Our text this evening is found
at the end of the first chapter in the first epistle of Paul
to the Thessalonians. The first epistle of Paul to
the Thessalonians in chapter 1 and verses 9 and 10. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you and how you turned
to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait
for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even
Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." 1 Thessalonians
1 9-10 And I want, with the Lord's help, to address the subject
of deliverance from idols that is spoken of here at the end
of verse 9. But seeing the words in their context, he says, For
they themselves shall of us what manner of entering in we had
unto you, and they returned to God from idols, to serve the
living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom
he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from
the wrath to come. Remember in the Old Testament,
There was a time in Israel when idolatry was their great sin. They wanted to be like the nations
round about them. They were not content with that
worship that God himself had prescribed in the Levitical laws
of Moses, but they wanted to copy and to ape those various
nations, they wanted to make themselves idols. It was a great
sin, and the consequence of that sin, of course, was a terrible
catastrophe that befell the Kingdom of Judah. They were taken away
into captivity, taken into Babylon. And there, amongst those idolatrous
people, they would languish for some 70 years. And we see the
prophets of that period, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, they all speak
against the sins of idolatry. We turn, for example, to the
words that we find in Ezekiel's book. And there in chapter 14
of Ezekiel, the language of the Prophet speaking
as God's servant there in verse 3 following Son of man these men have set
up their idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of
their iniquity before their face should I be inquired of them
at all should I be inquired of at all by them asks the Lord
God Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith
the Lord God, Every man of the house of Israel that setteth
up his idols in his heart, and putteth a stumbling-block of
his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet, I,
the Lord, will answer him that cometh, according to the multitude
of his idols, that I may take the house of Israel in their
own hearts, because they are all estranged from me through
their idols. And then previously, in that
same book of Ezekiel, in chapter 6, and there at verse 4, the
following, God says, Your altars shall be
desolate and your images shall be broken, and I will cast down
your slain men before your idols. And I will lay the dead carcasses
of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter
your bones round about your altars. In all your dwelling places a
city shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate.
that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and
your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be
cut down, and your works may be abolished. It was God's judgment
that came when they were removed out of the land And as I said,
they were taken away into captivity. And what was the consequence
of that punishment? Well, the remarkable thing was
that subsequently they were delivered from all those idolatrous ways.
There was no more any gross idolatry amongst them after the restoration
from the captivity. And in the portion that we read,
in Acts chapter 17, we see that under the gospel God calls all
the Gentile nations away from their idolatry. There was a time
when God winked at that idolatry amongst the nations, but that
is the case no more. There at the end of that 17th
chapter, look at the language that we find at verse 29, the
following, for as much as we are the offspring
of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto
gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. He's speaking, of course, to
the Gentiles. He's speaking to the Greeks.
He has seen their gross superstitions, their awful idolatry. And then
he says at verse 30, The times of this ignorance God winked
at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, that is,
to repent of their idolatry, because he hath appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men in that he hath raised him up from the dead. All the
nations are called away from their idolatry. And so tonight
to consider what was the experience of these Thessalonians that the
Apostle is addressing this epistle to. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus
unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and
in the Lord Jesus Christ. as I had turned to God from idols
to serve the living and the true God. Deliverance from idols,
what is it? Well, there are two parts that
I want us to consider. There is obviously repentance
and there is faith. There is a turning from, there
is a turning to. And first of all, to consider
the turning to. look at the order of the words
that we have here at the end of verse 9 ye turned to God ye
turned from idols and of course the order of the words is not
without significance faith is mentioned first the turning to
God that is faith the turning from idols is repentance now
those two come together, of course, in the experience of the people
of God. We cannot really separate faith
and repentance, but we have to recognize that faith must have
the priority. There can be no real repentance
without first there being faith in God. Whatsoever is not of
faith is sin. That is so basic. If there is
no faith, There can be nothing at all that is pleasing unto
God without faith. It is impossible to please him,
he that cometh to God must believe that he is, says Paul, and that
he is a rewarder of all that diligently seek him. And so, we turn first to consider
this turning to God, which is faith. He says, here are they
turned to the living gods from idols to serve the living and
true gods. Well who is this living and true
god that he is speaking of? Well we find the answer in scripture. And we must always follow that
basic rule of interpretation We interpret God's word by God's
words. We take account of what those
old writers used to call the analogy of faith. And we do well
to ask the question, who is the living and true God that these
Thessalonians had turned to? And John the Apostle supplies
the answer there at the end of his first general epistle where
