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Hey man, welcome to First Works Baptist Church.
We're gonna get started with song number 427,
as you find your seats.
Song number 427,
We Three Kings of Orientar as our first song.
Let's all stand together for our first song as well.
Song number 427.
We'll sing it on that first.
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1 Thessalonians chapter number 5
The Bible reads
1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I route unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them,
4 as travail upon a woman with a child, and they shall not escape.
5 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
6 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day.
7 We are not of the night, nor of darkness.
8 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch, and be sober.
9 For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night.
10 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love,
11 and for in helmet the hope of salvation.
12 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
13 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
14 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
15 And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you,
16 and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their works' sake,
17 and be at peace among yourselves.
18 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded,
19 support the weak, and be patient toward all men.
20 See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good,
21 both among yourselves and to all men.
22 Rejoice evermore, and pray without ceasing.
23 And everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
24 Quench not the Spirit, and despise not prophesying.
25 Prove all things, hold fast that which is good, abstain from all appearance of evil.
26 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and to pray God your whole spirit and soul and body
27 be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
28 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
29 Brethren, pray for us.
30 Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss.
31 I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.
32 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Amen.
And the second half has nothing to do with the pre-tribulation rapture, actually.
And so if you want to know more about why the pre-tribulation rapture is lame and stupid and unbiblical,
you can go and reference that sermon and you will learn why.
But today is a completely different sermon. It's a completely different topic.
And it seems as though the Apostle Paul actually switches gears a little bit during the second half of chapter number five.
And the title of the sermon is Being Preserved Blameless.
And it's there in your Bibles in verse number 23.
It says, In the very God of peace, sanctify you wholly.
And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we're going to get into that verse in just a bit.
But I'm going to cover the first couple of verses and what the Bible teaches here from verses 11 up until verse 22.
But the main thing that I'm going to focus on is being preserved blameless.
What does that mean? What is that talking about?
Well first let's look at verse number 11.
And we're going to go down the list here of what the Apostle Paul is stating.
First and foremost we see that he wants people to get acquainted with the laborers in the church.
He says in verse 11, Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also ye do.
And obviously he's referring to the fact that we're going to be raptured, that we're not appointed unto wrath.
We are appointed unto tribulation and God is going to deliver us.
And he says you need to comfort yourselves with these words.
Make sure you're constantly reminding each other of these things, of these doctrines.
Verse 12 says, And we beseech you brethren to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord
and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves.
So he's basically telling those at Thessalonica, hey you need to get acquainted with the laborers in your church.
Now obviously he could be referring to the pastor because we see there that it says those who are over you in the Lord.
But he's really referring to anybody who's just working for the Lord in the church.
You understand?
And the reason he says there to know them, to esteem them, is because of the fact that laborers are very much an important person in the eyes of God.
Those who preach the gospel, those who seek opportunity to serve others.
You know these are people who are held in high esteem in God's eyes and therefore we should esteem them as much. Amen?
You say well what's the point of that?
Well you know today Christians have a tendency to esteem those who are not of the house of God.
You know they esteem music artists and actors.
They esteem politicians.
They esteem everything but what God esteems which is laborers of the Lord.
You understand?
Those who are truly making an impact for eternity.
Those who are going to be ruling and reigning with Christ for a thousand years.
Those who God knows.
Those who God appoints and exalts.
Those are the people who are important in God's eyes.
And God says here, hey you need to know them.
Now why is that?
Well because of the fact that when you get acquainted with people who are laborers, you yourself will be a laborer.
You become like the people you're with.
Isn't that true?
You become like the people you hang around with.
You end up taking their characteristics, their attributes, their habits.
The things that they like and their customs and the way they talk and their practices.
You actually end up kind of integrating them to your own life when you're around them.
And so this is why the Bible says to exhort one another.
You know forsake not the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
It's important that we're in God's house.
If you want to learn how to be a Christian for example.
The best place to do it is not on YouTube.
Now YouTube is a great place to learn doctrine, to hear a lot of sermons.
But if you want to learn the practicality of Christian living, you got to come to church.
Right?
You got to be in church because of the fact that he that walketh with wise men shall be wise.
If you're around other godly Christians who love the Lord, who believe the Bible,
they go soul winning, they love their wives as Christ also loved the church.
They reverence their husbands.
They are living a holy life.
They do things that are pleasing unto the Lord.
That's going to rub off on you.
You know it's hard to be a Christian without a church.
It's hard to live a godly life if you don't have a local assembly where you can basically get plugged into,
see examples of what you want to be and kind of copy that.
You understand?
Get acquainted with the laborers in the church because God not only wants us to be bonafide Christians,
he wants us to be laborers.
He wants us to learn how to preach the gospel, how to labor in the word and in doctrine.
The Bible tells us, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works.
So when you got saved, that came with a list of responsibilities.
You got saved, that came with a list of responsibilities.
Things that God wants you to do, things that God wants you to accomplish.
The sad thing is that people get saved and obviously that's not sad because they're going to go to heaven to have eternal life.
But they get saved but they never come to church.
They never even read the Bible.
They never learn how to get their family saved.
I remember when I first got saved, one of the first things that was really important to me is like,
oh man I got to figure out how to tell my family about this because I don't want them to go to hell.
And then I had a bunch of friends, I'm like, man I got to tell my friends about this,
I just don't know how but I don't want them to go to hell.
So luckily I went to a church where it was a soul winning church.
I mean they used that phrase, soul winning, preaching the gospel.
And I went there and they taught me how to share my faith, how to preach the gospel,
how to get people saved and I learned and I want a bunch of my friends to the Lord,
I want some of my family to the Lord.
