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Sing the.
I.
Love God.
We begin with verse 7.
First Thessalonians one, verse 7.
So that ye were in samples to all that believe in Macedonia and IKEA, for from you sounded out the word of the Lord.
Not only in Macedonia and IKEA, but also in every place your faith through God Word is 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 you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
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For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you that it was not in vain. But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as you know, a Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God, with much contention. For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor guile. But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, Even so we speak.
Not in pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor cloak of covetousness God is witness, nor of men sought. We glory neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ, but we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children, so being affectionately desires of you.
We were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls.
Because ye were dear unto us.
Without that in verse.
Six ye became followers of us.
And of the Lord and our brother Bob mentioned in his address that.
We need an understanding of the times that we live in.
I don't know if I have an understanding of the time that we live in or not, but.
There is a deep impression on my heart.
Having in some measure a care for the assembly of the two or three gathered to the Lord's name and its preservation.
That's the very great need of our hour.
Isn't so much in the day that we live in and in the country that we live in where the?
Gospel permeates the airwaves and has been pretty well rejected and apostatized from in many greater extent than we realized.
But the hour and the day in which we live in there is a great need.
For examples.
To those who we are seeking to win for the Lord.
And to lead them on, and I would like to bring it down here. It says he became followers of us.
Why does he put himself first?
Sometimes, you know, we say we shouldn't look on our brethren, but I have been impressed through the years that how often Paul and even Peter.
Says Follow me and those as you have for an example, the House of Stephanus and others.
That the burden of the apostles, heart and life was to portray before those he was seeking to lead on in the Lord.
A visible pattern of Christ lived out in this life.
And so.
With those of us who are seeking to raise our children.
I'm I believe it's God's mind.
And the pattern of.
Labor for our household.
His forefathers to give that household a pattern of Christ to follow.
And if we fail in that?
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It's not like they're ever going to follow the Lord.
And in the assembly.
I have noticed through the years a very, very great emphasis.
On seeking to help the young people in all kinds of activities.
And energies and laborers have gone into this end.
But in the assembly, if they don't see in the fathers of an assembly Christ.
And we try to work without giving that pattern in our own lives for them to follow.
It's no wonder they never come to follow the Lord.
And so I think perhaps in this reading we might notice some of those affectionate actions of the apostle as a nurse with her own children, and as a father.
You know those who, like Timothy, stayed with Paul. They had a father, son relationship, and at the close of dispensations a man might build an ark. But.
He has impressed me. He saved his house through his efforts, but his preaching was pretty well unaffected, effective.
Whereas you got Jonah, who didn't know the God of grace at all and didn't like the thought of a God of grace. She ran away from the God of grace. Yet God was pleased to use that poor example of a representative of God to convert a whole city as we might so speak. So there is a lot of preaching. And if God.
Wants to use it for salvation of souls. He will do it, but I think we need to be exercised as fathers in the assembly and fathers in the home.
If we ever expect those that we desire to help to follow the Lord, we're going to have to give them a visible pattern to follow, and so that it says.
And that he became followers of us and of the Lord. And then in verse seven, that they were in samples to all that believe in Macedonia and IKEA, there was that.
Imprint put on this assembly that the apostle didn't have to say anything, their testimony of the effectual way that he had brought.
Amongst that people bore testimony to the power of the Gospel, and that they were His work, that they were His children. And I thought of Peter and John when they went up to the temple. And there was that a lame man there, and I think it look on us, they say but.
There was the opposition to.
The testimony in that day and in the new translation, there's a little expression.
That because that man that had been healed was standing there with them, they had nothing to say against that work. Well better than Do we want an effectual gospel testimony. Nothing will be more powerful than if our children come on and stand with us in the work, their standing testimony to the effects of the power.
Of the grace of God. But it'll it won't happen.
Unless we give them this pattern first to follow it, you know.
With a believers house, God works differently than he did say in my life or many others here who were saved out of out of almost heathen darkness.
That's not the pattern for the Christian home and the conversion of our children. We say, well, we hope they get converted in the gospel meaning. It's not the pattern for our households. The pattern is that we would win them by the example we have left for them as fathers, and then they will follow the Lord.
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Examples. Also, you might turn over to Chapter 6 of Acts.
Acts Chapter 6.
Assembly.
This question about service and the assembly in verse one it says because of their widows are neglected.
And so they said in verse 3. Wherefore, brethren, look.
Among you seven men of honest report. That's an example, Holy Ghost and Wisdom whom we may appoint over this business.
Verse 5 And the same please the whole multitude. And they chose Stevens, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost and Phillip.
Golf course, the Nightcanner and Timemans, or Armenians, Nicholas a crosslight of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on him, and the word of God increased and remembered Cycles multiplied as you can greatly, and a great company of priests were obedient to the faith.
