Well, it's good to see y'all
out this morning. And the prayer list. Peggy's
daughter, Monica, had a massive stroke. And from what Peggy said,
they don't think she will probably make it out of this one. So remember
her in your prayers. Pennington family at the Lawsonville,
Pennington, up 13th Street. And the Grant family had those
two prayer lists. Seek the Lord's help for them. She's just almost back to normal,
so I don't know if she'll be here today or not. Will she be here
today, do you know? Ah, I think. Well, shit, my mom
was going over there. I don't know if she was just
going over there to get ready, or if she was going to get her. OK. All
right. Other than that, I can't think
of any announcement. Once again, I worship Jesus with
hymn number 125. Jesus paid it all off to get
out of it. And I hear the Savior say, Thy
strength in me is strong, Child of deepest
worship, please, Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owed... Jesus made it all, all of it
I owe. For nothing good hath come where
by the grace of faith the watchman was found in the blood of the
Calvary's Lamb. before the That's a scripture you rarely
see in the Lord. First Thessalonians chapter one. Begin with verse four and read
through the end of the chapter. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power. and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake. And you became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with
joy of the Holy Ghost, so that you were in samples For from you sounded out the
word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also
in every place your faith to God was spread abroad, so that
we need not to speak anything. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned
to God to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his
Son from heaven whom we raised from the dead, even Jesus, who
has delivered us from the wrath to come. Our Father in heaven,
we thank you and praise you for great mercy for doing the wretched
sins. We are thankful that we can read
of your electing grace in the scripture. how over and over
again you said to your children, both to those whom you chose
to pastor and for apostleship and those who chose to salvation,
that they were beloved of the Lord because they were the word
that were chosen in all eternity to receive the benefits of grace
and mercy allotted for them. We thank you, Father, for the
glorious doctrine of election. Thank you, Father, for choosing
us. We can say with the poet, Lord, we did not choose you for
that. That could not be. You had to choose us, because
we never would have chosen you. We thank you, Father, for grace
for this hour. We pray for those who are sick
and going through trials, those who, family members who are sick. and family, ask Lord your blessings
and strength upon them. Show mercy, Father, we pray.
Help us this day to worship you in spirit and in truth. Uplift
our Savior in our midst, that we might see him in his glory,
enthroned, sitting at thy right hand, having purged our sins
and lives to make intercession for us. Help us to see it by
faith, Thankful worship, knowing, had
you not considered us, we would have perished. Thank you, Father,
in Christ's name, amen. You. He is more than life to me, and
the very strong 10,000 in my place in God I see. All that fills my soul is Jesus He truly is more than one can
be! When the fairies formed in balsam,
In my blessing did I sing. What a wonderful beginning, Never
can a beat be known. All that fills my soul is Jesus,
He is more than life to me. And though there is flood to
pass not, in my blessing all I see. ? Every need is worth supplying
? ? Every good in Him I see ? ? All is free from my defying ? ? He
is all in all to me ? ? All that fills my soul is Jesus ? Yah'shua,
He is more than life to me. And the very thought of the Son,
Him I worship more I see. praise and glorify He is more than life to me, and
the very strength and power of the Son in my flesh and blood
I see. Our Father, again, we're pulled
to the name of Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior, who gave
himself for our sins, who died in our room and place, so we
might have life and have it more abundantly. We thank you, for
we know that every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the
Father of lights, in whom there is no variable, and is no shadow
of turning. You have given us Jesus Christ, You have said in your word that
all things are ours, and we are Christ's, and Christ is God's. We render to thee that which
belongs to you, and let us do so with joy. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. so so So as you tension back to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1, the doctrine of election is taught
throughout scripture. Among all the inhabitants of
the earth, God chose or elected one nation. That nation was Israel. They got their name after their
father, Jacob, who was called Israel. And he was the father
of the twelve tribes. among that natural election,
and it was a natural election, which did not in of itself result
in the salvation of anyone's soul. There was also a spiritual
election. Our Lord said to Israel when
it was steeped in idolatry, and He had promised to destroy them
and set them aside with all the prophets of Jeremiah, Isaiah,
Ezekiel, Daniel, and so forth. He said, now I left a very small
remnant we would all be as solid and as memorial that very small
remnant if you follow it through the scriptures are those whom
God would save by grace because of the shed blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ and then when you come to the New Testament you
find election taught over and over again I have chosen you, and ordained
you that you bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain."