And so God wants us to get a part of a church so we can learn to be laborers in the gospel,
laborers in the word of God.
Laborers and just being a blessing to others, you understand?
So he says, I beseech you brethren to know them which labor among you,
who are over you in the Lord, look what it says here, and admonish you.
Now that's the Bible's nice way of saying correcting you,
reproving you, rebuking you, admonishing you.
Now that's important because of the fact that today people don't like to be corrected.
They hate correction.
They don't like to be told that they're wrong.
They don't like to be rebuked.
They don't like to be told that what they're doing is contrary to God's word.
They want to be told that they're just always doing right.
Whereas the Bible explicitly tells us that we're to preach the word,
to be in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
We're supposed to admonish the congregation, amen?
And the Bible says here, you should get to know the people who are actually admonishing you.
You see, the pastors that you should actually stay away from are those who don't admonish you.
Those who are constantly just like nice to you and you know, you just never do anything wrong
and it's just like, you know, good God, good devil, good hell.
Everything's good. No one's bad. You're not bad. God's not mad at you.
Oh, you're involved in fornication. That's okay. God still loves you.
He's not going to judge you for that and all these things, you know.
It justifies your sin whereas the man of God should get up and admonish you and correct you
and say actually what you're doing is actually wrong.
And if you continue on this path, you're going to destroy your life.
Or worse, God's going to destroy you because that's a wicked thing for you to do.
You know, that's an admonishment that we don't really like to hear but it's necessary.
And in fact, you know, I would even go to say that the person who is telling you those things
actually loves you more than the person who won't.
Okay. So he says get to know those people.
Okay. Get to know the pastor. Get to know the people in the church who admonish you, who correct you.
And verse 13 says, and to esteem them very highly in love.
Look what it says here, for their work's sake.
Okay. So he's saying look, respect the position.
Right. Don't elevate the position to the point where it's just like the person's an idol to you
or the person is, you know, just without fault.
No, you should esteem them for their work's sake.
And look folks, let me just say this is that if you come to church,
come to church for the right reasons.
Right. Now you might like my preaching and I appreciate if you like my preaching.
But then there might be people in here that don't like my preaching.
And I don't care.
But here's the thing is that regardless of what you, if you like my preaching or not
or you agree with what I say or not or you think I'm rude or not, you should be here, not for me.
Why? Because I'm not Jesus.
Okay. I work for him. He's my savior. He's appointed me.
But I'm not the Lord. And you know what? We should be in church for the work's sake.
Now it helps when you have a leader that you like though.
You know what I mean? It's like I like this church and you know I'm here for the Lord's sake.
But you know I kind of like Pastor Mejia too. He's like a really good friend.
He's a good pastor. I appreciate his leadership.
But you know what? If Pastor Mejia goes and someone else takes over,
guess what? You should still be in church.
When someone falls off the map, some pastor gets involved in whatever,
that shouldn't be a reason for you to get out of God's will.
Why? Because you're in church for the Lord.
You're not in church because of some person, some pastor.
You know you're here because of God.
And you know that's important because of the fact that
you know sometimes people put other people on a pedestal sometimes.
You know? And the way you can correct that
is by esteeming people for their work's sake.
Understand the work that person is doing is valuable.
It should be appreciated. It should be honored.
But you know what? If that person steps down or moves or does whatever,
that's not going to affect my walk with God.
I'm going to keep serving God. I'm going to keep reading the Bible.
I'm going to keep being in church. You understand?
Look folks, you know, if for some reason I can't preach in one evening,
and I tell you, hey I'm not preaching, brother Ulysses Hernandez is going to preach,
the attitude should never be, well I'm not coming then.
Brother Ulysses sucks.
Oh man, that guy, you know, I don't really like the way he preaches.
Why? I mean if he's preaching out of the Bible,
if he's representing the word of God, you should esteem him,
not because he has a great personality or something like that,
or maybe you don't think he does, you know?
He's like, he's not that funny though, you know?
Or he doesn't, you know, he's shorter than you or something, you know?
He's Mexican. You know, you have all these stipulations.
You should just esteem him for his work's sake.
And say, well you know what, he's preaching God's word,
I'm going to, I love the preaching of God's word,
regardless of what he's doing, as long as they're telling me the truth.
I love it. Right?
And so what I'm trying to do is help you to get to a level of maturity
where you recognize that we should be in church,
we should read the Bible, we should labor for the Lord,
regardless of the circumstances surrounding us.
Regardless of the people.
That's not to say we don't esteem the laborers and the leaders around us,
but if they are absent, we do right in spite of that.
Because at the end of the day, if we fear the Lord,
we recognize that God is always there, we're serving the Lord,
we're doing this as unto Christ.
He says to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake,
and be at peace among yourselves.
We should have unity in our church, amen?
He says in verse 14, now we exhort you brethren,
I like what it says here, warn them that are unruly,
Comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
Now this is a good instruction for pastors, okay?
Because as pastors, we deal with every single one of these categories,
at the same time, okay?
And he's telling them, hey, you need to make sure that you warn people who are unruly.
What are unruly people?
These are people in the church that sometimes they get a little out of hand, okay?
They get a little out of hand, they're a little unruly,
they have a tendency to get out from under authority,
or they become backbiters and gainsayers,
maybe they're a little carnal, a little fleshly,
and God says here, through the apostle Paul, warn them!
He doesn't say like, boot them out right away,
he says warn them!
And look, we all like a warning every now and then, right?
We don't want someone to just bring the hammer down on us right away,
especially if we don't know any better or something like that.
