Excitement For God

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

0 views

0 comments

00:00
and preach with boldness. I don't know about the boldness the Lord gives the grace to do that, but I know what
00:06
I do bring to the pulpit. My heart is pounding. My palms are sweaty. I have a physical reaction every time
00:14
I come into the pulpit. And it's not necessarily because I have to stand in front of people, but it is because all that I say and do this morning will be weighed by the
00:24
Lord and I'm handling his word. If you would take your Bibles, please open them to the book of 1
00:29
Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians. All the T's are together in the Bible. I would like to read beginning in chapter one and in verse one, just a few verses.
00:46
1 Thessalonians chapter one and in verse one. Paul and Silvanus or Paul and Silas and Timotheus or Timothy unto the churches, the church of Thessalonians, which is in God the
01:00
Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, may His grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the
01:06
Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers.
01:13
Remembering verse three, without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our
01:19
Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father, knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.
01:27
For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance or in full conviction.
01:36
That means, and as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake, and you became followers of us and of the
01:43
Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that you were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.
01:55
I would like to speak this morning about the message of the church and what that message should contain and what is behind it and how it is that it ought to be delivered and spoken and lived and what it produces, what type of reaction it produces in people.
02:15
Before we do that, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I thank you for your precious word.
02:21
I thank you for all that we've experienced since we've come into this place this morning and this service has begun, that we have been enabled by your grace and because of your mercy, we can approach the throne of grace and it is no longer a throne of judgment for your people, but a throne of grace and we can pour out our hearts to you and we can praise and worship you in song as we have and we thank you for all that we've heard and been able to sing and these truths of the word of God in our relationship with you because of your good work.
02:55
And now we come to your word and we pray that we may be able to sit as it were at Jesus' feet.
03:01
We pray that we may be taught of our God. I ask, oh Lord God, please, that you would give grace to the speaker and grace to the hearers, that we may receive this word gladly and that we may leave this place and run with it, desire to live it for the glory of the
03:18
Lord Jesus in whose name we ask it, amen. Amen. Well, there is only one message for that God has commissioned to be spread by the church.
03:32
We won't turn there, but in 2 Corinthians chapter five, there's a term given to God's people which shed some light upon our mission.
03:40
In verse 20 of that chapter, it says that every believer is an ambassador for Christ. What is the most essential characteristic of an ambassador?
03:49
I submit that it is that he is a person who does not speak his own mind.
03:55
He does not give his own opinions. Why not? Because he is a representative of his country.
04:03
He's on a mission to do that which he has been told to do. Ambassadors of the United States are chosen to represent our great nation.
04:11
No matter what the ambassador thinks about the issue that is at hand, the international affair or whatever it is that's going on, he checks his opinion, he leaves it behind and he speaks the message that he's been given by his president.
04:27
If he doesn't do that and begins to speak his own mind, he will not last long in his position.
04:34
His calling is to be a mouthpiece of his government and of his country, which sent him on the mission.
04:41
And what about the church today? The apostle Paul was mission -minded.
04:47
The apostle Paul came to this area of the world with a message.
04:52
The apostle Paul came there as an ambassador for Jesus Christ and we have the same commission today.
05:00
It is no different for us. God's people today are ambassadors of heaven and we must refuse to promote our own opinions or viewpoints.
05:12
We've been given only one message to proclaim and our ideas about the different issues of life or how things ought to be said or done does not matter.
05:22
What is important is that we must remember that we are ambassadors of Jesus Christ as it says there in that 2
05:29
Corinthians 5, verse 20. We've been chosen by God. We have been called by God and we have been sent by God.
05:37
Every one of us who has been saved by the grace of God on an important mission. It is a lifelong mission.
05:46
In Matthew 28, 19 and 20, we have the great commission there where it says that we ought to go and preach what?
05:53
The gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel to every creature. And it says in there that we ought to make disciples of all, among all the nations.
06:02
We are speaking on the behalf of our sovereign God. And as pilgrims and strangers of a different country to which we belong, our home being in heaven, we are citizens of that eternal city.
06:16
We are not there yet. We will soon be there, but until God brings us home, we have a task to perform.
06:23
I guess maybe I'm more thinking along these lines because in school we've looked at personal evangelism and we've also studied missions.
06:32
And in Sunday school we're going through evangelism, personal evangelism and the subject is just pressing upon me.
06:39
And I believe that's probably in part why it is coming across this morning and why it is the choice of the message this morning, that it might come from maybe my heart to your heart, this mission that we are on.
06:54
We are ambassadors and we have an ambassadorship to be faithful to. We are to compel men and women and boys and girls, as it says there in 2
07:04
Corinthians 5, to be reconciled to God. We are preaching the same message that the apostles preached.
07:12
We are to bring to our generation the same message that the apostle Paul brought to the
07:19
Thessalonians or to the Corinthians or to those in Philippi. Now Paul reminds them in this chapter one of 1
07:27
Thessalonians, how the message came to them, how their church was established. The verses that I read to you declare this in that first and foremost in chapter one in verse four, he says, knowing brethren and beloved, your election of God, God had chosen a people that he had given to his son,
07:46
Jesus Christ, as we've seen elsewhere in scripture. And then he says in verse five, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the
07:55
Holy Ghost and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
08:02
God had sent the apostle Paul to this place and he had brought the message to them and their church was established.
