Open your Bibles with me to 1
Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians. It is so wonderful
to be here, and I'm embarrassed to get up after hearing such
a wonderful message. There's three things that I'd
like to say about what Brother Bruce had to say. First of all,
I'm very thankful that I was here to hear it. I'm very thankful that I understood
it. And thirdly, that I believe it. That's my hope. That's my
salvation. What do you preach? Oh, to be
able to sit and somebody preach to you like that and you understand
what they're saying and to believe. My heart burned within me while
he taught. Heart burned within me. Oh, what
a gospel. What a gospel. through First Thessalonians here
this evening, I wanted to look at seven aspects of a believer's
relationship with God. Seven aspects of a believer's
relationship with God. In the Scriptures, whenever you
find the word seven, it speaks of completion, it speaks of perfection. You know, when the high priest
went behind the veil, he sprinkled the blood seven times on the
altar. It means perfect acceptance before God as a sacrifice. Then
He speakled it seven times before the altar. That gave us a perfect
standing before God. But now, when we talk about seven
attitudes or aspects of our relationship with God and how we look at them,
we dare not talk of perfection or completeness. And though these
things are not perfect in us that I'm going to talk about,
we are desirous of them being perfect. And we look for the
day and long for the day. and all of these attitudes that
we have toward God in these aspects of our relationship will be perfected.
And I do know this, that every heaven-born son of God has the
characteristics of these seven different things towards God
tonight, as these Thessalonians did, and as I want us to look
at them together. I know every heaven-born son
of God has these. And first of all, look here in
verse thirteen of chapter two. He says here, and we talked about
this last night with some of the brethren up in Indiana, for
this cause also, thank we God, without ceasing. Because when
you receive the Word of God which you heard of us, you received
it not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of
God, which effectually worketh in you also in you that believe. You see, every believer receives
the Word of God. And he don't, you know, you receive
it through a man. A man's preaching. He preached.
But I got past Bruce preaching. I heard the Word. God was speaking. The Lord was speaking. And that's
what we receive. We receive, we hear it through men. Paul
said, I'll preach to you. Silas preached to you. Barnabas
preached to you. Simon Peter preached to you.
But you didn't receive it as the Word of a man. You received
it as the very Word of God itself. You received it as God's Word.
As it is in truth, it is God's Word. You see, beloved, look
with me over here in James chapter 1. How important is the Word?
Well, Bruce told us, you know, search the Word. Look into the
Word. That's what we're going to learn by. That's what we're
going to grow by. That's what we're begotten by. You see, it's the
word of truth that begots us. It's the word of truth. We're
born again by the incorruptible seed, by the very word of God.
It's said here in James chapter 1 and verse 18, of His own will,
of the will of God, begat He us with the word of truth. God
takes the word in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and He uses
that word as a hammer, as a fire, as a seed. And he takes that
word and he puts it in a man's heart. And this, I may be way
off base here, and if I am, there are plenty of preachers here
that could straighten me out. You know, this business of the
new birth, of regeneration, and being born again, being begotten
by the will of God, a begetting is a seed has to be planted.
And the heart has to be prepared for that seed to be planted.
And God puts that seed in a person's heart. He begets us by His own
will with the Word of Truth. And He puts that seed in our
heart, and that seed lays there. And it begins to germinate, and
it begins to grow, and it begins to form a person in that womb
or that heart. And as he hears that gospel,
hears that word of truth, that's why we want people to sit and
come and hear the gospel. Sit still and listen and learn
from the word. And that word begins to work,
and it waters, and it feeds, and it nourishes that seed that's
been planted. And then there comes a time when
you say, I heard that. I believe that. That seed germinates,
and it comes into a new creature. Comes out as a new person. Comes
out as one who now sees God. I know God. I hear God. What
is it that makes you keep coming and keep coming and keep coming?
And you say, I'm not a believer yet. Why haven't I? God's forming
Christ in you. God is forming Christ in a man's
heart with the Word. Is that not right? And that's
why we receive the Word as the Word of God. Now, look what else
he said here. In verse 19, Of his own will
begat he us with the Word of truth. Wherefore, my beloved
brethren, let every man be strict to hear." Oh, my. Pay attention when God's speaking.