You know, we need warnings, right?
I mean, who doesn't appreciate the fact that like,
if you get pulled over for speeding, and you know that you're speeding,
you know you're drifting, and you know, you're doing all these,
you're doing that California roll,
and the police pulls you over, it's just like,
I'm gonna give you a warning.
We, I mean, we kinda appreciate that, you know?
Cause it kinda helps us to think, like, I gotta be careful next time,
and I gotta make sure I watch out for the police,
the next time I drift, you know what I mean?
I shoulda checked, I shoulda checked, you know?
Warn them that are unruly!
And well, in like manner, you know, we as Christians, we as pastors,
and by the way, not just me, but just you, also,
you know, you hear someone in our church make a stupid comment or something,
something where they seek to subvert authority,
or subvert the Bible, or teach some false doctrine,
or become disrespectful in any way,
you know, you should warn them.
And just tell them, like, hey, that was kinda random that you said that,
you should like, watch, watch that, you know?
You know, you shouldn't speak like that against other people,
or threaten other people, or say this or that,
you know, that's a warning.
Cause you have the authority to do that.
You know, don't have this bystander apathy where you hear something,
and you're just like, oh man, I don't wanna get involved in that.
Uh, no, you heard it!
Okay, so your hands should be on that person first, amen?
And by hands, I don't mean like, you're gonna stone that person,
I'm saying, you're gonna warn that person and say,
hey, you know, what you said there was inappropriate,
you gotta make sure you watch your mouth and not say things like that.
We're in the house of God, okay?
So he says, we exhort you brethren, warn them that are unruly,
like there's unruly people in church?
Of course there's unruly people in church.
Church is filled with all types of people.
And sometimes you get unruly people, people who don't like authority,
or they're disrespectful or they're inappropriate sometimes,
and the Bible tells us we need to warn them.
And then he says this, comfort the feeble-minded, okay?
Now what does it mean to be feeble-minded?
Well, you think of like someone who's handicapped,
you can take it to that extent where it's just like maybe someone who's,
you know, mentally ill or handicapped,
we need to comfort them.
But really when it says feeble-minded, it's referring to someone who's weak-minded.
Okay?
And he says, hey, you need to comfort people who are weak-minded.
Now when I think of this, I think of people who are just easily afraid.
Right?
Someone who is just easily scared.
You know, they hear about the omicron.
You know, they just kind of like lose it.
And what we have to do is comfort them and say,
hey, it's okay, if you die, you go to heaven.
I'm just kidding.
No, we got to tell them, hey, everything's going to be okay.
God is with us.
And you know what, if you're serving the Lord
and you're doing that which is right in the sight of God,
at the end of the day, you know, you're in God's hands.
And why worry about things that you can't change?
The worst thing that you can do as a Christian
is worry about things that you have no control over.
That's stressful.
That's a stressful life.
When you're constantly thinking about what's going on in politics,
with politicians, with the omicron, with the vaccine,
if you can't control it, why think about it?
It's not going to stress you out more.
So our job as pastors or as Christians
is to comfort those who are weak-minded
and strengthen their faith.
Oh man, what if they come and bomb us again?
Then we could probably get a new building, I don't know.
I don't think that far ahead.
We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
And it's important that we as Christians, as a church,
we don't have an atmosphere of fear.
We're not supposed to be fearful.
We're supposed to be fearless.
You know, be strong and of good courage, the Bible says.
And by the way, we shouldn't put people down if they're afraid.
The Bible says to comfort them.
You say, hey, it's going to be okay.
You're going to be okay, we're going to be okay.
You have a church family, we're here for you,
we can help you, you know,
we're in this together kind of thing, okay.
It says, now we exhort your brethren,
warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded.
By the way, you know, with this whole omicron,
whatever variant, you know,
this man-made stuff that they got going on.
Last year when this happened,
there was a lot of feeble-minded people
who were in our church.
And some of those feeble-minded people left.
And you know what leaving did to them?
Made them even more feeble-minded.
Even more afraid.
Because if you're feeble-minded,
the worst thing you can do is leave church.
Because church is where we help you
to gird up the loins of your mind.
Where we strengthen your mind,
we renew your mind,
we increase your faith,
we preach the word of God,
we give you boldness, right?
But people who are afraid, they say,
well, I'm just going to take a break from church.
You know what I mean?
Because I'm just afraid.
What if I just catch something or whatever?
You're going to catch it.
Don't you go to a grocery store?
Don't you pick up the milk carton
that hundreds of other people probably picked up?
Don't you go to the gas station?
I mean, do people touch that pump?
You think viruses are only subject to, like, churches?
Think about that.
You know, we shouldn't be afraid
of getting sick, by the way.
Who would fear to get sick?
Because that's just part of life.
I mean, prior to 2020,
we got sick all the time!
We got sick all the time.
And some of you would get sick
and still come to church
projectile vomiting and stuff.
All of a sudden coronavirus comes around
and it's just like,
oh no, but this is different.
Folks, it's not different.
And just to let new people know,
we all got the coronavirus.
We all got it!
You guys remember that?
We all got the coronavirus.
Yeah, one of these people gave it to us.
I'm looking at you, Gummy.
Because it's like, and then it just starts spreading
and then you try to like,
you're like, well, maybe I don't have it.
And then the defining marker
is when you eat and you're like,
I can't taste anything.
Dang, I got it.
But folks, I mean,
don't let that impede you
from just living your life, though.
Especially serving God, right?
So the Bible tells us,
comfort the feeble-minded.
We say, what are you doing right now?
I'm comforting you if you're feeble-minded,
if you're weak-minded in certain areas.