In John chapter 15 and verse 19, he says this, If you were of the
world, the world would love his own. But because you are not
of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hates you. The world hates those who are
chosen of God. My question has been for some
years, how did they find out? How did the world find out that
you were chosen of God? You had to go and open your mouth,
didn't you? And tell people the truth. They
found out you were chosen of God and their reaction was, God chose him, the absolute off-scouring
of the world, to be the recipients of His grace, to make them the
vilest of the vile, to be like His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, if you were of the world,
the world would love you. But you're not of the world because
I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. You read through the In the epistles
of Paul, you'll find that he spoke of election a great deal.
And theologians, many of them, tend to call election a Pauline
doctrine. A Pauline doctrine meaning it's
something Pauline, Paul come up with. And I've often wondered
if men who make such statements realize that they're questioning
the authority and inspiration of Scripture. Did what Paul write,
did he write under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost? It is not
Pauline's doctrine. Though many in religion hate
and despise the truth of election, they merely waste their days
trying to dismiss or explain it away. There was Warren Weirsbee
who said, you can't explain an election when you can't explain
it away. Well, you can explain election. It's a very simple
term. Election means that God chose
somebody. Scripture declares that He chose
whom He would save. He chose them, and He did it
from all eternity. Election is God's teaching, and
as is the case in most, it is often found inextricably tied
to God's love. That's the language where you
find the election of God, you find it tied to God's love. Paul
gives ample reason and proof of why he knows that these brethren
are beloved of the Lord. He says that in verse 4, he says,
knowing brethren beloved your election of God. In Romans chapter 9, he described
how he ensured that the purpose of God according to election
would stand, would not be moved, could not be put away, could
not be set aside. He said the children having not
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. He said to the elder shall serve
the younger. He said Jacob have I loved. And
he said have I hated. And Jacob was a hateful character,
but God loved him. God loved him. In 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 13, when God told the Thessalonians, the same group
here, that the second letter, He said that they were beloved
of the Lord. and he tied it to election. We are bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God has chosen you to salvation through the sanctification
of spirit and belief in the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Ephesians chapter 1, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings,
according as he has chosen us in Christ before the world began,
and we should be holy and without blame before him. In love, having
predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself.
So Paul starts this doctrine of election off with love. With
love. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God. Paul goes on to explain how he
knows. He said knowing. Why he knows
that these are chosen because of the effect that the gospel
had on them. We preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Debbie and I were talking about
it the other day. Some people hear it and are immediately awakened
to the truth about God Almighty. Others sit under it for years
and years and years and have no true interest in it. It's
a wonder. It's an amazing thing. But he
says, I know you're elected, God, because of the gospels preached
to you. Something happened. Look at verse
5. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in
power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as ye
know what manner of man we were among you for your sake. Here's
the reason that the believer knows his election. Though he
may not be able to explain it to anyone's satisfaction, he
knows that when he heard the gospel, It was not with the ears
that he was born with. When he heard it, it was not
as if men spoke at all. But he heard, as it were, the
voice of God. That's what Paul said in chapter
2 and verse 13 of the same book here. First Thessalonians, it
says, For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, because
when ye receive the word of God, which he heard from us, he heard
it not as the word of men, but as in truth the word of God,
which effectually work also in you that believe. He heard it
as if God himself was speaking. This is why this word is synonymous
with what is called the voice of Jesus Christ. When Christ
said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me, he's talking
about them hearing the gospel. hearing the good news of salvation
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And note that Paul speaks of
the gospel as our gospel. Our gospel, and I distinguish
it from all other pretenders and manifold inventions of men.
He spoke to the Galatian church. He said there are some that corrupt
the gospel, that poison it with a dram of humanity, with a dram
of law keeping. They put that in the gospel and
poison the gospel. They pervert the gospel, he said.
But he says, if any man, whether it comes from heaven or earth
or from hell or anywhere, preach any other gospel than that which
we preached unto you, let him be accursed. And he repeated
it in verses six through nine of chapter one of Galatians.
The gospel came not in word only, not in word only. This does not
discount the necessity of preaching, but removes the result from the
preacher as to its efficaciousness. I have nothing to do with your
salvation. The word does. But I don't. The gospel comes
to the elect in power. That's what he says. The gospel
came to you in power. Well, Romans 1, 16, 17 says that
the gospel is the power of God. The word is dunamis. We get our
word dynamic or dynamo or dynamite from that. That's power. That
power. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and
also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. For it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Where is the righteousness of
God which is Jesus Christ according to chapter 10 and verse 4 of
Romans? How is the righteousness of God
revealed? How is Christ revealed to me? Only one way, through the preaching
of the gospel. He said, I know you're elect
because when the gospel came to you, it came in power. And
that simply means it revealed the Lord Jesus Christ. This power
is not in the believer, nor is it transferred to the believer.
