It was a great, marvelous medley. Grace, amazing grace, marvelous grace. I might mention he was over there by himself. There was nobody else over there. And that was all live. No tape, no dubbing. That's excellent, Josh. Thank you. His maternal grandfather, Dr. Gil Terrell, was an accomplished pianist. I remember years ago, he played the organ at Temple Baptist, and he was a true Renaissance man. He could do just about anything, I think. Accomplished scholar, pastor and teacher, but also a fair mechanic. He was a good mechanic. Carpenter. Just turn this one off, I guess, and we'll go with this one. He saw the computer age on the horizon. I remember in 1980-something, he showed up there with a TSR-80. Brother Ed knows what that is. And a little cassette player. He had a tape player backup or database on the cassette tape, as I recall. and had, he said, this is, we all thought he was a little bit crazy, you know, like, but turns out he's spot on. Why, some people even have computers in their home now. Some of you got one in your pocket right now. Where's Brian May? He's probably got a, Altoid, no, those are the breath mints, or the Androids. He's probably got both. But Dr. Terrell saw that coming and, you know, and encouraged others to do so. And I'm glad I got in on the ground floor. I mean, I'm glad I learned DOS. I did, I learned DOS. I miss it. I miss DOS. But it's long, long buried somewhere in the windows. But I, Dr. Terrell loved music and I appreciate that instrumental music. I told you I had a good time at the Andrew Fuller Conference. They gave me this little pin. They asked us to wear it today and see if anybody asked us about it. Two people have. It's a sketch of Andrew Fuller. Thanks for asking. Now I can tell Dr. Haken that somebody asked about the pin. Andrew Fuller was instrumental in launching The first modern missionary endeavor to India, he helped an association there in England send a missionary. You may have heard of him, William Carey, to India. And now God's always had his mission works. But in England, the the hyper Calvinist had just about killed evangelism. And William Carey and a group of his pastor, friends and church folks said, we've got to take the gospel to the whole world. And Andrew Fuller, a pastor in Kettering there, helped get that first project underway. The paper I read was Friday. was Andrew Fuller's forgotten friend. I read a paper about B.B. Wallace. How many of you know who B.B. Wallace was? See, that's why he's forgotten. I'm trying to. B.B. Wallace was the one of the deacons at the Kettering Church, and he was really the pulpit committee that got Andrew Fuller to come from Soham to Kettering. You don't have to write this down now. It'll be available online and I can email you a word document of it. And so you don't have to write it all down now. But anyway, B. Wallace, who was holding the church together there at Kettering, he felt that Fuller was God's man for Kettering and he persuaded him to come. Took him a year to make the transition. Andrew Fuller came to Kettering and. The providence of God was such this is before the rail lines, before reliable male coaches. And it put Fuller in a in a nexus there with some other men like John Ryland and Sutcliffe and and about a half a dozen pastors, like minded pastors that could meet together and say, let's do something about getting missionaries to the foreign fields. And in 1792, October 1792, They formed the society that would help raise the money for William Carey to go. And they had that first little meeting in B.B. Wallace's house, in his parlor there in Kettering. And in the document I send you, there's a picture of that house. I'm sure you'll want that too. But they met in B.B. Wallace's house. What a lot of people didn't know is that B.B. Wallace had passed away that spring. After twenty four years of faithful ministries, a deacon in the catering church, he had been called home. He never got to see the full impact of that missionary society, but he he gave a lot of money for it and left a bequest for it. And they met in his home that October and got things going that that day. They raised. Thirteen pounds and some odd shilling. Which in today's money, Equivalent would be about twelve hundred dollars, which is no small offering among a dozen Baptist preachers. They raised the first offering that day. B.B. Wallace had died that spring. Andrew Fuller's wife had died that summer. After a long three months of terrible illness, Fuller by her side, twenty two hours a day and and in that summer, that's the summer that God formed. of the missionary support for William Carey to go to India. It's a wonderful story. I enjoyed it very much, and B.B. Wallace was the man God used to bring Andrew Fuller to Kettering, and there Fuller became known as the elephant in Kettering. It was a compliment. In other words, that was a compliment. Take my word for it. I'm not going to explain it. They called him the elephant of Kettering. All right, so there will be a quiz later on that, but I hope you got the topics lined up there. Turn your Bibles with me to First Thessalonians. Oh, wait, turn the table of contents. You know who you are. This is this is for everybody, but