Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the first epistle of Paul
to the Thessalonians and chapter 2. I'm reading for our text verse
13. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing Because when ye received the Word of God,
which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the Word of men, but
as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh
also in you that believe. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and
verse 13. The subject that is upon my spirit
is receiving, receiving the Word of God. The Apostle states to
the Thessalonians here that this was a cause of thanksgiving. There are several places in the
Epistle to them that he does give Thanks, he gives thanks. In verse 2 of chapter 1, we give
thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in
our prayers. And he's remembering their faith,
their labor of love, patience of hope, and he gives thanks
for these things. I wonder how often we give thanks. Give thanks for the brethren,
thanks for their believing, thanks for their faith, their love.
And in our text here, thanks for the word and those that receive
the word of God. Now the more that we see those
that have a Bible offered them and reject it, or they have a
Bible, but they reject the actual Word and don't receive the Word
of it, or those that receive the Word but don't do that Word,
you realize what a blessing it is when a person will be given
the true Word of God and receive it truly as the Word of God,
and it profoundly affects their lives. It is the power of God
unto salvation to them. And you realize what a blessing
that is. It's a miracle. And the more
you see those that the Word doesn't enter, they have no desire for
it, no need for it, it has no authority with them at all, then
it makes you more realize the great blessing of actually receiving
it and it being blessed, blessed to our souls. So I wanted this
morning, with the Lord's help, to look in the words of our text
at three vital aspects of receiving the Word of God. And I hope it
will be searching for myself, searching for you as well. It is a solemn thing to comes
short in these things, and so we do need to look closely at
the Word that is before us. The three points I bring before
you, firstly, the vital necessity of receiving the Word of God,
that which is actually the Word of God. And we would say in the
days in which we live, that the Word of God is the Holy Bible. But secondly, we receive it as
it is, that is, the Word of God. And then thirdly, the vital thing
is that it effectually works in us. It has a power upon us. So the first thing is that we
receive the Word of God. Now it's very easy for us, perhaps
if we've been brought up under the sound of the truth, and we've
been given a Bible from a child, and we just accept it without
really considering or thinking of it, and don't ever question,
well actually, Is the Holy Bible, is that really
the word of God? No, there are those that have
not been brought up under the sound of the truth, those that
maybe have no religion or brought up in some other religion, and
they could validly question, they could come across books
and say with the Buddhism, Tibica is their holy book, or Hinduism,
the Vedas, or with Islam, the Koran, and the religions of the
world that have holy books and they say this is This is the
Word of God, this is the Word of our God and this is a holy
book and our lives are governed by that. How do we know what
actually is the Word of God? What if someone is given a book
and they're told it's the Word of God but actually it's not
at all? They go on thinking that it is. One vital thing is this, that
we do actually believe that there is a God. There is one God, one
true and living God, a supreme being that is over everything
else. One that has made everything,
made heaven and earth, the sun, the moon, the stars. a creating
God, a supreme being. To believe that such a being
exists, there are those that will deny that, don't even believe
in God at all. Our Lord said to those when he
was upon earth, you believe in God, believe also in me. And he built on the fact, firstly,
that they did believe in God. The first thing really is that
we do believe in God. Really the creation, it testifies
that there is a supreme being, especially ourselves. We can
see that man is over the animal kingdom, he's been given a rational
mind, he's able to learn and build on that learning, He's
able to apply that learning, and he has dominion over the
world. And for a man to see that, and
to see how fearfully and wonderfully he is made, how every part of
his body works together, and the whole of creation really,
and to think there is no being. These things, they just happen.
