I want you to open your Bibles
first to Acts 17. Paul and Silas came to Thessalonica
after they left Philippi, and we find out here in the 17th
chapter of Acts that Paul remained there in Thessalonica and preached
to these people at least for three weeks. Acts 17.1, and when
they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica,
where was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner
was, went in unto them, and three weeks, three Sabbath days, he
reasoned with them, Now note this carefully, out of the Scriptures,
Paul preached the Word of God. He didn't preach social issues,
civil rights, philosophy. He preached and reasoned out
of the Word of God, taught them from the Scriptures. The Old
Testament Scriptures is all he had. And here was his subject,
here's what he was preaching out of the Scriptures, opening,
revealing, alleging, contending, that Jesus Christ must needs
have suffered. That's what the Old Testament's
all about, to Him give the prophets witness. Our Lord said, the law of Moses,
the prophets, and the Psalms, the things that are written concerning
me, concern my death. Christ must need suffer these
things. This is what Paul was opening
and alleging out of the Scriptures to these people for three weeks,
preaching Christ. He must needs. Why he must needs? Why must he suffer? The Son of
Man must be lifted up. The righteousness and holiness
and justice of God must be satisfied. God must be just and justify. He must suffer and He must rise
again from the dead. And that this Jesus of Nazareth,
whom I preach unto you, is this Christ. He's the Christ, He's
the Messiah, He's the Redeemer. And some of them believed. All
of them didn't believe, but some of them did. And they consorted with Paul
and Silas. They wanted to hear some more.
And of the devout Greeks, a great multitude, and of the chief women,
not a few. Now the foundation of the church
at Thessalonica, and you can turn now to 1 Thessalonians,
the foundation of the church was then laid under the preaching
of the Apostle Paul for these three weeks. He preached out of the Scriptures. contended that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Christ, that he must suffer and rise again from the dead.
And there the foundation of the church was laid. Christ said
that that church will be built on him. He'll build it and it'll
be built on him. And then Timothy came back later
to this church. Timothy came back and ministered
to this church, established and comforted these young converts.
And he brought the word to Paul of their faithfulness. And this
is the epistle now that Paul is writing to the church. About
51 AD he wrote this epistle to the church. Notice verse 1. Paul and Silas and Timotheus
are Timothy under the church of the Thessalonians. Now our
Lord has a true church. Let this be established first
of all in this message. It's not a local church. It's not a church in Iceland
or anywhere else, specifically. Our Lord has a true church made
up of every believer of every age. This is a true church. There are no hypocrites in that
church. There are no false professors. He calls that church His body.
The church is His body. over which he is the head and
in which he has all preeminence. And he calls it a glorious church,
without spot or wrinkle, a glorious church. And that church is called
the Church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. This church of which I speak,
the role is not kept in some local church office It's the
Lamb's Book of Life. You have any problem with that?
I wouldn't know why. It's the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said he loved that church.
He said, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved his church
and gave himself for it. That's the church, the true church,
the great church. Some call it the universal church,
that's alright. Some call it the invisible church.
I don't like that too well because I'm not invisible. And they're
not invisible to God. Somebody says, well, where does
such a church assemble? A church is an assembly. Ekklesia,
assembly. Say, when does that church assemble?
Well, it's assembled in the presence of the Lord all the time. His
eye is in every place, isn't that right? heaven and earth. It's always assembled. In fact,
it's been assembled in his eye and purpose since the foundation
of the world. It's his church. But, our Lord
has many churches. And I do not appreciate when
people minimize the importance of the local assembly. Our Lord
has many churches. In the Bible we find the church
at Galatia, the church at Ephesus, the church at Thessalonica, the
church here, the church there, the church in a certain home.
Paul wrote and said, give my greetings to the church in your
home. You see, the church is not a building. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is not a building made of stone and brick. People who
know Christ and love Christ, people of the church. Our phraseology, our terminology
is all wrong today. Somebody says, you going to church
next Sunday? Yeah, I'm going to church next Sunday. You know,
we don't go to church. You assemble with the church.
