I want you to open your Bibles
first to Acts 17. I'll give you a little background
of this epistle to the church at Thessalonica. Paul and Silas
came to Thessalonica after they left Philippi. You remember the
revival at Philippi. That's when God saved Lydia,
the seller of purple. That's when the Lord saved Philippian
jailer. God blessed at Philippi. So Paul
left there and went down to Thessalonica where he preached for about three
weeks. And the Lord saved a large number
of people. You read about it here in Acts
17, verse 1, now when they had passed, through Amphipolis and
Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of
the Jews. There wasn't a synagogue at Philippi. There were not enough Jews there,
but there was a synagogue in Thessalonica. And Paul, as his manner was,
the reason he preached down by the river in Philippi, there
was no synagogue. And he inquired where the Jewish believers, the
Jewish people met for prayer, and they met down by the river.
So he went down there where those women were praying, and that's
when he preached. But usually Paul went to, came
into a city, he'd go to the synagogue. Because he was a Pharisee at
one time, a member of the Sanhedrin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. No! in every
synagogue. And he'd go there and preach.
Many times he was arrested and thrown in jail, cast out of the
synagogue. But wherever he went, he had
a right to go to the synagogue. He was a Jew. And he'd go there
and preach. And that's what he did. Verse
2, it says, And Paul, as his manner was, went in under them,
and three Sabbath days, on Saturday, Sabbath day, when they met, the
Jews, under the law. He reasoned with them out of
the Scriptures. He taught the Scriptures. What did he preach?
He preached the Scriptures, the Old Testament Scriptures. Isaiah
and Jeremiah and Moses' writings and Psalms. He taught them the
things we'll see in a moment out of the Scriptures. Opening
the scriptures. That's what it said, our Lord
opened to us the scriptures. Did not our hearts burn within
us as He opened to us the scriptures? Well, Paul opened the scriptures.
Here's what they mean. They're not scriptures. They're not just a book of proverbs
and sayings and stories and history. It's a story of message of Christ. Opening and alleging. That Christ,
the Christ, this is talking about the Christ, the Messiah, this
is promised in the Old Testament, must need suffering. In other
words, Israel looked for a Messiah, but they were looking for a king.
They looked for a kingdom, but a kingdom of meat and drink and
political power over other nations. deliver to come, but just to
deliver them out of the bondage of the Roman government, not
out of the bondage of Satan and sin. So what He is opening from
the Old Testament Scriptures is the Christ must suffer. It's got to be the death of the
Lamb. The Passover Lamb's got to die.
Blood has to be shed. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. And risen from the dead. He must suffer, bleed, die, be
buried, and rise from the good tomb, this Messiah, this Christ. And here's his message, that
this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is the Christ. And Paul
would go to the synagogue on the Sabbath days, and all those
people there following Moses and circumcision and the law
and all these things, looking for the Messiah. And Paul would
go there and open the Old Testament Scriptures and show them how
their idea of a Messiah was all wrong. You remember his disciples
used to say to him, Lord, will you restore the kingdom to Israel
now? Are we going to get on the backs of those Romans, those
Italians, those Gentiles? Are we going to be exalted where
David was and Solomon? My kingdom is not meat and drink.
