Number 15. Let's all stand together
for brethren we have met to worship. Number 15. Brethren, we have met to worship
and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power? While we try to preach the word,
all is vain unless the spirit of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray and holy manna
will be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners round
you, slumbering on the brink of woe. Death is coming, hell
is moving, can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and
our mothers and our children sinking down. Brethren, pray, and holy manna
will be showered all around. Sisters, will you join and help
us, Moses' sister? aided him. Will you help the
trembling mourners who are struggling hard with sin? Tell them all
about the Savior. Tell them that he will be found. Sisters pray and holy manna will
be showered all around. Let us love our God supremely,
let us love each other too. Let us love and pray for sinners,
till our God makes all things new. Then he'll call us home
to heaven. At his table we'll sit down. Christ will gird himself and
serve us with sweet manna all around. Please be seated. Good morning. Will you open your Bibles with
me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 please. want us to pray together before
we begin and ask the Lord's blessings. What we just sang is so true.
If the Holy Spirit doesn't bless the gospel to our hearts, we
won't hear a thing and all will be in vain. And so, um, our,
our desire is to express our dependence on the Lord and ask
him to be merciful to us this morning. Also, I want us to pray
for Jorge. He had back surgery on Friday,
and he is at home recovering from that. So, I haven't talked
to Janelle this morning, but I talked to Jorge yesterday.
He was still in a good bit of pain. So, let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
very thankful that you have been pleased to bring us here to this
place this morning. We're thankful for the promise
that where two or three are gathered together in thy name, there you
are in the midst, that you truly do inhabit the praise of your
people. Lord, we We plead with you for
your mercy, that you would fulfill those promises in our hearts
this morning, that you'd be pleased to reveal your grace and your
glory, that you would shine the light of the gospel in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts. Cause us Lord to worship
him in spirit and in truth You've said that we are the true work
and circumcision which worship God in the spirit Lord we need
your spirit and Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. I Father, we pray that. That our confidence this morning
would be in Christ. And that. That you would draw
us to yourself and. Assure to our hearts the truth
of our salvation. We pray for Jorge and we ask
Lord that your hand of healing would be upon him and that you
would give him a quick and full recovery. Bring him back to be
with us soon. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. We looked at the first five verses
of 1 Thessalonians, actually two Sundays in a row. One of
them, two Sundays ago, we considered the fact that this church was
born out of persecution the Lord sent affliction to the believers
right at the beginning and they were beaten and imprisoned and
Paul was run out of town and and it was all over the gospel
last Sunday we attempted to define what he is the gospel from God's
sovereign choice in election, in choosing a particular people
according to His own will and purpose, to the accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, satisfying all by Himself every
demand that God has for us, so that we stand before a holy God
accepted in the Beloved. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
the law and He satisfied the justice of God for the sins of
His people. That the Spirit of God comes
in the power of God and makes effectual the gospel of God's
grace to the hearts of God's elect and makes them believers. He makes them to be believers.
Isn't that a glorious way to speak of Christians? You know, the word Christian
is so abused in religion today, and so many people refer to Christians
as people that aren't Christians. The believers were first called
Christian in Antioch because they were identified as followers
of Christ. But because of the abuse of that
word, I prefer to refer to God's people as believers. We believe
the gospel. And it's all of grace. It's all
of grace. We continue to believe the gospel.
We can't not believe the gospel. The Lord keeps us from falling,
and He will be the one to present us faultless before the throne
of God with great joy. Salvation, as Jonah said, is
of the Lord. It's all of Him. And that's the
gospel. It's good news. It's good news
because God's not depending upon us to do anything. for our own
salvation. He did it all by himself. We're
not adding our free will, we're not adding our works, we're not
adding our pseudo-intellectualism. Some
of us came out of that. Just pretend intellectualism
to make effectual the work of grace. God makes effectual the
work of grace and that's the gospel. That's
a place where every believer can rest his immortal soul knowing
that what God has done, he has done it completely and he has
done it right. Now, Paul goes on to talk about
the fellowship that believers have with one another. Remember,
he was only in Thessalonica for three weeks, and yet he writes
back to these believers with such affection, such affection. And I can identify with that. Callie's brother, Levi, and his
wife, Christine, are here with us this morning from Missouri.