08:12
He can, and as he writes this letter, he considers their current condition.
08:18
They are a young church with just a few people. They are in the middle of a pagan society.
08:24
Paul came over to this European city, this place of darkness and ignorance and spiritual blindness.
08:31
And he presented the gospel to them. In Acts 17, we read of this when he came on his second missionary journey through this area.
08:39
And this is his first letter to them. And they, as I said, were a small group and he wants to commend them and he wants to encourage them and he wants to remind them.
08:49
And it would be good for us to remember how the gospel came to them and how the gospel comes to us.
08:56
He wanted them to recall how they were converted and how they had become a church. As I said, in verse four, it says that they were chosen of God.
09:04
In verse five, it says the gospel came to them and it came to them in power and it came to them in the
09:12
Holy Spirit and it came to them in much assurance or with full conviction.
09:19
It is by God's design and God's purpose is to send his people into all the world to preach this gospel.
09:29
And when that gospel is preached, God powerfully turns hearts to himself. People are saved, churches are established and God is the cause of it all.
09:40
It is all of God and it is all of grace. But what does Paul say about this message?
09:47
I mean, it's so unbelievable today. All you gotta do is flip on the radio and turn it over to a
09:54
Christian radio station. Well, first, why don't you turn it over to the secular station and look at the way that people are searching for an answer to the questions of life.
10:06
And all that they say, all the philosophy, all the tradition, all what the sciences have to promote, none of it give an answer to the true spiritual need of mankind.
10:19
And then sadly, you can turn it over to the Christian radio station. And sometimes when you go there, it can be just as disappointing because people are scraping and people are scrambling to try to find out what is the message.
10:36
Paul didn't have any trouble when it came to the message. He knows exactly what it is.
10:42
When he wrote to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 15 and verses one through three or so, he said, he came to them and he delivered the message that God had given to him.
10:53
And he said, they received that message. And he says, they're standing in that message. And he said, that message was something that he had gotten from the
11:00
Lord, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again.
11:09
God gave it to him. And he just turns around and he gives it to others. And what does he call this message in chapter one, verse five?
11:17
And notice how he personalizes it. He says, it is our gospel. It is that which God has brought to me.
11:23
He has revealed his son to me. God has saved me. God has delivered me from my sins.
11:31
And now what he does and he wants to do is he wants to turn around and he wants to proclaim it to others so that they may embrace the
11:38
Savior and they too might be saved and enter into the faith and share the same life precious faith that he has.
11:46
And we know that the gospel means what? It means good news. Paul was bringing good news to them.
11:53
And today, if we do not deliver a message of good news, then we are not preaching the gospel because that's what it means.
12:01
It is so sad that the element or this element of good news, of glad tidings has been stripped away from today's preaching.
12:10
Preaching has become maybe eloquent words that don't reach the souls of men and do not meet their true spiritual need.
12:17
Preaching has been substituted with various other types of issues of the day where people will get into pulpits and speak about maybe war and education and politics and the rights of every inconceivable group and so on.
12:31
Messages are full of do's and don'ts, but where is the preaching of Christ? You see, a message that is void of Christ is a message that is void of good news.
12:43
And like I said, examine it someday, turn the radio on and listen to the messages that are being preached.
12:50
And if they're not preaching Christ, they're not preaching good news. The pulpit has become a political voice or maybe a place of public information or maybe just another form of entertainment.
13:04
Now, some issues are important to deal with. That is not this message this morning. Sometimes we have to touch upon these issues when they come our way when we're preaching, but they are not the primary emphasis and content of true preaching.
13:19
The first thing is gospel. The first thing is good news. The preacher and the members of every
13:25
New Testament church have the responsibility and the privilege to deliver the greatest good news that has ever come into the world.
13:32
Have you ever been in a situation where you have found out something and it is just wonderful news, and you just can't wait to tell somebody else?
13:42
I can remember when God marvelously, wonderfully gave us our children, all four of them.
13:49
We had people to tell that good news too. We couldn't wait to tell them. And so we would get on the phone and we'd ring them up and we'd say, hey, here's number one, and hey, here's number two, and three, and four, and so on.
14:03
God has been so good to us. Maybe for you, you can think of an instance when you just could not wait to tell somebody about that good news because you knew that it would have an impact upon somebody else.
14:15
I remember when the Lord was dealing with us with our situation of moving. You remember we were going to either stay here or go to Texas.
14:23
And when the Lord made it very clear that we were gonna be allowed to stay here, I can remember when
14:29
I call up Pastor Mike and I said, Mike, we need to talk. And he thought it was something serious. He thought it was something else.
14:35
And when we met, I just let him know the news. I couldn't even wait five seconds. I just had to tell him what was going on.
14:40
And it was great news. And it was just wonderful. Maybe you can think along those lines too of something that you had to share with somebody else.