he speaks of his son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. It was the Lord Jesus Christ
that they turned to. It was faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, looking on to Jesus. the author and finisher of our
faith," says the Apostle Paul. And see how he continues in the
10th verse, "...to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised
from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to
come." In commenting on that 10th verse, Dr. Gill observes
that there are many articles of faith contained in these expressions. And so I want us to consider
just what he is saying with regards to this true God, the one that
they turn to. This is what the scripture does
constantly. It doesn't so much define faith to us, but it constantly
sets before us and holds before us Him who is the great object
of faith. And so here you see, in this
10th verse, what do we see? Well, we see the Lord Jesus Christ
and we are reminded of His deity. It says, "...and to wait for
His Son." Whose Son is this? It is the Son of Him who is the
living and true God. His Son, that is His natural,
His essential, His eternal Son, even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The one who is spoken of in scripture
as the Son of the Father in truth and love. Oh yes, God in a sense
has many sons. Why doesn't Paul there to the
Athenians tell them we're all the offspring of God? By creation we are God's offspring,
God's sons. There are those of course who
are God's adopted sons because all have sinned and all have
come short of the glory of God. All sinned in Adam. We all sin
in our own persons. but are those upon whom God has
had mercy and they are those who have been adopted by God
and they come in the appointed time to experience the blessings
of that salvation they are such as are born again they are those
who are quick and regenerated and such who know that spiritual
birth can call upon God as their father in heaven But there is
one who is different to all the other sons of God, that is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is God's only begotten. He is the eternal Son of the
eternal Father. Or remember the language of John
when he contends for the sonship, the eternal sonship of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the importance of that doctrine with regards
to the whole doctrine of the Godhead. There in that second
epistle in verse 9 he says, "...whosoever transgresseth and abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ hath not God." All we have to abide
in the doctrine of Christ Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the
doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there be no eternal Son, there
can be no eternal Father. His Son, to wait for His Son. and in the fullness of the time
we're told how God sent forth His Son, made of a woman and
made under the law. He is that one who is the very
seed of the woman, promised back in Genesis chapter 3. The one
who would come and bruise the serpent's head even as his heel
was bruised. All the seed of the woman. He
had no natural father. We know, we're familiar with
these things. He's conceived, that human nature conceived by
the Holy Ghost in Mary's, the Virgin's womb. That holy thing,
that human nature joined to the eternal Son of God. Oh, what a great truth it is.
The words made flesh. And dwelt among us, says John,
and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. He is God's eternally
begotten Son, begotten, not nigh, of one substance with the Father,
in the words of the Nicene Creed. And it was because of whom he
was because He was God manifest in the flesh that the Jews rejected
Him. Now they sought to destroy Him.
Why did they want rid of Him? We're told there in John 5.18
the Jews sought the more to kill Him because He not only had broken
the Sabbath but said that God was His Father making Himself
equal with God. When He said God was His Father
they understood what he meant, he was equal to the father and
they said it was blasphemy and that was the charge that they
laid against him before the Roman governor there in the opening
part of John 19 he said that God was his father, it was blasphemy
and this is the truth you see that he said before us, the great
object of faith to wait for his son His Son, the Eternal Son
of God. But there are many articles of
faith here in this 10th verse. We see also the great work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes to deliver the sinner. He comes to justify the sinner. Even Jesus, it says. Even Jesus,
mark the name, the significance of the name Jesus the angel said
to Joseph the man espoused to Mary to assure him that this
child that was to be born to his betrothed was of God was the work of God
what does the angel say thou shalt call his name Jesus for
He shall save His people from their sins." The very name. The
Lord speaks of salvation. He has come to deliver us. To
deliver us, says Paul, from the wrath to come. And how has He delivered His
people? Well, there's the obedience of His life. There's His obedience
unto death. Remember how Paul to the Romans
can speak of those who are now justified by his blood. Being
now justified by his blood, he says, we shall be saved from
wrath through him. All justification by his blood. By him all that believe are justified
from all things that they could not be justified from by the
deeds of the Lord. the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
He comes to deliver sinners from the wrath of His head just as
He comes to clothe them in robes of righteousness that they might
stand before God as those who are not only free from all guilt
but the ones who are truly accounted as righteous because they have
upon them His righteousness There's the work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
there's the death, there's the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
What does it say in this 10th verse? "...to wait for His Son
from heaven, whom He raised from the dead." Now, to be raised
from the dead, He must of course, first of all, die. And He did
die. He died the just for the unjust,
in order to bring sinners back to God. Oh, but that precious
truth of His rising again, death was unable to hold Him. When
Paul writes to Timothy, he reminds him of what the great message
of his Gospel was. Remember, he says that Jesus
Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according
to my gospel. That's how he defines his gospel.