If we look in these lives of these men, they're full of the Holy Spirit.
We see the star Stephen becomes a martyr and a testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Before the Council of Israel, and they reject Stevens testimony, the testimony of the Holy Spirit in this man.
But I was thinking with regard to talk about service, with regard to the gospel, and I believe brethren from.
Living amongst the gathered Saints and the assemblies and service, and the assembly begins at the assembly.
And the service at this assembly these men were, fellow the Holy Spirit to serve the table. They were to be servants.
No, that doesn't seem to be a great word, but it was just a little thing. We might say in the assembly that everything would function and work properly, and these seven young men were chosen, but it was full of the Holy Spirit, a good testimony.
And God used that. We see the blessing that came out. I believe service begins in assembly. And we know there's something else here. The apostles laid their hands on them. That is the fellowship of the assembly. That's what the laying hands on if they work in the gospel. When a young man takes his place as a man in the assembly or a young sister takes her place as a woman, meaning an adult in the assembly, and there's a little service that they would perform in the assembly.
We want you to have the fellowship of your brethren. If it's an outside work, you need the fellowship of the assembly of your brethren in Now an outside work would be your work, but if questions come up and you don't feel that you have the fellowship of your brother's stop and ask why, go to the old brother and say am I doing something wrong? But he has desire to go on.
And serve the Lord Jesus who is in the midst in the gospel. The work of an evangelist brings those that are saved to the assembly that they can establish that they're saved and established in the truth. And they're gathered around the man who is in the glory, who is in the midst of those two or three that are gathered unto him. It's at the assembly, and that's in the service that we do needs to have the fellowship.
Of our brother, they need their fellowship. If the gospel works, if we're gospel winded and we have real energy and the Lord is going to be pleased to bless us, we need the fellowship of our president. I want that to balance with this exercise where we have talked in the meeting before to encourage the young people in the gospel. That is true, but it has to be, especially when we get real energetic and we're older and we're taking our place as a man.
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As an adult or as a woman? As an adult in the assembly, when we take our place as an assembly, we create acting as just young people. When we take our place, we want the fellowship of our building and keep us out of trouble.
See that we work that we will exalt.
Our Savior Lord, and add to His assembly.
You mentioned Henry about leadership, and I think the testimony in taking a position certainly keeps us low before the Lord, doesn't it? Any of us can be tripped up by the enemy if we didn't walk in humbleness of mind and fear before the Lord.
I think of one of the popular radio preachers up here in the United States who was heard in South America.
And according to what I can gather and going around in Bolivia, one of the ones that was listened to by many Catholic people and appreciated his message and he fell and descend up here, it was one of the worst blows to the gospel that ever hit Bolivia. And it happened just before the Pope's visit, first time to Bolivian soil and one of the most tremendous blows to the gospel. This certainly shows the importance of of the testimony and the example that those give that take a place.
Before.
Souls in connection with the Lord and the Lord's things. The Apostle Paul, of course, was a special instrument called to that.
And he always says it like he does here in verse six became followers of us and of the Lord. 1St Corinthians 11. I think it is be followers of me, even as I am of Christ. So he always puts that there.
Because Paul even.
Didn't have really the spirits leading and going up to Jerusalem. So there's always human failure and human vessels.
And so there is that.
Way that that's put, I think it's so helpful to see that and it's natural that souls, when they're first saved, are going to look at the instruments that God has used in bringing them into blessing.
And I like to think though that in the course of time, as there is growth, that there will be a growing up like it says in Ephesians 4IN all things unto him who is the head. So that as time goes on and we grow in the faith and the we don't look as much as we have to human instruments, although that that's still important. But we transfer our vision more and more to the person of Christ himself who is the head in all things.
But leadership is important, very important. Satan has always been busy to do 2 Things. One is to trip those who are in a place of influence. Because those in a place of influence, when they miss the path, they often take others with them. And I believe too he's been he's been busy in any dispensation to occupy the people of God with the failures and the faults of their leaders. Because if he can get us occupied with the failures and faults of those that.
Minister to us in the Assembly, then our ears are closed to their ministry and I appreciated what Brother Henry said. And I'm thankful that as I look back on my life being brought up in the assembly, there have been those who have had a tremendous impact on my life and been a blessing and encouragement to me, not always by what they said, but by what they did. I think of one brother particularly in my home assembly when I was growing up. He never took an active part in the assembly and ministry or in administration, but his quiet testimony has been a wonderful blessing on my life. But I would like to say a word to those of us who are younger.
Because, brethren, it burdens my heart sometimes to hear an excuse used for failure and compromise, an excuse that the older brethren haven't ministered Christ or lived Christ before us properly.