you know, the one particular I'm pointing is that turn to the table of contents in your Bible. Now, some of you may have to turn several pages because you got them big fancy study Bibles. And there's only like two verses on every page. And, you know, like there's 12 pages of preamble and you've got the letter to the readers. And if you don't have that, you need to get a copy of what the King James translator said to their readers and a whole lot of pages. But there's the table of contents in my Thompson chain reference. It's on page eight, Roman numeral eight in my Thompson chain. And you see there the table of contents. The questions about how the English Bible is assembled is there's some dispute about that. Most people understand the Bible was not let down out of heaven by by parachute and the canonical collection of the thirty nine Old Testament books and actually how they're ordered in the Old Testament and then the twenty seven New Testament books. And how we know that those are the Bible, the books that belong in the Bible, the Bible is self-authenticating. The canon of the Bible was not determined by churches. It was recognized by the churches. That's crucial. So that's why you don't have to be flustered when some heretic says, we found a scrap of a papyrus that says something about Jesus wife. There goes Christianity, they say. Why? What a bunch of hokum. Why? The document itself fraudulent. Three hundred years after the time we have papyrus from the first century. Get out of here. You know, this is ridiculous. And the funny thing is, is how the media sort of, oh, they just get all excited to say, oh, we found this little scrap of paper that says somebody said something derogatory about Jesus or something that contradicts what the Bible says. Why, sure, people are always saying things that contradict the Bible. There were heretics, unfortunately, in the first century, the Gnostics and the false teachers of thought. Why do you think Paul, the Holy Spirit, had him write these books? It's because there were heretics teaching false doctrine. It's not surprising that people find these fragments of of articles. But we do know that the Holy Spirit caused these books to be collected. And I believe the canon was complete by the end of that first century. I believe by the end of the first century, all the books that were going to be included in the Bible were written when Paul, when John finishes Revelation and that is accepted by and recognized by the churches all over the Christian world as canonical sent from God. The canon was complete as to the order of the books. Some seem quite obvious how the books of history in the Old Testament come first and then the poetical books and then the prophetical books in the New Testament. Of course, it begins with the Gospels, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, a history book, the Book of Acts. And then the balance of the New Testament is the collection of letters, epistles, Romans through Revelation. Revelation really is a a circular letter. with personalized greetings to seven different churches, but it's an official. The Book of Revelation is a letter, so the balance of the New Testament is letters in. J. Bernie McGee's book, Explore the Book, he sees the significance in Paul's letters to the churches he calls those Romans. First and second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, first and second Thessalonians. Baxter says those are the those are Paul's church letters. And he says Romans and Corinthians and Galatians deal with the cross of Christ. And then he says Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians deal with the church. Christ in the church, and then the last two, first and second Thessalonians, deal with the coming of Christ. So Baxter saw some symmetry there. He saw some purpose in it. He says the first thing you need to know is about the cross and then you need to know about the church and then you need to know about the second coming. And he saw that arrangement there in the New Testament sort of giving testimony to that. I also copied down his. His little list, he says, Romans teaches us the power of Christ. First Corinthians, the wisdom of Christ. Second Corinthians, the comfort in Christ. Galatians, the righteousness in Christ. Ephesians, the riches in Christ. Philippians, the sufficiency of Christ. Colossians, the fullness of Christ. First Thessalonians, the promise of Christ. And Second Thessalonians, the reward of Christ. And he believed that Christ is the theme of the whole Bible. And he was right about that. Jesus Christ is the master theme. He is the he is the purpose. He is the the essence. He is he is the whole structure of scripture. Jesus said, search the scriptures. They tell you about me, about Jesus. The message of the Bible is Jesus Christ. W. Criswell called it the Scarlet Thread of Redemption from Genesis 315 to Revelation with the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. The message of the Bible is Jesus, God's son, sent into the world to live a sinless life, to die a substitutionary death, be buried and raised again. That's what the Bible is about. When you're teaching the Bible, you should be teaching