And I'm going to be going out to preach for them in a few weeks. Well, in two weeks, I think.
And we've only talked on the phone. prior to this morning
and just before the service was the first time I met him and
her in the flesh. And just an instant bond, an
instant bond. Believers are so rare and their
union is so precious And the bond that God puts in our hearts
for one another is so real. And Paul is expressing this affection
that believers have for one another. And it is real. Sometimes I hear
people say, well, you know, I just don't feel like I'm part of the
group. There's only one reason why a person would feel that
way. And that's if they're not. Believers receive believers. Believers love believers. And
they embrace believers. I know I told you all this story
before, but there's some people that haven't heard it. My father
was born in 1929. His father died when he was two
years old. His father was a coal miner in
Pennsylvania. And my father was the youngest
of 12 children. And so when his father died,
my grandmother wasn't able to support the kids. 1931, the Depression
started. She had to give all her kids
away. She kept the baby. She kept my dad. And so my dad
grew up not knowing his brothers and sisters. Through World War
II, they were all scattered, and they never knew each other.
And I remember as a 16-year-old boy moving to California, my
dad meeting one of his brothers. uh... his older brother he'd
never met before and uh... doesn't remember it anyway and
there was just an instant bond and they became best friends
uh... for the rest of their lives and uh... and that was something
that took place in the flesh you know that was just a natural
union that they had because they were birthed by the same mother
and uh... actually that's what the word
brethren means The word brethren means from the same womb. And
believers have a spiritual bond, having been birthed into the
family of God through the same gospel and by the same spirit,
that our bond is richer because it's eternal. it's the eternal bond that we
have with one another and it's richer than that bond that uh... two brothers would have uh... in the flesh so paul's gonna talk about that
look what he says in verse in verse uh... in verse six and
you became followers of us and uh... of the lord having uh... received uh... the word in much
affliction with the joy of the Holy Ghost. Don't you love it? When affliction comes as a result
of the gospel, when persecution comes as a result of the gospel,
somebody asked me recently, you know, I know you, because you're
the spokesman, become the brunt of criticism sometimes. Does that ever deter you? And
it doesn't. It doesn't. It only makes me
more determined to stand for the truth. Because when that
affliction comes, at whatever degree, and I don't know the
affliction that these believers experienced, but whatever comes,
it comes with the joy of the Holy Ghost. And it comes with
a confirmation that what we believe and who we believe is true. And
whatever the gainsayers might say, it doesn't deter us. It only, well, it's kind of like
saying sick them to a dog, you know. It just makes you more
committed to the gospel when the affliction comes. And when the sweetness of the
Holy Ghost confirms to your heart that the one we believe is the
true God, the gospel that we believe is the true gospel and
uh... and he confirms to our hearts
the hope of our salvation and makes us more committed i see
somebody you know uh... the lord gave a parable about
the solar in the four different soils and some of the seed fell
on story stony soil and some of the felon for needs uh...
