bad person. I am. I wouldn't deny that, but the
thing that is, it takes a holy nature to see this. The reason an unbeliever
can't see this about himself is he doesn't have a holy nature.
He doesn't even know what sin is. If I ever find out what sin is,
I'm going to see that if I did it, it's sin. A sinner is someone
who doesn't have the right to sit in judgment and criticism
on anybody. They feel themselves to be the
chief of sinners. And they don't feel like they
have any claims on God. God's going to do this for me
because I did that. No. No. Every believer is a sinner
saved by grace. And the first type of person
he mentions is the unruly. And what does he say to do with
the unruly or the insubordinate? He says, warn them that are unruly. Warn them. You stay unruly, you're going
to bring trouble on yourself. You're going to bring the chastisement
of God on yourself. It's going to happen if you're unruly. What's worse is God doesn't do
anything for you. and just leaves you to yourself.
I'd rather be chastened than for God to leave me to myself,
wouldn't you? I sure don't want that. Whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and he scourgeth every son he receives. So if
I'm an unruly, if I'm insubordinate, if I break ranks as it were,
I'm to be warned. Now the next person he mentions
in verse 14 is comfort the feeble-minded. Comfort the feeble-minded. Now who is this feeble-minded
person? This is the despondent person. This is the person who's
always worrying. This is the person who is depressed
and discouraged and the glass is never half full, it's half
empty. They're down, feeble-minded. What does he say to do with that
person? Comfort him. with the word of the gospel.
That's what that's what the gospel is about. It's for people like
that. Comfort me. Comfort me. My people speak comfortably
Israel say and her her warfare is accomplished. It's already
over the stuff you're worried about. It's already taken care
of. Christ did it. Your iniquity
is pardoned. I love the way the gospel doesn't
say your iniquity will be pardoned if you do this or if you do that.
No, it's a declaration. It's pardoned. You've received
of the Lord's hand double for all your sin. Now that person
who's despondent, who's overcome with their own inability and
weakness and so on, comfort him. Comfort him. I love that passage
of scripture in Galatians 6.1. If a man be overtaken in a fault,
Can't you understand that? Can you understand anybody being
overtaken in a vault? Ye which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you
also be tempted. Now the next person he speaks
of is the weak. Verse 14, support the weak. The spiritually and the morally
weak, people who fall into the same sins over and over again,
weak in their faith and all the problems that is caused by that.
I mean, weakness is a is a rough thing. But what does he say to
do? Support him. Don't hold him off. Don't kick
him out. Support him. Be cleave to him is what the
word actually means. Receive him. Don't judge them.
Help them. We ought to have a great tenderness
for the weak because we know how weak we are, don't we? How
weak are you? I want to be very compassionate
towards someone who feels like they're struggling with weakness.
And then he says, be patient toward all there in verse 14.
Be patient toward all. Now, these are men and women
we need to be patient with. They're doing things that are
wrong. They're saying things that are wrong. They're creating
problems. What am I to do? Be patient with
them. Be patient. How do you want the Lord to be
patient with you? And then he says in verse 15, see that none
render evil for evil. See that no one pays anybody
back unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among
yourselves and to all men. Now there are people in the church.
Believers. Who will wrong you? and you'll
want to pay them back. You will be wronged. You will
be slandered. You will be hurt. You will be
abused. You will be excluded. And you'll
want to pay those people back. Paul says, don't do it. Vengeance
is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.
He's in control of all that, and all you and I are called
upon to do is to follow that which is good and be merciful
and gracious to everybody. Now, that is the way church members
are to be handled. I think it's interesting how
he names out all these. You can see all this in the church.
It's what it is, but that's what he says to do. Now look in verse
16. Faithful is he that calleth you,
also will do it, will enable you to treat people like that.
Verse 16. Rejoice evermore. Rejoice always. No matter what's going on, he
says to rejoice, to be glad, to rejoice in Christ. Now I understand,
I understand your heart can be breaking in despondency and be crushed,
and you can still rejoice in the Lord. You know why? Because
you know that whatever is happening, He's in control of. Doesn't matter
what it is. Romans 8, 28 says, and we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. Therefore, everything
that comes my way Who sent it? Everything? Everything. Everything. So I can rejoice because of who
sent it. Everything in your life always
has, is now, and always will be working together for your
good. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God to them who are the
called according to his purpose everything everything and you
know even the bad things even even the bad things you know
i i was thinking about this today my sin is all my fault it's evil
it's wrong i take full responsibility i don't want to sin anymore i
don't want to be delivered from it but you know that if i was
not a sinner, I'd never know anything about grace. I'd never
know anything about the forgiveness of sins. I would never know anything
about the security that I have in Christ. If I'd never sinned,
I'd be a whole lot worse off than I am now. You know why? Because if I'd never sinned,
I'd still, I might fall away. There's all kinds of horrible
things that can happen, but I'm united to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's put away my sin. Things are better for me now
than they would have ever been had I never sinned. Rejoice evermore. Now that didn't mean rejoicing
your sin, but rejoicing Him at all times, who's in control of
everything. Then he says, pray without ceasing.