Christ. When you're preaching the Bible, you should be preaching Christ, whatever you're teaching whatever biography or text or topic or truth or doctrine, you should be preaching Christ. That's what the Bible is about. And if you're reading the Bible, studying the Bible, teaching the Bible, preaching the Bible and not pointing men and women, boys and girls to Christ, then you're not really preaching and teaching the Bible. I'm glad for a renewed emphasis on that among Bible of students and Bible teachers, and I think it's always been the emphasis of our church. I believe our Sunday school teaching ministries, our pulpit ministry makes much of of Jesus. I pray that we always would do that. This is this. This is about Jesus Christ. And so Baxter said, that's why God groups these church epistles in that way. First, the cross, then the church, then the coming. of Christ, so when. You get through the book of Acts, you've learned all of the biography of Jesus. In the first four books of the New Testament, and then you have this history book called Acts, and that takes you up to about 8068 at least. It ends with Paul in prison, not with his execution. We we learn elsewhere that Paul was beheaded and probably before eighty seventy. Eighty seventy is a very important date in the New Testament era, because that's when Jerusalem was destroyed. The Romans came and I mean they destroyed the city. And so when. The mention of Jerusalem is absent later on, probably. We know that the destruction of Jerusalem has taken place, and before that we can figure out that books are written before 80, 70. That's true also of this little letter, first and second Thessalonians, these books in the New Testament are not grouped chronologically, at least these letters are not, if you look at Romans through Thessalonians. Probably first and second Thessalonians are written early in Paul's ministry, maybe around A.D. 50. He would be the King James original editions or study editions said that the letter to the Thessalonians was written from Athens. So we know when Paul was at Athens and he wrote back to the Thessalonians, these two letters, the first Thessalonians and second Thessalonians, probably around 80, 50. Some people think they were the first letters that Paul wrote that are recorded in the Bible. I think Galatians was written early. Just after the Jerusalem conference. And maybe the first New Testament book that Paul wrote was Galatians. Be that as it may, Thessalonians is written early in Paul's ministry during his second missionary journey. He's still active. He's still traveling. He's still preaching. He's still planning churches. And he writes back to this little struggling church that I told you this morning had been born. In very difficult circumstances, Paul had had to leave rather abruptly, rather suddenly and make his escape to to Berea. And then he traveled on down to the Corinthian isthmus there and visits Corinth. And then then, of course, he he had visited Athens, which is very famous even in your history. You know, other world history, you know, about Athens and the Greek city states. When Paul writes the Thessalonians, look with me in chapter one, First Thessalonians, chapter one. The team that he has assembled and we learn how this team is brought together after the first missionary journey, the Jerusalem conference, Paul and Barnabas part ways. A new partner is nominated and selected by the church there at Antioch to assist the Apostle Paul, and this team ministry dominates throughout the New Testament. You don't go far in the New Testament without seeing God saying, you know, you need to have this team approach. You need to have a church sending you, you need to have helpers, and you need to have Uh, co-laborers and that's dominates the, uh, the methodology of the New Testament. But in first Thessalonians chapter one, it says Paul and the Venus and Timotheus, you know, of course, how Timothy had been recommended by the brethren at Derby and, uh, and Lystra. And as a young man had been recommended to be a helper to maybe to be an intern, to be, uh, you know, to be a, um, a student under the apostle Paul. John Mark had gone on the first missionary journey. He had bailed and gone back home. Barnabas took him and began another missionary tour. We learn later on that John Mark stayed with it and God used him. The Bible doesn't really elaborate on the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas. Just saying that it was pretty serious disagreement. And they went their ways, they went their separate ways. Some people say, well, Barnabas had to be wrong. Well, the Bible really doesn't say just says they they they agreed to disagree. And later on, John Mark, in whom Barnabas invested more time and more teaching. John Mark comes out all right. He comes out on the positive side of the ledger. And we're glad that Barnabas took You know, Barnabas was the son of consolation. He was the fellow that was all about giving people an opportunity. And maybe he was more patient than Paul. Maybe he was more gentle than Paul. Maybe it was his sister's son and he couldn't get away from him or something like that. I don't know. But there's all kinds of never mind that