and just say amen to what David
said about those who play the musical instruments. We're thankful
for you, and I believe it does help our singing, and I'm thankful
for David also leading our singing. And Bill, Bill Parker leads our
singing on Wednesday evenings. We're thankful for him. I'm thankful
for anyone who will take that job away from me. But both of
these men do a good job. If you will, let's open our Bibles
one more time to 1 Thessalonians. And we've come now to the end.
The Lord willing, we'll look at these last verses beginning
in chapter five with verse 12. And what we have here from here
to the end of the chapter are needful. needful exhortations. And the way that we know that
they're needful is by the fact that we have them given unto
us. So I know they're needful. These exhortations are given
or written to a church family. You know, it's Sometimes it may
be difficult for us to remind ourselves and realize that the
Church of the Thessalonians was a church just like our church
here, a group of believers, a group of people that God had chosen
and redeemed and called and raised up together as a local church. And the Apostle Paul was the
man that God had used in preaching the gospel to them, first of
all, And he writes back to them. And I just think of the excitement,
the excitement when a letter came from Paul, when a letter
came to this church. I don't know, maybe addressed
it, I'm sure, to the elder, to the pastor. What excitement the
people must have felt in hearing, we've got a letter from Paul.
We're going to meet tonight or today. We're going to hear from
the apostle. We're going to read his letter.
And what a blessing that must have been. And what a blessing
it is for us to come together and just read the word of God,
just hear the word of God. I heard Dr. Peter Conley many
years ago. He was an Irishman. He had been
born into an Irish Catholic family. I think he was about number 12
of a large family of children. And God saved him, and of course
his family disowned him. But he preached in Ireland as
just a young man, and evidently there was revival there where
he was preaching. And he told the story one time
of a man who was like the mayor of this particular town. And
they were holding services there, and someone convinced the mayor
to come. And he came in, made his grand
entrance, you know, he had a walking cane or something like that,
and he just hit it every time he took a step, you know, came
right down to the very front so everyone would see him. And
Dr. Connolly said, they began to
read the scripture, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and the scripture
the power of the Holy Spirit just fell on that service. And
that man, who had come in in all of his pride and all of his
glory, was humbled there in that service, confessing his need
of Christ. And only by the reading, I say
only, God uses his word, doesn't he, in calling his people and
saving his people. But the reading of the word of
God, so we pray, and seek a message each time that we come together
and pray for the preacher. But I have six areas here in
these last verses that I see the Apostle Paul exhorts these
believers in this local church. You notice it begins with brethren
in verse 12. And we beseech you, brethren. It's not addressed to the pastor
necessarily. but to all the church, all the
members of the congregation. Brethren, they were all equally
loved, equally redeemed, equally called, equally members of God's
family. We beseech you, brethren. And
the first area concerns your pastors. An exhortation to this
church concerning their pastor, their relationship, their responsibility
to their pastor. Notice that in verses 12 and
13. And we beseech you, brethren,
to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord
and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for
their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves. The first exhortation
we see he gives to the members of this church concerns their
pastor, their relationship to their pastor. Now, as these apostles
and now today missionaries go out preaching the gospel, and
God doesn't save in every village, every town where they go, but
he does have his people in some places. And one of the first
things they do after the Lord has saved some people and brought
them together is to name one person to be the leader. I remember talking to Brother
Cliff Heller about this a number of years ago when he visited
with us and the work there in New Guinea. And he told me about
that. There's always, he said, seems
like someone, he may not come to be a pastor over a period
of time, but at least at the beginning, he seems to be the
leader, the man that God has put his hand on for that particular
local congregation, maybe a very small congregation at first,
maybe a large congregation. But these apostles, it's been
that way ever since the days of the apostles. Men go out preaching
the gospel, God save sinners. Sinners are congregated together
into a local church. And there's two offices that
we find in the scriptures in a local church, pastor and deacon. These are the two offices that
we find here. And I notice here in this exhortation
concerning pastors, He declares three things about the work of
a pastor. Notice these things. First of
all, they are men who labor among you. Verse 12. Know them which labor among you. They're workers. They're workers. And they labor among you in preaching
the gospel. And this word, from what I've
read at least, that is translated labor, it actually means or expresses
weariness through toil, through work. Several weeks ago I was