My kingdom is to do the will of my Father. My kingdom is righteousness
and peace and salvation. And the Messiah must suffer,
die, rise again. Then there'll be a kingdom. And this Jesus, whom you crucified,
is the Christ. And some of them believed. Some
of them believed. and consorted, that word is associated,
you can write that down in the margin, they joined, they associated,
they fellowshiped with Paul, they believed his message, they
believed the gospel, they associated with Paul and Silas and the devout
Greeks, a great multitude, this is a large crowd of people, believed
the gospel, the chief women, not a few. One handful, it was
a pretty good-sized congregation there at Thessalonica in three
weeks. They believed. God sent His servant, anointed
His servant with the Spirit, and blessed the preaching of
the gospel. And that's how men are saved, and there's a whole
crowd of them. All right, let's go to 1 Thessalonians. This is the church that Paul's
writing to now, this church. This is years later. Paul's writing
to this church at Thessalonica, and he says in verse 1, Paul
and Silas and Timothy was with them, to the church of the Thessalonians,
which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
be unto you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'll read verse 2. I thank God. I give thanks
to God always for you all. Now, the apostle wisely gives
God all the glory for this church at Thessalonica. Gives God the
glory for these people, for their faith, for their hearing the
gospel, for their being a church. Now, Paul labored hard. Paul
suffered. He left. He was comfortable in
Philippi. He was staying at the house of
Lydia. She opened her home for he and the disciples. And he
went down here again. into this den of lions of hatred
and anger and persecution, and preached the gospel among these
Jews. He was beaten so many times. He was stoned. He was thrown
in prison. And he suffered. And he went
down and preached to them. He was faithful to the Word.
He had gifts and talents and ability, and he preached to them
and reasoned with them and talked to them, and they were saved.
But he doesn't take any glory for it. He doesn't praise himself. He
takes no credit, no glory whatsoever for anything that was done at
Thessalonica. He doesn't write any memoirs.
He doesn't name a church for himself. He doesn't take any
of the praise or glory. He's like John the Baptist, he's
a boy. And he says here in verse 2, I give thanks to God always,
not just occasionally, but always for you. I give thanks to God
for you. God's the one that called you.
saved you. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us, with His workmanship,
Paul said this about himself. He said, I am what I am by the
grace of God. And he knew that was true of
everybody else. You are what you are, not by the works of men, the
will of men, but the grace of God. I thank God. And listen
to that verse carefully. I thank God always for you. At all times. At all times. And I thank God always for you,
all of you. All of you. The babes and the
elders. The old and the young. The forgotten. I read one time somebody said,
don't forget the forgotten. All of you. I thank God, he said,
for all of you. each and every one of you. And
I pray for you. I make mention of you in my prayers.
In verse 3, I can identify with this verse. As I was working
on this verse, I called to mind a lot of things, a lot of people,
a lot of things. Paul's writing back to this church
where he labored, not as long as I have here, but a long time
for him. He was a traveling evangelist,
a traveling missionary, and he didn't stay in places very long,
but he stayed there three weeks. But he called to mind some things
about this situation and these people, and it gave him great
delight and great pleasure, great comfort. He said, I remember,
I remember, without ceasing, I remember your work of faith.
I remember, some of you believe, I remember that first meeting,
he said, down there in the synagogue and the meetings after that.
I remember when God worked faith in your heart. I saw you when
you received the gospel. I saw the light of understanding
flash across your face. I saw the results. I saw many
didn't believe. That's when we read that while
ago. Many didn't believe. But you did. You did. And I remember it. and you associated with me and
fellowshiped with me and you weren't ashamed of me or my message.
And I remember that. He said, I remember that. I call
that to mind. Your work of faith. You believe
God. And everything you did was a
result of believing God. And he said, I remember something
else. I remember your labor of love. I remember how you loved
the Redeemer and how you loved me and how you loved my companions. You remember Lydia came to him. Paul was a traveling evangelist,
but he was a wandering Jew, too. He didn't have any place to stay.
He came into Philippi, God sent him down there, and this dear
lady, Lydia, was converted. And she said to Paul and Silas,
she said, Now if you count me a child of God, make my home
your headquarters. My house is your house. My food's
your food. My comforts are your comforts."
And I remember that, Paul said. I haven't forgotten that. Look
back here at Acts 16, 15, what she's saying. That'd be good
to read that, Acts 16, 15. Yeah. And when she was baptized, Acts
16, 15, her household, she besought us saying, now, if you have judged
me to be faithful to the Lord, you've got any confidence in
my in my believing God, you come to my house, and you just stay
there." And she constrained him. He said, you know, all of us
are polite. We said, no, we'll just go down here to some place. She said, no, sir. No, sir. You come to my house. You look
at verse 40 in that same chapter, when he left there, To go to
Thessalonica, verse 40, chapter 16, he was still there at her
house. They went out of prison. You
know, they put him in prison in the Philippian jail. He entered
back into the house of Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren,
they comforted them and departed. He still—Lydia's house was headquarters. And when God saved her, Paul
went to her house and Silas and their disciples. She took care
of them, labor of love. She loved Christ, loved these
messengers. And then they put Paul in jail,
and when he let him out of jail, he came back to her house. That is a tremendous, tremendous
testimony and evidence when a person's house is headquarters for the
gospel. And he said, I remember that.
