Well, let us turn again to God's Word in this epistle, this first epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians, and I'll read in chapter 1 the portion we were considering the week last Lord's Day in the opening chapter, chapter 1, and reading there from verse 5, through to verse 8 Paul writes verse 5 for our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sakes and you became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost so that ye were ensembles to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God would be spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything."

I want really tonight to concentrate on what we've just read there in verse 8. where he speaks of the sounding out of the words of the Lord we might term the resounding of the gospel from the Thessalonians and not only in those regions of Greece Macedonia in the north, Achaia in the south but as Paul says in every place Their reception of the gospel of the grace of God was so well known in many regions, it was resounding. And that's the theme then, the resounding of the gospel of the grace of God.

We spoke on that Lord's Day a week ago, last Lord's Day, I suppose 10 days ago now, of the way in which they had received the gospel. They had received the gospel. And the way they received it was the evidence, Paul says, of their eternal election. Remember those words that we have previously, earlier in the chapter, verse 3, he speaks of their election of God and now he knows that they are of the election of grace how does he know? well he says knowing brethren beloved your election of God for and I spoke on the strength of that opening word in verse 5 literally because our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake and you became followers of us and of the Lord. Receiving the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost.

How they had received this message. They felt something of the power of the ministry of those men who had come into Thessalonica and had preached the gospel. We have the record there in Acts chapter 17 and it had been costly to Paul and to Silas. They'd been persecuted by the Jews and the brethren had sent them away. They'd gone on to Athens because they could see the Thessalonians that These men were in grave danger of persecution from those who were so opposed to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it had come to them with such great power.

The fulfillment, really, of that promise that was given to the Lord Jesus Christ in the covenant, the eternal covenant, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. They were made a willing people, these Thessalonians. They believed And it wasn't just a matter of the power of the preaching, the persuasive preaching, as it were, of Paul. It was really something greater than that. It was the Holy Ghost himself. Peter speaks of them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. And that's how these men had preached. It was the work of God, God the Holy Ghost. working in the souls of these Thessalonians so they'd received the message of these apostles that they'd come amongst them and he also speaks there in verse 5 of much assurance not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sakes and interestingly he makes reference of the gospel in terms of that that belonged to them there at the beginning of verse 5, our gospel he says, our gospel.

I said that later in chapter 2 and verses 8 and 9 he refers to it as the gospel of God and yet although it's God's gospel, very much so, and Paul was so certain of that as he makes plain when he writes in his epistle to the Galatians, particularly there in Galatians chapter 1 and verses 11 and 12, he says, I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man, but I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Well, so too with these, he can say that the gospel of the deep preach wasn't just my gospel, it was also their gospel, it's our gospel, it had come to them just as it had come to him. And such was the evidence of their reception of this message. And then he goes on, as I say, to speak of how it became evident to so many around about the verse that I want us really to look at this evening. The statement that he makes then in verses 7 and 8, wherein samples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything.

Considering then these verses for a little while, dividing what I say into some three parts. First of all, the word sounded forth, that's the expression that he uses here, to sound forth. And it's interesting because the word that he uses has the idea of the blowing of a trumpet, the sounding force of a trumpet. And it reminds us in some ways of what we read of in the Old Testament, there in Numbers chapter 10, where Moses speaks of the silver trumpets and the use of those trumpets in the assemblings of the children of Israel.

The opening words of that chapter, Numbers 10, turning to it, It's God who gives him the instruction there, verse one, the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver of a whole. Please shalt thou make them, that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly and for the journeyings of the camps during their wanderings in the wilderness. And he goes on to say later there, at verse eight, The sons of Aaron, the priests, are to blow the trumpets. They shall be to you, he says, for an ordinance forever throughout your generations. And if you go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets, and you shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness and your solemn days and in the beginning of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, that they may be to you for a memorial before your God. I am the Lord your God."

So this is God's own ordinance for them, the blowing of the trumpets, the sounding forth of the trumpets. And this is the same imagery that we have here. From you sounded out the word of the Lord, like the blowing of the great silver trumpets. And we know that what we have there in Numbers was really a type of the preaching of the gospel from what we read in a book like Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, of course. And there in that book we have so much that reminds us of the gospel of the grace of God.

In the end of Isaiah 27, it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcast in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount of Jerusalem, the calling of the Gentile nations. The sounding of the gospel trumpet going out to the ends of the world. Well, this is what these people were doing. They were resounding, as it were, the great truth of the gospel of the grace of God.

And that hymn of Charles Cole, we'll be singing it later, if the Lord will, hark how the gospel trumpet sounds. Grace and free grace therein abounds. free grace to such a sinner's be, and if free grace, why not for me?"

These people then were, they were not preachers. They were not all in the Church of the Thessalonians called to the office of preaching. But there was a sense in which they were walking sermons, we might say. everywhere they went they sounded forth the great truth of the gospel of the grace of God remember after the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts chapter 8 we read how they were scattered abroad it was a great persecution and the believers there in Jerusalem were scattered over a wide region And we're told how those scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the gospel. They were not preaching in a formal sense. They were simply announcing the gospel. That's the word the Jews, wherever they went they were announcing the gospel.

When Paul writes to the Corinthians, interestingly there in 2nd Corinthians 3 and verse 2, he says, Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. These Christians, you see, these early Christians, people knew who they were. They were those who had been with the Lord Jesus. They were those who were true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. It has been well said by one of old that the best sermons are those sermons that are being lived out. And that's what was happening here. The way in which these people had received the gospel was such that it just followed that they resounded the blessed truths that they'd been receiving.