14:48
And it was great news because you knew it would make an impact upon them. But what about the greatest impact that ever could come upon someone for them to understand what it means to have a relationship with God or to have their sins forgiven, to bring them the gospel?
15:05
As I said, if this element of good news is not contained in our message, we have missed our calling and we are not faithful ambassadors.
15:13
Priscilla Owens captured my thoughts in her hymn. We have heard the joyful sound.
15:19
Listen to a couple of the lines of her song. Shout salvation full and free, highest hills and deepest caves.
15:28
This our song of Jubilee. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Now she's talking about shouting salvation.
15:34
And she talks about this song of Jubilee. The joy of our salvation should be expressed in our lives and by our lips.
15:45
And by our lips, particularly when we are singing. I want to just touch on that just briefly this morning.
15:53
Just a little bit. Sadly, sometimes we fail to express this joy. Sometimes it's neat when
15:59
I'm standing near the closer to the back of the church and you get to see folks when they're cranking their necks as Pastor Mike said, and looking up there and singing the songs.
16:07
And sometimes you'll see this going on. People are swaying like this or people are clapping their hands. There's nothing wrong with that.
16:14
I mean, people are entering into the song and people are smiling and people are engaged in the song.
16:22
But what can really trouble me sometimes if you look around and you see people who have a frown on their face.
16:29
And there's like they had nails for breakfast. And they're looking up there, you know, sing.
16:35
And if we were singing that song and my family will forgive me for this. I've done this in the past in preaching, but they may be singing this wonderful song.
16:47
Shout salvation, full and free. Highest hills and deepness are a song of jubilee.
16:54
Jesus saves. I'm not mocking the words and I'm not mocking the Savior. What I am doing is saying, are we singing?
17:00
Do we sing with an understanding? Do we really understand that when we sang up there it says that from the sky or from heaven
17:09
He comes down to the cross and from the cross to the grave and from the grave to the sky.
17:15
Lord, we lift Your name on high. You paid the debt of my sin. I'm saved by the grace of God.
17:22
And do we sing with an understanding? I think many times, honestly, and I've been caught in it. You know, we get behind on Saturday night.
17:29
We go to bed a little bit late. And we get up in the morning a little bit late.
17:35
We don't have everything together. We walk in the door. We're not ready to worship. And it's, Jesus saves.
17:43
You know, I just made it in the door. And we're not even engaged.
17:50
We don't even know what we're doing. And sometimes there's no exuberance.
17:58
There's no life. There's no joy behind what we're doing. And we're not even singing with an understanding.
18:05
We're just kind of going through the words. Just going through and that's it. And when it's all over, we sing the songs.
18:11
Oh, yeah, the bulletin. Oh, yeah, 307, 207, 208. We'll do those two.
18:17
Stand up, sit down. And it's all done. We go out. OK, it's all done. And what
18:22
I'm trying to get to us, to have it come to us, to examine us, what is when
18:28
Priscilla Owen said to shout salvation, what is the shouting all about? Well, what has happened to us in salvation?
18:35
What are we telling to others by our lives and by our lips and by the life that we live and the message that we are bringing to them?
18:45
Well, we're telling them that God has visited us and saved us. We're telling them that God so loved sinners that he gave his son,
18:52
Jesus Christ, to die for them so that they might escape the wrath of God, which is to come. We've been forgiven of every sin, past, present and future.
19:01
This is the Christian message that we get to share with people, to share with those around us that God can and God will forgive their sins.
19:11
It's a message full of hope. It's a message of assurance. It's a message of peace. And it is a message of joy.
19:19
It is a message that not only contains joy or and gladness and good news, but it also produces joy.
19:27
It produces a gladness in people. Paul said it this way in chapter two, first Thessalonians chapter two.
19:34
Look how thrilled he is in what God has done in these people's lives. Notice he said in verse chapter two in verse 12 that you would walk worthy of God who has called you unto his kingdom and glory.
19:47
He understands that God has called them to himself, to his kingdom, to be a part of his kingdom and to glory eventually for this cause also mutter and groan and moan and complain that God without ceasing because we receive you receive the word of God.
20:04
No, he says, he says, I thank God without ceasing.
20:09
I don't stop because you receive the word of God when which you heard of us.
20:17
You received it not as the word of men, but it as is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works also in you that believe and you became followers.
20:26
You became disciples. And Paul was so grateful and he praises God for that. This is great news that causes great joy.
20:34
Consider this with me. Christmas is coming. We think of particular verses.
20:39
How about this one? When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the angels went to a field where some shepherds were watching their flocks at night.
20:47
And one of the angels has a message from God for those shepherds in Luke 2, 10 and 11.
20:53
Fear not. Behold, I bring you good tidings of what great joy, which shall be to all people.
21:01
And what is the good news for here's the good news for unto you was born this day in the city of David, a
21:08
Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Now that's exciting. God is sending his son to be the
21:16
Savior of sinners, and we should have the same excitement and the same thrill in our hearts to tell others about the blessed
21:23
Savior. Sometimes I ask myself the question and maybe I'm asking all of us here this morning, what's wrong with us?