stony and thorny and then uh... the roadside soil and uh... it sprang up It looked like it
was alive, but the scripture says that when the heat of the
sun came, the persecution, when the vines of the world entangled
it, it died. And we see that happen lots of
times, don't we? We see people who hear the gospel
and they confess faith in the gospel, and then they go home
and they find that there's opposition. against them as a result of the
gospel and they fall away. That doesn't happen to a true
believer. Whatever opposition comes as
a result of the gospel only confirms to their hearts the truth of
the gospel all the more, makes them love Christ more deeply,
and makes them dependent upon the joy of the Holy Spirit more
firmly. So this is our experience. This
is our real experience. He says in verse 7, so that you
were examples or examples to all that believe in Macedonia
and Achaia. So he's saying the church at
Philippi, the church at Athens, the church at Corinth, these
were all churches in Macedonia and Achaia, and their testimony,
the testimony of their faith had already preceded the Apostle
Paul. So that when he got to these
churches, they had already heard about what God had done in Thessalonica. What a blessing. And one of the reasons why we
have conferences is so that we have an opportunity to fellowship
with other believers from other churches. And I would encourage
you, if you have opportunity to attend a conference at another
church, to be able to fellowship with other believers. That's
something that would be a blessing to your soul if you haven't ever
done it. And so, but I never go to another
church where people who have been here don't ask about you. And many of you by name, you
know, how's Robert doing? How's Bert doing? How's Adam
doing? You know, they'll ask me about you because they have
fellowship with you and they remember you and pray for you
and they cherish the relationship that they have with you. That's
the gospel. That doesn't happen anywhere
else. That's a result of the gospel. And Paul's writing, let
me say, the churches in Achaia and Macedonia, they already knew
about your faith. Look what he says. For from you
sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place where your faith to God's word is spread. Believers can't resist talking
about Christ, especially with other believers. Sometimes believers
are intimidated, and we miss so many opportunities to talk
to unbelievers, and that's our shame. But when believers are
with believers, that's their conversation. And so Paul says,
you know, everywhere we go, They tell us about you because they've
already had some fellowship with you. And they didn't have texting
and phones. They would have to travel to
those churches and fellowship with other believers. Might God
give us such a spirit? This is the spirit of grace that
works in the hearts of God's people. You know, we're the body
of Christ. And when the Lord defines the
body of Christ, He's defining different members of the body
within one fellowship. You know, a foot, a hand, an
ear, an eye. But He's also defining multiple
fellowships. So one fellowship might be a
part of the member of the body of Christ. Another fellowship
is a part of that same body. And we are dependent on the whole
body, aren't we? Not one part of the body says,
well, I don't need you. No, you need every part of your
body, don't you? And so it is in the Spirit. Everywhere
you go, Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your
faith to God were to spread abroad so that we need not speak anything. We go to tell them about what
God did, but they haven't heard about it. Your testimony has
gone before you. And they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you and how, I want
you to notice this next phrase, you turned to God from your idols
to serve the living and true God. Now the natural man thinks
in order for me to turn to God, I've got to turn from my idols.
Let me get this mess cleaned up in my life, and then I'll
get right with God." Doesn't work that way. It does not work
that way. You come to Him just like you
are, with all your idolatry, your free will idols, your works
idols, your idols of the flesh, your idols of false religion.
You turn to Him, and in turning to Him, in turning to Him, You'll
find yourself turning away from those things. The Lord has to
turn us, doesn't He? The prophet said, Turn me, O
God, and I shall be turned. When He turns us to God, when
He turns us to worship the true and living God, and to serve
Him, in that turn, we're turning away from our idols. So that
we don't, we can't, we don't have it both ways, do we? And to wait. Now you could look
up this word wait, I looked it up. It has an emphasis of hopeful
expectation. It's the only place in the New
Testament that this particular word is used. And because of
the emphasis that's in the word, with joy and hope, we are expecting
the fulfillment of God's promises. You know, if the Holy Spirit
has given us that, then whatever comes, whatever the Lord has
ordained for us to experience in His providence, it's okay. I'm waiting for the Lord Jesus
Christ with hopeful expectation. Why? Because He has delivered
me from the wrath that is to come. You see the rest of that
verse? He's delivered me. I've got hope in knowing. Most
folks don't believe that there's wrath to come. They don't believe
that. They don't believe that God...
and if they do give lip service to the fact that God's going
to come destroy the world, they certainly don't believe themselves
to be part of that. They believe they've done whatever was necessary
to avoid the wrath that is to come, and they're looking to
what they've done for that. We're looking to Christ. He delivered us. When He shed
His precious blood on Calvary's cross, that blood covered all
the sins of all of God's people. When he cried, it is finished,
it was finished. Everything necessary. We can't
add to it, we can't take away from it. He delivered us from
the wrath that is to come. And so we rejoice in his work
of deliverance, his work of redemption for his people. We're waiting
for his son from heaven. What Paul said later in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, look at the last part
of chapter 4, the last verse. Wherefore, comfort ye one another
with these words. With what words? The Lord himself
shall descend. This is how the letter starts
out, and this is how Paul is emphasizing this. The Lord Himself
shall descend. When the trump of God sounds,
and the dead in Christ shall be raised, and those of us which
are alive shall be caught up together with them. Comfort ye
one another with these words. When you go through trials, when
you have conflict, when things are confusing to you, comfort
one another with these words, the Lord of glory is going to
split the eastern sky and the trump of God is going to sound
and all of God's people are going to be raised and spend eternity
with Him in glory. Why? Because He delivered us. He delivered us all by Himself.