Pay attention when the preacher's preaching, if he's preaching
the gospel. Be slow to speak. Don't run up and start saying,
I don't know if you're right about that preacher or not. And
be real slow to get angry at the preacher because you don't
agree with what he says. Because the wrath of man don't
work the righteousness of God. So just lay apart everything.
Lay apart that Filthiness, superfluity, of naughtiness. Receive with
meekness all pliability. Submission, the encrusted Word,
which is able to save your soul. And watch this, that Word's able
to save you. Not only save you from your sins,
but save you from error. Save you from yourself. Save
you from false doctrines. Save you from tradition. It's
the Word that saves us. And watch this now. But be ye
doers of the Word, and not ears only. Oh, my. So let's go back
over Thessalonians. You see, we receive the Word
as the Word of God. Oh, I know what it was like. I used to be able, and I know
we're not to mention the things that's passed and the things,
glory and things that we were of now changed, and I'm not going
in this, but I used to be able to quote chapters of the Bible
at a time. I made an effort at it. I could just pull them, just
roll them off. And I thought that that was something. Didn't know what they meant.
Didn't know what they said. But everybody thought, man, that
guy's a walking Bible. That's anybody's particular.
Well, what's that got to do with anything? If we could get one
verse of Scripture into a person's heart or mind while we're talking,
while we're preaching. My soul. And they received that
as it is indeed the Word of Truth. Ain't that something? I quit
trying to do that years ago. I finally learned the gospel.
I found out I was dealing with the Word of God. Oh, listen,
we received, look back over here now in chapter 1, verse 6. And here's
how we received the Word. And you became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction.
Much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. What does that mean?
You see, we received the Word in much affliction. The Holy
Ghost comes and plows up that soil. He piles up that soil. He works on that heart. He works
on that mind. He's got to tear down that place.
He's got to tear down them playhouses. He's got to tear down them traditions.
He's got to tear down all the stuff that we thought was right.
And He prepares it for that Word, prepares it for that blessed
seed. And I'll tell you something else about receiving this Word.
We receive not only as it is the Word of truth, but we receive
the love of the truth. The love of the truth, and that's
the great difference between true religion and false religion.
The reason God sends men a strong delusion that they should believe
a lie and be damned is because they receive not the love of
the truth. It's the difference in receiving
the truth and loving the truth, hugging up to the truth, enjoying
the truth, delighting in the truth, embracing the truth, submitting
to the truth, delighting in the truth, and not afraid to tell
the truth. Oh, and we love it. We love it. That's why Simon Peter, you know,
they'd been fishing all night and the Lord got in his boat
and said, cast out from here, let down your net for a draft.
And he said, oh Lord, we fished all night and we caught nothing.
But he said, nevertheless, that's your word. Nevertheless, it's your word.
Let me show you another thing about a believer. I know we all
receive the word as it is the word of truth. And we also, every
heaven-born son of God turns to God. Look back up here in
verse 9 of chapter 1. He said, For they themselves
show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you
turn to God from idols. You see, we turn to God. And
in turning to God, when you turn to Him, you're turning away from
something. When you turn to one thing, you've got to turn away
from something else. And what do we turn away from? Turn away
from idols. And I tell you, we have plenty
of them. Plenty of them. And you know, you don't have
to have an idol made out of sticks or stones or wood to have an
idol. Right up here, there's plenty
of them. Ain't that right? Plenty of them. I heard Tim James
say one time, the word imagination comes from that root word of
the image. And up here, he said, isn't it
our imagination's a God factor? We just manufacture them one
right after the other. Just pop them out right up here.
You see, and I'll tell you what some of the idols that God turned
us from when we turned to God. What, Son of Bride? Marriage?
Marriage? Boy, we thought we were as good
as anybody else and we was. But when you're as good as anybody
else, that don't amount to nothing when there ain't nobody no good.
Ain't that right? I've told you all this before.
