The last chapter of 1st Thessalonians, and again
I've given you the notes beforehand so that
you can easily follow the Bible reading as
we get along down through this wonderful chapter.
This chapter divides very easily into two parts.
First of all, we have a number of
differentiations made by the apostle in this chapter.
He points out the difference between the Lord
coming to the earth for his saints and
the day of the Lord on earth for
sinners.
And there are a lot of marked differentiations
in this wonderful chapter, and we will need
to get them all on the line tonight
so that this great subject, the day of
the Lord and the Lord coming to the
earth for his saints, that we'll see the
difference between these two great differentational works of
God.
Then in this chapter, not only have we
a number of differentiations made by Paul, but
we have a number of exhortations given to
us by Paul.
And very wonderful and practical exhortations are here
for us this evening.
These are the two parts of the chapter.
You will notice that the chapter begins tonight
with the word box.
Of course, that immediately tells you that Paul
is changing the subject from the last chapter.
Do you remember how we dealt with last
week's chapter?
We dealt with it like this.
In the first eleven, twelve verses, we talked
about the practical results of Christianity.
And then in the last part of the
chapter, we dealt with the personal return of
Christ.
But did you notice that when Paul got
down to the first eight verses of chapter
four, and in those eight verses he was
talking about sanctification from fornication?
Do you remember how I went into all
the details of this sanctification from fornication?
And when he got up well over to
these young believers, then in verse nine he
said, Bosh!
Now he was changing the subject again.
He was changing from practical sanctification to brotherly
love.
He wanted to say a word to them
about brotherly love.
Bosh!
I trust in brotherly love.
You have no need that I write unto
you.
And then when he came down to the
thirteenth verse, he said, Bosh!
And he changed the subject again.
So that he changed from the practical to
the dispensational.
And he began to teach them the great
dispensational truth of the Lord Jesus rising from
the throne of heaven and coming to the
air to meet every believer.
And we went into all the details last
week of the Lord's return for his own.
And when he got this wonderful truth of
the Lord coming to the air for believers
over to them, he said, Bosh!
again.
And that's at the beginning of the fifth
chapter.
And that's where we see him making a
differentiation between the Lord coming to the air
for his saints and the times and the
seasons, which doesn't apply to the church at
all and have nothing to do with the
air but have to do with the earth,
the times and the seasons.
I wonder, do you remember anything about this
phrase, the times and the seasons?
But of the times and the seasons, brethren,
you have no image that I write unto
you.
You see, in the last verses of chapter
four, he had to write to tell them
about the Lord coming to the earth.
But of the times and the seasons, brethren,
you have no image that I write unto
you.
So that is differentiating between the Lord coming
to the air for his saints and the
times and the seasons.
They're two different things altogether.
Let's go back to Acts, chapter one, just
for a moment.
The Acts of the Apostles, chapter one.
And here we have our Lord Jesus Christ
walking out to the Mount of Olives just
before he ascended up into heaven.
Now, just to get the connection, we'll read
from the first verse.
The former critiques have I made all theophilous,
of all that Jesus began both to do
and teach, until the day in which he
was taken up, after that he through the
Holy Ghost had given commandment unto the apostles
whom he had chosen, to whom also he
showed himself alive after his passion by many
infallible truths, being seen of them forty days,
and speaking of the things pertaining to the
kingdom of God.
He being assembled together with them, commanded them
that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but
wait for the promise of the Father, which,
saith he, ye have heard of me.
For John truly baptized with water, but ye
shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not
many days hence.
When they therefore were come together, they asked
of him saying, Lord, wilt thou at this
time restore the kingdom to Israel?
Now I want you to get the hold
of that question.
You see, they were still very limited in
their outlook.
These men that were standing round him now
on the Mount of Olives, they were all
Jews, and of course the uppermost thought in
their mind was, the kingdom back to Israel.
And of course they thought now that the
Lord out from the grave, and glorified, living
in the power of an endless life, Lord,
wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom
to Israel?
It just came from their very souls.
Now here's the reply.
And he said unto them, It is not
for you to know the times or the
seasons which the Father hath put in his
own power.
Tell me this just quickly now.
Does the times and the seasons have to
do with the touch?
Go on, I'm sorry.
It is not for you to know.
Is that plain enough?
It's not for the touch.
It's to know about the times and the
seasons.
The times and the seasons have got to
do first of all with Israel.
They have a connection down here on earth.
I'd like you to get the hold of
that, because that's very important.
There are a whole lot of Bibles to
be delivered to you.
It's not for you to know the times
and the seasons.
You fellows have got a far bigger job
on.
You're going to be indwelt by the Spirit
of God, and you're going to go out
unto Jerusalem and to Mary, and unto the
uppermost parts of the earth, and you're going
to be witnesses unto me, and that's your
job.
