Well, it's such a blessing. Would you turn back to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5? I've entitled this message, People
in the Church. People in the Church. Now, the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ Is utterly unique. It is a super natural society. What we're doing right now is
supernatural. It's not just the gathering of
men together. While the world looks upon the
church, the way it looked upon the head of the church is not
this, the carpenter son. He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire him. Well, that's the way men
look at the church. I'm not impressed. Look at you
guys. You all don't have any influence.
You're not big. You just look at you. But that doesn't take
away from the beauty of the church. Turn to Ephesians chapter five.
While you're turning there, The Lord says to his church, to every
individual member of his church, thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. When the Lord looks at his people,
that's what he sees. And what he sees is what is real. That is the real look. In Ephesians chapter five, beginning
in verse 25, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved
the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might
present it to himself, a glorious church. not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Now that's God's description
of the church. The church is called the church
of God, which he purchased with his own blood. It's called the
body of Christ. It's called the fullness of him
that filleth all in all. It's called the general assembly
and church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven.
The spirits of just men made perfect. It is the church that
Christ himself has built. And it's called the church of
the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. That's
what God's church is called. This place is called the church
of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. It's where Christ himself walks
and adds daily such as should be saved. I love that passage
of scripture. The Lord added to the church daily such as should
be saved. You know, there's some folks
who should be saved. Did you know that? There's the folks Christ died
for. There's the folks God elected. There's the folks God the Holy
Spirit calls. They should be saved. And the Lord adds to the
church daily such as should be saved. When Peter closes his
epistle in 1 Peter 5, he says, the church that's at Babylon
elected together with you. salute you. It's the church of
God's elect. The church is beautiful. It's conformed to the image of
Christ, one with Christ, not having spot or wrinkle or any
such thing. Holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in God's sight. That describes every member of
his church. Now that gives us some idea of
the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood
actually makes me in the very sight of God holy and unblameable
and un-reprovable. The church is not an organization
but it's a living organism. It's not an institution, but
a supernatural society made of flawed, sinful human beings. It is the only society on earth
where complete unworthiness is the only qualification for membership. Isn't that wonderful? That makes
me qualified to be a member. Now in this passage of scripture,
we read of the people in the church, or should I say the persons
in the church. We read of the pastors in verse
12 and 13. We read of the people in general. in verses 14 and
15. We read of the individual in
verses 16 through 22. And we read of the Lord of the
church. He's the head of the church in verses 23 and 24. Now
look in verse 12 of this passage of scripture. And we beseech
you brethren to know them which labor among you and are over
you or are your guides in the Lord And admonish you, we continually
need. I appreciated hearing Claire
pray. We need corrected, admonished,
instructed, encouraged. We need all those things, but
he says we need the pastor admonishes. Remember them that are over you
in the Lord and admonish you and to steam them very highly
in love for their work sake and be at peace among yourselves.
Now, every church has a pastor. Now, let me tell you right off
the bat, the pastor is just as flawed as the people. Now, that's
just the facts of the matter. He's a sinful, helpless human
being in and of himself, just like anybody else is. And to
promote himself as something different is a lie. The pastor
is just like everybody else. But let me say this, none of
us are able to pastor ourselves. If you are your own pastor, you
have a rotten pastor. You really do. He's no good.
Now, he says, we beseech your brother and know them which labor
among you. Any true pastor labors in the
gospel. He labors to bring forth the
word of God and that are over you or that are your guides in
the Lord. And they admonish you. Now, esteem
them very highly in love. for their work's sake. Esteem
them very highly. That is to be my attitude for
their work's sake. May the Lord enable us to have
that attitude toward anybody who truly preaches the gospel.
To esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And
realize this, we need a pastor to correct us, don't we? to admonish
us. And if we don't see that about
ourselves, we're in a state of what I hope is temporary blindness.