This power is over the believer and does for the believer what
he could never imagine for himself. The gospel comes to the elect
in the Holy Ghost. This speaks of regeneration of
faith, the life of the believer, and what is accounted to him
for righteousness. Also, it is a distinctive declaration
of the gospel that comes to the believer. The Holy Ghost gets
blamed for a lot of stuff in the world in which we live today.
But his work is absolutely distinctive. It's distinctive. It's narrow
in its scope. It's narrow. What is the Holy
Ghost's distinctive work in this world? It's to take the things
of Christ and to show it to His people. Scripture clearly declares
that though men talk about the Holy Ghost all the time and try
to glorify the Holy Ghost, it says the Holy Ghost will never
glorify Himself. John Chapter 14, He'll never
glorify Himself, but He'll glorify Christ. about the Holy Ghost,
and doesn't talk about Christ, he doesn't understand the Gospel,
which is Jesus Christ, comes to his people with the Holy Ghost. The Gospel comes to the elect
in much assurance, much assurance. Assurance is a vapor, if you're
looking for it, if you're looking to yourself for and the Lord
Jesus Christ and what he did on Calvary. You'll not find it. I know people who spend their
life trying to get a share. I know people who died not having
any. Bless their hearts. I had a dear friend, many years
ago, he used to build tobacco barns in Kentucky. In his 80s,
he'd hang over the edge of them. He used to work on those tobacco
barns. Those were tall buildings, those
tobacco barns in Kentucky were. Wonderful old man, believed the
gospel, rejoiced in Jesus Christ, but struggled all his life with
assurance. You know why? Because he was
looking to find something that would prove he was the child
of God. He said, well that's wrong. It's wrong, it's sad, but it
happens. I believe he's in glory now with full assurance of faith.
There's no doubt about it. Full assurance of understanding
and full assurance of knowledge. That's spoken of in Scripture.
But assurance will evaporate if you try to find it. Part impossible
to receive the gospel is that it comes when the gospel really
comes to you. When you see Christ by God's
grace through the preaching of the gospel, you don't have any
problem with assurance. In fact, you never think about
it. It never comes to your mind. You don't know about assurance.
I can tell you, I've been preaching for a long time, and I've never
thought about assurance. Why? Because I have it. It's sitting
at the right hand of the Father on high. He's sitting there,
and there's my assurance. Not going to look to me for it.
Assurance, hope, understanding, and faith are parts of the gospel.
And when it comes, assurance comes. You know when you'll lack
assurance? When you take your eyes off of
Jesus Christ. You put your eyes on yourself
or your religious activities or anything you do, you're going
to lose assurance. You're going to start searching
for it. You're going to start searching for it. Some men account
that assurance is presumption. Such keep men in constant fear
when they ought to be at peace and rest. The gospel gives peace. It says he has established peace
by the blood of his cross. The people of God had a peace
that passeth understanding, that passeth knowledge. What does
that mean? That what goes on around us doesn't change our
peace. The circumstances that surround
us doesn't change our peace. The horrible things that happen
in this world doesn't change our peace. It's beyond understanding
at all, too. But it doesn't, because our peace
was established by Jesus Christ on the cross. Some people are
kept in constant fear. Some county that to pursue the
assurance is somehow an honorable course and proudly wear the title
of seeker. But seek what cannot be found
by searching. I've talked to people all my life, well I'm
a seeker. You're a seeker, what do you seek? Assurance. You're gonna look for the rest
of your life in Newfoundland. I remember Tyler Nyberg told
me, he called me one day, and he said, you know, this fella
called me and told me that he's been looking for insurance for
20 years. He's seeking insurance for 20
years. What would you tell him, Tim? I told him, I said, I'd
tell him to stop looking. He ain't gonna find it. Quit
now. Don't worry yourself out. You
ain't never gonna find it. There's nothing wrong with insurance.
unless there is something wrong with believing the word of God.
By grace we are present tense, are saved. With his stripes you
are present tense, healed. He hath Another effect of the gospel
is that the assurance that attends it causes the believer to know
the fellowship of the brethren. It says, you know what manner
of men we were among you for your sake. The gospel removes
or at least subdues the aspect of the flesh that is suspicious
and looks at things as if they're suspect and does as Paul says,
when love comes by Jesus Christ, you think on the things of others
and not your own things. and you esteem others better
than yourself. The believer by the gospel knows
the basis of fellowship and does not measure a man's sale on the
fact of whether or not he's a believer. Now he's been in a striped staff. Does he believe the gospel? Yes,
he's my brother. Jesus' gospel. Does he believe
the gospel? Yes, he's my brother. every last cotton-picking one
of us. There ain't nothing in us that
can marry any type of one-upmanship when it concerns our brethren.