21:30
What's wrong with us? I mean, if we had the cure for AIDS, let's say we were a medical research person down at UMass or wherever it might be, and they come across this discovery that there is something that they can do to stop the devastation of AIDS.
21:49
Do you think that person would be excited? Sure, they sure wouldn't be. And yet man is plagued by sin.
21:56
He is dead in trespasses and sins and he's separated from God. He's an enemy of God.
22:01
He does not love God, does not seek after God, cannot see the kingdom of God, cannot hear the things of God.
22:10
And God sends his son so that we might be saved. Now, that's great news. And we have been allowed, as it says in chapter 2, verse 4, but we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel.
22:22
Even so, we speak not as pleasing men, but God which tries our hearts. God has allowed us to bring this message.
22:30
I believe many folks possibly have something negative to say about the church or maybe stay away from Christianity or religion altogether or the church.
22:44
And their excuse might be is that they say that those Christians, they're just so negative.
22:50
They're just so dull. They're just so boring. Their thoughts of us might be they have no joy.
23:00
They don't look like they love what they believe. They're just dull people.
23:06
You know, you can't do this. You can't do that. You can't say certain things.
23:12
You can't do certain things. You're too narrow. You're too negative.
23:18
You're too cramped. You're too concerned with the outside. And you walk around with this mopey face.
23:24
I don't want to be like that. And I don't want to be like that. And I don't want us to be like that.
23:32
We have to deal with certain things. Yes, the outward. We have to deal with certain behavioral things.
23:37
And we speak of repentance and purity and holiness and seeking after the
23:44
Lord. But those things are not the thrust of the message. There is a gloriously positive aspect of gospel preaching and living the
23:56
Christian life that I believe is missing today. I know that it's missing because I can speak for myself.
24:03
It is missing in my life. That we have a God who has reached down from heaven and has plucked us out of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear
24:15
Son. He has saved us wonderfully, as it says in Hebrews 7 .25,
24:24
to the uttermost or completely saved us. All of our sins forgiven, past, present, and future.
24:34
And yet I go around in my life and I have a long face. And I'm going to show us, we're going to look in just a little while at some examples of how it is that this gospel came to people and they were excited about it.
24:48
But first and foremost, I just want us to remember that we are heralds.
24:54
We are, as it were, trumpets blowing out a wonderful message of great news that God saves every sinner who will come to Jesus Christ and will forgive every one of their sins.
25:08
And by our lives we ought to show people that the effectual working of God's grace upon us, upon our souls, and brings true biblical salvation to us results in a people who are, yes, they're made serious.
25:24
And yes, they're made holy. And yes, there are people who are temperate and sober and consecrated and committed and sacrificial.
25:33
But also in the scriptures we see this description and we see that it is quite evident that when
25:39
God visits someone, He also makes them peaceful and content and joyous and glad and exuberant about what it is that God has done in their lives.
25:50
Turn with me if you would. Hold your place here. We'll just look briefly in Acts, the book of Acts, just to show you a few examples.
25:58
Beginning in Acts chapter 2, Peter has preached at Pentecost and 3 ,000 are saved.
26:13
3 ,000 have repented of their sins and turned to Jesus Christ, gladly receiving the word of God.
26:19
3 ,000 have been baptized. And it says that they continue in the apostles' doctrine, in the fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayer.
26:28
And notice what it says in Acts 2, verse 46. And they, this is that whole group, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with what?
26:42
What does it say there, folks? Gladness. They ate their meat with gladness and singleness or simplicity of heart.
26:50
That word gladness in the Greek comes from a root word that means to jump for joy.
26:57
It means to jump for joy. It means exuberance. These people were exuberant.
27:03
They are eating their meat with this gladness. They are fellowshipping together this way. In verse 47, they are praising
27:10
God and having favor with all people. Notice in chapter 3, the very next chapter, there is this man who is lame from birth who is carried to the temple.
27:25
And the apostles, Peter and John, come up to the temple at the hour of prayer to go in.
27:31
And this man, as it were, asks for a handout. And Peter looks on him and he says,
27:39
Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
27:46
Rise up and walk. In verse 7, And he took them by the right hand and lifted him up. And immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
27:53
And he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking, and ho hum, he just said,
28:02
Oh, this is great. I've been sitting there all my life since I was born. Now I get to walk.
28:09
Boy, that's great. Oh, look! He says he was walking and he's leaping and he's praising
28:15
God. In the Greek, that word leaping means he jumps up. It figuratively means to gush up, to spring up, to leap, and he's praising
28:23
God. I mean, he's excited. God has done something in his life. And I know physically, it's a miraculous healing of his life.
28:31
But there's no doubt about it. Many times when you see this in the Scripture, it is synonymous with the fact that he embraced
28:37
Christ. God not only physically healed him, but spiritually saved his soul and he became a
28:44
Christian here. God has worked upon this man's heart and changed him inside and outside.
28:50
And he's walking and leaping and praising God. Turn to chapter 8. Philip has a mission.
28:56
He's going to go preach the gospel. Philip, chapter 8, and in verse 5.
29:06
Chapter 8 and verse 5. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached
29:11
Christ unto them. See what he did? He didn't just go preach some ditties to them. He just didn't go down there to bring some social gospel or some...