The guys that was building our house years or 30-something years
ago, I was in a meeting, and I asked them, one of them's up
on a ladder, and I stood down and talked to him. I said, I'm
preaching up here in Sunset tonight. He said, won't you thugs come
up and hear me? And they said, oh, there's too
many hypocrites up there. And I said, well, come on, two
more won't make any difference. That's right. You know, that's
the truth. But we have these idols of our
marriage. And, you know, in this age in which we live, They want
everybody to be on this. They don't want nobody to be
down. They want nobody to be too high. They take everybody
and try to put them... If you run a race, and if you
win the race, you ought to get first place. But that's not the
way they do it now. If you run a race and there's
a hundred people, everybody's going to get exactly the same
medal. You know why? Because they want everybody to
have a good opinion of themselves. They want everybody to feel real
good about themselves. And beloved, I'm telling you,
we have turned to God from that idol of feeling good about ourselves
in the sight of God. We have found out that we're
worms, that we're nothing, that we're grasshoppers, that we're
grass, that we're trash. My wife has got flowers and more
flowers and more flowers. And they're beautiful. And I'm
telling you, but they'll come out and they'll be so beautiful.
And we sit and we enjoy them. We walk and smell of them. But
none of them last more than ten or twelve days and they're gone.
And that's what we are. Ten or twelve days and we're
gone. We bloom up, we blossom, and
we look good. But God said we're flesh and
we're grass. And, oh, we turn from that. We
turn from our morality. And we turn from doing the best
we can. And, oh, I've heard people say,
well, I've believed the Bible all my life. Well, you've believed
it too long. Huh? Oh, if you believed it, if you
really believed it, you'd bow to Christ. If you really believed
it, you'd believe in God. If you really believed it, you'd
come to Christ. If you really believed it, you'd be through
with your self-righteousness. Ain't that right? And, oh, and
he says, not only do we turn from God, but we turn to the
living God. The living God. And not only
the living God, but the true God. God's many, Lord's many
in this world. But He said, we turn to the living
God. The living God, the true God, takes the place of false,
of self, of idols, of traditions, of false beliefs. And oh, and
I tell you, beloved, a man can't serve two masters. And this is
a fact. I've seen it too many times. I've seen it, and I'm getting
a little age on me, but I tell you that I've seen this in most
folks. A lot of people I've met over
the years have just enough religion that they don't feel comfortable
in the services, and they don't feel comfortable in the world.
They've got just enough religion to make them miserable. They're
miserable in the world because they've got enough religion that
won't let them be as well as they want to be. And they ain't
got enough world in them that won't let them Give everything
up to Christ. So they're caught in this miserable
place. Pretend we're in church and pretend
we're in the world. Be a pigger or a popper. Be one
or the other. Give it up. Either come to Christ
or go to the world. We've turned from idols to God. I was miserable when I was in
the world, and I get miserable over a lot of things, but I don't.
That's one master we've got, and that's our dear Lord Jesus.
And then not only do we turn to God and believe we receive
the Word as the Word of truth, but look here in verse 1 of chapter
1. We dwell in God. All of us as believers, we dwell
in God. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus,
under the church of the Thessalonians, watch this now, which is in God
the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a wonderful
place to be. The church which is in the Father,
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's a church
here tonight. There's people in this building
that's in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Blood-bought children
of God, washed in His blood, sanctified by His Spirit. Know
the living God. Turn to God. They receive the
word as the word of truth. And everyone who's in that church
is in God the Father and in Christ Jesus. That's where they live.
That's where they dwell. That's our hiding place. You
know, over in Job 22, it says that the Almighty shall be thy
defense. You see, this is the believer's
refuge and resting place. You see, when a soul receives
that Word of Truth, when a soul turns from his idol to the living
God, he's in God and he's in Christ. That's why the Scripture
says, Christ, He is our life. He's not the most important part
of our life, and you know that. He is our life. What have we
got apart from Him? Nothing. Death, destruction,
depravity, damnation. Our Lord said, I'm the vine,
you're the branches. And it's by Him we live and move.