Brethren, let's not use that excuse. Let's be careful, brethren, if we're going to be occupied with defaults and failures of those that have gone before.
Or those that God has raised up at this present time to God be guides in the assembly. There's plenty of those, and we're going to be discouraged, but I don't believe we're ever given the excuse. And I say this to those of us who are younger, we're never given the excuse justified in using the excuse for failure by pointing at someone else. And so I just say that as a warning to our hearts. Paul, when he wrote to Timothy, wrote of appalling days of failure. And many there are listed that had failed in many ways. But Paul told Timothy to continue in the things that he had learned. He said, Timothy, don't look at those.
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We're thankful for those whose faith we follow, but by the same token, if I was looking to my brethren, I would have been discouraged long ago.
Many have been an encouragement to me, but I believe, as I've often said, that one of the great lessons that God is teaching us today is.
Contained in the 119th Psalm, where it says, I have seen an end of all perfection and brethren, if we're looking for perfection down here, we're going to be disappointed. If we're looking for perfection in those that God has graciously raised up to be guides and leaders and to have the oversight in the assembly, we're going to be disappointed. And I've been impressed how that at the end of the 11Th chapter of Hebrews, after bringing before us that list of men and women and young people who live by faith for God's glory, against all kinds of odds and difficulties.
And they're given to encourage our hearts. But immediately on completion of that list, he lifts our eyes above those men and women. He lifts our eyes above Moses and Elijah and Abraham and all those great men and women of faith. And he says there's only one perfect object, there's only one who hasted through this world in the path of faith and service and never digressed from that path that was set before him. And that's the Lord Jesus. And he lifts our eyes into the open heavens. And he says there's a perfect object.
Seated at the right hand of God, the only perfect man that hasted through this world. And he says, if you're going to be preserved in the path of faith and service, it's only by looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. And so I just say again, we're thankful for brethren that have been an encouragement to us in the past. We're thankful for those that God raises up in the assembly now. But, brethren, we need to have the perfect object before us. And I believe that we will be preserved in the path of faith and service only.
As we have Christ before our souls, we sometimes sing that little prayer, and I wonder if we really sing it from our hearts and think about it all. Fix our earnest gaze, so holy Lord on Thee that with Thy beauty occupied we elsewhere none may see.
See what the Thessalonians saw in Paul to follow here, that they wanted to become a follower of him. It was the way he went through the afflictions. It was the testings, the persecution there at Thessalonica. And when they saw how Paul responded to those things that were heaped against him there, that's what convinced them that it was the truth.
And they wanted to participate in it. They weren't ashamed of the affliction. They wanted the the faith that Paul had to go through that kind of a thing. And.
You don't need to worry too much about going to your head and something like that, do you?
Or somebody becoming a leader who wants to be a leader in affliction.
We often think of it in other ways, leadership and so on, but I really feel that this is where the opportunity is for us today too, brother. Just like to turn over to Second Timothy and read a few verses there that.
Perhaps Paul comments along the same line of his.
I'll just read from the second Timothy 3, beginning with the eighth verse, because here we have for the last times, and I believe this is applicable to us. We don't have the persecution like Paul had at Thessalonica in this country so much, but we do have falsehood and representation and imitation that seeks to discredit God's work.
It's here portrayed with the way Janice and Jamberries withstood the faith.
Says in verse 8. Now as Janice and Jam Breathe withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning their faith, but they shall proceed no further for their fall They shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity.
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Patience, persecutions, afflictions which came.
Unto me at Antioch. And so forth. This is what Paul spoke to Timothy about. Timothy had known Paul. He had seen all these things, and when he saw it, he couldn't help me but be convinced it was the truth. And Timothy walked in at 2. And I believe as our brethren minister, even our young people, they discern what is the truth. They discern who is real.
And when they see how we respond to afflictions or divisions or problems that come, it shows us up, doesn't it? The reality of this, or sometimes the lack of it.
Nice going back to Thessalonians to see that when they did that, they became an example too. And so the chain goes on, the testimony goes on. But it all started with the Paul in the presence of the Lord.
The God and realizing who he was there. The third verse I believe it is.
It says the.
This the first verse and the last part, grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That was what Paul laid hold of that enabled him to go through all that, and so it all goes back to God.
Of the second chapter in.
Verse 8 So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls.
Because ye were dear unto us. I think Mr. Darby translates because.
He had become beloved to us, but.
You know, we find it difficult. We read the apostle's life.
And.
We recognize that we can't identify with it.
Want to fulfill this filled up the sufferings of Christ but those around us.
They're watching us and you back your car up or.
Someone backs their car up and bangs your Fender and.
What do you do?
You arrive at the motel and say you've got.