29:19
He preached Christ. And the people with one accord, verse 6, gave heed unto those things which
29:25
Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits crying with loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies that were lame were healed.
29:36
And notice what it says. And there was great ho -hum in Samaria. No! There it is again.
29:44
There was great joy. That word in the Greek means cheerful or full of cheer.
29:50
Cheerfulness. There was a calm delight there. There was a great gladness.
29:56
There was, as it means in the Greek, exceeding joy. They were just overflowing with joy.
30:02
I remember one of the other apostles put it this way. He talked about this unspeakable joy.
30:10
Notice at the end of the chapter, most people remember, they don't remember Samaria. But they remember in Acts chapter 8 that Peter goes to help somebody out on a chariot, right?
30:20
The Ethiopian eunuch. And he goes to speak to him. This guy's going back from the festivals of worship, and he's going back home, and he's reading
30:30
Isaiah, and he doesn't understand it. And God directs Philip, here he is, to the exact place.
30:38
We talk about a sovereign appointment. God brings Philip exactly where that man's chariot is.
30:44
And from the point where he was reading, he began to preach to him what? Christ. He began to speak to him about Jesus Christ.
30:53
And this man, as they go along further, as he's talking to him, they get to a place, and the Ethiopian eunuch says, look, here's water.
31:00
What hinders me to be baptized? And Philip says, if you believe that Jesus is the
31:05
Christ, if you truly believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you can be baptized. He said, I'm in.
31:12
He's saved. God, through the ministry of Philip, used that witness that he had in the explanation of the truth, and God opens this man's heart, and notice what it says.
31:25
In verse 38, he commanded the chariot to stand still.
31:30
They went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they would come up out of the water, the
31:37
Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip away. He was caught up, you know, Star Trek transporter, the first one.
31:43
He's gone. Okay? I'm just kidding. The eunuch saw him no more, and he, the eunuch, went on his way.
31:52
Oh, I'm glad I don't have to sit in that dusty chariot anymore and just think about me. Oh, look at him.
31:59
He's not talking about anything else, but what thrills his soul is
32:04
Christ and this new relationship that he has with the Lord, and he goes on his way rejoicing. Again, it means to be cheerful, to be calm.
32:12
Calmly happy. He's well off. That's what it means. He's glad. I was thinking of, he's now a glad man.
32:21
Maybe that's where the name comes from. Gladman. He's a glad man, isn't he? That's what God does when he brings the gospel to somebody.
32:28
He not only forgives them and makes life, gives meaning to life, and points them in the right direction and gives them the scriptures for the guide of their life to be the lamp under their feet and the light under their path, but he gives them a heart now that beats for God.
32:47
One time the heart was at enmity with God and did not care about the things of God.
32:53
Actually, hating God. Far from God. The things that God loved, that heart hated.
32:59
Now God takes that heart out, gives a new heart, as Ezekiel said in Ezekiel 26. A new heart will
33:05
I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And that's what happened to this man. That's what happened to the lame man in chapter 3.
33:12
That's what happened with the 3 ,000 in chapter 2. And we see that the result of it is that they are glad.
33:20
Every Christian should be shouting out this message and calling upon the world to listen.
33:27
Why is it, brethren, that we do not see the gospel as the greatest news that has ever been given to mankind?
33:34
What is it that is clouding that judgment of ours, that discernment of ours? I mean, the issues of life can crowd things out.
33:42
We can get busy and our daytimers can get full, but let us never get to the place where we are not thrilled day in and day out with the fact that God is the lover of my soul.
33:55
God has saved me. This message should thrill our souls. The church is not here to tell towns or communities how to run their business or to instruct nations on how to handle their affairs.
34:09
Did you ever notice that the apostles never picketed with signs and they didn't march down into Jerusalem there in Acts chapter 2 and they were saying,
34:20
Save the world, save the world. Is that what their message was? No, their message wasn't save the world.
34:25
Their message was save yourselves from this world. Save yourselves from this twisted, perverted, untoward generation.
34:34
Repent and call upon the Lord and be saved, and they did. New Testament preaching and New Testament evangelism and New Testament Christian living involves the proclamation of good news.
34:46
When Paul wrote the church at Rome in Romans 10, 15, he said, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring what?
34:57
Bad news? Bring a cramped lifestyle? Bring an intolerant way of living?
35:02
Bring this narrow, negative, sallow, long face type
35:10
Christianity? No, he says, These people who preach the gospel of peace bring clad tidings of good news.
35:19
Brethren, it's a good thing that we bring to people. Their lives are miserable and they are blinded to the truth by Satan.
35:26
They are deaf and dead when it comes to spiritual matters. They are hopelessly lost.
35:31
They have no relationship with God. They are hopeless and Christless, ignorant of God.
35:36
They've wandered far from God. Their lives are empty and they will eat and they will drink and they will play their games and soon die and they will wake up in the devil's hell.
35:48
That's what the Bible says. Jesus said to those in Matthew 26, These shall go away in everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.