Yes, he was teaching them the thing to
leave alone.
The Father will get without.
So that you see this, that the times
and the seasons have a connection with Israel
on earth, when the kingdom indeed will be
restored.
And Paul is making a differentiation, but in
1 Thessalonians chapter 5, he said, yes, the
Lord will come to the earth, but of
the times and the seasons there's no need
that I write unto you.
That's a different thing altogether.
I think it's well to see that differentiation.
Let's go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5,
and I want you to notice this.
But of the times and the seasons, brethren,
ye have no need that I write unto
you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day
of the Lord shall come of the thief
and the night.
Now he's making a differentiation here between the
coming of the Lord for his saints and
the day of the Lord for sinners.
That's a different thing altogether, isn't it?
In chapter 4 it is the coming of
the Lord for his saints, but the day
of the Lord will come of the thief
and the night.
Now the day of the Lord is a
terrible time of desolation that's not very far
distant in the future for this whole world.
So does that make a connection with us?
We'll have to see.
Let me give you one or two things
about the day of the Lord.
You remember how I took you over this,
but for us young believers and those who've
just come to the class, we'll get through
it a little bit.
Let's go back to the prophecy of Joel
chapter 2.
Joel chapter 2.
Now take your time and find the place
because this is a Bible reading and you'll
need to know the words.
I'm here tonight not to teach sermons.
I'm here to teach you the book.
Now here is what the prophet Joel said
in the second chapter.
Joel chapter 2.
Go near the trumpet in Zion.
Sound an alarm in my holy mountain.
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble.
Dr. Bullinger, that great Hebrew scholar, points out
that those who would re-land should have
a capital T and a capital L because
there's only one place on earth that God
calls the land.
That's the land of Palestine.
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble
for the day of the Lord cometh.
It's my turn.
My Israel would need to tremble.
You see, the times and the seasons and
the day of the Lord are just the
same thing.
You've no need that I write on to
you about the times and the seasons for
you as I may propagate up the day
of the Lord.
It's just another way of saying it.
And the day of the Lord has a
connection with Israel.
When God, by tribulation and wrath and fury,
will purge out every bit of the wrath
from the nation before the blessed king of
kings takes it over and makes it number
one kingdom on earth.
Watch this verse.
Verse 2.
It will be a day of darkness and
of gloominess.
A day of clouds and of thick darkness.
As the morning spread upon the mountains, great
people and the strong, there hath not been
ever the like, neither shall be any more
after it, even to the ears of many
generations.
A fire devoureth before them.
Behind them a flame burneth.
And the land is as the garden of
Eden before them.
And behind them a desolate wilderness.
They and nothing shall escape them.
You could go on reading the chapter.
You'd only get all the details that we've
discussed this long ago about this horrible, terrible,
dreadful day of the Lord that's soon to
come.
Have a look at it again, described in
the New Testament.
Come to 2 Peter.
2 Peter chapter 3.
Verse 8, just to save time.
But, beloved, it's like a descent here, remember,
and that's why he uses the word beloved.
Be not ignorant of this one thing, that
one day is with the Lord of a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day.
The Lord is not flat concerning his promise
that some men count flatness, but is long
concerning to us words, and not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come
as a thief in the night.
Is that the same thing as Jew and
First Thessalonians?
Of course it is.
Now watch this.
But the day of the Lord will come
as a thief in the night, any of
the which the heavens shall pass away with
a great noise, and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat.
The earth, of course it's got to do
with earth, all truth and the works that
are therein shall be burned up.
He then that all these things shall be
dissolved.
What manner of persons ought you to be
in all holy conversation with God in it?
My dear friends, let's get the hold of
this.
You know, Paul's talking in First Thessalonians about
the times and the seasons that really have
an application to Israel, and about the dreadful,
horrible day of tribulation that will come upon
the earth, the day of the Lord that
will come as a thief in the night,
a day when the land of Palestine will
be blistered, a day when the elements shall
melt with fervent heat.
Mind you, some years ago the expositors behind
this book had trouble expounding these things.
You have no trouble tonight?
Every man with common sense in this meeting
knows that this is verily possible, it is.
Yet lesser let loose the heart of the
power they have, and the whole world will
be blistered in so many seconds.
That's just the way we live.
Only, you know, we've got a hope.
We're not going to be here when it
happens.
We're not going to be here.
I said last week they needn't spend forty
-three millions building anything on the Yorkshire Mills
for the church of Jesus Christ.
God will look after His own.
He lets us out, puts us away.
Who is going to keep you above it
all?
We'll meet Him in the air.
And then the times and the seasons and
the day of the Lord will come.