I hope it's just temporary, but this is what we need. And wherever
this attitude exists, you will find people who are at peace
among themselves. Now, verses 14 and 15 are what
really inspired this message because I read somewhere where
someone says, this represents the membership of the church,
five different types of people. And I thought this was interesting
and I Think it's so, I mean, I see myself in it. Look what
he says in verses 14 and 15. Now we exhort you, brethren,
warn men that are unruly. That's the first type of person.
Comfort the feeble-minded. That's the second type of person.
Support the weak. That's the third type of person.
Be patient toward all men. There are some that you have
to exercise patience toward. That's the fourth person. Verse
15, see that none render evil for evil unto any man. There
are some who will render evil. Don't pay them back. That's the
fifth person. described in the church. And
this pretty much makes up the membership of the church. And
I look at those things and I certainly see myself in many of those descriptions. Now, the first person he speaks
of is the unruly. That word means the insubordinate,
literally those who fall out of rank. It's a military term.
It's the insubordinate. Now, they are interested in self-serving
and not serving. They're not really here to learn.
They're here to not to learn and to serve. I know that. They're
self-serving individuals. And they go backward instead
of forward. And they are very critical. They
become critical of others in the church, these people who
are unruly. Paul says, warn him, warn him. Now, this is very important. If I'm going in that direction,
Lord's going to chase me. I mean, you have so many examples
of this in the scriptures. If I'm going in that direction
of insubordination, breaking rank, the Lord is going to chasten
me, or what's worse, He's going to leave me to myself and not
chasten me at all. That's what really scares me.
I want to be chastened. I don't want to be chastened,
but I'd rather be chastened than not chastened and left to myself.
He says, warn them. I think of that passage of scripture
in 1 Corinthians 11, where the church was practicing all these
horrible things. And he says, for this cause,
many are weak and sickly among you, and many are dead. Dead. That's what he said. Now, next
time somebody gets sick, you think, well, what do you reckon
they did? Don't think that way. Don't think that way. That's
an evil way to think. But understand this. If I'm unruly, may I be
warned. May I be warned. insubordinate. The Lord is displeased with that. Now look at the next person he
mentions. He says, warn them that are unruly
and comfort the feeble minded, literally the faint hearted,
the two-souled or the small soul, the people who are despondent.
the people who are depressed, the people who are down. Plenty
of folks like that. Paul says, comfort them. Comfort
them with the gospel. The feeble-minded, they fear
the unknown, they have no sense of adventure, they hate change,
they love tradition, they hate risk, they worry. They worry
all the time about something and they're always depressed
and they're always despondent. The feeble-minded. And what does
Paul say to do? Comfort them. Comfort them with the gospel.
What do you need when you're feeble-minded, small soul? You
need to hear the gospel. That's the only thing that'll
do you any good, is hearing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, sayeth your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, and say unto her, that her iniquity is pardoned. I love the way the gospel begins
right there. It doesn't say, tell her her iniquity will be
pardoned if she straightens up. No, tell her her iniquity is
pardoned. Her sin is covered. It's gone. Her warfare is accomplished. It's already over. She has received
from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Tell the feeble-minded
the comfort of the gospel. I think of what the Lord said
in John chapter 16 when he talked about the comforter. I love the
way the Holy Spirit's called the comforter, don't you? He's
called the comforter. When he has come, he will reprove,
he will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment. And you know, it's very comforting
to be convicted of your sin. To see that you're nothing but
sin? When you see that, it's easy
to trust the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? It gets complicated
when you don't see yourself that way. When He has come, He will
convince the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment. Of
sin, because they believe not on Me. Of righteousness, because
I go to My Father. You're convinced that His righteousness
is the only righteousness, and He presents it to His Father.
Of judgment, because the Prince of this world has been judged.
He's already been Judged, he's already been defeated. Judgment's
already taken place. I mean, the passing out of the
sentences is going to come, but judgment has already taken place.