Room reserved for you and the lady says there's no room for you. What do you do?
If we're not. If our Christianity isn't sufficient for.
A water pipe that breaks in our modern kitchen and we have to fix that water pipe.
Is insufficient for anything, but people are watching us in our everyday lives and there are, from morning to night, abundant opportunities to see.
What does Christ mean to us? You come home and.
Your wife burns the.
Biscuits, How do you respond?
If we don't respond in the matter becoming the Lord, you know there's an expression in verse four of chapter 2.
As we were allowed of God, but Mr. Darby translates that approved of God.
This was the vessel raised up by God and I personally feel even when he presents himself as an example.
Follow him even if he followed the Lord. It's not.
Saying to us, you look at my life and evaluate it, and when you see that I followed the Lord, you followed that part of my life, I don't think that's the force of that scripture. I think the force of that scripture is Paul is saying I have as I have followed the Lord, You follow me. It isn't when I follow the Lord but.
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As I have followed the Lord and so that is what why the Spirit of God could so identify with this.
If we want to call it a gospel, outreach or whatever.
These this vessel was approved of God he hadn't used as he brings out deceit or guile or anything. He wasn't in it for money. He wasn't in it for the approval of men. He wasn't in it for the glory of men.
He lived before his God, and it was evident to the eyes in Galatians he he he is expecting something like this before whom Jesus Christ has been evidently portrayed before you crucified.
That's that's what we want to be exercised, rather than about what kind of believers we are.
There's no sense to exhorting anyone.
Young folks I, I sometimes.
Let's just live before them, portray Christ before them and the value of our Christianity. What do we do when something that is really we're not talking about what Paul was talking about. Paul was talking about life threatening situations daily in his life. But.
Lee Most of our adverse things that happen to us happen to things that we've accumulated. Our lawn mower won't start until I get angry at it.
What value is our Christianity? Why should I talk to someone about being occupied with Christ?
When something like that turns me aside trying to see what I am saying.
That maybe we never will have to suffer like Paul did, but we're going to have to suffer. We've got.
He suffers in the flesh, ceases from sin. We're going to have to stop allowing.
The flesh to express itself in anger or whatever way, whenever the flesh has been displeased or crossed.
Go and Hebrews 11.
Just to continue.
He mentioned those in Hebrews 11 and and thinking about these persons Moses and Rahab.
Gideon, Barack.
If we consider when the Lord called them and.
Their weak mortal or moral character in the beginning we find them to be men and women dependent on God.
Dependent.
Weak examples of blood dependence and what happens at the end of the chapter. They they wax bold.
They come forth courageously and victorious.
I think there's something good for this in all of us, because no matter how young we are here this afternoon, our lives are having an effect on others at this very moment. I've been impressed with that verse that says no man liveth to himself and no man dies to himself. We affect one another, and it's either for one in one of two contacts, we're either affecting one another for good. We're either an encouragement to our fellow Christian at this moment, or we're a hindrance or discouragement. There's no neutrality.
In Christianity. And so it's one or the other, and it's a searching thing to realize that. I'd like to just say in connection with Paul too, that it's interesting what he says in Galatians, because there he says, if we are an Angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached, let him be accursed. It's true. And I believe Paul realized that he had been raised up as a, shall I say, a patterned St. to be a pattern for those who hereafter believe. But he says, as it were, if I digress in any way, from the path of faith and from the ministry that I have presented to you, and from the truth of God, he said, don't accept me.
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And so I think it's a good balance to what we have here. And he had that exercise and that concern. I realized it was something specific and something serious at Galatia, but I believe there's a broad principle here, he says, If I digress in any way from that which I have presented, he says, don't accept me at all.
Point must be always God and the word of His grace. We do have examples that God graciously gives, but they are to point us in that direction and we need to keep that before us, don't we?
Christ is the object of faith.
Oh, that's true. That really balances it all out, doesn't it, To have Christ before us. If I am listening to the word of God, either the gospel or the truth, God would direct my sight away from the vessel that He is using, because I'm always going to find failure in it. And I am responsible toward God to receive His word no matter what channel He may use to bring it before me. I have no excuse.
A lost Sinner will not be able to say in the coming day. While the gospel preacher was inconsistent, his life was a bad testimony and therefore I didn't believe.
I will never be able to say in a coming day I didn't receive the truth of God according to his word, because the vessel that brought it before me didn't commend itself to me. But on the other hand, in the words of another, if I present the word of God in such a way as not to glorify God, I give power and influence to those who do not want that word, and perhaps unconsciously, I may repel.
Honest souls that are really desirous of knowing God's word, and I may throw them into the hands of those who don't want that.