Paul is differentiating between the coming of the
Lord for his faith and the day of
the Lord for sinners.
That's why he put the bot in there.
Now let's go back to it.
There's quite a number more of these differentiations.
First Thessalonians, chapter five.
Watch it again.
You'll read from verse one now.
After having said in chapter four about the
Lord coming to the earth for His faith,
he said, But of the times and the
seasons therein you have no need that I
write unto you.
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of
the Lord shall come as our faith in
the night.
Remember that couldn't be the Lord's coming for
His church.
Why the Lord's not coming for His church
as our faith in the night?
You know, you don't know when the feast's
coming, do you?
It doesn't turn the telegram on breaking wind
tonight, does it?
Why not?
Then it may be this.
The church happens to know the Lord's coming.
Didn't we read in the first chapter of
first Thessalonians at the end of the chapter?
What did we read?
All right, we'll go back and see.
The first chapter ended like this, didn't it?
Verse nine, at the end of the verse,
speaking of the conversion of these Thessalonians, he
said, You turn to God from idols.
That was their salvation.
To serve the living and true God.
That was their occupation.
What is this?
And to wait for His Son from heaven,
even Jesus.
Now, in the Revised Version it reads like
this.
To wait for His Son from heaven, whom
He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who
shall fully deliver us from the wrath to
come.
Well, the wrath to come is in the
day of the Lord.
And that will come upon the earth, where
it is as a thief in the night.
But we're expecting the Lord to come at
any moment.
We're waiting for Him.
He's not coming like a thief in the
night.
Some people talk about the Lord coming about
being a thief in the night, but nothing
to do with it.
We're actually waiting on Him tonight.
We're expecting Him to come.
One of the great saints had in a
study before him every day a little cream
picture with these words, Perhaps today.
And he saw this every morning, and then
he remembered.
He might come to the...
We may be long.
We'll wait for the thief.
You don't know He's coming.
The thief bit has got to do with
the day of the Lord.
But we're waiting for God's Son from heaven.
Let me tell you on this one.
He may come whoever's making love.
And God's petting you if you're left behind.
You'll still enter the day of the Lord.
And you'll not know a sign until He
comes upon you with a thankless hand.
Do you see the differentiation he's making?
Do you see the differentiates, first of all,
between the Lord's coming to the air for
saints and the times and seasons on earth?
When he differentiates between the coming of the
Lord for the saints and the day of
the Lord for sinners.
And here he's differentiating between saints expecting God's
Son from heaven and sinners not expecting the
thief and the knife.
These are great differentiations, aren't they?
Now, watch this.
I want everyone to watch the word in
here as I read it open again.
Verse 1.
But of the times and the seasons, brethren,
it is often said, believe, says brethren, what
you, that's the same crowd, you believers of
my need that I write unto you, for
yourself, you believers ought to know, for when
you shall say, oh no, oh no, he
changed it, didn't he?
How did he change this to another phrase?
For when they shall say, didn't he just
change it?
Ah, because this, he has got nothing to
do with you.
He said, you know, you brethren know this.
I don't need to write to you about
the times and the seasons.
You know that the day of the Lord
will come as a thief and a knife,
you know that.
For when they, the ungodly world, shall say,
tell me what they're saying now.
Boy, I saw in that great magazine called
Life, a big banner spread across a wonderful
hall that held about ten or twelve thousand
people waiting for Eisenhower in India somewhere.
The Prince of Peace has come.
Well, if they think Eisenhower is the Prince
of Peace, they're bluffed.
And he went all round, just talking from
here to there and there and there.
Drained the foundation for peace.
You see?
He's a bigger fool than I thought he
was.
Well, here's what your book says, and it
has said it a long time.
When the ungodly world shall say, peace and
justice.
Is that what they're saying tonight?
That's what they're saying.
We're going to cut down the armies.
We're going to make a pact.
We'll not make any more of these terrible
things.
We're going to be all good boys and
sit up in the corner.
You wouldn't believe that, would you?
You'd be a fool if you knew.
When the world shall say, peace, I'm sure
they've written to us, then cometh sudden destruction
upon them.
Then sudden destruction cometh upon them.
What a world it will be.
You know, friends, we're always very near to
this.
Do you know if America, by their wonderful
money-making ideas, taken Russia into a corner
financially, well, Russia might make a hole in
the wall to get out, and the blast
might start.
I have a conviction in my mind that
one night Russia will go and blast America.
And I tell you that all the Americans
are waiting for it to come in.
Men with sense live and breath.
But I want you to get this, that
this sudden destruction is coming upon the world.
How will you be?
One of these days the soldiers come in
suddenly too, and bless God he'll be in
the air before the bomb will go in
the air.
He'll just come one of these days.
He'll lift us up.