that last part's true. But, you know, it did help keep Barnabas and John Mark Yoke together. So Paul has a team here and and he names them as he writes this letter and the Holy Spirit is writing this letter, but it identifies the human authors and we know who they are. And that's why I gave you the background this morning. You know, Paul and Silas and Timothy had traveled to this Thessalonica and the Holy Spirit lets us see how the team gets assembled. And how they show up there and Paul goes to the synagogue and for three weeks, he's he takes advantage of his Jewish credentials and his rabbinic credentials. And he is he's reading the Bible and he's preaching Christ while you can't read the Bible and not preach Christ. The Jews who didn't see Christ in the Old Testament were misinterpreting the Bible. Paul is telling them what Jesus said, the Psalms, the prophets. the law, they all tell you about Jesus, and I'm here to preach Jesus to you. Well, you preach Jesus, and a lot of people got saved. A lot of Greeks, some Jews, of the women, not a few, it says. One of the great evangelistic outreaches, we hear about a lot of people getting saved at Thessalonica, and it did turn the city upside down. The enemies of the cross were right about that, it caused quite an uproar and they wanted to put an end to it. They wanted to stop the preaching of the gospel. But Paul and Silas, that's who Silvanus is, and Timotheus, that's Timothy, are writing back to this church of the Thessalonians, there's a wonderful Providence of God in the first century A.D., there is more or less a secure. Political world, the Romans have established the Pax Romana, there's trouble on the borders, there's internal trouble from time to time, but for the sake of. Clarity, it is the 200 years maybe the most successful time of the Roman Empire and the Mediterranean world is for all intents and purposes unified politically. And the seal of Rome and the security of Rome has established a wonderful window, if you will, for a Roman citizen to travel that empire. Why? You wouldn't believe how lucky it is that in that first century, the Romans had been for some decades building the finest roads, some of which still exist today. And those Roman roads connected those Roman cities in those colonies. Yes, there were hazards and There were thieves and robbers, but some of the finest interstate systems you'll ever find. For the period, the Romans had built and they had built great cities and provided wonderful benefits for those cities. I'm not now defending everything about Rome, but I'm saying politically and economically, It was a wonderful window when Paul, the Roman citizen, William Ramsey calls him the Roman traveler, that Paul with his passport in his pouch, as it were, could go anywhere in the Roman Empire he had a desire to go. And he could expect the protection of Roman soldiers. He could expect for there to be relative security in the cities to which he goes. More than once, a Roman squad will rescue him from the Jews and from his enemies. More than once, the Roman authorities will make a mistake. And well, they make that mistake in Philippi. They beat him and they throw him in prison, which doesn't do much for their prison. Uh, but, uh, they find out afterwards that he's a Roman citizen and they not supposed to beat a Roman citizen. And, uh, Paul availed of his political credentials whenever it advanced the gospel. I don't ever see him doing it for his own personal whim or fancy, but, uh, Paul had certain rights and privileges that are Roman citizen, and he could walk those Roman roads. all over the empire. And he did a lot of that. There was a secure maritime routes across the Mediterranean. The Roman Navy ruled and guarded the Great Sea. And those routes, those ships were often escorted by Roman sailors, Roman soldiers and Roman naval vessels. who protected them from from pirates and and they provided security. And so that's when you read the journeys of Paul and you think, well, he got on a boat, he sailed somewhere. That was an extraordinarily wonderful time for mission work and Paul. Paul was the hand of God. to sweep that gospel across that Roman Empire at an accelerated pace. You know what got William Carey thinking about world missions is he loved to read about. Admiral Cook's voyage who circumnavigated the world, I believe he discovered Hawaii. visited there, and he brought back, I mean, his journeys, Cook's voyages, he brought back pictures and video, no, no video, but he brought back stuff that made it into the current press. People started reading about these far distant lands and these peoples and these strange languages. And Kerry started reading that, you know, what the British East India Company's doing, why we're setting up trade routes, and we're sailing to India, and we're going to get stuff there and bring it back here and sell stuff, and we're going into business. And they were making money hand over fist. It was really profitable. There were great risk, and I can't even fathom how long these journeys were. But, hey. They're making money and, you know, the British Empire is is is just the sun doesn't set on it. I mean, the British are they're colonizing this