This knowledge and assurance is based on the gospel that Paul
and Silvanus and Timothy preached, as he says in the first three
verses of this chapter. The manner of men they were among
the believers, they were preachers of the gospel. They told people
the gospel. They sat down and persuaded men
concerning The next revelation of election is seen in verse
6. It says, And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having
received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Ghost. Paul is not suggesting that men
follow preachers here. He adds the disclaimer, and the
Lord. which may be interpreted as,
we follow the Lord. You follow us as we follow the
Lord. And this is a simple declaration
that those who hear the gospel attend those who preach it because
they are not told to follow the preacher but rather to look to
Christ by the preacher. The preacher says, don't look
to me. Don't look at me. Don't start
looking at my life. for dismay and sorrow if you
do. Look to the one I tell you about. Look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's a simple declaration. Preachers
are the sinners saved by grace that are put in the ministry
until their course is run. Then another will take their
place and continue preaching the message. Another revelation,
election, is that they have received the gospel with much affliction
This is not an anomaly. It's part and parcel of coming
to know the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not only given unto you
to believe, Scripture says, on Christ, but also to suffer for
his name's sake. The affliction suffered by the
child of God for believing the truth does not come from the
general public, but from those whose religion is proved false
by the clear declaration of truth. However, this affliction is not
salt. I don't want people to dislike me. I'd like folks to
like me. And I try my best to be kind
and generous as I can be, so folks will like me. But I know
this about them. If I tell them the truth about
the gospel, they're not going to like me, by and large. They're
not going to like me. Believers do not seek out
ways to suffer, but when they know that their affliction is
due to the gospel they love, they endure the affliction with
joy in the Holy Ghost, because the Holy Ghost continually takes
the things of Christ. and reveals them unto us. Next
time somebody throws fiery darts at you, I'm pretty sure the Holy
Ghost will direct you to Jesus Christ. They hated Him without
a cause. People have every reason to hate
me. And they don't know half the story. But they have no reason
to hate Christ. where it's going to be. Why? Because the Holy Ghost continually
points us to Christ. We've seen that in our own families.
We've seen it when people we tell the truth to act like we're
speaking in a foreign language, and maybe we are. When our Lord
said, over those who despise Jesus Christ, Psalm 2, repeated
in Acts 4, that he would have them in derision, that means
he spoke to them in a foreign language. What is a language
foreign to humanity? The gospel. It's that pure language
spoken of in Zechariah 3 that God will turn his people to.
It is the message Jesus Christ, he has spoken to us in these
last days in his Son. This affliction that results
in the joy the Holy Ghost has made these believers in samples,
that's what it says, in samples, in verse 7, so you were examples
to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. An example differs
from what we understand as an example. They are akin in definition,
but the word example means it speaks to a process, where example
speaks to primarily a result of a process. To see an example
is to view the finished product Whereas to see an example refers
to viewing what is wrought to bring about the finished product.
An example is a thing wrought by beating or forming into a
specific shape by applied pressure. In this context, affliction is
the hammer and the rasp that have brought the believers to
be viewed as a pattern of the cost of believing and its attendant
result in enjoying the Holy Ghost. They're examples. What they've
suffered in affliction has molded them, has bent them, has bruised
them, has strengthened this out and made that crooked, has done
those things. And people say, that person's
been under the gospel. That person's been under the
gospel. These enslavers paved the way, cleared the rocks out
of the road, and kept the signs clear of distractions in the
city of refuge. from hearing the gospel. The
next revelation of the election is that these joyous afflicted
ones sounded out the gospel. Verse 8 says, From you sounded
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place your faith to God is spread abroad,
so that we need not to speak anything. The term your faith
does not speak of what you do, it talks about what you believe
and what you say. This praise sounded out has its
root in the word fame or like a roaring sea. These were as
a great roaring gospel ocean wherever they went. Note that
the sounding out of the gospel and their faith is said as synonymous.
Their faith is understood in the gospel they believed and
sounded out. The gospel they preached and
the result of it on them was so obvious that these end samples
needed no credentials. Paul said, I didn't need to say
anything, that's what it says. In a latter part it says, in
every place your faith to God would have spread abroad so that
we need not speak anything. We don't need to say these are
believers. He said, wherever you went, people
knew that the gospel had affected you. And Paul goes on in verse
9, says that these examples showed forth much zeal in the declaration
of the gospel, that it was a kind of proof and validation of the
gospel that he, Timothy, and Silvanus had preached among them,
for they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we
had unto you, and how you turned to God from your idols to serve
the living God." That's a revelation. You turn from idols, your idols,
to serve the living God. Gil said this, the Thessalonians,
before the gospel came among them were idolaters. A man named
Diakabiri, was the great and chief gods of the Gentiles he
knew and talked about. And they were worshipped. Those
gods were Jupiter, Bacchus, Ceres, Prostathena, Pluto, Mercury,
Castor, Pollux, Escalpius. And these, the Macedonians, and
particularly the Thessalonians, worshipped with great devotion
and reverence. They had a whole lot of gods. They had a pantheon.