We, the Jews, are suddenly delivering.
Oh, they're wondering how they can beat the
atomic bomb, aren't they?
I'll tell them.
Put their trust in Christ and they'll beat
it.
The only shelter from its harm is Christ.
When God blasted the earth, it wouldn't be
one year of salvation that I knew of,
that was the ark, it was Christ.
So when God blasts the earth in a
few weeks' time maybe, by the Lord Jesus
we'll just have picked ourselves out of it
just like a flash.
Do you see the differentiation?
We're waiting for sudden deliverance.
The only way of escape is by the
air through Christ.
And the world will get sudden destruction.
And did you see it twice?
When we were living and doing at best,
and they shall not escape.
And then we'll be doing better at best.
And they shall not escape.
They shall not escape.
Do you see how well Paul can preach
sanctity?
Well, when they shall say, peace and safety,
then sudden destruction comes upon them.
As to veil upon a woman with child,
and they shall not escape.
God pity the man that left behind.
Then he comes back to the believers again,
who said, but ye, brethren, are not in
darkness, that not day should overtake you the
peace.
You see, that day, the day of the
Lord, the day of sudden destruction, the day
when the land of Israel will be blistered,
the day when the elements shall melt the
serpentine, he says, that day shall not overtake
you the peace.
Oh, not at all.
He said, you don't belong to the kingdom
of darkness.
You know, God hath planned this for the
kingdom of darkness.
You know that our man and woman in
this meeting tonight, I'm sorry to say that
you're still in the kingdom of darkness, sir.
You're not saved, you're in the kingdom of
darkness.
You belong to the darkness.
When a man gets saved, this book says,
he's translated out of darkness into marvelous light.
This meeting's divided in two.
There are the children of darkness here.
There are the children of light.
There are God.
That's what God said at the beginning of
the Bible prayer after.
And here's the teaching.
Watch it.
Verse 5.
We are all the children of light and
the children of the day.
We are not of the night nor of
darkness.
Therefore let us not sleep as do others,
but let us watch and be sober.
For they that sleep, sleep in the night.
They that were drunken are drunken in the
night.
But let us who are of the day
be sober, putting on the great plate of
faith and love and for an helmet, the
hope of salvation.
For God hath not appointed us to laugh.
When you should say hallelujah behind that.
God hath not appointed us.
God hath appointed us to obtain salvation.
I thought these people were saved.
Oh, they were saved.
What does it talk about obtaining salvation?
Oh, well.
Ah, you know, salvation is a tremendous big
thing.
You know, I think that people don't get
the full effect when they use the word
salvation.
You see, friend, when I was a poor,
lost, down-and-out hell-deserving guilty sinner
on the broad road that led to destruction,
I was in desperate danger of going to
hell.
One day I met the Savior and I
got saved from hell.
I've never been here.
And you know, when I was standing on
the broad road that was leading to destruction,
I had a load of sin upon my
conscience, and the guilt was weighing me down.
But I got saved from the burden of
sin.
It rolled away.
And you know, when the Lord saved me
from hell and rolled the burden and saved
me from the burden of guilt, then he
began to save my body.
Christ Jesus came into the world not to
destroy man's body, the Bible says, but to
save me.
He saved my body.
Then he saved my character.
Then he saved my home.
I've got three lives he has to make
clean.
Saved my home.
Then one day he's coming to the earth
to save me from the wrath of the
wrath of God, who has appointed me to
obtain salvation by the coming of Christ.
Oh, what a wonderful thing.
My, there's a differentiation made between those appointed
to wrath, those appointed to salvation.
Do you see all the differentiations?
Look up your notes just now.
Paul makes the differentiation between the Lord coming
to the air for saints and the times
and the seasons on earth.
He differentiates between the coming of the Lord
for saints and the day of the Lord
for sinners.
He differentiates between saints expecting God's son from
heaven and sinners not expecting the thief and
the knife.
He differentiates between saints with a blasted hope
and sinners with a false hope.
So when man says, peace and safety, it's
a false hope.
He differentiates between sudden destruction and no escape
and sudden deliverance, the only escape.
He differentiates between the children of darkness and
the children of light.
He differentiates between sleepiness and brokenness and watchfulness
and soberness.
He differentiates between those appointed to wrath and
those appointed to salvation.
Didn't he work it out well?
My, that dot came in in the right
moment, didn't it?
Dot.
My, Paul can see the things that are
really different, can't he?
Now, I think that that will do for
these differentiations that Paul makes in the first
eleven verses of this chapter.
And they impart these expectations in the next
eleven verses that will take us to the
end of verse twenty-two.
And I want to take time at some
of these expectations that he gives to these
saints who are waiting for God's son from
heaven.
And the first thing he says is this.