I haven't forgotten that. And then down here he said, I
remember your patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. You
haven't moved from the gospel. You're still there. You're still
there. You still believe in the gospel,
no matter the trials, no matter the troubles, no matter the misunderstandings,
the hurt feelings, and all the other junk that comes in this
world, difficulties. You're still there. I remember
your patience. long-suffering, continuing in
the gospel, patience of hope, never lost your hope. And our
Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father. I've got
a lot of memories like Paul, people to whom I preached here
for a long time, but back yonder for four years in a synagogue, in a synagogue, in a place of
religion, where people were meeting in form and ceremony and organization
and denominationalism, worshiping Arminianism and freewillism.
God brought me there, taught me the gospel, and I preached
to those people for four years. And some of them believed. Many
didn't. Many didn't. And those that did,
they opened their hearts and their homes to me. Those that
didn't, they closed their homes. Those that didn't believe the
gospel, some of them said, well, we'll quit giving to the church
and we'll starve him and his family, and they'll have to leave
Ashland. But I remember those that believed,
and I remember those that stood with us and associated with us. Like Paul said, they're associated
with Paul. And they opened their hearts and their homes and their
pocketbooks and they came over here with us and built a place
where we could worship God in peace and in spirit and in truth. That's three things that are
important to worship. Worship God in peace. Worship
God in spirit. Not form and ceremony. Worship
God in truth. And I'm looking at some of you
right now. And others have joined with us. And I remember, I remember
those things. I remember without ceasing. Paul
said, I'll never forget you. Never will. Your work, faith,
your labor, love, and your patience and hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Not in me. Not in any of the
preachers that pass through, but in the Lord Jesus Christ. See, you can't establish this
kind of faithfulness and fellowship on a denomination or a man or
a program or a doctrine, this kind of lasting, loving, living
fellowship is in Christ. And verse 4, he said, I know
your election. I know, brethren, beloved of
God, I know your election of God. I know your God's elect. I know God's chosen you to salvation.
The Apostle Paul was never ashamed of the word election. He used
it often. He wasn't afraid to use it either. In a world that hates it, he
wasn't ashamed to use it, because if a man wasn't a friend of God,
he wasn't a friend of Paul. He wasn't ashamed of election,
he wasn't afraid of it. He that would be a friend of
the world is the enemy of God, Scripture says. And this is the
way he began his letter to the Ephesians. Turn over there just
a moment. This is the way he begins a letter to the Thessalonian
church. This is the way he begins a letter
to the Ephesian church. This is the way that He began
the letter to Titus. This is the way he began the
letter. Paul, Peter began the letter to the general churches.
He said, elect according to the foreknowledge of God. So, brethren,
your election of God. Look at Ephesians 1, verse 3. Bless God. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us. He's
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in
Christ. according as He had chosen us.
He chose us. He chose us in Christ. He chose us in Christ before
the world began, before the foundation of the world, not because of
what we've done, not waiting on us to cast it aside and vote.
The vote was in, counted. The election was over before
the world began. The election was over. Church
was nominated and elected in Him, that's right. And He
did it that we should be holy, not because we were, but that
we should be in Christ. Holy, without blame, before Him
in love. And He predestinated us to the
adoption of children. He predestinated every step of
the way. He made all the arrangements. I told my class this morning
how old Jacob, he just Man, he flubbed up, and fumbled up, and
messed up, and everything he could think of, and all these
things, but God brought him to Bethel. And there he revealed
the gospel to him. Bethel. If he hadn't have stolen
his brother's birthright, he wouldn't have been at Bethel.