In terms of the truth that Jesus Christ has been raised again
from the dead. And he says it here to the Thessalonians
whom he raised from the dead. It was the message that he was
preaching there at Athens in that portion that we were reading
in Acts chapter 7. how He preached Jesus and the
resurrection from the dead and you know the significance of
the resurrection how it's the vindication of Him the vindication
of all His ministry Paul says there in the opening part of
the epistle to the Romans He is declared to be the Son of
God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection
from the dead. He is declared to be the Son
of God, marked out, delineated as the force of the words, as
the Son of God, by being raised again from the dead. And when
the Lord comes and so graciously appears to John, there on the Isle of Patmos,
cut off from all fellowship with believers in exile. Oh, remember
how the Lord reveals himself and declares himself to John,
I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore,
amen, and have the keys of hell and of death. Here we see the
Lord Jesus set before us as the great object of faith, the deity
of Christ, the work of Christ, his dying, his resurrection from
the dead. All of these truths to be gathered
from what the Apostle is saying. And then also here, he speaks
of course of the sureness, the certainty of his coming again. to wait, He says. He turned to
God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for
His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead even Jesus which
delivered us from the wrath to come. Now, interestingly the
word that we have here, the verb to wait It is used only this
one occasion, this particular word. It's not used anywhere
else in the New Testament Scriptures. What is the significance of the
word? Well, it has this idea of waiting, but waiting with
expectation. It's not passive, you see. It's
not inactivity, to wait. It's the waiting of faith. It's
the looking for the appearing. It's that longing, that yearning
for the appearing again of the Lord Jesus Christ for his coming
again in power and great glory. How he speaks of it later in
the epistle at the end of chapter 4. There at verse 15 he says, For
this we sound to you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent,
shall not go before them which are asleep. For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ
shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words." Or do we believe that, friends? Do we find comfort
there in that blessed prospect? That the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
is going to return in power and in great glory? Do we seek to
comfort one another? Are we those who are looking,
and watching, and waiting for His appearing, or we anticipate
it? It's a blessed expectation that
Christ Himself is to come again. Oh yes, when the believer leaves
his mortal life, the death, it is truly absent from the body
and present with the Lord. but there in heaven it is the
spirit of just men made perfect but when he comes again there
will be a glorious resurrection of the dead, a general resurrection
there will be bodies raised from the grave reunited with their
souls glorified in heaven that is the prospect of the people
of God and how the faith of this people you see It was so real. He says here
in verse 9, they themselves show of us what manner of entering
in we had unto you. Now what was the manner of that
entering in? Well, he says previously how
the gospel came to them. Verse 5, not in word only, but
in power. and in the Holy Ghost and in
much assurance and as it came in that manner there their faith
was so evident there was all that fruit of faith there was
all that glorious fruit of the Spirit there in Galatians chapter
5 Paul speaks of the fruit of the Spirit. In verses 22 and
23 it says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against
such there is no law, he says. Previously he has been speaking
of the works of the flesh which are manifest, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry." Oh, they turned from
idols, they turned from all the works of the flesh, and their
faith was so evident now. So evident. At the end of verse 8 he says, "...all,
in every in every place your faith to God will be spread abroad
so that we need not to speak anything for they themselves
show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how you
turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God all
friends are with those who have turned turn to God or with those
tonight who are looking on to Jesus looking away from every
other object and looking only on to Jesus that must be the
look you see if we look to anything else that's idolatry we are to
look away on to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith or
Joseph Hart at the end of that lovely 153rd hymn on the Passion
of Christ. Read it. It's a long hymn, two
parts of the hymn, but those closing words of that lovely
hymn, Long time I after idols ran, but now my God's a martyred
man. Can we say that? That we delight in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we glorify in a crucified Savior who has paid the penalty
of our sins and now He's risen and ascended on high. I was there when He ministers
to the nation of Israel, the northern kingdoms, the ten tribes
that had broken away from the house of David often spoken of
as Ephraim because Ephraim was the leading tribes amongst those
ten that had turned from the house of David and he says to
them there at the end what have I to do anymore with idols? or
what have I anymore, what have you anymore to do with idols?