Weak-minded regarding persecution.
Man, I don't wanna join this church
but don't be feeble-minded.
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
He says, warn them that are unruly.
Comfort the feeble-minded.
Support the weak.
And at the end of the day, be patient toward all men.
You know, everyone is at a different spiritual level.
And we can't expect people
to be at the same spiritual level
that we are or that you are.
You understand?
And this is actually really important right here
because sometimes we think,
well, we're a new IFB church
and it's exactly like we do.
Right?
You know, they must listen to all the pastors.
They must know about all the terminology.
They must know about all the doctrines.
Wrong. It's not like that.
Now, it might be like that initially
and that's how it was initially
but because our church is a thriving, healthy church,
it's gonna reach people outside of the new IFB.
And when it reaches people outside of the new IFB,
they're gonna come to our church
and they don't necessarily know everything.
So guess what?
When people start talking about the most recent
controversy of the new IFB,
don't freak out if they don't know
what you're talking about.
Like, what, you didn't see that YouTube video?
Like, no, I mean, is everything okay or what?
That's just how it is.
Okay?
And so, you know, be patient toward all men.
And look, if people come to our church
and they don't believe exactly the way we believe, great.
That means you get to teach them.
Don't see them as an enemy.
Don't see them as like a feeble-minded person,
some person who's like a contrarian.
See them as an opportunity to teach them
what the Bible actually says about a specific topic.
So don't assume that everyone believes
exactly the same in our church,
because they don't.
Folks, I'm surprised sometimes that I'll preach something
and then I'm like, you know,
I'm probably not gonna preach on that for a while
because our people already know it.
And I'll talk to certain people
and they don't even remember the sermon
that I preached on it.
But sometimes people tune in and tune out, you know?
Sometimes they don't pay attention.
Or, you know, sometimes I forget
that I preached on a specific subject.
I'll be honest with you,
sometimes I'll listen to my old sermon
because I'm like, oh man, that was a good point.
I didn't know that.
And you know, my pastor friends are the same way.
Because we're constantly giving out information,
constantly preaching,
constantly putting out biblical content,
sometimes we just forget stuff.
I've literally taught my pastor friends
things that they taught me.
I'm serious, I've taught them something
and they're like, wow, that's really good.
I'm like, you taught me that.
And you're like, really?
I didn't know that.
That's like news to me.
I'm like, you taught it to me.
So what I'm saying is, you know,
we can't expect for everyone to believe the same
or be at the same spiritual level.
People need to be taught.
And here's the thing, people come to our church
and they're not always thinking about doctrine either.
They got problems in their marriage,
and so all these things are running through their mind.
They're not just like poster pre-wrath,
you know, reprobate doctrine.
You know, they're not coming in here thinking like,
it's all about this doctrine right now, baby.
You know?
They're just like, man,
we were yelling really loud in the car.
I yelled at my kids way too loud right now or something.
You know, they're thinking about other things.
So we gotta be patient toward all men.
Verse 15 says, see that none render evil for evil
unto any man, but ever follow that which is good,
both among yourselves and to all men.
So he says, look, make sure no one is vengeful
in your church.
Don't render evil for evil.
If someone does wrong to you,
allow yourself to be defrauded,
turn to the other cheek.
Don't try to recompense them evil
for the evil they did to you.
He's like, ever follow that which is good,
both among yourselves and toward all men.
Now, verse 16 all the way down,
we have some really basic instructions
and it's almost like it's laid out in a proverbial way.
That it's just like one statement that's being made, period.
You know, it's like one statement period
and another statement period.
But it's packed with a lot of great teaching.
Verse 16 says, rejoice evermore.
Okay.
What does it mean to rejoice?
It means to be joyful.
Don't be a person who's just a downer.
We all have our bad days.
We all go through tough times.
But we should be characterized as people who rejoice.
Okay.
When we come to church,
we should be a blessing to other people.
Don't...
You know, it's just like,
is this like a job to you or something or what?
Are you okay?
Do you need to talk?
Is there something you need to talk about?
You know, rejoice evermore.
It should be joyful to come to church
to do God's will, to be around God's people.
We should be characterized by rejoicing.
He says rejoice evermore.
Verse 17, pray without ceasing.
What does it mean to cease?
It means to stop, right?
And he says that we should pray without ceasing.
This doesn't mean that we need to get on our knees
24-7 and pray.
That's what people mostly think is like
when you pray, you're getting on your knees
and you're praying.
No, praying without ceasing means basically
just pray throughout the day,
kind of like the way Nehemiah did
in the book of Nehemiah where he's coming
and he prays unto the Lord in his mind, right?
He requests something of the wisdom
of the Lord in his mind.
And what the Bible's teaching us here
is that we should have a prayer life,
not just a prayer time.
You might have your prayer time in the morning.
We should have a prayer life
that when you're at your job
and you're confronted with a difficult situation
you say, Lord, give me wisdom.
And you don't have to say it all out loud
and be all weird about it
and you're in your cubicle and you're praying.
A quiet prayer.
Hey, moms, pray at your homes
when you're teaching your children.
When you're with your kids,
when you're trying to homeschool them,
when you're trying to get work done,
pray, Lord, strengthen me for today.
Give me wisdom.
Help me to be efficient in my home.
Help me to get something done today.
Help me to not be lazy or idle.
Help me to be a productive person today.
Lord, give me wisdom, right?
That's good.
Men at work.
Or when you're just kind of
half time in your drive
and you're driving long distances,
pray.
And again, it doesn't have to be
some dramatic pray.