in my car at a time and I'm usually not driving, had the radio on
and I heard a preacher preaching a big, big congregation here
in Houston. And he made this statement over
and over again, he was emphasizing the need for parents to talk
to their children, to talk to your children. And his point
was, whenever they want to talk to you, talk to them. And he
said his children would always come in his I think he had two
son on Saturday night, and want to talk. And of course, this
is what got my attention. He said he was thinking in his
mind, I only work one day a week. Only work one day a week. Of
course, I know he was talking about preaching on Sunday. But
he made that statement several times and I thought, I can't
go with you there. A preacher, if he only works
one day a week standing up in the pulpit, he's got to labor
in getting a message in preparing a message and studying and prayer,
meditation, to have something to say. Preachers work more than
one day a week. They labor. That's what Paul
is saying here. The first thing he mentions about
the pastor is they are men who labor among you. They labor in
preaching the gospel. And second, he says they are
men who are over you in the Lord. They're not dictators. Pastors
are not dictators, but the word is translated ruleth, the same
word, which here says they are over you in the Lord. Same word
is translated ruleth in Romans chapter 12. Look at the requirements, turn
over a page or two, but look at just these two requirements
for a preacher that are given in 1 Timothy 3, verses 4 and
5. One requirement of a pastor,
he must be one, verse 4 says, that ruleth well his own house,
having his children in subjection with all gravity. Now here's
the point I wanted to make. For if a man know not how to
rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of
God? So a man, a pastor, Paul says,
know them which labor among you, first of all, and secondly, they
are over you in the Lord. And as I said, pastors are not
dictators, but remember this. You see these large ships out
on the sea? See some of those cruise ships.
My, they're humongous when you look at them. But I guarantee
you, there's only one captain on that ship. Now, there are
a lot of officers, a lot of men who have responsibilities, but
there's one captain. And as our friends one time said,
you know, two people can ride a horse, double back, but only
one can hold the reins. And the pastor, that's his place
in the sense he is to lead the congregation. And that's what
I believe the apostle is saying here. These are men who labor
among you, they rule over you in the sense that they're the
leaders of the congregation. And number three, notice this,
there are men who admonish you. And we beseech you, brethren,
to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the
Lord, and admonish you." You're to know them, first of all. Now,
of course, that means more than just know their name. It means
more than just to know the name of the pastor. What he's saying
here is you're not to be a stranger to your pastor. You're not to
be cold toward your pastor. You're not to be indifferent
to his needs. And I think here is something
that is important. You're to make yourself known
unto your pastor, your spiritual needs. You are to open your heart
up in the right setting at the right time to your pastor so
he knows where you are spiritually. And that will help him in seeking
the Lord's message for the congregation. If he knows you, you know him,
know him in that sense of being open to him. And that will be
a blessing to you as well. And number two, he said, esteem
them for their work's sake. Their work's sake, what is their
work's sake? Well, their work is caring for
your soul. And if for no other reason, if
you have a man that cares for your soul, You should esteem
him highly. You really should. And I know
you do. I'm thankful for each and every
one that God has made a part of this congregation. I've preached
a few ordination services when men were ordained to the ministry,
and I've always tried to emphasize this one thing, maybe more than
anything else. I've tried to emphasize to the
man being ordained, no one No one will love this church more
than you. No one. Now, others may love
it as much, but no one will love this church where you're being
ordained to be their pastor than you. This church will be your
wife, your family. It will. I told, Milton Hart
reminded me of this the other day, but he said, that I told
him one time, being a pastor is like having two families,
like having two houses to watch over. And it is, it really is. And there to be esteemed, your
pastor is to be esteemed highly for their work's sake. All right,
that's an exhortation concerning pastors. Now, the second exhortation
concerning each other, verses 14 and 15, concerning each other. Now, we exhort you, brethren,
and here again, we see that these exhortations are not just directed
to the pastor, but to the brethren, to everyone, members of the congregation. We exhort you, brethren, first
of all, warn the unruly. Warn those who are unruly. Now, in this particular case,
this case here in Thessalonica, it seems the people who were
unruly, the men that he has in mind, are those men who would
not work and support their family. And we've already seen that,
and we see it more in the second letter of Thessalonians, how
there were some who would not work, and Paul said, well, then
they shouldn't eat if they don't work. And warn the unruly. If you've married a woman, and
have a wife and have children, you've got a responsibility.
