Now back to verse one, we'll
pretty much go verse by verse in this part. Paul and Silvanus
and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me make this observation
first. Lost sinners, people that don't
know God, people who have thus far rejected the gospel
and the Savior who is the gospel. They make a grave error when
they claim the words that are written to God's church. Paul
clearly addresses this letter to the church of the Thessalonians. I heard some kind of preacher
say recently, I don't even remember, I think it was on TV or somewhere,
to the general Viewership just everybody in the world That God's
thoughts toward them Our thoughts of peace and not evil He quoted
Jeremiah 29 11 and said that's God's thoughts toward you a peace
and not evil God said that to his people He didn't say that
to the world in general and when imposters misused the scriptures
like that and Enemies of the cross take false hope. And it's
a tragic thing. It needs to be understood that
these epistles here in our text, in all of the New Testament,
these epistles are written to the churches. The world is mentioned
as being soon to be destroyed with vengeful fire. That doesn't
sound like any of the promises of God are gonna benefit you
at all if you hate God. They won't that's why it sounds
that way People who have no interest in
God in his people or his worship or his ministry will take verses
like verse 6 for example here We have a promise. He said it's
a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them
the trouble you They'll think that God is going to defend and
take vengeance for them against their enemies That's not going
to happen That's a promise to his church if you're not honoring
the Lord Jesus Christ You don't care anything about his gospel.
You don't support his ministry You're living for yourself and
not him then you are that enemy that he will take vengeance on,
not the one who will be avenged. And that needs to be understood.
It's so common, you'll see people claiming the promises of God
and just throwing them out there to everybody. It's vital that
sinners understand that all of God's promises are yea and amen
in Christ Jesus. the one you spit on and crucified
and mocked as he bled out. Those promises, you have no reason
to claim those promises unless God has given you faith in his
son and love for his son. That's important, but don't take
false refuge in a word that's not for you. Now it is for you
in a sense, and I want to stress that also. You don't have to
be a member of this church in Thessalonica for you to be able
to claim the promises of God, first of all, that are in this
letter, because it's for members of his church in general. God
doesn't treat his people differently because of different places and
different times. We understand that. It's for
members of his church. And a member of God's church
doesn't mean that your name is on a roster somewhere. That's
not what it means. It means you're faithful to God's
worship in this world the way he has prescribed it. In a local
church where he's honored, where his ministry is supported and
goes forth where he's worshiped, his name
exalted, and the gospel preached, which is the means by which he
saves wretched sinners like us and those that we love. What else is this world for?
You tell me that. The older you get, if you know
the Lord, the more you'll understand that. This world is really not
for much else. than to honor the Lord Jesus
Christ. By His grace, that's what we
do. Now those who are not members of God's church still need to
hear this epistle. I'm not saying because these
promises are not yours apart from Christ. that you shouldn't
hear this. It's not written to you and so
just leave or you have no use for it. No, you still need to
hear this epistle and all of them and all of God's word because
they who hear it might just be members of his church and just
not know it yet. It may be written to you and
you just don't know it yet. It'd be good to find out, wouldn't
it? It'd be real good to find out. But don't claim the promises
of God made to his church unless and until God saves your wretched
soul and gives you faith in his son. Are you interested in the
blessing of God? Then hear it. Listen, this is
the means by which God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching.
Preaching of the cross. We preach Christ and Him crucified
by that preaching to save them that believe. It pleases God
to do that. And I pray He'll be pleased to
do that here. When He gives you faith in His
Son, then you'll honor Him and you'll love Him and you'll serve
Him. And you'll reckon with all of
His sheep that since he died for us, we ought henceforth not
live for ourselves, but unto him which died for us and rose
again. The church we see in this first verse also is in God and
in his son. Not on the church roll. God and his son are your life. That's what it means to be in
them. Christ who is our life. Christ
is your righteousness. That's what it means to be in
Him. Of God are you in Christ Jesus,
who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Because God put us in His Son,
we're righteous in the sight of God. He is our righteousness
unto God. And that happens by Him putting
us in Himself. Christ is your mediator. That's
what it means. As He is, so are we in this world
because of who He is and what He did as our representative
and mediator. There's one God and one mediator,
a go-between between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He's
the only one. Not Mary, not the saints, nobody
else. Don't pray to them. There's one
mediator, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is
your sin offering. That's what it is to be in Him.