When the Lord said it is finished, Satan was defeated. Now, that
feeble-minded person, that desponding person, you give them the comfort
of the gospel. Now, the third group he mentions
in Verse 14, and I think probably all of us can identify with this
group. Support the weak. Support the weak, spiritually
and morally weak. Through lack of discipline, they
tend to fall into the same sins over and over and over and over
and over and over and over again. Weak. Weak. Does that strike a chord with
anybody? Weak. The spirit our Lord said is willing,
but the flesh is weak. The Lord understood that. Weak
in the faith and all the problems that that produces. Weak. And
what does Paul say to do with these weak people? Support them. Support them. Receive them. He said in Romans 14, 1, him
that's weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. Don't judge them, help them,
cleave to them. We ought to have great tenderness
toward the weak. You ought to identify with any
weak person. Can you identify with a spiritually
weak person? A person who has no strength. Paul said, if any, if a brother
be overtaken in a fall to you, which are spiritual, Restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you
also be tempted. You know, as sure as you're a
foot and a half high, that if you're tempted the way he is,
you'll fall worse than him. You really believe that. Considering
yourself, lest you also be tempted, bear ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ. Now, there's the law of Christ
right there. That's the law of Christ. May you and I be enabled to fulfill
that. Now, the next thing he says is
in verse 14, be patient toward all men. Now, what that's a reference
to is the fact that there's a lot of folks that are going to tax
our patience. I mean, it's going to happen. We're in the flesh. Be patient
toward all men. Now, what I thought of is when
Peter said, Lord, how often shall I forgive my brother? Till seven
times? And he thought he was being magnanimous
by saying seven times, because usually people thought three
times. I mean, three times, three's the charm, strike three, you're
out. You know, we didn't have that in baseball. Strike three,
yeah, you don't get four strikes, it's over. Seven times? And the Lord said, no, 70 times
7. In other words, be patient and
forgiving to all men. And then he says in verse 15,
see that none, here's the fifth group, see that none render evil
for evil unto any man. But ever follow that which is
good and gracious, both among yourselves and to all men. Don't
pay back evil for evil. Now there are some in the church
who will do you evil. Now you can just write that down.
There are some in the church who will do you evil. They'll
slander you. They'll hurt you. They'll exclude
you. They'll abuse you. They'll entice
you to sin. And they will bring much sorrow
into your life. Now, what do you do? Don't pay them back. See that
none render evil for evil. Don't you dare pay them back.
The Lord is in control of that, but you do them good. You be
gracious. May God enable us truly to be
there. If your enemy is thirsty, give
him something to drink. If he's hungry, feed him. In
so doing, you'll reap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome
of evil, but overcome evil with good. Now, those are the types
of people the church and I'm sure that you heard yourself
described and I certainly heard myself described in that group
of people. But next he goes to the individual
believer. Let's forget about the church
as a whole and the different types of people because you can
see that you fit, I fit in one of these five groups of people.
But here he says to the individual believer, and understand this,
the Bible, God's Word, never tells somebody else what to do.
tells me what to do. It doesn't tell somebody how
they ought to treat me. It tells me how I ought to treat
them. It doesn't tell other folks what
to do. It tells me what to do. And the first thing he said,
here's the instruction to the individual believer. He says,
rejoice evermore. You know what that means? All the time. And that doesn't
mean you're always happy. You're not. There's all kinds
of things I'm not happy about. But by the grace of God, I can
rejoice all the time. How? Well, does God really reign? Is he really sovereign and in
control of everything? Then rejoice. The Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice. Is it
true what Paul said that in Him dwells all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily and you're complete in Him? That means you lack nothing.