The name of the Lord is a strong tower, and the righteous run
into it and are saved. He's our life. He's our strength. We say, Oh, Lord, give me strength.
Oh, Lord, be my strength. Be my strength. Don't give me
strength. Be my strength. You've seen people
that's went through some great, great trials. And they tell you
every day, I don't know if I'm going to make it. I just don't
know if I'm going to make it. I just don't think I can. I don't
think I can. I don't think I can make it.
I know a dear lady's lost her husband, and she's just lost.
She's lost. She's lost, and I feel so sorry
for her. I'd do anything to get her out from under the burden
and the darkness she's in. But she still, she makes it from
day to day. Why? Because Christ is a stranger. She's in such darkness and such
sadness of heart that she is not even conscious that Christ
is her strength every day. When you look at her, you just
see sadness and sorrow. You see heaviness. You see her
just wandering around, don't know how, no anchor. Because
she lost this one that was so dear to her all these years.
It was her life, you know, they won, we won. But I tell her, I say, you know,
you know how you made it today? Christ is strength. As your days
be, so shall your strength be. Ain't that right? Whether you're
aware of it or not, wherever you're at, whatever you're going
through, He is our strength. This whole thing, you've seen
that old poem, what is it about two footprints in the sand? One
footprint, then two footprints, then one footprint? You know,
you're walking along and you say, Lord, why didn't you Walk
with me, and you know, I forget how it goes. But anyway, there's
only going to be one footprint. Only one. It's only his. Only
his. No, I tell you, he found us when
we was lost sheep. Believe me when I tell you this.
He found us when we was lost. We was lost sheep. And he went
into the wilderness. And that's where every one of
us was. We was in the wilderness of depravity and darkness and
sin. and rebellion and enmity. We
was against God. We was against everything that's
right and true. We was in the wilderness of religion.
We were in the wilderness of false protections. And He comes
where we was and found us. Found us. And we didn't even
know we was lost. And when He found us is when
we found out we was lost. And when He found us, He laid
us on His shoulders. And beloved, I'm telling you,
because the way He talked about the Lord tonight, He has the
power and he has the ability to carry every one of his children
on his shoulders. It says the government should
be on his shoulder. One shoulder's got the government
on it and the other shoulder's got us on it. You know? Oh, what a wonderful place to
be. I mean, I'm on his shoulder. Dwell in him. Know him. Walk with him. Talk with him.
He's alive. His blood flows through our souls
and keeps us clean and keeps us pure and keeps us encouraged
and keeps us believing and keeps us cleaving. Oh, my. Oh, and we're satisfied. I'll
tell you something, we're satisfied in our dwelling place, aren't
you? Huh? In fact, we're afraid to even
think about venturing out. You hear these fellas, these
freewheelers talking about, you know that we'll say no man can
pluck you out of here. Well, you can pluck yourself
out. Who would want to do that? If you're going through a storm,
you're going to get yourself in a place where you try your
best not to get hurt in it. Well, I'll tell you what, in
Christ, in Christ, He's our dwelling place, our hiding place, our
refuge. We dwell in God and in Christ.
I don't want the tiniest part of my finger I don't want no
part of me out of Him. Do you? Oh, I want to be in Him. Wrapped in Him. Embraced by Him. Walk in Him and Him walking in
me. Oh my, we're satisfied. We're
not venturing out. And guess what? He Himself said,
I'll never open my hands. Ain't that what He said? No man will pluck you out of
mine. Now let me tell you another one. One of these wonderful characteristics
of a believer. They serve God. Now, I'm not
crazy about the thing about serving God, but let me see if I can
say something about it different than what religion says about
it. Back up here in verse 9 of chapter 1 again. For they themselves
show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you
turn to God from idols to serve, to serve the living and true
God. And oh my, what does it mean
to serve God? That's a Bible word. That's a
Bible word. It's a wonderful word. What does
it mean to serve the living and true God? Our Master was a servant.