He delivered us from the wrath that is to come. May God give us grace to live
with such hopeful expectation. You know, we get caught up, don't
we, in the mundane, temporal things of this world. This is
the hope that the Lord is speaking to our hearts that sustains us
through whatever trials He sends. whom, in verse 10, I missed this
phrase, whom He raised from the dead. Why did God raise Christ
from the dead? The scripture says in Romans
chapter 5 that He was offered up for our offenses So the Lord
Jesus Christ bore in His body on Calvary's tree all the sins
of all God's people. He was the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world and He was that spotless Lamb. And
His blood put away our sins. And then the scripture says He
was offered up for our offenses and raised again Now, in the
King James it says, for our justification, but that little preposition oftentimes
can be understood as because. The Lord Jesus Christ wasn't
raised again from the dead in order to justify us. The Lord
Jesus Christ was raised again from the dead because we were
justified. We're justified before God by
the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God was satisfied
with the work that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished and testified
to his satisfaction by raising him from the dead. God raised
him from the dead. There's the proof of our salvation. The proof of our salvation is
that God is satisfied. He's satisfied with the justifying
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only question you and
I have to ask ourselves Am I satisfied with the same thing God's satisfied
with? Or do I need something more? Don't add to what Christ has
done. Be satisfied in the justifying work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was raised again by the Father. The scripture says that God would
not allow His Holy One to see corruption. He was obligated
God, you and I can't obligate God for anything, can't we? The
Lord Jesus Christ obligated the father to raise him from the
dead because the father was completely satisfied with the work of redemption
that he accomplished for his church. What a glorious gospel. And, and, and the Lord speaking
to us, he's speaking to his church. This church in Thessalonica is
just like the church here in Apopka. "...to wait for His Son
from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us..." Not offered a deliverance. That's what religion says. God's
offering you an opportunity to be delivered. Just do your part. Make a decision. Perform these
works, test your salvation by the law,
whatever. You know, religion has a multitude
of things that they put on men. You know, He has delivered us
from the wrath that is to come. The work is finished. It's finished. for yourselves brethren what
does brethren mean from the same womb here's how we're birthed
into the family of god we're all birthed the same way by his
own will that's how we're birthed begat he us that's the birth
that's the new birth through the word of truth what is the
word of truth this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you It's not just reading words out of the Bible, it's
preaching the gospel from the scriptures. That's the means
that God uses to give new birth to his people. For yourselves, brethren, know
our entrance in unto you that it was not in vain. It was not
in vain. God blessed it. It wasn't empty. but even after that we were had
suffered before and were shamefully in treated as you know what philip
i we were bold in our god to speak on to you the gospel of
god with much contention says what paul saying if it if
if a little bit of persecution quiet such you up and and discourages
you uh... Ask the Lord if you have the
Holy Spirit. Because the contention that comes with the gospel is
always accompanied with the joy of the Holy Ghost. And Paul says
right here, he says, you know, when we were afflicted in Philippi,
that didn't slow us down. It just made us more bold in
our God to speak unto you. Even though the afflictions came,
the contentions came. The Lord said they persecuted
the master. You think they're going to do
less for the servant? Don't be surprised when these
things come upon you. But even, I'm sorry, verse 3,
for our exhortation. Now that word means comfort. comfort. Are you comforted by
the gospel? You know, that's how we know
the gospel has been preached. If you leave church feeling burdened
with the responsibility to do more and be better and feel frightened
that maybe you're not a child of God, there's no comfort in
that kind of preaching, is there? I'm comforted when I hear a message
that assures me that I'm a child of God. Don't get me looking
at myself. You get me looking at myself,
I'm going to leave wondering. I look at myself as nothing but
question marks. But if you've pointed me to Christ,
this word exhortation, it means comfort. What did God say to
Isaiah? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Don't browbeat them. Don't try
to shame them. Speak to their hearts. Speak words of comfort. Tell
them that their warfare is accomplished. There's our comfort. It's accomplished. The battle's done. The Lord has
gotten the victory. There's nothing more to do. Tell
them that their iniquity has been taken away. And then the prophet said, well,
Lord, where do I start this message? And what did the Lord say? Here's
where you start. Tell them that all flesh is as
grass. That'll be a comfort to them.