Oh God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
hearest thou me when I pray
unto thy holy temple.
And it's just like,
you know, don't be fake.
Just pray, you know,
whether it's adoration,
it's a request,
you know, it's a petition for someone else.
It's wisdom.
Hey, someone says, hey, can you pray for me?
Pray for them.
Typically when people ask me,
can you please pray for me
regarding this particular situation,
I'll pray for them as soon as I walk away.
I said, Lord, help them in that situation.
Bless them, give them wisdom.
Because if I don't, I'm going to forget later on.
And I'm not going to pray for them.
But what's keeping me from just praying
right then and there?
Pray without ceasing.
Have a prayer life.
And someone who has a prayer life
is basically conscious of the fact
that God is always watching,
He's always listening.
They have a fear of God.
Look at verse 18.
And everything give thanks,
for this is the will of God
in Christ Jesus concerning you.
I talked a lot about that
during our Thanksgiving banquet.
Verse 19 says quench not the spirit.
Now what does that mean
when we're filled with the spirit?
It tells us to walk in the spirit,
you should not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
And here it says to quench not the spirit,
Ephesians 4 says to grieve not the spirit.
Now what do those mean?
What does it mean not to quench the spirit?
Well, the spirit,
someone who is spirit led, right,
is someone who is filled with the spirit,
they're walking in the spirit,
they're reading their Bibles,
they're doing that which is pleasing unto the Lord.
When you allow sin in your life,
when you are just kind of involved in sin,
the spirit, right,
because the spirit dwells within us.
When we get saved, the Bible says
that we're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise
which is the earnest of our inheritance
and to the redemption of the purchased possession.
So the Holy Spirit resides within us,
when we sin we grieve him
because our bodies are the temples
of the Holy Ghost.
So he's grieved when we sin,
he's grieved when we're involved
in iniquity, he hurts, okay.
But here it says to not quench the spirit.
Well, when you think of the word quench,
quenching a fire, right, dousing a flame, okay.
Now think about this, think about this.
Some people say, well, you know,
God led me to witness to that person over there
or God led me to talk to whoever, you know.
God, I think God is moving me to do this.
You know, there's nothing necessarily wrong with that
but the reality is this is that God leads us to,
the spirit leads us to do right all the time.
So it's not like he like turns it on
and turns it off.
It's not like the Holy Spirit's like,
I wanna do right today
but like five minutes from today, from right now,
I'm gonna take a break, you know.
I'm just gonna be the Holy Spirit kind of thing.
No, the Holy Spirit perpetually wants to do good,
perpetually wants to be righteous,
perpetually wants to be holy, okay.
And he perpetually leads us to do those things.
You understand?
So when you decide not to obey,
not to do righteousness,
you're actually quenching that fire
because the Holy Spirit can be compared to a fire
that's constantly burning,
it's constantly going forth,
it's constantly enlightening you
and you know, moving you to do the will of God,
whatever that may be.
When you decide not to do it,
you're quenching the spirit.
So for example,
you know you're supposed to go soloing or something.
You know, you're like, I'm not gonna go soloing.
What are you just quenching the spirit then?
Because you know you're supposed to,
there's a desire to do so,
you're prompted to do so,
but you choose not to,
at that point you're quenching the spirit, okay.
You know, husband,
that by being mean to your wife or something
you're gonna hurt her
and you know that by being kind to her
and loving her
and you know, asking for forgiveness,
it'll probably fix the whole problem.
But instead you choose not to,
what did you just do?
And vice versa.
You know ladies, you know,
obey your husbands as unto the Lord
and you don't do it,
you're quenching the spirit.
Because that's what the spirit wants you to do.
You understand?
And so when the Bible talks about quenching
it means like putting out that fire.
And you say, well you know,
we're sinners, that's what happens.
Yeah, but here's the problem with that, okay.
The more you quench the spirit,
listen to this,
the more you quench the spirit,
the more you grieve the spirit,
the easier it gets to do it
after that again and again
and again and again and again
to the point where
you're not really spirit led,
you're fleshly led.
Doesn't mean you lose your salvation
because you can't lose it, okay.
It means you just become a carnal
type of a Christian,
a fleshly Christian who's just not spirit led.
You understand?
Look at verse 20,
that's what it's referring to,
it's talking about preaching.
Now people think prophesying
is just like foretelling the future
or something, you know.
Now obviously there's prophets
in the Old Testament that foretold
the future based upon God's word.
Like God gave them God's word
and they were able to, you know,
John for example, he's in the New Testament,
but John foretold the future
and penned it in the book of Revelation.
But prophesying just in general
means preaching.
Look at that.
You should love preaching.
Preaching should be something that we love.
Now, I can see why some people
hate preaching.
Because this is some pretty gay
preaching out there.
Are you going to argue with me
about that?
It's true.
You look at the modern preaching
of today by pastors,
it's lame.
They move no man's soul,
they don't get anybody right with God,
all they do is just take up space.
You can't call that preaching.
Folks, you get the preaching
of these liberal pastors out there,
these weakly limp-wristed pastors,
and you compare it to the preaching
of the men of God in the Bible,
complete polar opposites.
The prophets in the Bible were offensive.
Oh, we shouldn't be offensive.
Then you shouldn't be a pastor then.
You shouldn't be a prophet.
There's a job for you,
it's called being a politician.
You just mix the P's there.
It's like a pastor and then there's
a politician.
The politician seeks to please all men.
And the way he does it is by
lying to all men.
Making promises he can't keep.
Okay?
The pastor on the other hand
can care less whether he pleases all men
because he's seeking to please God
and therefore he just lets it fly.