If he hadn't have been running from Esau, he wouldn't have been
at Bethel. He'd have been staying with his mama. She'd have been
feeding him. making eggs every morning and stuff in the evening,
but he had to leave because he was in trouble. He made a mess.
He messed up. But it was all in God's purpose. For us to be where we are, when
we are there, and to hear what we hear. Jacob wasn't even aware of the
place where he was. He went there to take a nap. And while he was taking a nap,
God woke him up. Predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself, verse 5, according to
the good pleasure of his will. He'll make you willing when he's
willing, and you'll be willing when he's willing. To the praise of the glory of
his grace wherein he made us accepted. He hath made us, He
hath created us, He hath saved us, He hath sanctified us, He
hath justified us, He hath made us meet sufficient to go to glory. Everything about us that live
eternally, He made it. There's nothing in you, of you,
or me, or about us that live eternally except what He made. God doesn't take anybody's natural
talent and do anything with it. I hear people say, well, boy,
we could use him. We can't use him that God uses
him. He'll mess this whole thing up. But he's so talented, she's
so talented, he sings, he does this, he'll mess up God's kingdom. Unless God takes away all his
natural abilities and natural pride and natural wisdom and
teaches him Christ. I'd rather hear a man who couldn't
sing a lyric sing about Christ than a fellow with the prettiest
voice in the world exalt himself singing a message. I'd rather hear a man preach
that stuttered who knew Christ than to hear one of these intellectual,
eloquent, literary giants mess up the gospel. And that's the
man God will use, the foolish, the nothings, not many wise,
not many noble. God can take a noble man, a wise
man, but I'll tell you this, He'll take all his confidence
out of his nobility and his wisdom. And he'll come to Christ stripped
naked, a fool for Christ's sake. Oh,
unashamed of election. He said, I thank God that you're
God's elect. Well, let me ask you this. Is
there some way that he knew they were God's elect? Of course, of course. You talk
about these people you've known through the years and their work
of faith, labor of love, patience of hope, and you feel pretty
confident they're God's elect. More than pretty confident, I
feel confident they're God's elect. And Paul did too, because
of two things. Now you remember this. Write this down up here. There are evidences of election
and there are effects of election. There are evidences of God's
election. Oh yeah, there are evidences,
and Paul gives them here. And there are effects of God's
election. Now here are the evidences. Look
at verse 5. Verse 4, he said, I know brethren,
beloved of God, your election of God, because, here's the first
evidence, our gospel came not unto you in word only. It did
come in word. Fellas, got to hear the gospel
in word at least. But the gospel came to you not
in word only, but in power. In the power of God. The gospel
becomes the power of God unto salvation. The gospel is preached
a lot of times. To a lot of people, to whom it
does not come in power, it comes in word. And they get mad, or they get
confused, or this, that, or the other.
It's not when people hear words, it's when they hear God's word. Hear God speak through His word.
The Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ has come
and given us an understanding. Oh my. That's the reason Paul
said, I know you're God's elect because you heard the gospel
in powerless, in the Holy Ghost, in the Holy Spirit, in assurance. God gave you an understanding.
He gave you assurance. He gave you confidence. He gave
you faith. You know what manner of men we
were among you. We didn't do it. God did it. We were just
men, that's all. Men with a message. Men who were
ambassadors of Christ. Men who were faithful. Men who
were committed. That's the only kind of men God
uses. But just men. But you heard the gospel and
power. And it really doesn't matter
to a true servant which servants you hear. Paul said, I plow and
the polis is watered, and God gives the increase. He that plows
is nothing, he that sows is nothing, he that reaps is nothing, he
that waters is nothing, it's God that gives the increase. Then the second thing he said,
and you became followers of us, you became associated with us. Now watch this, this is interesting,
and you became followers. You weren't coerced. You weren't
threatened. You weren't bought. You didn't
come because of a reward. You came to be followers. It was a work of God in you that
made you willing, voluntarily, lovingly. You were like Ruth's
daughter-in-law. Where you go, I go. The other
girl went home. There were two of them, remember?