That'll be a comfort to them. They will have no confidence
in their flesh if they believe that their flesh is grass. Tell
them they're sinners. Tell them they have no righteousness.
Tell them they can't do anything. That'll be a comfort to their
soul. what is what is most man-made religion it's just it's nothing
more than a mutual admiration society where everybody's trying
to build their body up there but trying to tear one of the
down and airways you know it's just it's a mess in it it's all
about man we're here to preach Christ and the Lord said and
I if I'd be lifted up she loved the emphasis the puts on that
and I if I'd be lifted up I'll draw them all men to me. As the
serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of
Man be lifted up." Oh, if we're ever able to look to Christ,
then the snakes on the ground lose their power, don't they? Most religion is all about, you
know, it in some parts of the country there some whacked out
religious people that actually some handle snakes you know you
snake handling you know proving their faith by handling these
poisonous vipers and people die from doing that's crazy most
religion is nothing more than snake handling that's what they
do they put all their emphasis on the snakes The snakes that
are on the ground. You gotta kill that snake. You
gotta stomp it. You gotta get away from that
snake. You know, it's all about the snakes, isn't it? The gospel's
all about the serpent that's on the pole. The brazen serpent. The one who bore all our sins. And all the venom of those snakes
was in him on Calvary's cross. Oh, if we're able to look to
him. Snakes on the ground, they lose their power, don't they? Verse 3, our exhortation was
not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile. We didn't speak
out of both sides of our mouth. We didn't say, well, you know,
God's done this and now you've got to do that. We didn't contradict ourselves.
We didn't say, God loves everybody. But most of the folks God loves
he's going to send to hell. We didn't say God is omnipotent,
all-powerful, until he comes up against man's free will. And
then he loses his power. He becomes impotent. That doesn't
make sense. That's a contradiction, isn't
it? We didn't say Christ died for everybody on Calvary's cross.
But you've got to do your part to make what he did work for
you. We don't say that. Christ died for everybody. Everybody's
going to heaven. It's just that simple. No, we didn't come to
you with guile and deceit and uncleanness. We came to you with
the simplicity of the gospel. Christ is that simplicity, isn't
he? I love verse 4, but as we were
allowed of God to be put in trust of the gospel. You think about it. You've been
allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. And it is required
of a steward that he be found faithful. We're ambassadors for
Christ. Now if the President of the United
States appoints an ambassador to a foreign country and that
ambassador speaks something contrary to the dignitaries of that country
from what the administration, that ambassador is coming out
of there. He's not going to stay. All that ambassador has the authority
to say is exactly what the administration tells him to say he's got no
leeway one way or the other scripture says we are ambassadors for christ
we can add to we can change it we can take away from it we speak
the word of god with boldness and uh... and we're and we're
innocent of the blood of men and paul goes on to say god is
my witness you know it's a it's You search the scriptures to
see if what I'm saying is true. That's what he, that's what he
told the church. And we all do that. Um, receiving
the word of God with gladness, but ultimately it's not whether
or not you think I'm preaching the gospel or whether one person
thinks you believe in the gospel. It's God is your witness, isn't
he? Stand before him. But as we were allowed of God
to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing
men, but God, which trieth our hearts. I want to close with this statement.
You cannot fear men and fear God at the same time. You can't do it. If you fear God, you won't be
afraid of men. What is it to fear God? What
is it to fear God? I'm going to give you a simple,
clear definition of what it means to fear God. Real simple. I started this out by talking
about Christians are what? Believers. You know what it is
to fear God? It's to believe God. It's that
simple. You fear God when you believe
Him. If you believe Him, then if God
be for me, who can be against me? Alright, let's take a break. th