He just rips face.
Whatever God wants him to preach.
You understand?
And so there's a lot of preaching
out there that is really bad.
It's bad doctrine.
It's gay.
It sounds weak.
It's sissified.
It has no authority behind it.
And that's why people hate it.
That's why a lot of these mega churches
are filled with primarily what?
Tell me what.
Women!
That's who.
They fill a lot of women.
Now is it bad to have women in church?
No, of course not.
Because church is for women as well.
But there's a problem when you have
more women in the church
than there are men.
Because men are supposed to be the leaders.
So when you have more women than men
it probably, it's an indication
that the pastor is fleshly,
you know, he's more emotional
because the women probably like
that kind of preaching.
Whereas the men, they're like
this is gay, I don't want to listen to this.
This is not inspiring at all.
I don't want to change.
I don't want to be like him.
Those pastors move no person
to be like them.
Isn't that true?
Like no man of God who loves the Lord
looks at a pastor like that and be like
man I want to be just as gay.
Right?
They don't say oh man I want to be
a sissy like that and preach
as weak as that in one day.
No one does.
Oh man I don't really like
how you're saying that though.
That sounds kind of like offensive,
you know.
Well I'm telling you,
study the prophets of the Bible.
These hairy,
just leather-lung,
prophets of the Bible
who preach extremely hard.
They were very offensive.
They preached the word of God
but you know what?
They got things done folks.
The preaching of the word sounded
forth and it got things done
because God is not interested
in an inspirational sermon
that gets nothing done.
He wants exhortation
that moves people to get right
with God.
And so that's why people hate preaching.
Now some people hate this kind of preaching.
They despise this kind of preaching
but why?
Because it makes them feel uncomfortable.
Because the truth makes you feel uncomfortable.
The truth bothers you
because it rubs you the wrong way.
You know it's a little coarse.
Oh man do you have to say gay?
You know, oh man do you have
to say those words though?
I get what you're saying
but it's just like the way you
say it though.
Well how else am I going to
get your attention though?
Sometimes you got to be a little
rough to get your attention
to wake you up.
Got to shake you up.
I mean folks when you have
you know Malachi talking about
dung on their faces
to the priest he's like dung
on your faces.
God wants to spread dung on your faces.
They're just like all right
but what if he came
like Joel Osteen?
He'd get no one's attention.
Even Jonah when he came
to Nineveh he's like
Nineveh's going to be overthrown
you're all going to die.
And everyone was just like
sackcloth and ashes.
I mean that wasn't necessarily
a nice sermon.
But you know what the people
who despise that type of preaching
are the same people for example
you know when Micaiah came
they said we don't like Micaiah
I hate him because he never
prophesized good concern in me
but evil.
He's like I don't like Micaiah
because all he does is preaches
like just hard sermons
and I hate it like I don't like him
because he's not nice.
But folks pastors are not
necessarily supposed to be nice
24 7.
Now look outside the pulpit
of course I'm nice.
I don't like other people
or anything like that you know
but when it comes to preaching
on the other hand that's a
different category.
And the Bible tells us we should
love this type of preaching why
because we should love the truth
and we should love the truth.
We say well aren't we supposed
to speak the truth in love?
Don't you hear that?
Yeah speak the truth but speak
the truth in love.
And somehow they equate love
I'm speaking the truth out of
love.
It's not like how can you say
how can you preach Romans 1
without screaming and yelling?
How can you preach Genesis 19
without screaming and yelling?
How can you preach against
pedophiles without screaming
and yelling?
Right?
So when it says preach the
truth in love it's referring to
the fact that we should preach
because we love people.
Okay?
So don't hate preaching.
I mean you can hate the prophet
but don't hate the preaching.
We should love prophesying we
should love preaching because
preaching is a manifestation of
God's word.
Okay?
And by the way like you know
those of you who want to be
pastors or are going to be
pastors someday you know people
are going to hate your guts if
they're going to hate you.
And they're going to let you
know that they hate you.
They're going to tell you
why they hate you.
They're going to remind you
over and over again that they
hate you.
That's why there is never a lack
of content for us to make mean
comments.
The videos on mean comments.
There's so many mean comments
I told you I was like we've
got to make videos called
people who hate the truth.
And they're pretty funny
sometimes.
They mean it unto evil but I
use it unto good.
I'm like well this is going to
do well on YouTube.
You know.
Look at verse 21.
Prove all things hold fast
that which is good and is
referring to the fact that we
should be investigators.
Okay?
And not just blindly believe
that.
Verse 23 the very God of peace
sanctify you holy and I pray
God your whole spirit and soul
and body be preserved blameless
until the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
So he says here you know
he's praying that God preserves
the spirit the soul and body
right blameless into the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let me explain a couple
things here.
Turn with me if you would to
say this.
Let me say this you know
obviously God doesn't make us
do right.
So he says preserve spirit
soul and body.
Body is referring to our
physical flesh our members.
He's not going to force us to
do right.
We have to choose to do right.
We have to choose to serve God
we have to choose to do that
which is right in the side of
the Lord.
Blameless.
No one's sinless.
There's no one in this world
who does good and sin is not
right.
Blameless it means that you're
without rebuke.
So God is saying to the apostle
Paul that we should remain
to be preserved blameless
until we meet the Lord whether
by death or by his second
coming.
Now there's a teaching out there
called the perseverance of the
Bible by Calvinists.
And what they teach is that you
know if a true Christian will
persevere until the end.
You know they'll keep serving
God they'll stay in church
they'll read the Bible until
the end and if they don't
persevere until the end it
means that they were never
saved to begin with.