place called America over here. You've heard of that. And South Africa over there and India over there and. Later on, China, and I'm not here to defend colonialism, other than to say the best thing that ever happened to the world is when the gospel went around the world. I'm not excusing every terrible thing that Europeans did, but I'm saying, Kerry said, if they can take ships over there and do business, why can't we get on a ship and go tell them about Jesus Christ? Some people said, well. Well, He cost a lot of money to do that. And so Andrew Fuller and some others said, well, let's let's raise the money, let's let's let's buy some tickets, let's let's get some let's get some money together and send these fellows who want to go. William Carey. Was instrumental in in translating the Bible into over 20 different languages and dialects. Really, it's really an amazing testimony. But my point is that that 18th century and the 19th century were ripe for tools and for techniques that here are ships to carry us around the world. Well, let's get on these ships. Paul had that same opportunity in the first century A.D. Here are these Roman roads. Here are these Roman ships here. Here are these navigable waterways. Here are these trade routes. Here are these roads that messengers can carry letters. And the postal system, the postal system of the Romans was first rate, was first class. And a document sealed and delivered would be protected with all of the influence and the integrity of the Roman Empire. They knew that was the stuff of commerce, you see. You have to be able to communicate. You have to be able to send letters and messengers have to go back and forth between cities and businesses and buy and sell and trade. And Thessalonica was a seaport. It was a bustling metropolis and it was alive with commerce. And Rome wanted it to be accessible. And so Paul could go there. He could take a ship and go there. And then he could write a letter and it would get there in a reasonable amount of time because of the hand of God accomplishing all this in that first century. You see, God always knows what he's doing. One of the joys we have is looking back and seeing, oh, isn't it amazing how God chose that century and God chose that continent and God chose that place and how how wonderfully God blessed by the end of the first century, the gospel reaches not only Rome, but Spain, Great Britain. India, North Africa. It's it's. It's never been equaled, I don't think, for the Not only the church is established, but the clarity, the gospel that reached those places and that that relatively, you know, two generations. Christians, first century Christians, reach their world for Christ and. Every generation has that responsibility to reach their world for Christ, we have responsibility to reach across the street, across the village, across the county, across the city, across the world. And we certainly have the. The technology and the tools that that will help us do it, we can get on the jet airplanes and we can communicate in real time with missionaries by. Messaging and. Brother Mike Creglo. On the Juara River in Brazil, Suffered a catastrophic failure of one of his little outboards, and he is in the middle of. Well, it's sort of like a jungle, it is the jungle. And you know what he did? He swam to shore and popped open his satellite telephone and called home, said somebody and he said, oh, I was so thankful for that. You know, he he's got a satellite telephone. That's in the mission sheets. I read that. OK, that's where I read that. And he still got these little boats to go up the river to visit these little villages, but he was able to, because he struggled with the motor, and it sounded to me like he almost had a heat stroke. That's what I was reading between the lines. It sounded to me like he almost got the better of him. And it was something he could not have repaired if he'd had the part, and he didn't have the part. So, but he got to shore. and popped open his little cell phone, the satellite cell phone. And can you hear me now? Apparently they did. And then, you know, help came and I thought, what a great tool, what a great advantage to have. I mean, we've got the stuff to do it with. We've got the planes and the ships and the the the communication devices to get the gospel. and the resources around the world. Let me close here, we're just opening the letter here. We're just opening the letter and the greeting identifies the human authors. Of course, I'll say more. We believe that the Holy Spirit is breathing these words that are being written down here by the Apostle Paul. This is God's book here. But having said that, and I don't mean to pass over that he he breathes those he carries these men along and causes them to record and the Apostle Paul will the Holy Spirit will use his vocabulary and his. Writing style and his syntax, as it were, the Holy Spirit will marvelously use the Apostle Paul's education and experience and the Holy Spirit will carry him along and will so that when Paul writes, it will it will sound like a letter from Paul. And when John writes, it will sound like a letter from John to somebody who knew him when. When Luke writes, it will