to us. And now once again by
the grace of God we'll continue our meditation in the first epistle
of Paul to the Thessalonians and this evening we'll speak
from chapter 3 and verses 9 to 11. So that's the first epistle of
Paul to the Thessalonians, chapter three and verses nine to 11. For what thanks can we render
to God again for you, for all the joy, wherewith we joy for
your sakes before our God, night and day praying exceedingly that
we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking
in your faith. Now, God himself and our Father
and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you. Well, it's good that the Apostle
has this desire and acknowledgement to thank God for what thanks
can we render to God again for you for all the joy wherewith
we joy for your sakes before our God. He was able to record
that of course there had been already mention of thanks to
God the blessing that the Thessalonians had received through his ministry. And of course Sorvenus and Timotheus
were with him and it obviously was a time for thanksgiving and
a time for joy. And so once again he reiterates
these things and says, for what thanks can we render to God again
for you? We read together that 116th Psalm
and really because of the 12th verse, and the 12th verse reads,
What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward
me? And it is good when we're able
to remember God's benefits toward us. And perhaps if we don't really
remember them, to stop and to think, well, what has God given
to me? What do I have reason to thank
God for? And often we will be surprised
as we ponder such thoughts to realize how kind and good and
gracious our God has been to us. He hasn't dealt with us. He hasn't dealt with any of us
as our sins deserve. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here
tonight. We wouldn't be listening tonight.
But we can be thankful to believe that we do have a kind and gracious
God who does indeed lead, direct us and blesses us. And so for what thanks can we
render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we
joy for your sakes before our God, because it is a wonderful
joy to behold the work of God. The work of God is sovereign,
The Lord has a perfect right to dispense his goodness and
his mercy and his favour to whom he will. All of us are unworthy
of receiving anything, but how good it is when we're able to
discover and to acknowledge what God has done for us. And also
as we see what God has done in others, because obviously Paul
here was thankful for that which he was able to observe in the
Thessalonians. Indeed it is great joy when we
can observe the work of God in the souls of others. That's why
he comes and says, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your
sakes before our God. You might be reminded what James
tells us perhaps rather unusual words but nonetheless they're
the words of the James and he tells us this in the first chapter
he says my brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers
temptations that means many temptations we may think that's a very strange
thing to be joyful for. But then he goes on to say, knowing
this, and that's the reason for the joy, knowing this, that the
trying of your faith, that means the testing of our faith. The trying of your faith worketh
patience. It's good when God gives us patience
to truly wait for his appearing. It doesn't mean that we will
be lacking in asking, as we'll come on to that in a moment,
but there will be that trying, testing of our faith. And then
he says, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may
be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Well, that's a good
testimony of the Apostle to the Thessalonians and also to us
today. And then he comes on and says,
night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face and
might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. It's quite clear
that the Apostle was a man of prayer. And it's good to know
that. And it's good to realize that
therefore He encourages us, and the Spirit of God encourages
us, to also join like this. It's not just perhaps here and
there, but it's like those words that we've thought upon, pray
without ceasing. Pray night and day. Why is that? Because prayer is the life of
the soul, no prayer, no evidence of life, just like it is naturally,
no breath, no evidence of natural life and no spiritual breath,
no evidence of spiritual life. So may we recognize this night
and day praying exceedingly. And he had a request that we
might see your face He wanted to see those Thessalonians again,
if it was God's will. And I think probably it wasn't.
I don't think he ever went to Thessalonica again. But nonetheless,
nothing wrong in the desire. Nothing wrong in the prayer. Because what they were concerned
to do was to perfect that which is lacking in their faith. He realized that perhaps The
preaching that they'd heard, as he considered it, may have
felt there were those things which were lacking. And therefore
he wanted to put that right. He wanted to encourage them. He wanted to be able to speak
to them, that their faith might be strengthened. He said they
would have received faith to believe. And he realized there
was that, that was probably lacking. And he wanted, therefore, to
fill that up so that there would not be a lack. And then he comes
finally and says, now God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus
Christ direct our way unto you. He knew who he should seek, who
he should ask that this might be a favoured position. And so
he says, now God himself and our father and our Lord Jesus
Christ. Of course, we know that God is
our father and the Lord Jesus Christ is our savior. And the
Holy Spirit is that one who brings to our knowledge these great
and wonderful truths. And then you see, we're just
reminded that all these paths are if the Lord will and James
again in his epistle in the fourth chapter this time he tells us
he says go to now ye that say today or tomorrow we were going
to such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get
gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow and how
true that is in our little lives. We don't know what will be on
the morrow. And so he tells us how we should
react to that. But what is your life? It is
even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes
away. And again, it's good when the
Lord shows to us that our life is just like that. We see a vapour
from a kettle or from a saucepan boiling and the vapour comes
off the water or the liquid, whatever it is, into the air
and it disappears so rapidly. And that's the reality with regards
to our life. It's like a vapour. which appears
for a little time and then vanishes away. And so the apostle says,
for that you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live
and do this or that. Well, that's a good and right
and proper injunction for us to remember. Here was good words
of advice and not to assume anything. It's so easy in our lives to
assume we would do this or that. We have to come and say, if the
Lord will. And then the apostle again tells
us in the Acts of the Apostles, you see, they had a desire to
do what they thought was right, but the Spirit didn't permit
them. This is what we read in Acts
16, verses 6 to 7. Now, when they had gone through
Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy
Ghost to preach to Odinatia, after they had come to Mycia,
They are saved to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them
not. And we know, of course, the result
was that the Spirit directed them to go to Philippi. And that's where Paul's ministry
was greatly blessed, and especially, of course, to the jailer and
his household. So we see then that the apostles
had good desires and right desires but we need to be subservient
to God's way and God's direction because God knows the end from
the beginning God knows what he will do and we don't know
we may think our desires are right and God honoring but they
may not be in accordance with God's will so as we read this
verse now when they've gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia,
and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mycenae,
they had said to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them
not. And the good and great truth
was, they were obedient to the Spirit. And it's good, isn't
it, when you and I are obedient to the Spirit. We think we would
do this, or think we would do that. We need to have a willing
spirit to do that which the Lord will have us to do. Well, may
God instruct us and bless these words to our soul so that we
may have reason to thank God that the Lord wrote to the Thessalonians
through the Apostle Paul and it has an application in our
life.