Are we those who can say yes, we know the significance of these
words, we've experienced these things We would turn and turn
and turn and turn again, turn to God from idols to serve the
living and through God. But let us come in the second
place to say something with regards to this turning from idols. Yes, that comes first, the turning
to God faith. but faith is always hand-in-hand
with repentance, and God has joined these two. And what God
has joined together, let not man put asunder. What was it
that the apostles preached? They preached Christ, they preached
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, they preached faith
and repentance. When the Apostle Paul addresses
himself to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20. He reminds
them of his ministry, testifying both to the Jews and also to
the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, we sought to say something
with regards to faith, or at least to say something with regards
to him who is the blessed object of faith. Let us turn now to
say something with regards to the turning from idols, the repentance. There is of course such a thing
as external idolatry and that's what the Apostle had witnessed. We read Acts 17. We see him there
in the first part of that chapter together with Silas on his missionary
journey ministering in Thessalonica but then there is persecution
and they send him away to Berea but those enemies of the cross
of Christ pursue him from Thessalonica to Berea and so the others send
him off to Athens and he goes to Athens and what does he witness
there in Athens? He sees the most gross idolatry. And it would appear that this
epistle was written at that time, so shortly after leaving the
Thessalonians. Look at what he says here in
chapter 3. Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought
it good to be left at Athens alone and sent Timotheus our
brother and minister of God and our fellow labourer in the gospel
of Christ to establish you and to comfort you concerning your
faith that no man should be moved by these afflictions for yourselves
know that we are appointed thereunto where there is at faith I were
those who had faith and there was the trying of their faith,
the testing of their faith immediately And it seems that Paul addresses
his epistle to them. And it's a very tender epistle
if you read it through. And when we read those little
postscripts at the end of both 1st and 2nd Thessalonians it
says they were written from Athens. Now I'm not saying that those
little postscripts are part of the inspired scripture. They're
not. And they're not always to be taken as accurate. But it
would appear in this case that there is accuracy. This epistle
was written from Athens when Paul is stirred in his own spirit. That's what it says in the reading
that we have there in Acts 17, 16. His spirit was stirred in
him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Or as the margin says, he sees
the city full of idols wherever he turns in Athens. Idolatry. Superstition. And yet, of course, Athens, the center of all that
wonderful Greek culture. Those great men, those great
philosophers, And yet, what is Paul seeing? He sees Athens for
what it is. It's a place of idols. And so
great is their superstition that they have an altar which is addressed
to the unknown God. And now Paul, under the hand
of God, he sees an opportunity and he makes reference to that
particular altar and he will tell them who the unknown God
is. and he preaches unto them, the Lord Jesus Christ. But you
see there is such a thing as external idolatry and these people
had turned, these Thessalonians. Thessalonians, Thessalonica had
also been part of the great Grecian Empire and they were part of
the Roman Empire, as was Athens. But how these people had turned,
that's in the folly of sin they'd repented Isn't that the basic
meaning of the word that we find in the New Testament, the word
to repent? As I've said many a time, it's
one of those compound words, and it literally means to change
the mind, and this is what they did. They turned from their idols,
and they turned to the living God. Orbit idolatry, it's everywhere. It has been well observed that
men must worship something. Men must worship something, because
man is created a religious being. He was made in the image of God,
created after the likeness of God. Augustine, the great bishop of
Hippo, said, Thou hast made us for thyself, therefore our souls
are restless. till they find their rest in
them. All man, you see, is created as a religious being, is made
to know God and to enjoy God in the language of the opening
question in the Shorter Catechism. What is the chief end of man?
Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Men must worship something. They all have a natural religion.
And if they're not those who are worshippers of the true God,
they'll make themselves gods. But you say to me, oh well, we
don't see gross idolatry today. Well, besides external idolatry,
isn't there also that idolatry that is internal? That idolatry
that is in the heart of a man? But when the Apostle Paul, when
he writes there in Colossians 3.5 speak of covetousness, covetousness
which is idolatry. What is covetousness? What is
it to covet? It is to set your heart upon
a thing, to desire it, to long for it. What does the Tenth Commandment
say? They shall not covet. And you know, Paul, the apostle,
who wrote this epistle, he was a Jew, he was of the seed of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee,
living the life of a Pharisee. He thought that there was no
idolatry in his life at all. And yet he was the most idolatrous
man, because it was that 10th commandment that found him out,
as he says in Romans 7. It was the 10th commandment,
thou shalt not covet. And under the hand of the Spirit
of God he was made to see that his heart was full of all covetousness. full of concupiscence. That's
the word that we have in the Authorized Version. I know it's
a strange word, an old word. But what a word it is, concupiscence. All evil desire. He was full
of it. He was full of himself really.