For from you sounded out the word of the Lord. In every place your faith to God will be spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything, says Paul. They themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and thou ye turn to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven." You can see the sort of witness that these people were therefore bearing to the Lord.

Christ Himself in the Gospel gives that exhortation, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. That is the calling of all Christians, not to see our good works, not to our glory, but to the glory of our Father who is in heaven. And so it was with these people And how it was costly to them, so costly to them. What does he say in writing in that second epistle? There in chapter 3 and verse 7 he says, Yourselves know how ye ought to follow us for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you." They were to be followers of these men. Paul himself and Silas and Timothy, they were to live as these men themselves had lived. And Paul says this when he writes to so many of these churches. He can appeal to the manner of his own living amongst them, to the Philippians. He says, those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do. and the God of peace shall be with you." All those things that they had heard, they'd received, they'd heard, they'd seen these things, and they were to be just as Paul himself was, and of course he himself was that one who was the pattern believer. A pattern to them which would hereafter believe.

And so, the second thing that we see here, they're not only those who are sounding forth the word of the gospel and declaring it by the manner of their living, but there are also those who are imitators. He says there at the beginning of verse 6, he became followers of us and of the Lord. It's interesting because the word followers is the word Mimaitai. In a sense, we might say that our word mimic is derived from that particular word. Certainly it's similar in sound. They were followers, they were imitators. That's what Paul is saying. He became imitators of us. He says to the Corinthians, Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ.

And so, the same here really, in verse 6, ye became followers of us and of the Lord. They follow him as he is one who is a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. That narrow way that leads to life, that narrow way, the way of spiritual conflict, in the world's tribulations Christ says doesn't he if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it for what is a man profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what should a man give in exchange for his soul

Well, this is the calling of these people then. They are those who are so utterly cast upon the Lord Himself. And they had witnessed in these servants of the Lord what the great cost was, even here in chapter 2. He says, Yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain, but even after we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention."

We go back to the Acts, of course, in chapter 16, we read of Paul and Silas at Philippi, and there they are cast into the inner prison. for the sake of the gospel. And yet, even there, of course, there's the miraculous deliverance, the conversion of the jailer. There's the conversion of Lydia, whose heart the Lord opens and she attends to the things spoken by Paul and Silas. They move on to Thessalonica, they're persecuted there. Nor they certainly knew something of the great cost. And I think when we were considering these things, did we not Read that chapter, that 17th chapter, 10 days ago on that Lord's Day, and it's made plain there in Acts 17 how Paul and his associates were very much persecuted by the Jews.

Acts 17 verse 5, the Jews which believed not moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the base of sorts, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out unto the people." He was one of those who was a follower of Paul. So what did they do? They hurried these men away from the from the city of Philippi, they go to Berea. They pursue them to Berea. The Bereans were more noble than those of Thessalonica because they did listen to what Paul had to say and they examined the scriptures concerning these matters, but then the persecuting Jews are over in Berea. And so immediately the brethren send Paul on his way by sea to Athens. Persecution upon persecution. So they knew if they were going to be those who were imitators of Paul they'd only be troubles.

There's a sounding forth, there's that readiness to be imitators, followers. is the word that we have at the beginning of verse 6 and then in verse 7. You were ensamples, it says, to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. And this word, it's an interesting word, ensample, two parts, it literally means types, patterns, patterns. And as I said, Paul of course himself is the chief pattern, as he says in 1 Timothy 1. He is a pattern to them which believe. The pattern believer in so many respects, not that we all have the same breadth or depth of experience he was called to do a remarkable work was this man Paul he was to be the great apostle to the Gentiles to take the gospel to the ends of the earth as it were but the word is an interesting one is a pattern and the word has association in many ways With the use of a die, you can imagine that. When coinage is being made, and you'd have the blank coin as it were, and the blank must be pressed into the die in order to make a superscription. So that the pattern that's in the die is transferred to that blank. and it becomes a proper currency. Or we can think in another sense of a foundry where there'll be a pattern shop and there'll be a pattern and the molten metal might be poured into that pattern so that the metal takes the same form as the pattern. This is a sort of idea that we have here.

a pattern, an example to all that believe. But in order to be such a pattern, there must of course first of all be that efficacious grace of God in the soul of the man. In a sense, it's not so much that God's word, God's gospel is delivered to the man, but the man is delivered over to the gospel and the gospel makes an impression on that man's soul. There's that verse in Romans chapter 6, 17 where Paul writes to the Romans and says you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. And the margin, the margin which is more in line with what the original says, gives the alternative. You have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine where to ye were delivered. Not so much that the doctrine is delivered to us, but we're delivered to the doctrine. The doctrine makes its impression upon us. It's imprinted upon our souls, as it were. We're to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

in samples then, to all that believe, because it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. And this is what had happened with these people. They'd had such a profound experience of the grace of God. How they'd received the message of these ministers of Christ. They'd taken these things to heart. And so they were those who were ready to resound these truths abroad on every hand, ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that ye were in samples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia, for from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith to God is spread abroad so that we need not to speak anything, All they were epistles, known and read, of all men, how we have to examine ourselves. Can we say that what was true of these early believers, that's us? That's the pattern that we would desire to follow, that we might be those who live to the glory of Christ and bear testimony to the saving grace of his gospel.

Well, the Lord bless his truth to us. We'll sing our second praise and then turn again to the Lord in prayer. Going to sing the hymn 538, the tune is Holly 348.

By nature, none of Adam's race can boast of goodness in God's sight. Sin plunged them all in sad disgrace, now nothing merely human's rights. Good men there are, but be it known, their goodness dwells in Christ their Head, united to God's only Son. their holiness can never fade.

The Hymn 538, tune 348.