Why? Because of the attitude, the spirit, the inconsistency in my own life. Well, it's very humbling, isn't it? And I believe that's what our brother Henry was bringing before us. So there is a way in which our lives can commend these things. Scripture uses the term in Timothy, I believe, adorning the doctrine. And there's a way that we can adorn that doctrine, can't we? Or there's a way that we can take away from that so that others looking on it say, well, it doesn't commend itself to me. Well, his brother Bob says in each case we are to have Christ before us.
Whether we find ourselves on the receiving end or on the giving end.
Much more powerful than what we say. And these Thessalonian believers, their testimony was so powerful that it wasn't necessary for the apostles to speak anything. That's that's a tremendous commendation, isn't it?
They could see it. It was so visibly displayed.
The work of God in their souls. And then he goes on verse 9. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how that ye turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God to wait for his Son from heaven.
Turn to God from idols. It's a that was commented on some this morning that it's beautiful to think about it. Oh brethren, what kind of a God do we have? Tremendous God. The glory, the grandeur, the greatness of the God that we profess to believe in. Where can we know him but in the person of the Lord Jesus? There we see the full revelation of all that God is.
And the Lord Jesus, once you get him before him, what are idols in comparison?
It's not that somebody came along and broke those idols, so they had to look for other gods. That wasn't the point. They got something of such supreme value before their souls.
Those idols were abandoned. They turned from them. And that's Christianity. God gives us something so tremendous we can know we can belong to the living God now. And those are the things they are left behind.
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Because of their.
Poor value sometimes, say to the brethren down South, if you want to get a bone away from a dog, what are you going to do? Wrestle that dog to get that bone away from? Just take a nice big piece of meat and flop it down and from them He's going to leave that bone right away. Why?
Because he's got something better. Oh, brethren, may the Lord give us to.
Show our young people like it's been said that we have something that's worth talking about, that's worth it, worth living. And once they see that the idols are not going to have too much attraction to them any longer, I'm going to leave it They turned.
To God from idols. That's the work of faith, isn't it? Like it's been brought up now yesterday.
And true faith really works, brethren.
We're not saved by works, but we're saved by a faith that really works.
And if I profess to know the true God?
I profess faith in him, and you see my life has not changed. You see that there's.
I'm living basically the same way I did before.
There is a faith that I that works, and that's not the faith of God. The faith of God is the faith that works.
Again, I say we're not saved by works. We're saved by faith and faith alone. But the faith that saves is a faith that works.
Well, I'm thinking of that object.
Jesus, He didn't remain, He he was there in the glory of God, in the past eternity, in the form of God.
But that isn't how he came down here and appeared. He became a man. He took human nature.
And it is this way we can we can relate to him.
And what a blessed man we have. He came so near to us, He couldn't come nearer. I think of all the love, the tenderness and the grace that he showed towards us, that blessing money came so near to us. That's the one that the Apostle set before the these dear souls and Thessalonica. And when you think of the misery and the wretchedness of that which they were in.
How could they but leave it all behind?
And.
To have one, a blessed one, who is not only put all their sins away, but one who.
Associates himself with them and associates them with him. And that's what the Lord does. He has associated us with himself, and He associates himself with us, and that's the Blessed One we're going to have to all eternity. He became a man in order that we might enjoy Him forever.
It's American came where that poor half dead man was came right where he was and that's what God has done, isn't it? Often Think too there that verse in Second Timber Corinthians chapter 4 where it speaks of.
The glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ. Think of it. Think of the glory of God in creation, and there is a glory of creation. But think of that face that was so marred. More than any man's on that cross, they're the glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ, the blaze, the glory.
By on the other side, the law didn't did nothing for man, Couldn't do anything for poor man Left him there on the road. There was no heart for him, no love for him. Just left him there. Might have said, well, it's your own fault. You're there because of what you've done. You've left. You've turned your back on on Jerusalem and you know you're suffering for it. Well, the law never gave an object and it never gave any strength.
To the law could tell man what he ought to be.
And what he should be and what he shouldn't be. But it never gave him strength or power.
To become what he ought to be or do what he should do. But the Samaritan.
He.
You saw that poor man down there, and his pity and his love went out to him, and he he wouldn't leave him there, and he didn't leave you and I. He picked us up.
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He's carrying us until he's coming to take us home.
Verse nine. There first Thessalonians chapter one. For they themselves show up us what manner of entering in we had unto you. Let's turn to those verses in Second Corinthians chapter 4.
For the 12Th of Paul said. We can see what that entering in they had.
Here with the Thessalonians who were at that entering and serving.
Verse five First 10 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 5 where we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your servants For Jesus name. They weren't preaching themselves, they were exalting the Lord Jesus Christ. They would preach to him. Verse 6 For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Lord of God, the faith of Jesus Christ.