That means you're perfect in Christ Jesus. All that God requires
of you, you have. You don't have the minimum. You
have the maximum. You're complete in Christ. Is
there anything to do but rejoice? Is Romans 8.28 true? That all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are called according to his purpose. Is that true? And rejoice,
rejoice evermore. Feeble minded, rejoice. Weak,
rejoice. All those different people, rejoice. And then he says in verse 17,
pray without ceasing. That doesn't mean I'm always
in the act of prayer. I'm not. I'm, you know, I'm sure
that there's some of you who you came in and you looked over
at your day, and you probably didn't hardly even think about
the Lord. And I don't know how many days I've had like that,
particularly when I was working. And now, you know, my job is
to study and to pray. You know, I've got it much easier
in that sense. But I can remember when I worked, I'd be so busy
all day, I'd be working, and I'd lay my head down at night
and think, I haven't even thought about the Lord today. It'd scare
me to death that I'm like that. But pray without ceasing. What that means is always be
in an attitude of complete dependence on the Lord. And that's exactly
what that means. What do you pray about? You pray
about that which you have no control over. You pray about
that which you cannot do. He must do for you. Always live,
may God give me grace to always live in an attitude of complete
dependence upon the Lord. And then he says in verse 18,
in everything, give thanks. The pain you experience, give
thanks. The physical pain. Give thanks. The trial and the affliction,
give thanks. The good things, so to speak,
give thanks. They're all good if he sent it.
They're all good. For whatever it is you're experiencing,
doesn't matter what it is, this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. You know why you're experiencing
it? It's the will of God. His good and perfect and acceptable
will. Aren't you thankful for that?
Now, in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. And then he says in verse 19,
and this is so important, quench not the spirit. Thorn water on
the fire is what that's talking about. Quench not the spirit. There's so many ways we can do
that. How many times have we quenched the influence of God
in the Holy Spirit? quenching. Here's the biggest
way. Verse 20, despise not prophesying. If you want to quench the spirit,
despise prophesying. Despise the preaching of the
gospel. This is how God speaks. This is what God the Holy Spirit
uses, the preaching of the gospel. And if I have a bad attitude
towards the preaching of the gospel, if I come in not with
an empty cup or with a judgmental and critical attitude or just
come in not to just entertain me, I quench the Spirit. The
Lord's not going to speak to me through that. Don't quench
the Spirit. So don't despise prophesying
or preaching. He says regarding this thing
of preaching, verse 21, prove all things. Test what you hear according
to the Word of God. I want you to try everything I say with
the Scripture. Don't ever believe something just because I said
it. See if it's what the Word of God teaches. Prove all things. Hold fast to that which is good. Oh, you hear something that you
know it's the teaching of the Scriptures, hold on to it for dear life.
It's glorious. Hold fast to it. Abstain from
all appearance of evil. People will use that to say stay
out of bars and stuff like that or stay out of questionable places.
Well, probably ought to stay out of questionable places. I'm
not going to deny that, but I don't know what that scripture is talking
about. When you're hearing preaching and something doesn't feel right.
Abstain from it. You might not even be able to
put your finger on it. You might not even be able to clearly articulate
what was wrong with it. But if it seems wrong, stay away
from it. Abstain from all appearance of
evil. You see, a believer has a nature
that discerns, that understands. You may not be able to articulate
exactly what the problem is, but if it appears evil, stay
away from it. Abstain from it. That is the
instruction to the individual believer. Now here is the most
important one of the church, the Lord himself. You know, he's called the head of
the church and the church is called his body. We've talked
about the pastor, the five different types of people, the individual
believer, the instruction to him, but here, here is the, Most
important part of this message, verse 23, and the very God of peace. I love that name for the Lord,
the God of peace. Romans chapter 14 verse 17 says
the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's not do's and
don'ts. It's righteousness. And what do you get out of righteousness?