Our Master was a servant. Our Lord Jesus Christ came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and give his life a
ransom. But it's like a son serves his father. My son, I don't get
to see him very often. He was in last week and he's
35 years old. And there's nothing pleases him
better than waiting on me now. Calls from town, what can I bring
you daddy? What do you need? Can I bring
you anything? Can I take you anywhere? Loves waiting on his daddy. Delights
in him. Loves waiting on his mother.
And now, Mary and I have been married many years. And nothing,
nothing I enjoy better than waiting on her. Taking her a cup of coffee. She said, oh, I'd love a glass
of juice to go in the refrigerator and get it for her. Nothing I
like better than that. I love doing that. You know why
I love doing that? Because I love her. I love waiting
on her. I love when I'm going to get
her up from her nap, you know, on Sunday afternoons, I'll make
a fresh pot of coffee because she wants that coffee as quick
as she hits the floor. I got her a fresh pot waiting on her.
Because I love her. I want her to have what she wants. And she does me the same way.
Why walk for something? And I could say whatever she's got. I could
tell her that's what I get. You know why we do that? Because
we love one another. And you know why we serve the
true and living God? It's because we love Him. There's
not one law, not one law in this book that tells me that I've
got, that I have to serve God. that could make me serve Him
as a willing servant. I should have said that could
make me serve Him lovingly, willingly, gladly, thankfully, and joyfully. There's only one motive that
can cause that, and that's love. Ain't that right? I love waiting on you, and you
love waiting on me. We love waiting on one another. We love doing
that. We enjoy doing things. Don't
we, Henry? We love getting up and doing
things for one another. fellowshiping and talking and
buying one another meals, giving one another things. Oh, and guess
what? Our Master, whom we serve, is the
best Master in the universe. Has He ever had you or wanted
you to do anything that wasn't right and good and true and just
and holy and righteous? Oh, what a Master we have! And
let me tell you something about this, sir, being a servant. We've
been set free to serve. No law could make us do it gladly
like we do. You see, now we're free to talk
to him and pray to him. and ask Him what His will is
for. Lead us and guide us. We're free
to witness about His glory. We're free to give of the things
that He gives us. We're free to labor in the gospel. We're free to love and serve
one another. We've been set free from selfishness
and self-centeredness. Oh, my. We serve a blessed Master. Oh, a blessed Master. What a
blessed Master. Let me show you something real
quick. I don't know how long I've been at it, but let me show
you this over here in chapter 1 and verse 3. The Thessalonians
here are padding for us in the character of their service before
the Lord. And you know the place I pastor,
this is the way they are down there. I mean those folks. My
goodness, you know how they serve the Lord? Serving one another.
You know how they serve the Lord? Serving folks who come there.
You know how they serve the Lord? Serving me, waiting on me, loving
me. Ain't that a wonderful thing? Most folks think about serving
the Lord, going around passing out tracts, butting and holding
people, and tithing, and reading your Bible so many chapters a
day and all that. No, no, no. Boy, look here. Now, let me give you these real
quick. These Thessalonians are padded for us. The character
of the service was this. He said in verse 3, Remembering
without ceasing your work of faith. Their service was a work
of faith. We do what we do because we believe.
We believe Him, Todd. We trust Him. We look to Him.
And it's a work of faith. We do what we do because we believe. And then not only that, but it
was a labor of love. They wasn't what they did because
they loved. They loved. They loved to do it. They enjoyed
doing it. And it was in patience of hope. They just patiently
waited. Hope. And their service was in
the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful master. And
then this is what I love about it. On top of all that, their
service was in the sight of God. What they did, they was conscious
that God saw them, that God was watching them, that they was
doing what they was doing in God's sight. Theirs wasn't just
our service. They didn't sit on the bucket
while the boss was off, went to get some gas for his Bulldozer,
they said, on the bucket till he got back. And when he got
back, he jumped up and acted like he was busy. No, they was
conscious. God was watching. They didn't just give eye service.
And oh, and our master, one is our master, and it's him we seek
to please. Let me show you one other real quickly now. Here
in verse 10 of 1st chapter 1. Here's one of these characteristics
that we have as believers. And we're going to wait for his
son from heaven. We're waiting for the son of
God. We're waiting for Christ from heaven. And you know, our
Lord said he'd come again. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again.