These are living examples of a work that was done in their hearts. There's nothing more effective than a salesman that believes what he's selling. But these men are more than just salesman. They were offering the free gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ, the Lord, because they've experienced it. We have the same thing. We have experienced salvation in Christ Jesus. We have been saved by grace. It is not of ourselves.
We but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the equity of the power may be of God and not of us.
There's no other gospel.
They can say all the other news, all the other information.
Is what you can do, but you can't do.
This gospel would be in the preaching apostle and those who were with him the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It had touched him, and it turned the Apostle Paul from Judaism to serve the living and true God.
John 17 was evident in their lives when he said that they might know these, the only true God in Jesus Christ, without sin. That's.
If I have the opportunity to present the gospel on YouTube and I tell you about the Savior that I have in all my sins are forgiven, and that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses me from all sin, what a message that is to a Sinner.
A Sinner who's serving something else, Some other purpose in life.
I remember when I was saved, one of the reasons I was saying is not just what I could have forgiven to sin, but I needed God's help in life. I wanted the help of God. I wanted his help because life is difficult and tough. Life is hard. To get to life on earth here I needed a Savior. I needed a God as my father. That's the message. Please, man. That's our message again.
He's an all the way home.
Came to serve here, wasn't it? It's a scriptural thought, brethren, We are saved to serve him.
Service varies greatly in the servant but.
Sometimes, brethren, I fear we make a special class when they speak of the servants of the Lord that.
Every true believer in this room is a servant of Christ. We need to feel that, oh, you say, well, you serve the Lord by leaving your secular employment and going out and ministering the word to believers and in the gospel. That idea, brethren, has done more damage to the testimony than we can realize.
You are working for some earthly company, some.
Company. You have a boss, an ungodly man. You are serving God at that job. That is important to see the.
Apostle Paul to the Colossians says to those who were servants in chapter 3.
Who were really? The word is slaves. As I understand it, they were those who never had their liberty to go out and do their own thing. But he says, There ye served the Lord Christ any greater motive than to do your work? Hardly, As unto him, doesn't matter whether it's an earthly master. Whatever it is you serve the Lord Christ, brethren, we're all servants of God, whatever you're doing.
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You're serving him. Do it heartily as unto the Lord, and not unto men. And if that's the case.
You're going to do it far better than anybody else on the job. If you make that your object, you realize that you're serving the Lord. And I say, if you cannot serve the Lord in that capacity, you'll never serve the Lord in any other capacity.
Where the Lord has put you right now, abide with God in that calling.
Serve him there. It's important. We're all called to serve him. Tremendous privilege to serve him.
For those of us who are younger, when we have a concern and we're praying about what the Lord would have us to do, perhaps as an occupation or profession, that we seek to get into something where we can serve the Lord. Because I believe there are many places and things that a Christian can get into. And sad to say, when he gets into them he finds out he really can't serve the Lord in that capacity. Might be helpful to look at those verses in First Corinthians 7 because I think it's encouragement in connection with what has been brought before us.
There were slaves at Corinth too, and they might have said, well, how can I serve the Lord here? I'm a slave to an ungodly master, and there's really nothing I can do for the Lord. But I was thinking of the exhortation here in the seventh of First Corinthians and verse 20. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is was called called Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it, but if thou mayest be free, use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord being a servant, is the Lord's freeman.
Likewise also he that is called being free is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price. Be not the servants of men, Brethren, let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God. So he tells again these these slaves here at Corinth, that just to go on in the place God has put them, and to live Christ before their ungodly master, the Lord, could even turn that into a testimony to their ungodly master, and use it for their for their blessing.
Like the little Him, the children sometimes sing, Speaking of shining for the Lord, they sing you and your small corner, and I and mine. And if the Lord leaves us here, we're all going to go back to the little corner where God has placed us. We're going to go back to the home and to the neighborhood. We're going to go back to the office and the shop. We're going to go back to school. Wherever God has placed us, whether it's in the workplace or whether it's at the kitchen sink or wherever it may be, God has a little service for us to do.
And I believe it's a service that no one else can do quite as well as you. God has fitted you for that service.
And I wonder too, brethren, if sometimes I want to apply this in connection with the assembly, if there aren't assemblies that suffer a lack because there are those in the assembly who do not carry out the little quiet ministry that God has given them in the assembly. I say that because when Paul wrote to the Colossian brethren, he said, and say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry that thou hast received of the Lord, that thou fulfill it. We're not told specifically what the ministry of Archipelas was.
But Paul felt that the Saints at Colossi were suffering a lack because Archippus wasn't carrying out that little service.
And so it says in Galatians let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. Every one of the Levites had a service, every one of them had a burden. And to fulfill that little service before the Lord was what brought the Lorde blessing, and will bring the Lord's reward in a coming day.