He made an idol of himself. Covetousness, which is idolatry. And though he speaks out against
this idolatry, When he writes to the Philippians, he speaks
of those whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose
glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. They mind earthly things, their
pleasures. Men make an idol of their pleasures.
The things of this world, they captivate them. They live for
them. And that's idolatry. Idols are there in the hearts
of men. Or do we not see it in that portion
we've already referred to really in that 14th chapter of Ezekiel? What does it say there at verse
3? Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts. They set up their idols in their
heart, heart idols. This is what he is speaking again.
Back in chapter 8, and there at verse 12, he says, Son of
man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel
do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his image? For they say the Lord seeth us
not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth, the chambers of their
imagery. This is their hearts, these internal idols, their sins, their lusts, wanting
to satisfy themselves. Or what the root of all this
idolatry is that terrible sin of unbelief. the sin which doth
so easily beset us. Yes, we may have certain sins
that are besetting sins, and your besetting sin might not
be my besetting sin. Mine might not be yours. But
I don't think there in Hebrews 12 the Apostle is speaking of
particular sins that might be peculiar to one but not another.
He is speaking of a particular sin that beset every man, every
woman. In the context, he has been speaking
of faith. The previous chapter, Hebrews
11, is altogether taken up with faith. And he goes on in chapter
12 to speak of faith, that looking on to Jesus, who is the author
and finisher of our faith. What is the sin which doth so
easily beset us? It is that accursed sin of unbelief,
that sin that was there when our first parents transgressed
and disobeyed God unbelief now that Eve tempted
believes the lie of the devil and doesn't believe the truth
of God and men still do it, they believe the lie They love the
lie, they love the lie of evolution. Why? Because then there's no
creator, there's no accountability to one who has made us, how suitable
it is to men. They love lies. Because they despise gods, their
idolaters at heart. Luther says the evil of unbelief
he's the sin of spiritual idolatry unbelief spiritual idolatry what
does John say when we come to the end of that epistle that
first epistle he says little children keep yourselves from
idols keep yourselves from idols and as we've said in in that portion that we read
in Acts 17. Though God once winked at the
Gentile nations and their unbelief and their idolatry, yet now it
says He commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And I said just now
that word to repent, literally to change the mind An afterthought, it's two words
that have been brought together, married together. A change of
mind. But so great a change that the
life has been turned around. And that's what happened to these
people, you see. They turned to God from idols. Their lives
were completely revolutionized. Their lives were turned upside
down and inside out. They were once idolaters. But
now they were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
how the apostle addresses them. Look at how he speaks in the
opening part of the epistle. He says, We give thanks to God
always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love and
patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of
God and our Father all there was within that faith, that real
faith with the fruit of faith there was love and all the labour
of love there was all that hope and the patience, the endurance
of hope what lives they lived they had repented of their sin
And how did they come to repent of their sins? And again, as
we close, I want to emphasize this truth. Faith must be first. Oh yes, there is a ministry of
the law. There is a ministration of the
law. The ministration of condemnation, the ministration of death by
the law is the knowledge of sin. But we want more than a legal
repentance. Law and terrors do but harden,
all the while they work alone, but a sense of blood-bought pardon
soon dissolves the heart of stone. Where there is true repentance,
spiritual repentance, evangelical repentance, it's rooted in faith,
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that godly sorrow. that godly
sorrow that works as repentance and salvation not to be repented
of it's different to the sorrow of the world that only works
death all that godly sorrow to be looking on to Jesus and to
see the horror of sin in the sufferings of Christ the great
sin bearer and this is what came to these people these favoured
Thessalonians or how the gospel came not in word only, but also
in power, and in the Holy Ghost, he says, and in much assurance,
as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And how they receive it, he can
say, therefore to them also in every place, your faith to God
is spread abroad so that we need not to speak anything. for they
themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you
and how ye turned. Oh, how ye turned to God, and
how ye turned from idols to serve the living and true God, and
to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
even Jesus. which delivered us from the wrath
to come. O the Lord be pleased and to
bless His Word to us and to deliver us each from all our idols. Amen.