This building is not the church, but the body of Christ. And that,
the Lord's church in a different location here and there and yonder
is made up of believers who meet together to worship God who meet
together to preach the gospel, to teach the word of God, who
meet together to fellowship one with another and to encourage
one another, who meet together to administer the ordinances, who train preachers. The Lord
never intended for His pastors and preachers to be trained in
an organization apart from the local church. He came to the
local church, the Holy Spirit said, you separate unto me Paul
and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have called them. I say, let our men who have aspirations
and ambitions to preach, let them get their secular education
in colleges, universities, state schools, or whatever, but get
their spiritual education in a church. That's the way it is
in the New Testament. apprentice under an experienced
pastor. You can't pastor a sovereign
grace church if you've never been a member of one. You can't
be a leader if you've never been a follower. That's true. You
learn the gospel. Not under some religious professor
somewhere. You learn the gospel under a
God called pastor. And also the church sends forth
missionaries. The church preaches to the lost.
God has his churches here and there and yonder. And I want
us to look at the things that Paul says to this church of Thessalonica
and see if there's not a pattern for us. See if there's not a
pattern. Now in verse 1 of chapter 1 of
1 Thessalonians, he tells us that these people who make up
the Lord's local church, in a specific place are an engrafted people. An engrafted people. Look at
verse 1. Paul and Silas and Timotheus, Timothy, unto the church of the
Thessalonians, which is in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You're not a member of this local
body of Christ because you're in an organization. or because
you're in a denomination. I'm not so sure that we haven't
burdened ourselves with an unnecessary burden by all these different
names that we've taken on ourselves. Baptist, Presbyterian, Reformed. You see, a man's not in the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ because he's in a system or a denomination
or in a in a movement, he's in Christ. That's what it says here.
These people are in God and in Christ. I was down in Florida
preaching a couple of years ago, and the man for whom I was preaching
is an experienced nursery man. In fact, he owned and still owns
a small nursery, raises. He's got a lot of orange trees
and grapefruit trees tangerine trees and different kinds. And
he showed me how that you graft an orange tree. You just don't
go out and get an old wild orange tree and expect to get any good
fruit. It's got to have in the root stock, in the root itself,
the light's in the root, here it is in the ground. You graft
it in and he took a twig, a little twig about an inch or half an
inch long. And in a certain place, in that
root stock, in that root or vine that was growing in the ground,
he took it and cut a sliver, right in the right place, in
an eye or something like that. And he took this piece of branch,
lifeless in itself, it had no life, it had no strength of its
own. If you laid it down, it would
have withered and died right there. It was nothing. And he
put it right into this particular place in that tree and then he
wrapped it, completely wrapped it up there. And do you know
that that little twig there that he put in that vine grew and
it became the part of the tree that bore the fruit? You see
the trunk gave it its life and strength and nourishment but
it bore the fruit. And that's what our Lord is saying,
if you'll turn to John 15, and that's what we are. That's what
and who we are. See, we're just branches that
are grafted into the vine. The life and the strength and
the hope and the nourishment's in the vine, which is Christ.
Look at John 15.1. I'm the true vine. The rootstock. My father's the husbandman. My
father's the nurseryman. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit
he pudgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are
clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide
in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine. No more can you except you abide
in me. I am the vine. Don't ever forget that. You are
just the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, and we can't abide in him without him abiding in us. You see, that little twig that
he planted in that root stock, and some of you know something
about this who live in Florida or something, it and the tree
became one. As you stood back and looked
at it, looked at the fruit bearing there, you didn't say, well there's
the branch and there's the tree. No, there's the tree. That branch
is part of the tree. It's no longer, when it was laying
on the ground here, it was considered a part and by itself. But when
it once was put into that rootstock and vine, it's no longer a separate
part or entity, it belongs, it's part, it's the tree. And that's
what he's saying, here he that bitheth in me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit. So what I'm saying is
this. The church, and Paul in verse
2, 1 Timothy 1, let's go back there. He said, we give thanks
to God always for you all. Jew and Gentile, male and female,
old and young, rich and poor, gifted and not so gifted, we
give thanks for you all. All of you. Making mention of
you in our prayers. Who do we thank? Thank God. Because
just as my friend chose the root stock And he chose the twig,
and he put the twig in that rooster. The twig did not decide to be
a part of that tree. He put it in there. And that's
the reason I thank God for those in his church, because he put
them there. The Lord added to the church
daily, such as should be said. They're in God and in Christ.
Is that clear? I want to make that clear, that
the church is a people. Not a building, not an organization,
not the Baptist church. It's not, it's His church. And there are people in Christ.