When the Lord Jesus Christ paid for my sins, that's me paying
for my sins. That's my offering unto God.
He's my lamb. The scripture says your lamb
shall be without blemish and without spot. He is, he is. And he gave himself as the offering
for my sin and being in him, my offering is perfect. My offering
is satisfactory. My offering is sufficient. Being in him means that God sees
Christ and not the old you, even now, right now. When he looks at you, he sees
you in his son. That's why he can say that you're
without spot, without blemish, without any such thing. That's
why he can present you, Christ can present you, you being in
him faultless before the presence of God's glory with exceeding
joy. So we're in God and in his son. That's exclusive. That's peculiar. Remember when he says we're his
peculiar people? That means his own. It has to
do with ownership. We belong to him. We sang that
beautiful song. It's not a real deep song, but
it comforts me. I belong to the king. Being in Christ is Christ being
in you. It's two sides of the same coin
now, of God or you and Christ. And Paul said, I live before
God, but it's not me, it's Christ that liveth in me. Read Ephesians one with this
in mind, and notice the words in Christ, in Christ, in Christ,
over and over, all of the blessings of God. The glorious consequences
of His sacrifice, His sin-atoning sacrifice, and His holy representation
of His people, the consequences of that, are ours in Him, in
Him. The moment we're separated from
the Lord Jesus Christ, which can never be, we're fit for nothing but burning,
unless you abide in me, He said. You can't bear any fruit. Those
that abideth not in me have not life and will be these ones that
God takes vengeance on. He said, what good is a branch
that's not part of the vine? You burn them. That's what you
do. That's what I do with them. Except you abide in me. So you
see the, The significance of that, it's not just a frivolous introduction here, it's meaningful. So read Ephesians 1 with regard
to that too. We were chosen in Him, it says,
reconciled to God in Him, eternally secure in Him, and that's who
Paul is writing to. That's what it means to be a member of the church of God. And we use the word member, the
world uses the word members like you're the member of a club.
The scripture uses the word member as an integral to the body. That's a description of them.
They're in God and in his son. In all of those ways and probably
a lot more That I didn't see Just as the promises of God that
were given unto the Israelites only applied to the remnant Among
them according to the election of grace These epistles and promises
of God unto his church Do not apply to everyone that's sitting
in a pew Apply to those who are in God
and in his your position Your position is in Christ not in
a pew not on a church roster And that's that's what that's
worth talking about unless we're thinking about That's worth understanding
here look at verse 2 grace unto you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ Now it was Paul's custom when
you read his epistles, you see that it was his custom to begin
with this kind of expression of his desire for God's blessing
on those to whom he wrote. We might write a letter to somebody
just in, that doesn't happen a lot anymore. But if you write
a letter to somebody or a text or whatever it is, you know,
if you haven't talked to them in a while or whatever, or even
if you have, you might say, I hope everything's going well with
you and yours. You know, that's a desire that
we express. Well, the spiritual version of that is. All being well, when we say I
hope all is well, All being well is not a question necessarily
of being healthy, or prosperous, or having good fortune in this
world. We may well desire those things for those that we love,
but being well is having God's grace and peace on you. That's what being well is, whether
you're sick or not sick, whether you're prospering or not prospering.