Brother and there is a service connected with idols, isn't there? When you think of idols, you think of those that have to serve them. But it's not love that motivates that service. And so here you have a labor of love proven by.
Serving the living and true God. An idol is not living and it's not true. And in that wonderful brethren that.
We have been turned to God from idols, to serve God, to serve the living and true God. And I want to go back to what our brother Henry mentioned earlier at the beginning of the meeting. You know, the heart of the Apostle Paul breaks out in many places, it seems to me, with his desire as a father in Corinthians. He talks about how the Corinthians had 10,000 instructors.
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But not many fathers. He talks about how that he would rather speak 5 words with his understanding than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. And you know, brethren, I think it's the heart of a father. You think about it. What are those that we're seeking to bring the gospel to? The effect of the gospel, The joy, all that's involved in that. Maybe our families. It ought to be our families. There can be that in the assembly.
Are they seeing a labor of love in service? That's what we have. We have a God who's living and true and doesn't that capture our hearts to command and love that we serve him? Our brother Bob was talking about serving wherever we are in the Brother Jim and.
You know, if I am looking at that service as a duty, that's what I have to do with an idol. I have to do something, but not with God. He's won my heart and love, and he's turned me to him away from idols. And now that service is a service of love. But, brethren, may it be done with that father's heart. Not only that we serve in that way, but that that example is set for those around us, the assembly, wherever it is, that there might be blessing.
I.
Yeah, I agree. There are two verses.
That give us motivation.
With purpose apart in our work.
Verse 17 And whatsoever you do in Word for me through all, in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks.
And verse 23. And whatsoever you do, because it hardly is to the Lord, and not unto men in our secular work a lot of times.
Christian is thought of as a negative person, but the Christian should be a cooperative person, and that's what they should see appear to cooperation in the believers. He goes to work, he goes for corporations. They come up with some dumb ideas. They really don't want to hear that their ideas are dumb. And as long as it isn't a moral issue that we're going to have to stand for, we should have a spirit of cooperation. If the company wants to do this and that, we want to do our partisan to the Lord in cooperation.
If another thing is in cooperations we work with other employees, they have a tendency. I know you go into another, I go into other places with business and you might hear one person talking about another. You know I we try I don't get into those conversations. I just look and I I just keep about my business but.
I think you know how I've met some of the Christians in those different places, and I see them, and I see a spirit of cooperation on their on their part.
I say that they're not backbiting and they're trying to show love and kindness. I see a devotion to the Savior on their part, that whatsoever they do, I can see that they do it hardly unto the Lord and not event to men. And now I have a brother that works with the company that I work for. He went out to Canton OH, as a specialist.
And we had a specialist transfer out of Saint Louis here. And he says the manager called him up and said, China, did you come down here and work for us? They knew he was a Christian, but they knew he had a dedication and he was cooperating. He had a spirit of cooperation about him. And they could see that this young man, Diana Hudson, I really love him very much in the Lord and I can speak very well of him because here's a young man.
That I know is dedicated to the Lord, the family dedicated to the Lord. You see it at home, but you can see it at work too. There's a spirit of cooperation wanting to go along. You see self judgment in his life too. If he does things wrong, he admits to his wrong. He said I shouldn't have done things this way. He takes responsibility for things, but it says spirit of cooperation. And I thought it was so pleasing to see that when when a specialist was needed they called him from Canton. OH and they said Dang it.
But your chance to come down here and help us, that was a testimony to me of that man's testimony before what sorry does he does? Heart is under the Lord, not under him.
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Through here, the 10th verse. Nice to get this before we finish up rather than to wait for his Son from heaven. That was what the Apostle Paul taught these Thessalonian believers so many years ago. And yet the Lord hasn't come yet. Was the Apostle Paul mistaken in teaching them to wait for the sun from heaven?
That's what partly makes it the living word of God. It's never outdated. It's nothing that the Christian Pope continually, but it was a year 40AD or 1995.
It's always the proper hope of the believer at anytime. And these Thessalonian believers because the Lord didn't come in their lifetime, The Apostle Paul, because the Lord didn't come in his lifetime are not going to be disappointed.
When the time comes that home call brethren, and the Lord comes to take us home, they're going to all be there, present. It's not a question of those who have gone on to be with the Lord of Time any longer.
So.
What is it, nearly 2000 years that has transpired since they went home to be with the Lord? What is that? Is a brief moment in eternity, eternities day where they are waiting for that day too. They're not going to be disappointed. They're going to be included.
It's always the proper hope of the believer to wait for the sun from heaven, and may the Lord give us to be a vivid burning thing in our souls. Just to think, brethren. Just to think that in one of these moments during our busy lives, we're going to take one step and maybe lift that foot to take another step, and instead of stepping down here, it'll be stepping onto the cloud to meet the Savior.