I'll come again, receive you unto myself that where I am,
there you may be also. You know, it's like a father.
He goes off and he's off in business and working and And He calls
and He says, I'm on my way home. I'm coming home. Be there in
a little while. Saved by faith. Believe God,
the promise. And yet we're saved by hope.
And what hope does is it runs to the window and watches for
Him to come down the road and pull up the driveway. And that's
what we do. We believe that He's coming and
we're waiting in hope, looking in hope. Huh? We look for the
glorious appearing of our God, great God and Savior, our Lord
Jesus Christ. We live, we do, and we act as
if our hour is always at hand. The psalmist said, my expectation
is from the Lord. And beloved, what a future we
have. What a future we have. Oh, what a future. I've read
the back of the book. What a future we have. I've seen
a multitude that no man can number gathered around the throne. I
hear them singing songs to the praise of the Lamb that was slain.
And oh, beloved, what glory we have to look forward to. We're
waiting. He'll come. We're waiting. He'll
call. We're waiting. And He'll receive
us when He does. And guess where He'll receive
us? He'll take us to be with Him where He is. And so shall
we ever, ever be with the Lord. Oh, my! Who couldn't want that? Oh, and then look what we do. We learn of God over here in
chapter 4 and verse 9. Chapter 4 and verse 9. Oh, this
is what we do. We've been taught of God. It
said in 1 Thessalonians 4, 9, But as touching brotherly love,
ye need not that I write unto you. For you yourselves are taught
of God. Taught of God. To love one another. Taught of God. For God to take
and teach it. Oh my. Now you keep that. Look
over here in Isaiah 54. Just a moment. Look in Isaiah
54. Look in Isaiah 54 a minute. Oh, you're
taught of God. Oh, how we want to be taught
of God. How I'd love for God to come among us and teach us.
And this says here in verse 13 of Isaiah 54. And he says, And
you are taught of God, and all thy children, all thy children
shall be taught of the Lord. And look at the fruit of being
taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. Oh, here he says you're taught
of God. You yourselves are taught of God. What does God teach you?
He teaches you to love one another. Let me tell you something about
this school, being part of God. There's no graduates from it.
You go out here to college, you can get a degree, you can graduate.
But you'll never graduate from God's school. In fact, when we
get into eternity, we're still going to be learning. In the
ages to come, He's going to show us the exceeding riches of His
grace and kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. And I tell
you, beloved, and we're always learning, and oftentimes we have
to learn the same lessons over and over and over and over. I
do. You probably don't, but I do.
I'm a slow, slow, slow learner. I remember my sister. I've got
a sister a little older than me. She's beautiful. And I remember
when we were just little kids, She was in school, and they was
trying to teach her something, and she couldn't get it. And
she'd come home, and she was trying to learn. She was trying
to learn. And I forget who done it. We was staying with somebody.
But they, she kept trying to teach her, and they had a pencil.
And she couldn't get it, and they just broke that pencil over
her head. She said, you're so dumb, you
can't get it. And you broke the pencil over her head. That wasn't
a good thing to do. That's not, that's not, wasn't
the right thing to do. You ain't gonna teach nobody breaking a
pencil over their head. But I'll tell you this much.
God won't break pencils over our head, but he's going to keep
us in his school. He's going to teach us. And I
want to be taught, don't you? You know, the scripture said
over 1 Samuel that David sat before the Lord and Mary. You know, the Lord said, Martha
come to her and said, Lord, she's covered about many things. Don't
you care about what's going on? Tell Mary to come in here and
help me. And he said, Martha, Martha, you're covered about
many things. But Mary has chosen that good part, and that was
sitting at His feet, learning. Our Lord said, take my yoke upon
you. And why? Learn of me. And it's a wise
man who sits at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ to learn. And
the Holy Ghost is our teacher. And the lesson that He's here
teaching us that we're going to learn is to love one another.