There's no spiritual existence apart from Him. Alright, verse
3 now. And these people are an active
people. Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, Your labor
of love and your patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I hear preachers talk about, well, that's just a dead church. It may be a dead organization,
but it's not a dead church. A dead church can't be dead.
Because a church is not a building or organization, it's a people.
And the people in Christ are not dead, they're alive, aren't
they? They're not indifferent, there's no such thing. Now you
may have a dead, indifferent organization. You may have a
dead, indifferent social club, religious club. But the church
is not dead. It's not indifferent. We're living
stones. He hath begotten us again unto
a living hope. If you're not living, If you're
not active, if you're not energetically walking with Christ, you're not
in his church. You may be part of an organization,
but you're not in his church. That's right. He talks about
three things here. He says, your work of faith. James says, faith that does not
work is dead. You know what he said? Faith that does not work is dead.
Let's read that, James chapter 4. James chapter 4. Now listen. In James chapter
2 it is. James 2. Listen to this. James
chapter 2, verse 14. True faith is a working faith.
Faith that does not produce activity, spiritual activity, works of
faith, is not God given. James 2.14, what does it profit,
my brethren? Though a man say he hath faith,
that's a simple thing to say, but he has not works. Can that
faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked,
destitute of daily food, and you say, depart in peace, be
ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding you give them not those things
that are needful to the body, what does it profit? Even so,
faith, whether it be Calvinistic faith, Reformed faith, or whatever. If it has not works, it's dead.
Being of itself, or by itself. Yea, a man may say, well, you
have faith, I have works. Show me your faith without your
works. Well, it can't be done. Well, I'll show you faith by
my works. You can't separate faith and conduct. Belief and
obedience. That's right. I believe it's
this one God. You say, but I believe in one
God. I believe he's sovereign. I believe he reigns in the heavens.
I believe he's God. I believe Christ died on the
cross. You do well. The devil believes that too.
And it causes him to tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead? So this church is not only engrafted,
but it's active, energetic. It's an active people. They have
works of faith. And what's the second thing they
have? They have a labor of love. Labor. Works. Labor in the kingdom
of God is motivated by love for Christ. We do what we do because
we love Him and because we love one another. We minister cheerfully
to the needs of others. Cheerfully. Cheerfully. And then he says we have, what's
this? Patience. Patience. What? Patience. Patience is endurance. Patience is perseverance. Patience
is staying with something. I've been to Mexico the last
7 or 8 or 9 days and I've seen the patience of Brother Walter
Gruber and Milton Howard. Brother Milton celebrates his
20th year. in Mexico this year. Brother Walter, his 23rd or 24th
year. One meeting we went out to, there
was a big crowd of people. Couldn't even get in the church
bell. We met outside. But another place we went to,
there were five. And he's still going. And another
place he told us about up in the mountains, there's just a
man and his wife. Been going up there for years. Waiting on God, waiting on God.
And that's the way he describes this church. Now, this church,
these people, are in Christ by God's grace and power. They've
been engrafted into Christ. Christ is my life. He's my life. And because He's my life, I'm
active in the Kingdom of God. I have works. They're works of
faith. That faith produces works. It
produces godliness. It produces obedience. It produces
a spirit of love. And that love motivates that
labor. And I stay with it. I stay with
it. I believe, therefore I've spoken.
I shall not be moved. Now notice the third thing about
this church. Verse 4, it says, Knowing, brethren,
beloved, your election of God. Your election of God. This is
an elected people. They're an engrafted people,
they're an active people, they're an elected people. You know,
Christ said to his disciples one day, said, you didn't choose
me. I chose you. You didn't choose God. God chose
you. Turn to 2 Thessalonians a moment. 2 Thessalonians 2. The hymn writer wrote it this
way, "'Tis not that I did choose thee, O Lord, that could not
be. This heart would still refuse
thee, but thou hast chosen me. Thou, from the sin that stained
me, hast cleansed and set me free. of old thou hast ordained
me that I should live to thee. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2, 13.