And the other girl went home, but Ruth said, Naomi didn't threaten
her, Naomi didn't curse her, Naomi didn't tell her she needed
her. Don't ever, oh good gracious alive, to tell somebody, this
church needs men like you. That's an awful thing to say.
This church needs one person, that's Christ, the Spirit of
God. If you could turn that around,
you need this church. Now that's a white horse of another
color, isn't it? But don't you tell anybody we
need you or anything about you. Naomi didn't tell Ruth, I need
you, honey. You've got to go and help me.
I'm just a poor widower. I tell you, a poor widower with
a father that's a king is in good shape. That's right. In
good shape. My daddy's a king. I don't need
you. But she said, don't push me out. And treat me not to leave
you. I'm going with you. And he said,
you became followers of us and the Lord. And you received the word in
much affliction. Folks, they didn't cotton to
you after you heard the gospel. I heard one fellow in this church,
the Lord saved him and his kinfolks said to him, we liked you better
when you wasn't saved. Yeah, he was one of them then,
you know, religious without Christ. He liked you better when you
didn't know the gospel. Affliction. But you know with
the affliction came the joy of the Holy Ghost, didn't it? I
have meat to eat you know not of, Christ said to that bunch
of disciples. I have a rest you don't know
anything about. I have a joy amid afflictions
that I can't explain. And then verse 7, and you were
examples. to others. There was a time when
only God knew I was His child, and you were His child. Only
God knew it. There was a time only God... You didn't know it.
I didn't know it. God knew it. There was a time
that I knew it. I knew that I knew Him, and He
knew me. And then there comes a time when
other people know it. You become examples. There comes a time when other
people know it. It takes a while sometimes. But there was a time when he
was the only one that knew that we belonged to him. Then there
was one time we found out we belonged to him. And then by
his grace, some more folks found it out.
And you were examples. And then, verse 8, and you became
witnesses. From you sounded out the word
of the Lord, not only in Macedonia, Achaia, but in every place your
faith to God is spoken of, is spread abroad. I don't need to
speak anything about you. It's evidence, evidences of election. Is there a way, not infallible,
nothing about us infallible, but Paul speaks here so confidently
about these people and their election of God. Is there a way that it is evident
that a person knows God? I believe there is. And I'll
give you, I jotted down six things here that convince me of a person's
knowledge of, faith in, and love for the Christ and the gospel.
Here's the first one. That person in his eyes, in his
demeanor, in his conversation, is overwhelmed with the grace
of salvation. He's overwhelmed. He knows he's undeserving, unworthy. He's like David, he says, who
am I? No matter what he's blessed with, he still says, well, who
am I and what is my house? Why did the Lord choose me? That's a humility and a brokenness
of heart and spirit that's evident. Secondly, he's smitten with the
greatness of it. The greatness of God's salvation.
It's not just religion. It's not just turning over a
new leaf. It's not just talking about what I used to do and what
I do now. It's the greatness of that self. Behold what manner
of love that Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
sons of God. The greatness of it. Amazing
grace. How sweet the sound. A lot of
folks talk about grace, but there's no amazing in it. It's amazing
grace. I once was lost, and now I'm
found. That man said, I was born, now
I see! Hey, I see! This is the greatest thing that's ever
happened to me. It's the greatest thing that's ever happened to
me. And then thirdly, he's taken
up with the person. He's literally taken up with
the person of Christ. Paul was a Christ man. God forbid
that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ. I determine
no nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. God
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel of Christ.