Love one another. We were sitting at dinner today,
and we were talking. And I told the brethren this. I said, if
we're going to love one another, we're going to have to love one
another the way we are. If you love me, you've got to take me
the way I am. Because I can't change. I mean,
my personality's fixed. My personality's fixed. I mean,
it's done. I mean, I can't be no different
than what I am. So if you're going to love me,
you're going to love me like I am. If I love you, Todd, I've got to
love you the way you are. Warts, blemishes, faults. Weaknesses? Inabilities? Aggravations? The things that aggravate about
women? After you've been around people long enough, and the things
that aggravate you become endearments. You know, being married long
enough, and the things that aggravate you, they become endearments
to you. Hi, I'm Cesar Sween. Oh, God take us in hand. Oh, please, we laugh at the ever-believer
in this building tonight. would love for God to say, Lord,
set me down. I want to sit at your feet, and
I want you to take me in hand. And I'm a slow learner, and be
patient with me. Be patient with me, Lord, please.
I hear something, I say, I'm going to remember it, and I won't
get out of the building, it'll be gone. So, Lord, please be
patient with me and take me in hand and teach me. Teach me. I'm a first grader. Please teach
me. Teach me. Just be part of God. Oh, God, teach me. And then,
last of all, let me show you the last one, this aspect of
a believer. In chapter 2 and verse 12. Read verse 11 first. And as you
know, how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you
as a father, does his children. That's the way the apostle here
considered these people, as his children, like a father with
his children. And I exhorted you to do this, that you would
walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and
glory. Oh, to walk with God. Walk with
God. And to walk worthy. What kind
of a walk did we walk that's worthy of God? You know, He's holy, He's glorious,
He's righteous, He's eternal, He's immutable, He's all-wise,
He's omnipotent. What would we do? Any walk with
God, and what a holy occupation it is. Oh, to walk as becoming
a son of God, to walk in His love, to walk in His fullness,
to walk in His power. Well, I could probably tell you
more of what it's not. To walk worthy of God, and it
is to walk worthy, because I... But it's not walking worthy of
Him when we complain about Him, complain about things that go
on in our lives. That's not walking worthy of
Him. It's not walking worthy of Him to be discontented with
what goes on. It's not walking worthy of Him
to complain. It's not walking worthy of Him
to be stingy. It's not walking worthy of Him
to fight and bite and devour and dispute and argue and hold
grudges. It's not walking worthy of Him
to be envious. It's not walking worthy of Him
to hold grudges. And if we walk worthy of Him,
it'll be because He makes us, He enables us. All worthiness
and all ability and all strength. that we ever have to walk with
God comes from Him. Enoch walked with God, and I
believe there are some people here tonight that walked with
God. You know, they talk about the law as a believer's rule
of life. What did Abraham walk by then before the law was given?
What did Enoch walk by before the law was given? What did Noah
walk by? They walked by faith in the Hindus.
And that's why we walk by. We walk with God by faith. And
we want to walk and talk and speak and regard Him as He is
in this world. Before the world, God is sovereign,
eternal, immutable. Before our heart, He's the all-wise
God. He's too good to do wrong, He's
too good to be unkind, and He's too wise to do wrong. And whatever
He gives me tomorrow, it'll be just exactly what's best for
me. Todd, when He struck you down with cancer twice, that
was exactly what was best for you. I don't understand it. I really, truly don't. But I'm
not going to question Him about it. And I love Him, and I know
you love Him, even though He doesn't. But you say, it's the
Lord. That's what I'm talking about. That's walking worthy
of God. Henry, you're getting old, and you're hearing bands. Gettin' God. But you hear it's gettin' bad.
Been bad. But that's the Lord, ain't it? In a way, it's a great
blessing. In another way, I know it's tough.
But it's the Lord. We kiss his hand and say, thank
you, Lord. Don't we? And I thank the Lord
for every single one of you and all the fellowship we've had
all these years. And a few years from now, we'll still see one
another. We'll still be walking with God. and we'll still be
honoring Him by His blessed grace, won't we? God bless you.