it will bear the the signature of Luke. And yet still be the inspired and Aaron infallible word of God is a marvelous thing. But you need to understand that because when when the apostle Paul writes, he writes here, it says this is Paul and Silas and Timothy writing to the church of Thessalonians. Number one, notice that the communication is from people to people. Christianity is when it's all said and done, not about ships and planes and boats and roads, and it's about people. It's about people communicating with people. Thankful for every tool, utilize every technique you can. But ultimately, evangelism, discipleship is people to people. It's person to person. Paul and Silas and Timothy are writing to some people, he's going to identify them, but it is people to people. You remember that tomorrow when you go to work. When you when you go to school, when you reach your neighbor, the gospel is people to people. It's not. Anything less than using the pulpit or the postal system or the World Wide Web or the telephone or the printed page or gospel tracks. It's all of those things, but it is ultimately people to people. Connection, the number two. When when God begins, when a church. Is is built. And the way you distinguish between the family of God and the Church of God is families are born, churches are built. So people are born into the family of God. And then God calls those born again. And I think scripturally baptized members and he starts fitting them together in a congregation, and that's what he's done at Thessalonica. And when Paul writes back, probably, I think, from Athens, he writes to the church. And God's plan, people to people, the design of the church. is a local visible assembly of born-again baptized believers. It is an ekklesia. It is a called-out group. There were political ekklesias in that day. The Greek city-states had ekklesias. They would have a call for the citizens to gather and they would have town meetings So an ecclesia is not a unique concept, especially to the Greeks, but it is and it is an organized called assembly gathered together for a purpose. And as I told you, Paul is careful to identify, first of all, geographically, the Thessalonians. Secondly, this assembly is in God, the father. It's not a political assembly. It's not a commercial assembly. It's not an educational assembly. It is it is God, the father. But to further distinguish it from the Jewish synagogue, he says this is the called out assembly there in Thessalonica, which is in God, the father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. That way, if the Jewish synagogue got a hold of it, say this is not for us, but now the truth is for them, but He was not writing to the Jewish synagogue. He was writing to the local visible assembly of born again, baptized believers, coveted together there in Thessalonica, set apart in God, set apart in Jesus Christ. And that's how God is going to advance the work of the kingdom. As important as evangelism is, as important as the gospel is, discipleship And the maturation of believers is to be done in the local church. And Paul says, I'm writing. He doesn't write 200 letters. Oh, he may have, but they're not included in the scriptures. He doesn't write personalized letters to those Christians. You say, well, what would be wrong with that? Well, not anything except you're missing my point. He writes back to the church. He wants the whole church to gather and hear this letter. He wants them to gather as an assembly. He doesn't write back, say, hey, you know, you alone range of Christians over there, I don't know whatever happened to you guys. You're scattered all over, you know, and to whom it may concern. He doesn't write a to whom it may concern letter. He writes a letter to the Thessalonians. I'm belaboring that only a little bit because The church is God's means for maturing and and discipling believers with all its imperfections, with all its problems. And the church at Thessalonica had plenty of them. Political persecution, economic distresses, doctrinal confusion. Paul still writes back to this little church and this fledgling church. And he says, boy, I thank God for you. Thank God for you. This is God's plan. Churches, God's plan for the ages. Let's bow our heads. I've been greatly blessed as I've been preparing these these messages, I think there will be. In some respects, different from other messages I've preached from Thessalonians and And I hope in that sense, more challenging and more. Insightful for for the listeners, but also for those of you who may be reading these little books as well. Father, I pray you bless the service. Thank you for the privilege to gather as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Separated by your hand. Make us thankful for our salvation. Make us thankful that we are members of the Lord's Church. If someone here is not saying, may they come in the invitation. If someone here is not a member of the Addison Baptist Church and the Holy Spirit's leading them to be a member of this church or to place them here, help them to come. Some may come just giving thanks or with prayer requests, but just bless the invitation. Hearts and hearers tonight in Jesus name.