We're bound to give thanks always to God for you brethren, beloved,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you. Our election is of
God and our election is from the beginning eternal. And our election is to salvation. He hath chosen you to salvation
and our election is in Christ. He chose us in Christ. before
the foundation of the world. And watch verse 5 now, 1 Thessalonians
1. And I know your election because
our gospel didn't come to you in word only. God help us. God help us. You can be a theologian and not
know Christ. You can be a doctrinalist and
not know Christ. You can be a moralist and not
know Christ. Our gospel didn't come to you
in words only. It came in words. It has to come
in words. Christ is the word of God. But
it didn't come in words only. It came in power. It came in
regenerating power and converting power, rejuvenating power. It came in life-giving power.
And it came in the Holy Ghost. What does the Holy Ghost do?
Christ said the Holy Ghost shall not speak of himself, but he
shall take the things of mine and show them to you. This thing
of salvation is not walking in hell and making a decision. It's
not deciding that you'll go to heaven. It's not just making
a public affirmation of the fact you believe some facts about
God. They're true whether you believe
it or not. That's not salvation. I might come down now and say,
I believe Jesus died for me. That doesn't cut any ice. It's
not your believing he died for you, it's his dying for you that
saves. He died for somebody whether
you believe it or not. That's right. The salvation is
knowing that Christ, and loving that Christ, and embracing that
Christ, and being engrafted into that Christ. It's a miracle of
God, whereby a man becomes a new creature in Christ, created in
Christ Jesus. I'm telling you the truth. But I'm going to quit my sins,
and quit this, quit that, and quit the other. You're quitting
something that doesn't change God Almighty's attitude and relationship
with you. Christ makes the difference. If God views you in Christ, you're
safe. If He views you out of Christ,
moral or immoral, you're lost. If God views you and receives
you in Christ, you're accepted. If you're not in Christ, engrafted
in Christ by His grace and by faith, when God views you, whether
you're Calvinist or Arminian, you're damned. Whether you're
Reformed or Unreformed, you're damned. It's Christ that makes
it. Christ in you, that's the hope
of glory. Our travail, O'Paul, is to have
Christ be formed in you. In you! It didn't come to you in word
only, it came in power. The power of God, the very power
of Almighty God in the Holy Ghost in that second person, third
person of the Divine Trinity that takes an interest in you
and makes you an object of His powerful work and will not let
you go until you conform to the image of Christ, the Holy Ghost.
This gospel came in assurance, confidence, no wishy-washy, wavering,
wind-driven uncertainty, and I don't know what I believe.
No, you don't, and you won't until God saves you. Well, I think this fella says
some good things. You probably do. Because you
and him on the same team. If you ever come to know Christ,
you'll recognize a true preacher, a true gospel, and a true message.
And you won't have any use for this other junk. That's right.
And you'll quit flopping between this and that and here and yonder
and over here and someplace else. You'll have much assurance, assurance,
assurance. I know whom I have believed.
That's what Paul said. Brethren, John said, we know
we've passed from death unto life. Oh yeah, I know your election. And verse 6, you came to be followers. Last Saturday night, a week ago,
a week ago yesterday, a week ago yesterday, we drove up in
the mountains of Chiapas, San Rafael, about four hours from
Tuxla. There's a marvelous ministry
up there. Milton has an unusual ministry
up there on top of that mountain, coffee plantations. about four
or five thousand feet high, just twenty-eight miles from Guatemala.
But he's been going up there for ten, twelve years. He was
hunting in that area one time and met this man called Roberto.
Roberto owns the largest ranch up there. He's the coffee distributor. They all bring their coffee to
him and sell it and he distributes it to the wholesale houses wherever. But by Mexican standards, he
lives quite well. He's got a ranch up on the mountain.
And the Lord's done something for him under Milton's ministry.
They built a church building there on the ranch, and people
come from everywhere. They came that Saturday night.
There came so many of them we couldn't get in the church building.
We had to make temporary seats outside. Had about a hundred
people there. They came on horses. There was
10 or 12 horses tied to post out here. Rode for hours. They
came in an old flatbed truck. One group of people rented a
flatbed truck and drove three hours to the meetings over the
mountain. They only came about 13 miles, but it took three hours. I'm telling the truth. They came
from everywhere. And we had some liberty to preach
that night. Charlie was there. Had some liberty
to preach that Saturday night. Had a good crowd. And after the
service, this man, Roberto, and his wife, Carmelita, were standing
talking to me, and Betty was translating. Betty Greer was
translating. They just don't speak any English. And one of them said, thank God.