That's what Paul's saying here. This is our desire. We want earthly
things to go well for those that we love too, and there's nothing
wrong with that at all. But if they don't, it's okay. If God's grace is
on you, if God's peace is on you. And notice who it's from. Being well, Everything going
good for you. You doing? All right. I hope
you do. I hope everybody's doing. All right That happens when God does something
for you From God our father And the only
way God our father is gonna rain down his grace and peace upon
you is in his son the Lord Jesus Christ So much in these just Simple verses It's not is the world treating
you right a lot of people say that Is the world treating you
right now Do you have grace and peace from
God and his son That's our desire for one another isn't it when
we pray for one another I The world is likely gonna treat
you to some degree the way it treated
our Lord. That's what he said. If it hates
me, it'll hate you too. We won't suffer the expression
of the hate of this world like he did, because they don't know
who we are. They knew who he was. Not in
a saving sense, but they knew who he was. You can't hate somebody
you don't know. Romans chapter one, when they
knew God, Problems not that they didn't know who he was the problem
is they glorified him not as God They despised his deity What you need and what those
that truly Love you desire for you is something that comes from
God by his son verse 3 We're bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, as it is meat. It's just right. Because that
your faith groweth exceedingly and the love of every one of
you all toward each other aboundeth. Such an instructive verse, it
is meet, appropriate, right, to thank God for the growth of
their faith and love for each other, because He alone is the
cause of it. It's only right that He should
get the glory. That's what Paul's saying here.
Paul doesn't say, I congratulate you on this. I thank God for this. for you and what he's done for
you. Look at us and think about what Paul said
here. Look at this church, look at us. Are we not bound to thank
God? We're bound to. That word bound means we owe
it and we're indebted for it. We owe it to God to thank Him
for all of it. For me being here, for you being
here, even for this very building. We sat there and we watched God
do something marvelous for us. Everything about this, we're
bound to thank God. The fact that the gospel goes
forth from this vessel, We're bound to thank God for that.
The fact that you can hear, unlike this whole wretched, sin-cursed
world, it's given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of God. To them, it's not. You're bound to thank God for
that. You owe it to Him. We're in debt to Him. That's pretty clear. These believers
were increasing in faith. Isn't that a marvelous thing?
Isn't that what the disciples prayed for? Lord, increase our
faith. They desired that because every,
imagine, let me get a little drink here. Imagine walking with the Son
of God every day. Would you not be constantly reminded
of what a pathetic, small, we can't hear the gospel without
despising ourselves, can we? In the right way. Imagine walking
with him every day. and seeing what he did and the
way he honored the father. They said, Lord, increase our
faith. Teach us to pray. They heard
him pray and they said, Lord, teach us to pray. The Pharisees thought they knew
how to pray, didn't they? Oh, they loved to pray publicly
because they thought their prayers were so eloquent and worth hearing.
The disciples said, Lord, we don't even know how to pray.
You know why they said that? Because they heard Him. They
knew Him. They walked with Him. What about us? They were increasing in faith
and their belief in the Lord Jesus Christ grew and strengthened. And you know how that happens?
And this is important now, because there's a lot of pride that people
have over doctrine, even true doctrine, right doctrine. There's
a lot of pride and boasting in that. But you know how you grow
in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? When you do that, The more you
grow in his grace and in faith in him, it doesn't make your
doctrine and your knowledge and your understanding more complex. It makes it more simple. The more you believe him, the
simpler the gospel is. These believers were settling
into the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. And Paul said,
you owe it to God. We're bound to thank God for
that. The more you look to the Savior
alone, and not just doctrine for the sake of doctrine, the
more simple your doctrine will be. Because doctrine is necessary. but people love it for the sake
of the doctrine. They love the logical nature of it. They love
to boast of it over others. It's like the Pharisees who searched
the scriptures. They knew the scriptures better
than anybody. These folks that trust doctrine and
not the Christ who the doctrine teaches, they delight in that, in their
knowledge and their understanding. But like the Pharisees that the
Lord spoke to, you search the scriptures, you know the scriptures,
you go around quoting scriptures, you've memorized a lot of scriptures. But they testify of me. And you won't come to me that
you might have life. Think of it this way. Doctrine,
which just means teaching, We love teaching. If you wanna learn
something, you gotta be taught. You need doctrine, right? Doctrine
or teaching has one purpose. One purpose. To teach you who Christ is. So the more doctrine, true doctrine,
you hear and understand and learn, the simpler everything gets.