Because they teach in order to
really you know they that
endure until the end the same
thing.
They use scriptures like that
to try to teach that you have
to persevere in your works
until the end and if you don't
then you're not really safe to
begin with.
Folks that is a false doctrine.
False.
You see we believe in
perseverance of faith not of
our works.
This is what we believe.
We believe that you have to
believe the right salvation
because you're Mormon now.
I'll say oh okay then you're
just never safe to begin with
that.
Because the Bible teaches the
perseverance of faith.
The fact that you believe the
right things about Jesus all
the way through.
You believe the right things
about salvation all the way
through.
You believe the right things
about the trinity all the way
through.
It's like hey you know I got
saved you know 20 years ago or
whatever but now I believe that
there is no hell.
And it's just like oh okay.
We're just not saved then.
Basically what you're saying
because you've changed your
doctrine.
Essential doctrines.
We believe you have to
persevere until the end.
Your faith has to persevere
until the end.
Not you.
The same shall be saved.
Yeah but your flesh can be
saved too.
Your flesh can be rescued it
can be delivered and that's
what it's referring to.
It's actually referring to the
last 75 days of great
tribulation.
So we have to persevere in our
faith.
Now is it important for God for
us to be preserved blameless in
our body until the end?
Absolutely.
That's a big deal.
Look at second Corinthians 7
verse 1.
Let me explain some things here.
He says having therefore these
promises dearly beloved let us
cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh.
Look what it says and spirit
perfecting holiness in the fear
of God.
Go to Ephesians 4.
Now let me explain something and
I don't want to go too deep on
this because I know it's it's
the Holy Spirit that
regenerates our spirit.
Okay and that spirit that is
regenerated is known as now the
new man.
The new man is not the Holy
Spirit.
Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit dwells within us.
He regenerates our old our old
man excuse me our our dead
spirit who's dead and
trespasses and sin and he
brings it back to life and it
becomes the new man.
And the reason it's important to
understand that is because of the
fact that some people think well
how can you sin aren't you saved
aren't you a Christian.
How can you do these things.
Well because I have this thing
called the flesh.
So the aspect of my being that
is saved it's not going to sin
as my spirit but when I do sin
according to Romans chapter 7 for
me that is in my flesh dwells
no good thing.
The person that's sinning is
saved.
Romans chapter 7 1 when it says
to cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and
spirit if the spirit has no
filthiness.
Well look at Ephesians 4 verse
20.
But ye have not so long crisis
so be they have heard him and
have been taught by him as the
truth is in Jesus that he put
off concerning the former
conversation the old man which
is corrupt according to the
Bible sometimes it talks about
the soul and it's actually
referring to the body in the Old
Testament and sometimes the
Bible uses spirit and soul
interchangeably as well and
this is one of those times
where God is referring to the
filthiness of the spirit we
obviously know that it's not
referring to our new man
because the new man has no sin
it's not filthy what is it
referring to the mind.
So the Bible tells us that we
should preserve it blameless
unto the coming of our Lord.
Keep your mind clean.
Keep the filth out of your
mind.
Keep the world out of your
mind.
Keep false doctrine out of
your mind.
Keep stupidity out of your
mind.
Preserve it blameless unto the
coming of our Lord.
Yeah but you know this is
going to burn and you know
who cares what you did in your
past.
Preserve it blameless.
Fill it with God's word.
Fill it with righteousness and
holiness.
Preserve it blameless unto the
coming of our Lord.
He says in verse 24 and he put
on the new man which after God
is created in righteousness and
true holiness.
Go to Philippians chapter 2.
Philippians chapter number 2.
So again blameless doesn't mean
anything.
I know they're not perfect but
you know what they seem to have
their ducks in order.
They seem to love the Lord.
I can't really point to anything
that I would say is a deficiency
in their life.
You know we could think of people
like that in the Bible.
Daniel is a person we would say
is above approach.
He's blameless.
Joseph was a person who's above
approach.
He says if you believe in
the Lord, you should be
blameless and harmless.
The sons of God.
Look what it says without rebuke
in the midst of a crooked and
perverse nation among whom ye
shine as lights in the world.
So he says look don't complain
be blameless be harmless be
without rebuke because you live
in a crooked and perverse
nation.
Now let me explain what this
in accordance to God's word so that no one can point
to God's word and say you're violating God's word here.
You understand?
Because folks, haters of God are gonna rebuke us
no matter what.
I mean the greatest experts on how to be a Christian
come from atheists.
Atheists, they know exactly how to be a Christian.
You're not like Jesus.
It's like you don't even believe in Jesus though.
The heck are you talking about?
You're trying to tell me how to be a Christian
even though you hate God who created Christianity.
The greatest experts on Christianity in the Bible
are those who hate God and don't believe the Bible.
I'm being facetious here obviously, okay?
I'm being sarcastic.
You know, they're always gonna rebuke us
and they'll take what we say from God's word.
Oh, you say you're such a loving person.
Christianity is such a loving religion
but look at all this hatred in your spirit.
Well, ye that love the Lord hate evil.
That's what the Bible says.
Well, you're not above reproach then.
To God I am.
Because I actually believe what the Bible says.
And you know what?
There's certain things in the Bible
that rub people the wrong way
and folks, if you don't ruffle some feathers
somewhere in this world
then you probably are not believing the entire Bible.
It's just the bottom line.
So when it says without rebuke, it means,
yeah, obviously in the sight of God
and there's gonna be times
where we're without rebuke even before people.
Okay, we should be law abiding citizens
and not, you know, breaking the law
and murdering people and stealing.