Thank God Milton came to us on this mountain with the gospel
of Christ. If he hadn't, we'd have never
heard it. Our gospel came. It came in the power of the Holy
Ghost. And you know what that man said
to Milton who was riding along in a truck one day? And he said
to Brother Howard, he said, you said one time in a sermon that
you came to Mexico to find God's sheep. And he said to Milton, you reckon
I could be one of those sheep? That's touching. You reckon I
could be one of those sheep? Well, I'm telling you the truth.
That's so. Christ said my sheep will hear
my voice. I'm talking about Paul's writing
to this church and he says, number one, he said you're an engrafted
people. You're in God, in Christ. And you're active people. There's
no indifference. You're not bearing fruit, he
cuts you off and casts you away as a branch fit for the burning.
That's what he said. You're not active. Engaged. There's no indifference in Christ. And we're elected. God elected
us. God chose us in Christ. In verse
7, I want you to look at verse 7 and 8. So that you were examples. Examples to all that believe
in Macedonia, Archaea, Father, now watch this. Now listen to
this. You were examples. Now, have I got your attention?
It's true the people of God are examples in doctrine. Our doctrine. It's important. It's important,
Jim, that we be true to the scriptures. Right? True to the word of God. How God saves sinners. We are
examples in faith. We believe. We believe God. We're examples in conduct. Our
lives must be lived avoiding every appearance of evil in honesty,
integrity, in a walk of holiness before God. Examples in our conduct. Let your conversation be seasoned
with grace. Don't claim to be a believer
and then deny it by the way you talk. Gutter talk and blackguard
language has no place in the kingdom of God. That's right.
Don't claim to be a child of God and then deny it with your
mouth. Filthy, filthy talk. In other
words, we're to be examples. Example. But the example here
he's talking about is example in preaching and witnessing and
evangelizing. Is that not true? You look at
it again. So you were examples to all that believe in Macedonia
and Achaia. Far from you sounded out the
word of the Lord, not only where you live. Now, we got to look
out after our home base. That's right. Drive the stake
deep, secure it in Christ, but throw a rope out there to the
fellow in need. That's right. And you were an example in this.
And I want to say this to this church right here. But this is
true of you, so many of you, so many of you. We have through
the years had so many projects. You can take the yearly financial
report and see the projects, television, tape ministry, book
ministry, radio ministry, my travels, our missionaries, and
you've responded so beautifully. Most of you have. Some have not,
but most of you have. These books we printed, now they're
in four different languages, Spanish, Portuguese, French,
and English. Ken Wymer wrote and said there's
a missionary couple in San Sandra, Ivory Coast. They've ordered
500 of our books of Romans in French to distribute all over
that area. And I gave out an appeal one time for you to help
us to print these books. It's a mission project. They
can't pay for them. Just forget it. They can't pay
for them. And they're going all over the
world in 30 or 40 countries now. I'm going to have an appeal starting
next week to buy Milton Howard a truck. Many of you will respond. A few churches will. We had an
appeal to send Ken Wineland. Ken's over there in Africa. Bill's
over there this week. They're setting up a school for
preachers. They already have 25 or 30 preachers under the
program. They're traveling to Toga and
Benin and Ivory Coast. And I tried to raise $20,000
to Scott's Church and Terry Worthen's and Rupert's and Bill Parker's. Titan Albert, and Danny Blair,
and these fellas responded. Russell Warner, I'll keep naming
them. They responded, and we got the money. We got a vehicle
over there now, and we got the missionary there, and his money's
coming. I thank you. I thank you. I just thank God for you. And
Brother Milton needs a truck now, and he's got about $7,000
already raised, and Brother Scott said he'd help. Jack Shanks and
David Pledge and others, and I want you to help. But what
has hit me hard and hurt me deeply, and it's very depressing, is there's some people who won't
help. And that I can't figure out. There's some churches that
won't help. There's some of my dear friends. I put these things in the bulletin.
I write in the bulletin, we got a missionary going to Africa,
Ken Wymer. We need $20,000. We need to buy
him a vehicle. We need to send him over there.
We need to start a school. We need to get these books that
people want to hear the gospel. And I send this bulletin to 300
families, not counting you. We print 600 of them, I think.