They probably had statues on every corner and statues in every
building of worship. They probably had icons in their
house where they could worship and all that going on. And he
said, this is how you know the gospel came home to these people.
This is how you know they were elected god. They turned from
those to serve the living god. They
turned from those to serve the living God. They left their idols
behind. They left their idols behind. These were outward idols that
they formally worshipped. They also had inward idols, like
we do, of self-importance and human merit and confidence in
the flesh. When they heard the gospel, the truth, they summerily
turned from their idols and had no confidence in the flesh. Anyone
other than Christ in the matter of worship and fellowship, anyone,
anything, anyone, in the matter of worship of Christ, other than
Christ, is an idol. It's that simple. No mixtures allowed on any level,
on any level. The gospel destroys and disallows
any hope but that which is in Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
The salvation of the sinner is not a hodgepodge of religious is dependent upon the hapless
will of man. He is Christ alone by grace alone. That's why our
Lord says you don't milk. You don't mix together two different
fabrics. You don't plow with a mule and
an ox at the same time. That's strange. What he said
is never a mixture. What you knew, what you learned,
the God you worship before the gospel is of absolutely no spiritual
value and played no part, no part at all in the salvation
of your soul. That's the hardest thing for
folks to let go of. I've been in church all my life, preacher.
What'd you hear? I saved back under, back yonder
when, under that old fella that talked about a God I couldn't
save unless I let it. I saved under a preacher that
said, you ain't saved until you make some kind of decision with
Jesus. I was saved under a preacher
that said, you have to use your free will to get to God. Let
me tell you this, and it'll be as clear as I can. Cast that
in the dung heap where it belongs. You believe after you heard the
word of truth. God, by His Son, had redeemed
you and had saved you before you even breathed a breath. If you believe this otherwise,
that's an idol. Turn from your idol because you
believe the Gospel. The effect of the Gospel in the
here and here is that the mind and the heart I fixed on Jesus
Christ, on what is now, and not what came before. Paul said,
it would please the Lord to reveal His Son in me. I forgot everything that came
before, and I conferred not with flesh and blood. But went out
and asked God to teach me. And he did for three and a half
years on the back side of the desert. Yesterday is gone. I regret a lot of stuff I did
in my life. But if I spend time regretting
it, I'm wasting my time. Because that doesn't change anything.
Nothing that happened before, right now, changes anything. Paul said, you lift your eyes
to serve the living God. Or Donny Bell said, a man give
up his house, his money, his wife and his children before
he give up that old profession. You better give up that old profession. Finally, the revelation of election
is a result of the gospel as it relates to the future. It
says in verse 10, And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom
He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from
the wrath to come. I thought an old song by, I can't
remember his name, it was about 45 verses, but I remember one
of the verses, Chosen not for good in me, hidden from wrath
to flee, When I see thee as thou art, and love thee with unsinning
heart, then, Lord, I shall fully know, but not till then, how
much I owe, how much I owe. Suffering and affliction for
this present time pauses as a light affliction when compared to the
weight of glory that awaits us. The mark of election is that
time and tide and circumstance are only of value to the furtherance
of the gospel until the day when the Lord once again splits the
sky and winds this entire thing called time up, destroying the
enemy with the word of his mouth and making all things new. Sin
and affliction and sorrow and tears will be no more. that this will take place is
that God raised Jesus from the dead. The same Jesus that delivered
us, past tense, from the wrath to come. Another verse of that
song ends this way, when I see thee as thou art and love
thee with unsinning heart. The elect of God have a hope,
an expectation, one day, one day. I thought about old Bill
Pennington, gospel believer, love the truth. Had a little
chest pain, went to the doctor. Died while he was taking an EKG
head on HR. Just out of here, didn't suffer,
right on in the door. He's worshiping God without sin. I can't imagine that. You know
why? Because they've got a simple
heart. I wonder what it'll be like. The gospel. The gospel, Paul said, we know
that you're the elect of God, because the gospel came unto
you not in word only, but in power, and the Holy Ghost, and
much assurance. Father, bless us, understand,
and pray in Christ.