35:58
It is heaven or hell when a person dies. It is your sins being judged before on the cross of Christ or them coming afterwards in that wrath of God falling upon people for all eternity.
36:12
But the Christian message is what? My kids know this. My wife knows this. One of my favorite words in the
36:18
Bible is, well, I guess every week, it's like Pastor Mike, you know, he's reading the chapter. This is my favorite chapter in the
36:24
Bible to preach from, right? It changes every time he preaches. One of my favorite words in the Bible is but.
36:31
We're dead in trespasses and sin, but God, who is rich in mercy, we're enslaved.
36:38
Titus 3 says that we are enslaved to pleasures and passion of sin, but after the kindness and the love of God appeared unto us by grace,
36:50
He is saved. It says in there, not by works of righteousness, but what? According to His mercy,
36:57
He saved us. This Gospel means that people can be delivered from this life of enslavement to sin.
37:07
Jesus Christ comes that we might have life and have it what? More abundantly. This is good news. God has done something to change meaningless lives.
37:16
We were created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. We were created to please
37:21
God, but sin has ruined it all. But He that has the Son has life.
37:27
He that has not the Son of God has not life. And that life that we have in Christ is a life of meaning.
37:34
A life full of God. As the Puritan put it, the life of God in the soul. And it's what?
37:39
Because of the Gospel, God saves sinners and makes them His people. Christians know who
37:45
God is. They know who they are now. They know who they were. They know who they've become in Jesus Christ.
37:52
All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. They know where they're going.
37:57
One day in glory. Notice in chapter 1 in verse 10, after it says that these people turn to God from their idols in verse 9, the
38:07
Thessalonians. This is what happened after they received the Gospel. To serve the true and living God and to wait for His Son from heaven whom
38:14
He raised from the dead, even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come. There's an eternity to be lived with, with God in glory forever.
38:23
This is Gospel. This is good news for a world that hears nothing but bad news.
38:30
Nothing but bad news. And sadly, there are people who cannot even define the
38:36
Gospel. There are people who cannot even declare the Gospel, as I said, with the Christian radio station.
38:42
You know, I'll be honest with you. This is a personal testimony. Several months ago,
38:49
I was driving my car. I used to listen to the Christian radio station, flipping it to hear things, trying to pick up something.
38:55
And then my radio didn't work because my antenna got broken. And after that, it was like, okay, what do
39:01
I do now? Well, I spent time praying. And I spent time meditating on Scripture.
39:08
And I spent time just thinking about what the Lord might do for me in my day and calling upon the
39:13
Lord. And you know, not hearing all of that. And I'm not knocking all Christian radio. Don't go back and write me a letter or whatever saying,
39:21
Brother Dave is totally against it. Christian radio station is an affront. No, I'm not saying that.
39:26
Sometimes it might do us good just to shut it off. Call upon the Lord and pray. Seek His face.
39:33
And see what He would have for us personally. And to think about what it is that He's done for us. And then you know what you might end up doing?
39:40
You might end up singing. You won't sound as good as those on the radio, but it will be a joyful noise unto the Lord and God will be pleased.
39:46
You can praise Him, even in your car. My wife and I were just talking about this yesterday. Christian people are singing people.
39:53
They love to praise the Lord. I mean, isn't it just great when you hear somebody like Brother Charlie get up here and just sing about praising
40:00
God even in the midst of the trial. This joy that He gives us. It's a wonder.
40:06
It's great. I'm emphasizing these things this morning because there are some people who have just cast aside this good news and cast aside doctrine.
40:18
No longer thinking that it doesn't matter what anybody believes. I mean, we just walk around like mindless people as Christians.
40:26
Do you realize that Christianity is based upon facts? It is based upon things that we have to, yes, we have to grasp with our minds.
40:34
And it's God that opens up our understanding because before it was darkened. And our emotions need to get involved in volition and our will is involved and God working upon us, changes us.
40:45
But when it comes to Christianity, it does come to the fact that we do need to engage the mind.
40:50
We need to worship the Lord and love the Lord with all of our mind also, it says. And many times we have, oh, it doesn't matter what people believe.
41:00
They, in the past, the forefathers in the churches, they knew that false doctrine was coming into the churches and what they did was they put together these creeds or these statements of faith like the 1689
41:14
London Confession of Faith to encapsulate, to summarize what is the biblical truth concerning God, the truth about God, the truth about man, the truth about sin, the truth about our responsibility, the truth about the gospel so that we would know what we would believe.
41:31
And we would be able to, as Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3, to be able to give an answer for everyone that asks us the reason of the hope that is within us with meekness and with fear.
41:43
And as we deal with people, we do need wisdom from above. We do need the
41:49
Spirit of God to lead us like He did Philip to the people that God would have us to speak to. And for God to go before us and prepare their hearts.
41:57
And for God, like in Philippi, to open Lydia's hearts to the things that Paul preached.
42:03
It's not going to be by our eloquent speeches. Paul comes to Corinth, and what?
42:09
Is he proud and cocky when he walks in there and he goes, I got the message for you guys. No, it says in 1
42:14
Corinthians 2, that he comes with fear. And he comes with trembling. Kind of like when I came up to the pulpit, you know?