Verse twelve.
And we beseech you, brethren, to know them
which labour among you and are over you
in the Lord and admonish you and to
esteem them very highly in love for their
work's sake.
And be at peace among yourselves.
You know, this is an expectation I think
that we should take time to look at
very carefully.
You know, young believers should get to know
that God hath placed on the local church
real them that rule over you.
But you know that some of you youngsters
rebel whom you don't want to rule over.
No, you don't want to know those that
rule over you either.
You're rebelling.
Put your nose to the book now and
learn that God treat with you for once
in your life.
Oh, I know that some of you are
not even in a legal tax.
Oh, you're a free lot.
You'll do as you like.
You'll just obey the book in front of
you, won't you?
We just want a remission of your rule.
Well, you'll be the ruler and you'll do
everything and you'll do as you like and
you'll disobey God's word and you'll make a
new order of things, won't you?
No, you won't.
You'll have to learn that God hath order
and that there's some of us who have
been placed in the place of rulership and
some of you, you fellows, would give us
teach.
Would you?
Would you learn from the nightfall that there's
two, that mean evil?
I will catch some of you to learn
and explain some of you.
How do I do?
Oh, you say, have I got to give
you up with the more I have?
Yes.
We're only a free elder to you and
not one of us ever dared once to
lord it over God's heaven.
I think that I can speak for the
other two and myself that we're very humble
sort of men.
But remember at the back of it, we
happen to be the rulers here.
If you get out of it, and if
you don't like it, get out.
That just happens to be God's will.
But some of you, you fellows, don't want
it, do you?
I mean, you have to change the way
you live.
Now, in God's house there are rulers.
Them that rule over you.
Oh, boy, some people don't like you to
talk up to them.
They'd like to take the meeting off you.
Happens to be that God sent me here
as a ruler and as long as I'm
here, I'll rule.
And I'll not be asking you what I'll
be doing here.
I've been too long on my knees and
too long at the butcher to take any
mentions from some of you we love.
I wish you would learn.
And if you're not in the church, it's
plainly well where somebody would rule over you.
Just how would this apply to you tonight
if you haven't got any ruler, or you
want to be the boss of your own
life?
Well, that's not God's order.
This happens to be you as you're young
and rapidly.
So I'll tell you a wee bit behind
it.
Watch it.
Verse 12 again.
We beseech you, brethren, to know them which
live among you and are over you in
the Lord and admonish you and to esteem
them very highly in love for they'll not
take...
Happens to be you're to love a character
like me.
I don't.
Happens to be that.
Do you know sometimes when I've got to
take some of you aside and put my
arm round you and tell you off?
Don't mind me, there's quite a number of
you here who know that I would do
it and have done it.
Even then, you're to love me.
I'm only trying to keep you on the
middle of the king's highway, son.
I've got to give an account for my
stewardship here.
And if ever I take you aside some
day and put my arm round you and
say, look, you're getting there.
I'll say something to you.
You'll know I'm acting as a ruler for
your good and for Christ's good.
And just remember the new verse that's at
the end of this chapter.
Be at peace among yourselves.
Well, there's always somebody disturbs the peace, isn't
there?
You could hardly even have a big assembly
without getting somebody to take over the church.
They'd disturb the peace.
Well, now, if you've got something to say,
would you come along and talk to the
rulers about it?
And stop trying to take the reins and
rule the thing yourself when you weren't sent
to do it.
Because if some of you had this Bible
class for about two weeks, you'd empty it.
And that's just enough for you to know
that you must come along and have a
chat with the rulers.
And thank God for the men here beside
me.
There are rulers in this place like I've
never seen anywhere else.
My, the problems that the three of us
have faced together.
I thought it would be your heart good
to know, but that's our business.
That it's good to learn these things, we
would pass them by.
Now, having talked to them about their regard
for rulers, he goes on now to talk
about their behaviour among the rebels.
He says, Now we have got you rebels,
warn them that are on the way.
Paul was well aware, you know, that some
saints love to take the bet between the
teeth.
But I knew that.
I said, I need warning.
I need to be gently warned that they're
not allowed to be rebels in the assembly
of God's people.
You need to warn me on this.
And then you need all these things.
What's it?
Comfort the feeble-minded.
You know, in an assembly, you don't only
get the honour, you get that feeble-minded
person.
So then you leave such a form of
Paul up to them.
And you find them under the doom of
a tree and depressed and cast down and
dismayed.
You know, they need comfort.
The joy to be allowed to do this
work, you know.
Find out the feeble-minded.
And here's a lovely little bit.
Support the weak.
I tell you, I think that that phrase
often repeats, what a witch sometimes is.
Support the weak.