And do you know I've got friends that are wealthy all over this
country. They got money. And they won't
send me a dime? Not a dime. That hurts. And I'll tell you what this conclusion
I've come to. These churches, it won't help. And I'll tell you this, and my
secretary will tell you this. This preacher stays broke. That's
all there is to it. I'm supported by this congregation.
I ask for nothing for myself. But I'm asking for help for these
missionaries. I'm asking for help for these
missionaries. What you need is to go down there sometime and
experience the culture shock. You go there, somebody says,
well, they make more than I did. I wouldn't go down there for
$100,000 a year and live. Exactly right. Wouldn't do it. While I was down there, I'll
tell you this about 13th Street. While I was down there, Milton
or Walter Warner just got a letter from one of you men sitting right
over here on my left with a check in it. and said, I got my wife
and I got to thinking about you and want to send you a gift.
You talk about a pastor's heart jumping out of his chest, that
one of the members just decided, well, I want to help you, and
sent it down there. But I've got friends, and I send
this book to a lot of people, and they don't help. And you
know what leads me to this verse of Scripture right here in 1
John chapter 3. Now listen to it. He said, well,
I believe the gospel. Do you? Well, I'm a Calvinist, are you
now? But verse 17 of 1 John 3 says,
Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have a
need. I know we poor you have with you always, and I know we
can't help every welfare recipient in the world. I'm not even talking
about it, I'm talking about your brother. I'm talking about that missionary,
that preacher, that young preacher, doing without. these young preachers
that are struggling, and see your brother have a need, and
you shut up your bowels of compassion from him, this is not my question,
this is God's question. How dwelleth the love of God
in him? Now doctrine may dwell in him, Cecil, but not the love
of God. And some kind of hope for heaven may dwell in him,
but not the love of God. And Baptist doctrine might dwell
in him, but not the love of God. What are you saying preacher?
I'm saying what Paul is saying here. This church is engrafted
in Christ. This church is active. They're
not indifferent, careless, or dead. They're active. Committed. Sold out. This church is elected. God chose them. They're special
people. Holy people. A royal people.
God chose them. He made them his sons. And they
are examples. They are examples. And I tell
you this, we pass that plate while we go to this congregation.
When this pastor walked through that door this morning, he had
his offering in his hand and put it there before you ever
put yours down. I wouldn't call on you to do anything. Isn't
that right, Russell? That I haven't already done.
And any man that does, doesn't know Christ. We're examples. We set an example in our giving. That's right. In our helping,
assisting. others. And then this last thing
about this church, and this is my Lord's church. It says here
in verse 9, for they themselves show of us what manner of entering
in we had unto you and how you turn from your idols. Turn to
God from your idols. That transaction's done. That
transaction's done. The songwriter says it's done.
The transaction's done. I am my Lord's. I'm my Lord's. He's mine. I've turned to God
from my idols, my inward idols, pride, self-righteousness, covetousness,
ambition. I've turned from my external
idols. That's what some of you need
to turn from, your external idols. These things mean too much to
you. They mean too much to you. We take them out and bury them.
We turn to God from idols to serve the living God. And we're
waiting for His Son. Waiting on His Son. I tell you,
I read a verse the other day over here in Hebrews. Why don't
you turn over there to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter, I
believe it's chapter 9. Just two words. I'm going to
preach on it some day. I don't know when, but I'm going
to preach on it one day. Verse 27 of Hebrews 9. It said, And as it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this. That's what we need to
be concerned about, the after this. There's something after
this, John. There's something after this,
and that after this covers a whole lot of time. That after this
is the difference between joy and bliss and eternal condemnation. After this. What's after this? I tell you, I'm interested in
after this. After this. That's the reason,
that's the reason things like these songs, I tell you, when
you come to know, they just mean a little more. That's the reason
that this assembly just means a little more, because it's dealing
with after this. That's the reason these articles
in here and these meetings and these missionaries, they just
mean a little more now, after this. That's the reason the picking
up of this book and reading it, it means a little more. That's
the reason the little projects we have to get the gospel out
of it, after this. After this. After this. All right, I want
us to sing a song. I had one picked out here. It's number 52. Number 52. You see what I'm talking about
this morning, and just from the verse-by-verse study of the Word
of God, there's a whole lot to this business of salvation. the Church of Christ. It's more
than just a formality that we've been going through in this United
States of America and calling it religion. Life, new life,
new creature in Christ.