If you have the righteousness of Christ as your personal righteousness
before God, what's it do for you? It gives you peace. what peace there is in simply
being saved by him. Now, when I lose my peace is
when I'm away from that in any way. But when I look wholly to
Christ, the peace that we have comes
from seeing the peace he has with us through Christ. I've got the same peace God does. It's the peace of God. You see,
God is at peace with me. He has nothing to be mad at me
about. He has nothing to be angry with
me about. As a matter of fact, he's got
nothing but to be pleased with me. Because Christ's righteousness
is my righteousness before God. That's the only righteousness
I have. And I can't tell you what peace I receive from that. The peace of God that passes
understanding. I love that. The peace of God
that passes understanding. It transcends human intellect,
analysis, and insight. And this peace I'm talking about,
no counselor can give you, no human counselor. Only God can
give you this peace. The peace of God that passes
all understanding. The peace that is right here. He is our peace. having made peace through the
blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things to himself
by him I say and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in
the body of his flesh to present you holy and unblameable and
unreprovable in his sight. Now do you get peace from that? The God of peace. Now, what does the God of peace
do? Verse 23, and the very God of peace sanctify you. Holy. Now, all these people I've described,
they're saints. Everyone up. These members, in
and of themselves, they got problems, no doubt about it. Like I said,
the church is made of flawed, sinful individuals, but they're
saints, saints of God. God sanctified them. He sanctified
the believer in eternal election when he chose me to be holy.
He sanctified the believer in eternal redemption when Christ
sanctified me by His own blood and made me holy. He sanctified
me in the new birth when He gave me the Holy Spirit, sanctified
by the Spirit. Every believer is sanctified
and sanctified wholly. Sanctification does not know
of degrees. You don't become more sanctified. If you're sanctified,
you're sanctified Now that is the work of God.
Not the work of man, it's the work of God. And notice he says, and I pray God that your whole
spirit and soul and body be preserved, blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I think this answers that
question about a believer, you know, A believer has a spirit
and a soul and a body. An unbeliever has a soul and
a body, but he doesn't have a spirit. Remember when Adam died, his
spirit died and we're born into this world with a soul and a
body, but we don't have a spirit. We don't have a spiritual nature.
We're born dead in sin, but when God saves somebody, they now
have a spirit and a soul and a body, the new nature. And he
prays that their whole spirit and soul and body be preserved. kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then in verse 24, now Walter Groover told me this is his favorite
verse. That makes it interesting, doesn't
it? This is the favorite verse of Walter Groover. After Paul
says all these things, he says, faithful is he that calleth you. who also will do it. Faithful is he that calleth you. He called you by his grace. He
began a good work in you, and he's faithful. Here's one of
my favorite scriptures. I got a lot of favorite scriptures.
Here's one of them. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us of our sins. Notice, he doesn't say he's gracious
and merciful to forgive us of our sins, although he is, but
it says he's faithful. You see, he determined to do
it. He did it and He gives it to us in faithfulness to His
promise and He does it in strict justice. He's faithful and just. His justice demands my salvation. Now that's glorious. He's faithful
and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. Now notice it says, faithful
is he that calleth you who also will do it. All he requires of you, he does. He's the one who does it. He
doesn't leave one thing for you. All he requires, he does. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. It's God that worketh in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Pressure's off. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. Hold your finger there and turn
to Hebrews 13. Here the writer to the Hebrews
says the same thing Paul did, now the God of peace. You know, he's the God of peace. The God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in
you. that which is well pleasing in
his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. Faithful is he that calleth
you who also will do it. Paul says in verse 25, Brethren,
pray for us. Pray for me as the pastor. Pray
for these five types of people we saw. You and I are included
in that group. Maybe all five of them, I don't
know, you know. Pray for yourself. Lord be faithful to your word
and do these things for me and in me. And greet all the brethren,
verse 26, with a holy kiss. Now I want to have this attitude
about my brethren. I would like to be as lenient
toward them as I am to myself. Wouldn't you? I'd like to be
as lenient toward them as I am to myself. May God enable us
to be that way. Now the people in the church,
that's why I entitled this message, people in the church, beginning
right here, people in the church are flawed people, sinful people. They don't have a flawed Savior.
They have a mighty Savior. Thank God for our mighty Savior.
Let's pray together.