You know, you'll get a soul who has
truly trusted Christ, who has put it all
on the altar, and yet there's something in
that soul's life that really knocks them down
again and again and again.
It's a witchery, you know, that phrase.
It makes me think a lot.
It makes me grieve.
And do you know, when you've trusted Christ,
there are times when it's very fool-proof.
Because of Christ, there are times when it's
very fool-proof.
Because of this temptation, there are times when
it's always God who needs support, not criticism.
Some of you will take a knee.
I will learn to support the weak.
These are great exhortations.
What should we do?
They expound themselves, these, without me going too
far.
Be patient toward all men.
Why, that's a tremendous one.
You know, that doesn't mean to be only
patient toward all the saints, but patient toward
all the sinners.
And we have to be patient.
Sometimes, you know, somebody comes and says, you
know, somebody said this about you.
And some sinner criticizes you.
Some sinner slanders you.
So you've just got to be patient.
If they start in the face of Jesus
Christ, God alone knows what they do with
a character like me.
Just be patient.
And then it goes on, yet once more,
see that none render evil for evil unto
any man.
Forever follow that which is good.
This among yourselves and to all men.
Mind you, that's something that needs practicing.
Even if some young fellow has become unruly,
even if there are rebels, even if they
won't take the admonition, even if they don't
recognize him.
Ah, be good to them.
Never do evil for evil.
Just be good.
How lovely we are.
This is how you should behave yourself among
your brethren.
You should have regard for your rulers.
Then this is your behavior among your brethren.
Now comes some lovely expectations.
They come very quick.
You would think they were coming out of
a machine gun.
Rejoice evermore, pray without cheating and everything gives
thanks.
They just come like that.
You know, this is how you can glorify
God in your life.
You know, this is one of the expectations
that really makes you sit up and say,
Rejoice evermore.
You know, I have a dear woman in
hospital and about four weeks ago we thought
we were going to lose her and she
came very near the edge of eternity and
then she picked up and was doing wonderfully
well and then yesterday again she had to
go in for another slight operation and yet
this wood rings in the ears, rejoice evermore.
You say, how can it be done?
I'll tell you how it can be done.
It's the Holy Ghost that takes your heart
and mind and lets it away above the
things of time until you see nothing to
no one but the blessed Christ of God
is on the floor.
Turn your eyes and look to Him in
His wonderful face and the shade of that
grows strangely dim than the light of His
glory and grace.
Then you're able to quote the text, Though
the fig tree shall not blossom and the
labour of the olive shall fail and there's
no head in the stall and there's no
meat in the field that I will rejoice
in the Lord by His hand is on
the head everything is gripped and mastered and
come to by Him.
Nothing will happen to Darshan.
He knows.
He cares.
He loves.
He prays.
That's His name.
He's working all things together for good.
So then you can rejoice in the Lord,
can't you?
Thank God we have the Lord in times
like these.
Rejoice evermore.
And you know, if you rejoice, you'll pray,
won't you?
When you tell Him everything.
Oh, how you turn out your heart to
Him.
You pray without fainting.
You bring every little squibble of your soul.
You bring every little thought.
You bring every little detail.
In everything you pray with prayer and supplication.
You pray evermore.
I'll tell you this.
If you're looking up and you're talking, you're
a good saint in everything.
My, oh, thank the Lord.
Wonderful Christ of God that I'm with you.
And if your life is rejoicing in this
poem, and praying in the dark, and thanking
in the valley, you're a glorified God.
That's how you're a glorified God, son.
What wonderful lexicon.
Couldn't Paul preach?
The more I read this, the further back
I get what a preacher he was.
Now, these are wonderful expectations.
Our regard for our rulers.
Our behavior among our brothers.
Our glorying in our Lord.
Then here's a lovely one.
Christ, not the Spirit.
You see, that's our submission to ourselves.
You know, when you get saved, born again,
you're indwelled by the Spirit of God, then
you should be filled with the Spirit.
And two things will keep you from being
filled.
You can grieve the Holy Ghost.
You can grieve him by your character, untruthfulness,
or ungraciousness, or underhandedness, dishonestness.
That's your character.
You can grieve the Holy Ghost by your
character.
But you can quench the Holy Ghost when
you're not prepared to serve the Lord when
He wants you to serve Him.
So did the Lord want some of you
fellows to take a Sunday school class?
Oh no, you wouldn't do that.
Well, you're quenching the Spirit.
Now, did the Lord want you to do
some little job for Him?
Well, you're quenching the Spirit.
You know, I came in here one day
just in through the door.
I was wanting milk out of here somewhere.
I don't know how I'm going to say
this, but I'm saying it anyway.
And I saw my brother Carson down on
his knees putting boards in along there.
I said, I didn't know you were doing
this.
I said, you know, nobody knows you do
these things.