42:21
Fear and trembling. Because one, I believe, he knew what he's going into when he goes into these areas and the risk that's involved.
42:29
But more than anything, it's the handling of the Word of God. It is God's truth.
42:35
We come in, we want to be faithful ambassadors. This is what God has told us to tell them.
42:41
Tell them that they are sinners. Tell them that Christ has died for their sins. That He was buried and rose again so that they might be saved.
42:47
And if they call upon the name of the Lord, they'll be saved. And we do that, but as we go, we do need to be prepared.
42:55
And we do need to come to them. And as Paul came to them, notice he says, our gospel came, in chapter 1, verse 5, our gospel came not unto you in word only.
43:05
But that means it did come in word. And he knew what to say. He wasn't making up anything.
43:12
And that's the beauty of evangelism or sharing this truth. It's not our message.
43:18
It's not something that we have to do. Can you imagine trying to come up with a way of salvation?
43:24
A way to deliver people from the enslavement of sin, from the darkened understanding, from the deadness spiritually?
43:32
Man can't do that. That's what religion is. You realize that all religions try to do something to get people to do something, work out something so that God, or whatever it is, the great being, will be pleased with them.
43:46
And they can never do enough. It isn't by works of righteousness which we've done. But it's according to God's mercy that we are saved.
43:53
And that's what we get to tell other people, that God is merciful, that God will forgive you if you turn from your sin and turn unto
44:01
Him and embrace the Savior and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. All of the messages already all recorded for us in the word of God.
44:10
The psalmist said, forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.
44:15
We must not add to it or take away from it. When we lived in Texas, I remember there was a bumper sticker that they used to have.
44:22
Maybe they have one up here like that. It used to say, don't mess with Texas. And I just used that for application this morning.
44:31
Don't mess with the gospel. Don't take a hammer and chisel and try to go in and try to make, no, preach it exactly how it is recorded for us in the word of God.
44:48
It is a wonderful thing to be saved. But I'm asking you a question. Do you know what you believe? Could you put your faith and the doctrine, maybe the list, if you were in Sunday school, the list that was on the whiteboard, could you put that into words and speak it to somebody else?
45:06
If God were to cross your path like Philip with the Ethiopian eunuch, would you be able to share with somebody the things that you've seen and heard and experienced concerning your salvation by God?
45:20
Could you do that? Could you put it? The gospel came in word. Could you put it in word?
45:26
That's why we have the evangelism class. That's why we gather together to sharpen ourselves so that we know what it is that we ought to say if we don't know what to say.
45:36
That's why we read the Scriptures and study to show ourselves approved unto God. That's why we gather together and encourage each other in these things and ask these questions and sharpen each other so we'll be ready, even more ready, to preach the gospel.
45:51
Well, what happened here in Thessalonica? Chapter 1, verse 9 says that when
45:57
Paul entered into this place, turned to God from their idols to serve the true and the living
46:06
God. There was no doubt about what Paul had preached. He came and preached the gospel. That there is a living
46:11
God that they were accountable to. God who created everything. A God who controls the world and the affairs of men.
46:18
This is the true God, not a deaf and dumb idol or some type of statue which many of them in that day and many even today are bowing before and worshiping.
46:29
Paul told them they needed to serve and worship God. They needed to repent and turn to God instead of fulfilling their own lusts.
46:40
God demanded their whole obedience. Paul reminded them why
46:45
God had created them. And I can imagine, you can hear his preaching as he goes in there. And he says, there's a terrifying judgment to come.
46:55
You need to be saved. God has sent me with this message. It is what? As it says in chapter 2 and in verse 2, it is the gospel of God.
47:05
And in chapter 2, verse 8, it is the gospel of God. And in verse 9, it is the gospel of God.
47:12
It is God's everlasting message of salvation which is the power of God unto salvation.
47:21
He comes with this good news that God's Son, Jesus Christ, has died and was raised again from the dead.
47:28
In verse 10, he speaks of that. And what happened? They repented and they believed
47:33
His message. They were radically changed. God worked in about faith in their lives.
47:39
God stopped them. God arrested them. And God gave them this truth revealing to them
47:47
Jesus Christ, His Son. And they became God's children. And brethren, the same thing has happened to you and I today.
47:56
God has come and visited us and God has taken us up out of a horrible pit and placed our feet solidly upon a rock.
48:04
The Lord Jesus Christ. And He has now become our rock and our
48:09
Savior. And like the Apostle, like Thomas, we can say, My Lord and my
48:15
God. Does this happen to you? Well, let me in closing say this.
48:24
There is one area in which the church of God should shine. And I believe that that is not that we have to be able to cross the
48:32
T's and dot all the I's. But like the early Apostles who were ignorant and unlearned men,
48:37
Acts chapter 4. They were unlettered. They were unschooled. They had not gone to the universities and the colleges like the religious leaders had.
48:45
They were fishermen, tax collectors. They were the lowlife scum of the earth as the religious leaders looked at them and said,
48:53
Who are these men? But they took notice of those men that they had been with Jesus. They were a different group of people with an authority and with a power and with a message that is changing people's lives.