In verse 17, pray without ceasing. Be careful for nothing but in
everything in prayer. In supplications, let your requests
be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passes all
understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus. Now, let's think of prayer. Prayer without ceasing. Now,
obviously, that doesn't mean I can pray nonstop. I can't do it. I'm not spiritual
enough, and there's other stuff we got to do. So it's not talking
about praying nonstop, but it's talking about always being in
an attitude of prayer. Now, what's that mean? God is sovereign. He's in control of everybody
and everything. And me, I have no control of
anything. I can't do anything. I really
believe that about myself. So what am I going to do? I'm
going to ask the Lord to do something. He's the only one who can. You
know, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers
of water, he turns it whither so ever he will. Prayer is an
attitude of dependence upon the Lord. It's knowing that I have
no control and he has all control and everybody and everything
is in his hands and I pray. The Lord said men ought always
to pray and not to faint, not to lose heart in everything,
in everything. Let your requests be made known
unto God. Even that insignificant thing,
you take your children. Is there anything about them
that's insignificant? No. No, it's all important. And everything
about you is important to the Lord. So let your requests be
made known unto God. Pray without ceasing. Now look
at verse 18. In everything give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. In everything
give thanks. Now, you know what that means?
That means if I fall off this thing and break my arm, you know
what I ought to do? I ought to thank the Lord because
he sent it for his glory and my good. In everything, even
that thing that you find such difficulty thanking God for.
How can I thank Him for this? This is so terrible because He
sent it and He did it for your good and His glory. In everything,
give thanks. I really have a reason to because
whatever happens to me, whatever it is, God's using it for my
good and His glory. Whatever, however difficult it
is, however painful it might be, it might be something good.
It's easy to thank him for some things. Oh, thank you, Lord,
for doing that. But what about the bad stuff?
That's really what he's talking about when he says, in everything
give thanks for this thing that's happened to you. It's the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. So in everything give thanks. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it. Somebody's saying, how can I
do that? Well, Christ will enable you, or He'll cause you to, or
He'll do it in you. You know, I think that, I think
of that passage of scripture in Galatians 1 15, I've always,
I've already quoted it. When it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son, not to me, in me. In me. If all he has revealed is to
me, I may end up losing it. But if he's revealed in me, if
God's doing it in me, faithful is he that calleth you who also
will do it. Now next he says in verse 19,
quenched not the spirit. Now every believer has the spirit
of God. We're born of the spirit. God dwells in the heart of every
believer. We have the Spirit of God. Now,
when he's speaking of quenching the Spirit, you know that it's
impossible to put the Spirit out like if you have a match
and Put a gallon of water on it, that'll put it out and it'll
be no more. God the Holy Spirit is the seal of our redemption. He's the earnest of our inheritance.
We'll always have him. We can't make it to where he's
gone completely, but we can certainly quench his influence. We can
quench his influence by our sin, by our self-righteousness, by
our not looking to Christ. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God, whereby you're sealed to the day of redemption. You're
going to have him forever. And yeah, you can only grieve
a person, a person who loves you, a person who knows you.
Grieve, quench not the Spirit of God. And then he says in verse
20, despise not prophesying. And what that's talking about
is preaching, the preaching of the gospel, Despise not the preaching
of the gospel. I tell you one way I can quench
the spirit is to despise the preaching of the gospel, to have
a wrong attitude toward the preaching of the gospel. And oh, may God
deliver us from that. Remember it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them to believe. God has manifested
his word through preaching. Don't get a bad attitude about
preaching. despised, not prophesied. I've
got it before. I know what it's like. You get
something in your crawl and you're not hearing to profit. Oh, may
the Lord deliver us from that and to not despise the preaching
of the gospel. And then he says in verse 21,
prove all things. What you're hearing, test it.
Test it and see if it's according to the word of God. Remember
how John said, try the spirits. Prove the Spirit, same word,
whether they be of God. You listen to what I'm saying,
and you see if it's according to the Scriptures. Don't just
swallow it hook, line, and sinker. See if it's what the Bible teaches.