Just that soon, brethren, to meet him face to face. Any accounts?
Still pending to straighten up before we go, brethren, Let's get those straightened out. If we're going to go with those accounts pending, it'll be with a sense of shame when we meet him and loss. The Lord help us to live in the constancy. It's proper Christianity to always live at whatever time with the constancy of the sense that our Lord might come.
At any moment we're going to see him and with what condition of heart?
Am I going to meet him at that supreme moment of encounter? See our Savior face to face? To see that face more marred than any man? To see his hands and his feet fall down before him? To worship and praise him forever? Oh, what a day. It could happen at any moment.
Not just waiting, but watching too.
Of our life, that the hope of the Lord coming interferes with right.
Every There isn't anything.
In our practical life that the hope of his coming interferes with.
Just go on.
Just go on with our work. The Lord has given us to do and but the thought of waiting has has a in itself. It isn't just it isn't just merely A doctrine that the Lord is coming did that coming to the Lord but as a as a there's that that waiting that that eager looking out or something.
Remember reading about Thomas saying about a oh a dog? I guess he was a stray. At least somebody. Anyhow, they they put him in the.
They put him in one of these places where they just keep dogs until until someone will pick them up and hopefully maybe the master will come back. But that that dog, he sat there and he watched that they put him in that place and he sat there and watched that door, waiting for that door to open.
All day long he just sat there and watched, waiting, hoping it was a thought that his master would come and take him out and he just sat there. Well, sometimes creatures put up to shame. Gods, creatures. They teach us lessons, don't they? Looking for that blessed hope.
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I'm getting tights.
And there's no sign to be accomplished, brethren, for the Lord's coming for us from heaven. We're talking about the Lords coming in His manifestation at the end of the tribulation period to reign on this earth.
To reign over this earth, there is a multitude of signs that will be fulfilled for that.
Sometimes we look around and say, boy, there's sure a lot of signs of the Lord's coming brethren. The signs that we see are not for the rapture, it's for the coming at the end of the tribulation period.
That's right. And but for the Rapture, no sign has to be fulfilled. It can take place at any moment.
And as we see those signs that point to that which is beyond the Lord's coming for His Saints, we ought to take heart. Because if we see those signs so prevalent, how much closer?
Is the Rapture. I enjoyed Brother Dear's illustration of the dog, and I thought of it too when we were children at home.
We lived out on the highway out of town, and on a day when we were expecting some guests, particularly if it was someone we were really looking forward to having in our home, We as children throughout the day would be out the window and we had a big plate glass window in our front room. And we'd be out the window and we could see both ways down the highway, quite a distance. And there we would be every few moments looking down the highway. We weren't just waiting, we were watching for that guest to arrive. We'd say to my dad, well, when are they going to come? Well, I'm not sure.
And so we didn't know exactly. We knew they were coming sometime that day, and as we were waiting and watching for those guests, it really had an effect on our whole day. And, brethren, I believe in the measure in which we grasp in our souls this evening as a living reality, not just as a mere doctrine, important as it is to take it up in that way, but as we grasp it as a living reality in our souls, the imminent return of the Lord Jesus for his Saints. In that measure it will have a practical, purifying effect.
On our lives. When he takes this up in one John chapter 3 and speaks of being with and like Christ, then he says every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure and brethren, When the Lord Jesus comes and snatches us out of this world, everything that we have down here as far as this world is concerned is going to be left behind. Pardon the repetition of an Old Testament illustration that I've often used for those of us who are younger. I often think of Daniel when he stood before Belshazzar.
There he stood, and Belshazzar said, I'll give you 3 things. If you read the right and read the writing on the wall, I'll give you a gold chain, a scarlet robe, and I'll make your third ruler in the Kingdom. And Daniel said to that man thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing. Why did he refuse those gifts? Well, brethren, why would he want to be third ruler in a Kingdom that was already under judgment? Daniel knew from the writing on the wall that that Kingdom was divided and given to another.
And Scripture tells us that that's what happened that very night. And Daniel didn't want any part in something that was about to pass away. He was made third ruler in the Kingdom, but it was only for a moment because the Kingdom that night passed away. And brethren, as we realized that everything we have down here is about to be left behind.
Jubilee is about to take place. I believe it will place a proper value on what we have here in a temporal way, and it will have that practical purifying effect on our lives while we do everything in view of the Lord's coming. It says Occupy till I come.
All right.
208.
And hopefully.
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Our glory noise, we know the same way.
And all the world wars.
There's a round through glory.
Go down.
We are here.
All day rain.
I love you.
Crazy.