You know, don't suffer as a murderer
or as an evil doer, the Bible says.
Right, as a Christian.
We should be people who seek to live peaceably
among all men and people should just leave us alone
and just let us believe whatever we want, right?
And so this isn't saying, you know,
oh, you know, you'll never be rebuked by anybody.
You'll just please everyone false.
That's false.
There's Christians who believe that, but it's false, okay?
Go back to 1 Thessalonians, if you would.
So what's the point of that verse?
The verse is basically telling us, you know,
we should seek to keep soul, spirit, and body blameless
until the very end.
You should seek to be in God's will
all the days of your life.
Amen.
Be in the house of God all the days of your life.
Doesn't mean you're gonna do it perfectly,
but you should strive to stay in God's will
all the days of your life.
Here's the goal for you.
Be in church all the days of your life.
Raise your children in church, right?
Seek to read the Bible all the days of your life.
Don't seek to strive for some crazy goal.
Why don't you just strive to be a Christian
who practices Christianity all the days of their life?
Like, that's pretty obvious.
Yeah, but you'd be surprised.
There's plenty of people out there who don't do that.
There's plenty of people out there
who become disillusioned, they get discouraged,
they get offended, and then they just get out of church,
they go into the world, and they stop serving God.
And you know what?
They still have salvation, and thank God for that
because salvation can never be lost.
But you know what they do lose?
Rewards, honor, glory, these are important things.
And I'm just telling you, when they meet the Lord,
it's not gonna be a great meeting.
They're gonna be ashamed.
Right, yeah.
I was actually talking to Brother Ron here,
and Brother Ron and I, we both know someone
from years past, and it's a guy who used to go
to my old church, and he loved the Lord,
he was a great Christian, he was a soul winner.
He was actually a really good preacher, too.
He was a hard preacher.
And he died of cancer years ago, years ago.
But I was at his deathbed when he was dying.
And the last thing he told me was this,
because he could barely breathe,
and he was kind of like, and with his last breaths,
he was telling me, he said this,
I wish I had done more.
That's what he said.
And it made an impact on me.
I'm like, man, this guy did a lot.
But maybe there's something that he did
that maybe I don't know about,
or a level of commitment that maybe he feels
like he didn't commit to or didn't do.
But it made me think, you know,
he knows he's about to meet the Lord.
See, everything changes when you know
you're about to meet the Lord.
Everything changes.
Your perspective, the way you think.
Now you're like, oh, man, maybe I should have
gone soul hanging those times.
Dang, maybe I should have swept a foyer
or something, or vacuumed, or thrown the trash away
or something, or served, somehow!
Because now it's important.
Because now you're about to meet the boss.
Now you're about to meet the boss,
and it's just like, man, and you know what?
I'm not saying the Lord's gonna condemn us,
because obviously he doesn't condemn us for sin
or anything like that.
But there is a level of shame that you're gonna feel,
especially, for example, at the judgment seat of Christ.
Where you're judged for the works that you did,
not for salvation, but for rewards,
and then when you're left with nothing,
it's like, that sucks, I wish I would have done more.
And so this is why he tells us
to be preserved blameless until the coming.
The thought that he's driving here is this,
is just stick it out to the very end.
Don't be a wishy-washy Christian.
Don't be in and out, just go all in.
And you don't have to go all in perfectly.
But you can go in.
You don't have to be the best sownerer
and the best Christian,
and you just have all your ducks in order,
but you can press forward, though.
We can all press toward the mark.
You don't have to do it perfectly, but you can do it.
That's what I'm saying.
Verse 24 says, faithful is he that calleth you
who will also do it.
You know, you have the Lord backing you.
So when you feel like, oh, this is too hard,
well, faithful is he that calleth you.
God never calls us to do something
that we're incapable of doing.
And if we are incapable of doing it, what does he do?
He enables us to do it.
Brethren, pray for us.
Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.
It's not something we do today.
So don't be like, hey, we gotta practice this.
Gotta implement this.
I mean, there's cultures today that actually do this still.
Even in Central America,
they kinda like kiss the air when they hug each other.
You guys know what I'm talking about?
I'm serious, they do.
They go like this and they kinda go, they do that.
They did it to me and I'm like, what are you doing?
I don't know you like that.
Verse 27 says, I charge you by the Lord
that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, amen.
So obviously the first half of chapter five,
lot of depth in regards to end times Bible prophecy,
but a lot of good practical teaching in the second half.
And so give heed to this and walk away
thinking upon the importance
of preserving ourselves blameless.
Not trying to be perfect,
but just trying to do the best that we can.
Do the best that you can.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
Thank you for the admonitions and the instructions.
Please be with us, Lord.
I pray that you bless the singing,
the soul-willing thereafter, Lord,
the Christmas practice and all there is, Lord.
We love you and we thank you.
Pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Song number 426 is our last song.
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.
Song number 426.
We'll sing it on that first song, first verse.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day.
Carol, carol, carols play, and we sing.
And wild and sweet the words repeat.
A peace on earth, good will to men.
I thought now as the day had come
the bell frees up a prison dump
and rolled along the broken song.
A peace on earth, good will to men.
And in despair I bowed my head.
There is no peace on earth, I said,
for hate is strong and mocks us all.
A peace on earth, good will to men.
Then healed the bells more loud and deep.
God is not dead nor done.
He's sweet, the wrong shall fail,
the right prevail with peace on earth,
good will to men.
Till ringing, singing, God is great.
The world re-rung from night till day.
A voice unshined, a chance unkind.
A peace on earth, good will to men.
Amen, wonderful singing.
You are dismissed.
Thank you.
You are dismissed.