Prove what you're hearing. Test what you're hearing. See
if it's according to the Word of God. And then he says, hold
fast that which is good. Now, you hear that there's no
condemnation in Christ Jesus, and you see the Bible teaches
it? Hold on to it. Embrace it. You hear that in
Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you're
complete in Him? Complete, you don't need anything
else, you're perfect in Christ Jesus? Hold on to it. Hold fast
that which is good and abstain from all appearance of evil.
Now what that's talking about is when you hear something that
doesn't feel right and you can't put your finger on it, abstain
from it. The truth is simple. The truth
is always apparent. It's always obvious. It's not
convoluted. If you hear some preaching and
somehow it doesn't seem right, you can't exactly say what's
wrong with it, but you know something's wrong with it, you don't feel
comfortable with it, pull away from it. That's what he's saying.
Abstain from anything that even smells like that or even appears
of evil. It's not talking about abstain
from being in a place that appears bad. You ought to. No doubt about
it. You ought to. But that's not what that's talking
about. It's talking about the preaching of the gospel. Hold on to that
which is good. Abstain from that which is evil. Verse 23, and the very God of
peace. I love this name of our Lord,
the God of peace. Christ made my peace with God. Next time somebody says, have
you made your peace with God? Say, no, I haven't. Christ made
my peace with God. He made my peace with God. having made peace
through the blood of his cross. He made my peace with God. He
made it to where God's at peace with me. He's not mad at me.
He doesn't have anything to get mad at, because in Christ Jesus,
I'm perfect. I don't have any sin. Now, the
God of peace, what's it say? The God of peace sanctify you
wholly through and through. Of course, I wouldn't say the
God of peace sanctify you partially. I'm not interested in anything
like that. The God of peace sanctify you wholly. Now let me remind
you what this word sanctify means. And it is what I believe the
most important description of God's salvation. It covers all
three persons in the Trinity. In eternal election, God set
me apart to be holy. according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy. By the witch's will, by God's
will, we are sanctified once for all through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ. Now God determined for me to
be holy. Christ made me holy on Calvary's
tree. Hebrews 10.14 says, For by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Christ
has made unto me sanctification according to 1 Corinthians 1.30.
I really am holy. This isn't a pretend holiness. This isn't a paste on holiness
because Christ died for my sins. I don't have any. He gave me
his righteousness. He gave me his new birth. Every
believer is holy. Made holy by the Spirit of God,
we're bound to thank God always for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God has, from the beginning, chosen you to
salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Now, faithfuls, he that calleth
you who also will do it, he'll sanctify you wholly. Isn't that a blessing of grace?
And this is his work. It's not a cooperative work between
you and him. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who will do it. He's going to do this. And if
you're a believer, that's precisely what you want, to be sanctified
wholly. And notice, the I pray God is
in italics. The translators put that there,
and I don't think it helps it any. And the very God of peace
sanctify you wholly, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what's
he talking about when he's talking about spirit and soul and body?
He talks about those three things. Well, when Adam died in the garden,
his soul didn't die and his body didn't die. What died? His spirit,
his spiritual nature. Now, when God saves a man, By
God the Holy Spirit, he's given us spiritual nature, one that
was not there before, the spirit. Now I have a spirit and I have
a soul. I had the soul and the body before
I had the spirit. The spirit came in regeneration, but now
I'm made of spirit, my human soul, and my body. And he's asking
the Lord to preserve us, spirit, soul, and body, blameless. blameless into the coming of
the Lord. Now this is something that I
love thinking about this, I love talking about it, I don't know
how much I understand, I just believe. Every believer is blameless
before God, without fault, faultless. You know all the stuff you feel
guilty about and all the stuff that you just wish you weren't
that way? In God's sight it's not there.
And the reason it's not there in his sight is because it's
not there, period. He put your sin away. And on judgment day,
you will be blameless. Now, who's the only one that
can do this? Faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it. Just as he is faithful and just
to forgive us of our sins, he's faithful to do this. You know
the reason he's going to do this for you? Because he determined before
time began to do it. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, and all he determines to do, he does. That's his faithfulness. Faithful
as he that calleth you. Aren't you amazed that the Lord
called you? I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me a sinner
condemned unclean. Oh, I'm so thankful for his calling.
Whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. In whom he called them, he also
justified. In whom he justified them, he
also glorified. The gifts and callings of God
are without repentance. He that hath begun a good work
in you will perform it into the day of Jesus Christ, Philippians
1.6. So here is why I have such assurance
that when I stand before God in Judgment Day, I'm going to
be accepted. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would bless this word for your glory and for our good. Lord, how we thank you for your
faithfulness. How we thank you for your calling.
how we thank you for your doing. Lord, we confess that salvation
is of the Lord. Now bless this word for Christ's
sake, in his name we pray, amen.