You're the head of the home. You take care of your family,
and not just their physical needs, but also their spiritual needs. Several years ago, a man professed
to be saved, and I've known this man since he was a young boy.
And I knew something about him. I knew he had two children that
someone else was raising. And I told the person who told
me that God had saved him, I'll believe it when he takes responsibility
for his children. Doesn't the scripture say that
if you don't take care of your family, you're worse than an
infidel? You've denied the faith. Boston
warned them that are unruly. Secondly, comfort the feeble-minded. Now by feeble-minded, There are
always those in a congregation who are in this condition and
they're just downcast. We're not talking about people
that are impaired mentally when it says feeble-minded, but people
that are just discouraged, people that are just downcast for whatever
reason. Maybe they're a lot in life,
their home circumstances, their job circumstances, whatever.
Comfort them, comfort them. There are almost always, one
writer said, there are almost always those who are in this
condition. And it is not easy to appreciate
the value of a kind word in that state. Just speaking to a person. You know, everyone wants to be
loved, and everyone wants to be accepted, and the gospel tells
us of the greatest love of all, doesn't it? God's love. And when a person is saved, we
are accepted in the beloved, in Christ, and we're made a member
of the family of God. What a blessing. Well, demonstrate
that to others. Comfort others. A kind word,
maybe a card, a card that you send to them, something like
that. The third thing, he says, support the weak. Those who are
weak in faith and weak in knowledge, strengthen them, strengthen them. And then this next thing he says,
be patient, be patient with all men. Now we exhort you, brethren,
warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the
weak, be patient toward all. Now all that he's mentioned so
far, whatever category, a person may be in one of these three
categories he's mentioned before this, be patient with them. Be
patient. And I think this is especially
needful because some people, you know, they expect when a
person is first saved that they just know everything. They're
grown. They're fathers in the faith. No, the Apostle John speaks of
children, of young men and of fathers. And there's growth. There's growth. And recognize
that. Not everyone is at the same place
spiritually that you may be at. Be patient. Be kind. Don't expect them to be able
to discuss superlapsarianism and sublapsarianism and all of
those things, they may come to that point someday,
maybe not. I think of some of the brethren
I know in Mexico that are pastors, and as far as formal education
and a lot of knowledge, they may not have. But I tell you,
they know Christ. They know the gospel. And that's
the important thing. And they're faithful men. And
I'm so blessed when I hear them preach. I'm so blessed the ones
that I know preach the gospel. And they'll never be recognized
in this world. They'll never be known. But they're
men that God has called and taught the gospel. And I encourage you
to pray for them. I pray for them. And I know you
do as well. And then he says, do not render
evil for evil. A person says something unkind
to you, don't retaliate. Don't retaliate with unkind words. Just remember, God said, vengeance
is mine. Be kind. Don't render evil for
evil. Well, he did this to me. Or she
said that. Be kind. And follow after that which is
good toward all men. See that none render evil for
evil unto any, but ever follow that which is good, both among
yourselves and to all men. Among yourselves, among the church
body, yes, but not limited there. To all men, to all in the world. Now the third Exhortation Concerning
God's Will. Exhortation Concerning God's
Will. Here in verses 16, 17, and 18. Rejoice evermore, pray without
ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. It's God's will that we rejoice
evermore. Rejoice. To be a child of God
It's not to live a life of sadness and gloominess and negativism. It's not to live a life of despair. To be a child of God is a wonderful
blessing. We can't even put it into words,
but rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. That's a
command, isn't it? That's an exhortation. You say,
well, I don't feel like it. Well, do it until you feel like
it, right? That's what I heard years ago
about prayer. Well, I don't feel like praying. Well, pray until
you feel like praying. Rejoice evermore, the apostle
said. This is the will of God for you