It has one purpose now, and it's not to make you smarter than
other believers so that you can bestow your great knowledge on
them and rake them over the coals for not knowing as much as you. It's to teach you of the one
who made himself of no reputation, though he thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross for his people. As you learn that, as you learn
him, you're gonna focus less on the idea that people need
to know this, this, this, and that. And you're gonna understand
that people need to know Let me emphasize that. Consider
this. Again, I've said this to you
before. People who deny the doctrine of election, for example, and
they do. The doctrine of predestination. The doctrine of God's sovereignty
and salvation. Their problem is not that they
do not believe the doctrine of election. Their problem is they
don't know Christ. Now you think about that. Once
you know Him, You know what you're gonna say? Of course he chose
me, I didn't choose him. Of course. Of course. Of course he's on the throne.
Look who he is. You're not gonna go to hell because
you don't understand the doctrine of election. First of all, those
who hate it understand it. You can't hate something you
don't understand. If you perish forever, it's gonna
be because you know not the Son. He who hath the Son hath life.
And he who hath not the Son of God hath not life. That's the simplicity of it. You just don't believe on Him.
You just don't know Him. And when you do, everything that's
taught about Him, you'll bow to. You'll delight in it. You won't just bow to it. You'll
delight in it. Now, these people were heading
more and more toward that simplicity that is in Christ. They were
increasing more and more in their knowledge that he is the one
thing needful. Turn to me, please, to 2 Peter
3. 2 Peter 3. In fact, you know, you could
just about, this whole chapter, 2 Peter chapter three, is an
exposition of our text. Let's just kind of, let's look
at it as much as we can, the whole chapter. Paul writes this
epistle to stir up their minds, to remind them that they may
be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy
prophets, the commandment, the word of us, the apostles, and
of the Lord and Savior, and understand that there's gonna be scoffers,
and the last day there's gonna be scoffers walking after their
own lusts and saying, where's the promise of his coming? They're
gonna mock about it, they're gonna ridicule. I was on an elevator
with somebody one time, He said, boy, this elevator's as slow
as the second coming. Mockery, just, that's the way
they think of the Lord and his promises. The fathers, since the fathers
fell asleep, it's been that way. All things continue, they say,
as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they
willingly are ignorant of. that by the word of God, the
heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and
in the water. They're willingly ignorant of that. It's not that
they don't know it and they don't understand it, it's they despise
it. whereby the world that then was
being overflowed with water perished, but the heavens and the earth,
which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day
is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years is
a day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises. Some
men count slackness. but is long-suffering to usward. Who is this epistle written to?
Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein
shall be burned up, seeing then that all these things shall be
dissolved. What manner of persons ought you to be and all holy
conversation in godliness, knowing who he is and what he did and
what he's gonna do, how should that affect your day to day?
How does it? Looking for and hasting unto
the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved The elements shall melt with fervent heat.
We saw that in our text, didn't we? We're not gonna get that
far this morning through verse 10, but we read that. Nevertheless,
we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found
of him in peace without spot and blameless. an account that
the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. Even as our beloved brother Paul
also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto
you, as also in all his epistles speaking in them of these things
in which are some things hard to be understood. Notice now,
he's talking about the last days, not that the gospel's hard to
understand, but talking about the last days and how the perilous
times shall come and the signs and things that will reveal that
the last days are here and things like that. Some of that, you
know, the Lord has to reveal it to us in his time and it can
be hard to be understood, but that's what he's talking about,
not the gospel because look, As also he speaks of these things
hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable
rest. In other words, they take the
things that are spoken of the last days and they twist them
and they make charts and they say this, this is how it's gonna
happen. Well, they don't know how it's
gonna happen. They don't know it any more than you do. They
don't know what it is. And if you look at the, If you look at the places in
which the apostle speaks of the last times, when he talks about
how that there's gonna be danger, there's gonna be great fear,
and there's gonna be destruction, and the enemies of God are gonna
run rampant, but he's not teaching you to look for that kind of
stuff necessarily. What he's saying is, look up when that
happens, for your redemption draweth nigh. That's what he's
teaching. He's not teaching you to be afraid,
and you know, they make these scary movies, Left Behind, you
know, and it's got dragons, Stuff in it. No, Paul says, when you
see this all, when you see it all falling apart, look up. Look to the Savior. Rest in Him,
trust Him. Remember His promises. You're
about to be plumb redeemed. The one that saved you from your
own chaos and sin will save you from this wretched world too.