He said, I don't do them for anybody.
I do them for the Lord.
I said, I should be.
Why, you could put boards in for the
Lord, couldn't you?
There's a thousand ways for you.
Tell me, what are you really doing for
the Lord?
Just warming a seat in the church?
Just coming to the Bible class for mental
entertainment?
Now, you're whisking your lips.
Take your time and find out what the
Lord wants you to do.
Know what works well for you to do.
And I'll tell you, you know, he was
shocked.
Now, when I prayed, Lord, will I go
to Lothian?
And I had about 700 in the class
that day, and the Lord said, yes.
My, then, the old boy began to shake.
But you should never quench the Spirit.
I told, well, I'll do what you want
me to be, dear Lord.
I'll do what you want me to do,
dear Lord.
Let that be the attitude.
Quench, not the Spirit.
That's your submission to service.
Now, here are wonderful principles, and I think
if you get them into your soul, not
into your head, it will be a blessing
to you.
The first one is, despise not prophesying.
Now, I think that that needs an explanation
before we go on.
You know, when Paul was writing this letter
to the Thessalonians, this is his first letter
out of the fourteen that he has written
in the New Testament.
Paul almost penned all our New Testaments.
He penned fourteen letters, and the first one
he penned was 1 Thessalonians.
So you see, that when these Thessalonian converts
got together on Lord's Day morning to remember
the Lord and to worship at His feet,
remember they had no New Testament written.
Have you got a Bible like what we've
got?
Oh, no.
But God knew all about it, and God
gave them special gifts in the early days.
Of course, first of all, they had the
apostles, they were their great gifts.
Then secondly, they had gifts called prophets.
You see, the Church was built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets.
So the prophets were just men gifted by
God to stand up in the morning meeting
and preach these very things that we are
touching now without a New Testament at all.
They brought the Church New Testament proof without
a New Testament.
And you see, if some humble brother would
stand up in the morning and without a
Testament begin to tell the saints certain things
to do, you think there'd always be somebody
to despise him.
Always.
So we have an open meeting at the
table in this place.
And sometimes some of our brethren, my last
Sunday morning, there was a very humble old
saint here among us that upped to speak
at the table.
And in his own wonderful way, he brought
us a message from the Lord.
And I think that I could truthfully say
this, that I've never heard him stand to
his feet, but it always did me good.
I never despised a humble brother, you know.
So you know, you should learn never to
despise the man that ministers God's word.
No matter who he is or where he
is, if he's a true child of God.
Never despise him.
So that's the first thing.
Don't despise the preacher.
And then the second one is this.
Prove all things.
You see, we can prove all things very
easily now.
You can prove everything by the word of
God.
No matter what any man says, bring it
to the book and find if it's according
to the testimony of God's word.
Prove it.
And if it's the truth, you hold on
to it.
It's for your good and it's for your
edification.
So that you're not to despise the minister,
but you should prove the message.
And then, here's a lovely little bit.
Abstain from all appearance of evil.
My, you know, there are certain things that
any of us could do and I suppose
it would be lawful for us to do.
But you know, the world might take it
up in another way.
You see, these days I'm the cook down
at our place.
Some cooking, I'm telling you.
But you know, ladies, I've learned a whole
lot of these things.
I'll be very easy on you from this
on.
I get fed up with this cooking.
And then I take the car and I
go up to a dear lady who's in
the meeting and I walk up a hall
and I say, give us a drop of
tea.
And you know, I was just saying to
her the other day, you know, if they
see me coming in here every morning at
eleven o'clock they'll have got something to
say about you and me.
Ah, but it's true.
That's the world we live in.
And you see, rather than let them get
a chance to talk, you should abstain from
the very appearance of evil.
These are wonderful principles.
Don't despise the preacher.
Prove the message.
But walk circumspect for the day of evil.
These are principles for our practice.
And so we've got down through the differentiations
made by Paul and the expectations given by
Paul and the end of this first letter
to the Thessalonians was a great benediction.
He says, I'm the very God of peace,
sanctify your holiness.
And I pray God your whole spirit and
soul and body.
And in my Bible it says, the fond
glimpse at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Some people talk about holy sanctification.
And they say, you know, you can get
to a place by closing your eyes and
surrendering everything you have until you are absolutely
sanctified soul and spirit and body.
Well, let me tell you.
How about we look at John's Gospel, chapter
17, for a moment.
John's Gospel, chapter 17, and verse
17, and our Lord Jesus Christ is praying
for the faith, which the very theme of
Paul was praying for.
And when the Lord's praying for them in
verse 17, he says, sanctify them through thy
truth, thy word is truth.
And usually when a fellow tells me that
he's endlessly perfect, holy sanctified he calls it,
the first thing I ask him is this,
have you read every word in this Bible?