to rejoice, not to go around depressed and discouraged all
the time. No, rejoice in the Lord. Think
of what God has done for you to rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ, his person. his person to think that he's
both God and man. Rejoice in the fact that God
visited this world to save you, to rejoice in his love. I was
reading the other day, it's 93, a little less than 93 million
miles to the sun from the earth. 93 million miles. I forget it. It was less than,
I think, a million miles to the moon. And I thought to myself,
you know, man can measure the distance from the earth to the
sun, but nobody can measure the love of God. It's beyond a measurement,
isn't it? That's what Paul said. He prayed
that we might understand the breadth and the length and the
height and the depth, which passeth understanding the love of God. Rejoice evermore. Rejoice in
His promises. And that's, here's the second
thing. This is the will of God. Pray without ceasing. Now that
doesn't mean, of course, that you're always praying, voicing
your supplications to God, but I believe it does mean that we
should always maintain a spirit of prayer. Spirit of prayer. So if we're called upon to pray,
we can pray. We can pray. That's spirit of
prayer. Watch over our spirit so that
we are ready to pray, to pray at all times. And then the third
thing, this is the will of God for you to give thanks in all
things. Now, this means that we're going
to have to exercise some faith. Look at that. In everything,
give thanks. This is the will of God. in Christ
Jesus concerning you. We're gonna have to exercise
some faith there, because there's some things that happen in our
lives that we naturally don't think of them as good things.
But by faith, we know they're good. By faith, we know, you
say, what do you mean? Because God said, all things
work together for good to them who love God, to those who are
the called according to his purpose. By faith. You know, the psalmist
said, I had fainted. I had fainted, unless I had believed
to see the goodness of the Lord and the land of the living. I
was just giving up, David said. I would have just quit and turned
back, unless I had believed. Faith. Faith. This is God's will
concerning us, to rejoice, to pray and to give thanks. Now the fourth, concerning oneself,
these exhortations concerning oneself, verse 19, 20 and 21,
22, quench not the spirit, despise not prophesying, prove all things,
hold fast that which is good, abstain from all appearance of
evil. The first verse will never be
understood if you think that the word spirit here means the
Holy Spirit. Quench not the spirit. Now, you
may read that and you think, well, that's talking about the
Holy Spirit. Really? Really? You have the power to
quench omnipotence? That'd be like quenching a volcano. to quench the Holy Spirit. No,
we've got to see this. It's not the Holy Spirit, but
the grace of the Holy Spirit. The grace and the gifts of the
Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the
Holy Spirit, we know, is love and faith. Don't quench those
gifts. The Holy Spirit works those gifts
in you, that fruit in you, rather. Don't quench that. God will lead you and he'll show
you when to use that special grace or fruit that he's worked
in your heart, that love and peace and long-suffering, those
things. Quench not the Holy Spirit. We
are to exercise these graces that he gives us. We're to stir
them up by use. And the next verse speaks of
prophesying. Despise not prophesying. Of course,
he's speaking of preaching. Don't despise preaching. One of the writers gives these
four reasons as to why preaching is not to be despised. You know,
in a lot of areas, preaching has kind of fallen out of favor. People want to get together,
you know, and sit around in a circle and share with one another. Nothing
wrong with that. I'm not being critical of that,
but that's not what God has chosen to use. God has chosen preaching,
preaching His gospel. And here's four things that Albert
Barnes pointed out. First of all, don't despise prophesying. That is preaching, first of all,
It's God's appointment. It's God's appointment. It's
a means that God has designed in saving sinners. How many of
you have been saved under the preaching of the gospel? It's
a mysterious work that is a new birth, but under the preaching
of the gospel, you have come to believe in Christ, to trust
in Christ. It's God's appointed means of
saving his people. Number two, it has too much to
entitle it to respect, to make it proper to despise or contemn
it. There's nothing else that has
so much power over mankind as the preaching of the gospel.