Christ is all and in all. He's taken up with Christ. The
Lord Jesus Christ. My God, my Lord, my hope, my
Lord. Christ in you, he said, the hope
of glory. I prevail to Christ be formed in you. Christ, who
is my Lord, shall appear. Christ. People talk about my
church, my doctrine, my creed. Paul talked about my Savior,
my Lord. And then that person, I watch
him and listen to him, and he's convinced of the singleness of
Christ, the simplicity and singleness of Christ. There's none other
name. There's no other gospel. I don't
spend my time talking about my farewell brethren, or my Arminian brethren, or my
Catholic brethren. If a person is a confirmed freewheller,
Arminian or Catholic, he's lost. He doesn't know Christ. There's
one gospel. And Paul never compromised it.
He said, if any man preach any other gospel than the gospel
of Christ, let him be damned. And this person, who's been saved by the grace
of God, is convinced there's none other name unto heaven given
among men. That's the reason I'm convinced
that Billy Graham is a false prophet. Because he said right
here, played on the tape, there are other ways to God other than
Christ. And there is not. I am the way, the
truth, and the light, and no man comes to the Father but by
me. And any man who hasn't heard
the name of Christ and come to love the name of Christ and believe
the name of Christ doesn't know Christ. He doesn't know God. He that hath not the Son hath
not the Father. That's just so now. I know that's
not popular, and I know that won't get you a meeting at the
First Baptist Church, but that's the truth. And you say, are there ways you
can know a man is one of God's elect? Yeah. He's overwhelmed
with the grace of it. He's smitten with the greatness
of it. He's taken over the person of it, and he knows it's the
only gospel. I'm not mad at the rest of the
world now. I want to be neighbors and friends. And I want the freedom to worship
God, and therefore they've got to have their freedom to worship
idols. And I'd go to war to defend their right to preach what they're
preaching, because I want the right to preach what I'm preaching.
And you can't have the right to preach what you're preaching
unless they have the right to preach what they're preaching. Isn't
that right? You understand that? And it's okay. But I'm not joining
with them. I'm God's son. And the fifth
thing, he's persuaded of the certainty of it. The certainty
of it. I know whom I have believed. Paul said, and I'm confident,
persuaded, he's able to keep that which I've committed to
him. Confident. Now, he said, if any man like
wisdom, let him ask of God, but let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering, for he that wavereth. Let not that man think he'll
receive anything of God, anything of God. It's Christ, and Christ
alone. I'm as certain of it as God reigns. Certain. And he that has begun
a good work will finish it. Here's the sixth thing. That
person, like in verse 8, from you sounded out the gospel. That
person prays for his children, his family, his friends, his
neighbors that do not know Christ. He witnesses, he wants them to
know Christ. He wants them to be delivered
from bondage. He wants them to be delivered
from false religion. He prays for them. He witnesses
to them. And he gives so that the preachers
can go preach to him. Through these years, you've been
a missionary. You're people who have these
evidences of election. But election is not salvation.
It's untrue salvation. And you realize that men have
to hear the Word. So you've sent missionaries.
You've got missionaries in Africa, in France, in Mexico. You send tapes all over the world.
We've got television programs. There's no telling how many people
that I preach to every Sunday. No telling how many. Thousands. That's right. Television in Oakland,
California. It's a tremendous metropolitan,
populous area. In New Jersey, in Oklahoma City,
West Virginia and Kentucky, and you're paying a lot of money
to get that gospel out, but from you sounded out the word of the
Lord. It can't have any other way.
If somebody had not come preach to you, you wouldn't have heard
it. Isn't that right? And they won't
either unless we preach it to them. But we will and they will. I don't have to explain that
to them. We will and they will. Because
God will. That's a mark of God's election.
Selfish people aren't God's people. Covetous people, people who don't give, they're
not God's people. God's people freely receive and
freely give. They're merciful as they have
been, God has been merciful. They forgive as they have been
forgiven. They're generous people. And this in verse 9, let me give
you this, I'm preaching too long. But it says in verse 9, For they
themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you,
and you turn from your idols to serve the living God. The
true and living God. Did you do that? You sure did.