Look up, that's the teaching. But look at what he says. They
rest all of that as they do the other scriptures too. The way
that they take these signs and things like that, that people
like to get all deep into and all that, and they rest those
things and they trust in signs and not the Savior. They do the same thing with all
the scripture. They take the gospel and rest it. confuse it,
twist it, pervert it, to their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing
you know these things before, you know that's right, you know
I'm telling you the truth, be careful, beware, Bless you also
being led away with the error of the wicked what error rest
taking the scriptures and making them into whatever you want them
to be Don't be led away like that don't fall from your own
steadfastness, but here's what's vital the opposite of that the
opposite of what this world does to their own destruction with
the scriptures concerning Christ and with his worship, look at
what they do with what they call the worship of God. He said,
you've made my house into a den of thieves. That goes for now,
too. That's what it is. But here's the opposite of that.
Grow in grace. And it's not a coincidence, that
word and there. This is not two things that need
to happen. This is a two-part thing that
needs to happen. Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. To Him be glory, both now and
forever, amen. As this world does fall apart
and people look to this and that and they see these things in
the scriptures and they make Just unbelievable how they twist
things around and make Make the Word of God of none
effect By his grace Let's grow in his
grace and what we need to know is him. I We need to know Him. That's our safety. That's our
security. That's our refuge in the storm. Oh, Paul said that I might know
Him, that I might know Him in His power, His resurrection power. Paul says, if you do grow like
that, you owe it to God. bound to thank him for it. That's what it is to grow in
faith, and Paul says we owe all praise and thanksgiving to God
when that happens, but we know something else about this too. We see this here too in our text,
and we'll close. We owe it to God, the love that
we have for one another. Remember John 13 34 a new commandment
I give unto you. This is as the Lord was about
to leave this earth bodily I've got I've got a new commandment
for you. He said before he left that you
love one another As I have loved you that you
also love one another There's an element to that of
him leaving. He said, now the way I've taken
care of you and defended you, he defended him against the wrath
of the Pharisees, didn't he? And guided them and rebuked them
when they needed it. He took care of them. His love for them sustained him
day after day. He said, now you love me. The
way I've loved you, you love one another like that. You take
care of one another. You bear one another's burdens and so
fulfill the law. of Christ, because we know love is defined
by doing and not doing. First Corinthians 13. By this
shall all know that you are my disciples if you have love one
to another. That's not what this world calls
love. If we just have what this world
calls love for one another, we're not going to be distinguished
from everybody else by that. We're taught so plainly not to
judge one another, but to love one another, forgive one another,
and we seem to do the exact opposite. Quick to judge, quick to criticize,
quick to find fault, and so slow to forgive. Resistant to forgive. The love that we do have for
one another, though, in spite of all of the strains upon it,
the obstacles to it, the challenges of the flesh against it, we owe
that to God. Thank God for that. We're in
debt to Him for keeping us from being the heartless monsters
that we are by nature. and that we would otherwise be
without His grace. We're bound to thank Him for
it. You know, love goes both ways,
and I don't mean that someone has to love you for you to love
them. I suspect all of us have learned that. What I do mean
is what the scripture says. In Proverbs 18, 24, a man that
hath friends must show himself friendly. And there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother in case you don't have any friends. There is one. Love your brothers and sisters,
but also don't be so blasted hard to love. Is that fair? Is that not what that teaches?
Be a friend if you want a friend. We're exhorted and when we find
that we do love, we owe all gratitude and praise to our Savior. We
love Him because He first loved us and I guarantee you if we
love one another, it's for the same reason. Because of the defining love
that our Lord Jesus Christ has for us and showed us by the sacrifice
Himself for us that's our bond That's our common bond In thinking of his love for us
I thought of this verse this verse of Saul Could we with ink
the oceans fill and were the skies of parchment made? and
every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above
would drain the oceans dry, nor could the scroll contain the
whole, though stretched from sky to sky. As I've loved you,
that's a high bar, that's a high bar, that's what we're reaching
for. That's what we're reaching for by His grace. If our love can even be considered
a shadow of His, we're bound to thank Him for that. Let's
pray.