There is no other institution of heaven or earth among people
that is destined to exert so wide and permanent an influence
as the Christian ministry. And I think we can see the result
as preaching has. It's not what it used to be.
It's not like it used to be in our country. Number three, it
is an influence which is wholly good. Nothing bad about preaching. No man is made the poor. You
don't become poor or less respectable or more miserable in life or
in death by following the counsels of a minister of Christ when
he makes known the gospel. It's not gonna hurt you. It's
gonna help you. Number four, he who despises
it contemns that which is designed to promote his own welfare. It's
designed, preaching is designed to promote your welfare, which
is indispensable for his salvation. It remains yet to be shown, I
like this, it remains yet to be shown that any man has promoted
his own happiness or the welfare of his family by affecting to
treat with contempt the instructions of the Christian ministry. You're
not gonna find that, that's not gonna happen. Do not despise
preaching. But now listen, at the same time,
look at the text. Quench not the spirit, despise
not prophesying, prove all things, prove all things. At the same
time that we are not to despise preaching, we are to prove the
preaching that we hear. And every pastor that I've ever
had fellowship with or communion with have all said the same thing. Listen to me preach. Hear what
I have to say and take this book. And if I'm not talking according
to this book, don't believe me. Don't listen to me. Prove all
things, yes. Don't despise preaching, but
don't be like false religion which tells you, well, just trust
us. Just trust us. This is what we believe, this
is what we say. Well, is it the truth? How are
we going to know? Kind of like the man who was
asked one time, what do you believe? He said, I believe what my church
believes. Well, what does your church believe?
Well, my church believes what I believe. No, don't be like
that. Prove all things with the word
of God, from the word of God. And then these last two areas
concerning exhortation concerning the Lord God in verses 23 and
24. And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body
be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Faithful is he that called you, who also will do it. Notice our God is, first of all,
the God of peace. The God of peace. And there is no peace for you. We were talking today about this
awful, awful war starting up over there in Israel just this
weekend. How many people have been killed. Our comment was, there'll never
be peace in this world. I don't care if it's over there,
if it's over here, wherever it is. The only peace for any person
is found in God, the God of peace. And number two, he's faithful. Faithful is he who hath called
you, who will also do it. Yeah. He called you. Called you
to faith in Christ, he's faithful. He that hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He's faithful. And the last,
concerning these last requests, the last few verses here, brethren,
pray for us. Pray for us. Greet all the brethren
with an holy kiss. kissed by brothers before in
a meeting. That's not common in Western
society, is it? We shake hands. We embrace one
another. But a couple of times when I
was preaching out in California, after I'd preached, a brother
would come up to me and he'd kiss me on the neck or something
like that. But evidently, in the time the
scripture was written, that was very common. for men to kiss
one another, not on the lips. I don't think that's ever been
common. But in Western society, we just
shake hands, don't we? And that's the right hand of
fellowship. I like, teach your boys to shake
hands. I mean to grip someone's hand,
not to be like a wet wash rag when somebody shakes hands with
you. No, shake hands, that's good. Greet one another with a kiss.
And the last thing, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
you. You know, this is the first letter
we believe that the Apostle Paul wrote, first inspired letter.
And we see from the very first letter, you look at every letter
that Paul wrote. Romans, first and second, you
go through them and you look at the very end, and every one
of those letters will have this same signature. The grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. That's the way he identified
his letters. There was false letters being, put out, and they would claim
to be a letter from an apostle. But Paul's letters could all
be identified with that same mark of grace, so he would close
each one the same way. We never get tired of talking
about grace, do we? God's wonderful grace, amazing
grace. All right, let's sing a hymn. Let's turn to him number 506. 506. Before the service started,
my mom was talking to Brother Ross. And I walked up to my mom and
I gave her a hug.