49:05
And 3 ,000 are saved in Acts chapter 2.
49:11
And God keeps adding and God keeps multiplying. The message is going out. They tell them to stop and they keep going.
49:18
And 5 ,000 are saved. Multitudes are saved by the power of God.
49:25
And that is the commission that we have. And the commission that we have is not only to bring glad tidings, but to exhibit it in our lives.
49:34
And maybe, if anything, Brethren, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if anything, if you leave this place today, think about how do
49:43
I present myself as one who is redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, one who is a child of God, one who is completely forgiven, saved by God's grace.
49:54
When I go out into that world and people look at me at work or they look at me in my neighborhood or my family looks at me and they consider my life do
50:04
I give them an example that I am a trophy of grace and do I want them to be like me?
50:11
I'm not saying they have to be like little robots or carbon copies, but do I have something to offer them?
50:18
Am I this person that is full of exuberance? Am I a person whose heart is full of unspeakable joy?
50:26
Am I a cheerful or a person who is full of cheer and gladness?
50:32
Yes, I'm going to honor the Lord and I'm going to be holy and serious and I'm going to devote my life to the
50:37
Lord. But do I live, as Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, is my behavior becoming to the
50:47
Gospel? Does it reflect the Gospel? And what is the Gospel? Good news. Is my life a reflection of good news?
50:55
Maybe it isn't. Maybe it is we need to take a little inventory. Maybe we need to confess, go to the
51:01
Lord, and ask the Lord to return unto us the joy of our salvation. Maybe sin has blocked it.
51:07
I don't know what it is. But cry out like David, pray to me a clean heart, O God, and return unto me the joy of thy salvation.
51:17
Maybe as we're preaching, as it says in here, and as I finish in chapter 1 and verse 5,
51:24
Paul said the Gospel came in word, but not word only. It came in power. And in the
51:30
Holy Ghost. And in much assurance. We can pray that our
51:37
Gospel will come forth in word, but we also should pray, not being our responsibility, but God sovereignly by His powerful hand, that God would come in power.
51:49
That God would come, as it says here, when the Gospel is preached, in the
51:54
Holy Ghost, or in the Holy Spirit, that people's hearts would be opened, and God would surprise us by doing what
52:02
He does. And I am convinced, as I stand before you, preaching as a dying man to dying men and women, that there is somebody sitting on this side of this auditorium, somebody sitting on this side of the auditorium, that if they're not struggling with their salvation, they are not saved.
52:25
They do not know what it means to be saved. Marvelously saved, in this fashion, by the grace of God.
52:33
And you might be thinking, I can't be saved. My sin is too great. Well, His grace is greater than your sin. You might think,
52:40
God does not care about me. And I am so far away from God.
52:45
Well, how far can you get away from God with somebody like the Apostle Paul who is seeing to it that Christians are condemned to death?
52:54
And God reaches down and saves him, and He can save you too. You might think, well, I don't even know what it means.
53:03
What is it that I do? Well, have you been to Jesus?
53:12
As the song says, have you been to Jesus for the cleansing blood? Are you washed in the blood of the
53:18
Lamb? What is it that we do? The Bible says that we are to call upon the name of the
53:23
Lord. And His promise is, we shall be saved. We'll be saved.
53:30
You might think, now God is so over. God wants to restrict my life. No, Jesus comes to set the captives free.
53:38
He that has Him has life. The life of God within the soul. And like Paul said to the
53:44
Corinthians, he said, I beseech you, Lord, I beg you, in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God.
53:54
Throw down your weapon. Throw down your arms. You're fighting a battle that you cannot win.
54:00
And raise the white flag. And say, I surrender. And call upon the name of the
54:06
Lord and embrace Christ. Turning from your sins. And you will be saved.
54:11
And you will experience, I'm not saying your life will be a bed of roses. Go talk to any of the
54:16
Christians here. It doesn't mean life is perfect. It's like that commercial that has red in it.
54:23
I don't even know what the story is. But everything is perfect. The snow doesn't fall on the sidewalk. All the bows are in the trees.
54:28
The trees come all decorated. All that. Life is, it's not that. But it is, that this is joy.
54:34
Because there's this peace with God. And the peace of God. That rules in our lives.
54:40
That we are His. And He is ours. We are, we are the recipients of grace. And He is our fortune.
54:47
And no matter what comes our way, as our brother sang this morning, we can still have this joy. Unspeakable.
54:52
And full of glory. And you'll experience that too. For those of you that are not saved,
54:58
I say call upon the Lord and you shall be saved. When you live your life, look in the mirror.
55:06
Think about what other people, when they're looking at you, what do they see? What kind of face? What kind of words?
55:12
What kind of attitude? What type of behavior? Is it one of joy? Is it optimism?
55:18
Exuberance? Gladness? And maybe the next time when your head's cracking and you're singing up there, you're going to think a little differently about singing.
55:24
Or when you open up the book to sing, you're going to think a little differently. I've got to sing this with good understanding. I've got to know what this means.
55:31
It's that God has saved me. And I pray that God would take something that was said this morning and take it and use it to encourage us to more glorify the