So did I. What is an idol? An idol is a
substitute for the true God. An idol is a substitute for the
true gospel. An idol is a substitute for the
true Savior. So whatever religious system
you're in, and I was in, I was a preacher. Went to a preacher's
school. I had an idol. It wasn't this
Christ. It wasn't this God. It wasn't
this gospel. It was a substitute. Substitute,
God. I need a substitute with God,
but I don't need a substitute God. And that's what we had. We were in religion. Every blessed
one of you were in some kind of religion. Catholic, or Baptist,
or Methodist, or Presbyterian, or something. You were in religion.
And you turned, just like Saul of Tarsus. He was in religion.
And he said, these things that I counted gain, I count loss
now. I turn from them. They're done. that I might worship and serve
the true and living God. So there comes a time when a
man hears the gospel, and I tell you the evidence, when he really
hears it, when he really comes to know the true God, he wouldn't
be caught dead in one of those synagogues, worshiping that other
Jesus. I know some of our children here,
sometimes they'll go with their friends to other places called
churches, and they hear other messages called gospel, and they
come back and say, I don't want to go back there again. I don't
want to go back there again. They don't preach anything. They don't preach the God of
the Bible. Spurgeon said one night, if you go hear a preacher
who doesn't preach the gospel in a church that doesn't stand
for the truth, you go there one time, that's their fault that
they don't preach it. But if you go there a second
time, that's your fault. If you keep going there, that's
your condemnation. You remember that. One time,
that's different. Go back again, that's their fault. If they tell me a lie, and I'm
in the congregation, that's their fault. But if I go back and they
tell it again, that's my fault. And if I keep going back, I'm
a party to it. And God will hold me responsible.
And then verse 10, the evidence, we're waiting on His Son from
Heaven. Brother May, that's the evidences
of election, isn't it? Yeah, what's the evidences? I'll
give you the outline, you fill it in. You can do it. Election
brings joy to the heart. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
chooses and causes to approach to Him. Election promotes humility. What do you have you didn't receive?
Name it. What do you have you didn't receive?
Now, if you received it, why would you be proud? Third, it
brings comfort in trouble, knowing that all things work together
for good to them who love God, who are the chosen called according
to His purpose. I don't care what it is, it's
going to be for my good and His glory. Fourthly, it gives assurance. Thus shall we say to these saints,
if God be for me, who can be against me? He that spareth not
his own son, but delivereth him up for us all, how shall ye not
with him freely give us all things? I am confident no one can separate
me from the love of God which is in Christ. It promotes prayer. Election promotes prayer. Yes,
sir. Nothing promotes prayer like
total dependence on God. If you've got a child that's
lost and you know God's only one can save him, what are you
going to do? Ask Him. If you think the boy, it's up
to the boy, you'll have to ask Him. Isn't that right? But if it's up to God. If everything
I'm going to eat this week comes from God, I'll ask Him. The most
prayer. It gives sincere glory to God.
We say with Paul, if God had not left us a seed, we'd be like
Sodom. Ashland, if God had not chosen
these people right here, we'd be like Sodom. God's blessed
this town, Arlington and Ashland, this area, because of his gospel. I'm sure of that as I'm standing
here. That road you live on, 141, God blessed that place for
Christ's sake, His elect. That's right. Except the Lord
had left us a seed, we'd be like Sodom. This is a pretty good
place to live around here. Arlington, Ashland, Grayson. And I'll tell you why, it's the
gospel. And then the election for most
peace among brethren. People who love God love each
other. People whom God loves love each other. I think, you
know, I hear people talking about my children always fussing and
fighting. Children who are brought up in
a home of love don't fuss and fight, do they? Oh, they have
skirmishes, I know that, but they love each other. We're taught
love. We're taught love by our Father. We're taught love by our Savior.
How can we help but love each other? He said that. He said,
how can you love God whom you haven't seen and not love your
brother whom you have seen? That's obvious, isn't it? See
what I'm saying, Bob? That's a fix of salvation. These
other things, first and foremost, are evidences, but these spiritual,
inward, God-given attitudes and or effects of it. It's just natural. It's just,
if election's there, if God's there, this is there. That's right. If you're child
of the king, you're prince. And it's just, oh, that's enough.
269.