And in all time I've had the answer,
no.
And I say, well, I would want to
know how you could be perfectly sanctified when
you haven't even read the book that sanctifies
you.
Happens to be that you're sanctified through the
truth.
And the man that tells you that he's
endlessly perfect, he's telling you that there's not
a phrase or a command or a promise
or an exhortation or a warning in that
book that he's not perfectly keeping and he's
a liar.
Are you keeping every word?
Are you keeping every phrase that we read
tonight?
Never mind going out of the chapter.
Let's get the hold of this, you're sanctified
by the truth.
And you can't claim holy sanctification if you're
breaking one phrase of his book.
But the Lord wasn't saying any such, or
Paul wasn't praying for any such thing.
He was praying that when the Lord Jesus
Christ comes and we rise to meet Him
in the air, and these bodies are changed
and faith gives place to sight, then body,
soul and spirit will be eternally set apart
for the Lord.
And he says, I trust at that moment
when you meet Him, you'll be found blameless.
Mind you, he didn't say you'll be found
spotless, you'll be found faultless.
Didn't I point out to you the difference
between blameless and faultless before?
I said the wee fellow was copying the
heading on the copybook one day.
You remember how it used to be in
Copperclay.
And do you know what he made up
his mind?
That he would just copy it down exactly
as it was on the top line.
And he went very careful over every letter
and watched it.
And did everything that he could do to
make it exact.
And the teacher came round and looked over
his shoulder and said, oh, it wasn't faultless.
But the wee fellow was blameless.
Now that's the difference between faultless and blameless.
And Paul claims that when you rise to
meet Him and at last you are perfectly
His forever, I hope you'll be found blameless.
I hope you'll not be doing anything you
shouldn't do when you come.
He was a fine believer.
What a lovely prayer he ended this on.
One or two things just as we close
this chapter.
Look at them.
I think it's a lovely thing that he
says about God.
Faithful is He that calleth you who also
will do it.
My God's calling us on to perfection.
And He'll do it.
It was a lovely wee bed.
Brethren, pray for us.
All the great, wonderful apostles praying, asking these
young believers to pray.
Brethren, pray for us.
I greet all the brethren with a holy
kiss.
But you need to know the customs of
the Far East to understand us.
You see, we greet one another with a
sheikhan.
And they greeted each other with a kiss.
But the emphasis is not on the kiss.
The emphasis is on the word holy.
With a holy kiss.
You know, you see two fellows standing with
their heads together and they're talking about another
brother and they're cutting him into pieces and
then he turns the corner and the other
fellow says, I'm glad to see you.
There's nothing holy about that.
That's not a holy sheikhan.
And how dreadful if it would be two
sisters standing together and then she would turn
and kiss the other on the cheek.
It wouldn't be a holy thing.
Ah yes, it's all in the book, isn't
it?
Brethren and sisters.
There's just one thing that I want to
get over to this meeting in the last
seconds and it's this.
From everything that I know of the prophetic
teaching of God's word and I've studied it
thoroughly for years and for everything that I
can see happening in the nations around me
I feel that we're at the very end
of the age.
In my very soul tonight I'm perfectly persuaded
and I'm sure that the coming of the
Lord is desperately put at hand and if
Jesus Christ shall take the church out so
you big men in this meeting tonight you'll
be left behind for the dreadful horrible day
of the Lord and I'll tell you this
we bet you'll not escape.
You'll not escape.
So there's only one place that you can
flee for refuge tonight.
That's to Christ.
Men and women in this meeting on faith
I beg of you to look at Calvary.
I beg of you to look at the
Lamb of God again.
I beg of you to look at the
sacrifice in your own health.
I beg of you to look at the
glorious resurrection and put your trust in the
cross work and put the arms of your
faith round this living Savior and bless God's
salvation with all its fullness of meaning will
be yours for all eternity.
Will you come?
God bless you.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus we thank thee for thyself.
We thank thee for the old blood thin
rugged cross.
We thank thee for the mighty sacrifice for
sin.
We thank thee for the precious cleansing ruby
blood.
We thank thee for the glorious resurrection.
We thank thee for the wondrous exaltation.
We thank thee Lord that thou art coming
again.
We thank thee tonight we know thou art
coming soon.
And with everything in our being we say
even so come.
Lord Jesus, oh Lord there you would step
out of heaven and call us home.
Speak once more in mercy for these unsaved
men and women in this living and draw
them to thyself for salvation.
We thank you Lord that as we see
the darkness and the dreadful horrors that will
come upon this field of time we bless
thee thy blessed rock of ages we are
hiding in thee.
Bless thy work for saint and sinner for
the glory of thy name.
Amen.