No, I'm a trained mechanical engineer. And I know that when
I look at a car, when I look at other mechanical things, they
didn't just happen. Some of them, they took years
to develop. Thousands of drawings. Many of
the machines I did had several hundred drawings of different
parts in every minute, tiny part. And the planning and the work
that was gone into That machine, if someone came along and said,
you didn't design that, it just happened. I'd say, well you can say what
you like, you can think what you like, but that machine has
been designed by me, and it has been made on my instruction.
and the very shape that it is, I decided what shape that should
be. And I decided how it would run,
whether it's electrics, hydraulics, or pneumatics, or whatever. No one else did, I did that. Poor puny man, he was saying
unto God, you don't exist, we just happened. But in the end,
God will laugh at him. The whole creation itself testifies
that there is a Supreme Being. God has given to man to make
things, build things, houses, to do things, and yet man will
turn around to Him and say, I might do things, but you have not done
anything. And how foolish is that? So if we are seeking for the
Word of God, we must first believe that there is a God, and then
to think that if there is a God, that He's good enough to reveal
Himself to us, to tell us about Himself, to tell us about the
creation and the history of man and the history of the world
and how we came into being, and what shall happen later, And
what he requires of us, you would think if there was a God, I'm
not saying in any way of a doubting that there is, but that that
God would communicate to his creation and to those that he
placed over that creation, that there is a word. And really,
you might think, well, all of the religions of the world, They
have their holy books. The idea of a God and a word
from that God is quite universal. But when one is really seeking
and they want to know what is the word of God, that is an important
thing for that person. Which book do I choose? Which
people do I follow? How do I know that I'm not just
going to go on in a way that won't lead me anywhere and will
be useless for myself? We know, of course, in the time
that we have with the text here, there was no New Testament. There
is just the Old Testament going from the creation of the world
to Christ, or 400 years before Christ. And those Hebrew scriptures,
they describe from the creation of the world right through the
history of Israel, And they tell of the coming of Christ, of the
seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head, a
Messiah, a Savior, a Redeemer. And throughout Israel's history,
that God, the God who was the Creator, who formed man, He spoke
to Israel. And he raised up prophets, and
he raised up those that spoke in the name of the Lord, and
God spoke through them. The Word of God. Now here, with
the Thessalonians, what we have here, we are reading what the
Apostle Paul sent to them, and that is part now of the inspired
or God-breathed Word of God. But in those first years, a hundred
years after Christ, God's Word was received through men. It was transmitted through the
apostles. It was spoken first. It's like
the law of God that was given to Adam and Eve was spoken first,
was then spoken at Sinai before it was written on tables of stone. And the gospel here was first
proclaimed or preached and set forth by those that were the
witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. and those that heard him, those
that saw him crucified and saw him raised again from the dead,
they wrote of those things and the doctrines, the teachings
of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the gospel, the good news of
salvation, those first were all spoken by word and then written
in a book, written in the word of God. bringing his thoughts, bringing
his words to us through men that he had chosen to do so, to speak
them first and then to have them written down. And so, in the
days of the apostles, those that were wanting to know about God
or wanting to know the Word of God, they had to decide, this
person that is coming to us, are they really coming with God's
Word or their own word? Are they a real messenger or
not? And they had to decide that,
work out, what it was, whose word it actually
was. Well, we believe that there is
a God and he has been good enough to speak and good enough to bring
his word. And for us, in our day, we have
the Holy Bible We have it from Genesis to the Revelation, and
having that Bible, we believe that this is the Word of God. There's no other book, there's
no other words to be added to it, or to be subtracted from
it, But that when we come to the Holy Bible, we have actually
been given the Word of God. We don't have to look for another
book of another name. What book we have is the Word
of God. And it's vital to really to receive
that, to believe that, as a starting point. Before we have even looked
into its claims and looked into the Word itself, of all the books
that are in the world, if we want to know of what is the Word
of God, we are directed to the Holy Bible. And we know, of course,
it was first written in Hebrew and Greek, and we believe the
text, the Hebrew Masoretic, the Greek Received Text, the underlying
text, or the authorized version of the Bible, the authorized
is most accurate of the English translations. Nevertheless, quite
apart from all that might be said on translations, and of
course into all the languages of the world, For the most part,
we are looking at the same text, the same basis, the same message,
the same book. And that is the vital thing.
Very, very different than someone picking up the Book of Mormon,
or the Quran, or another book that is not the Holy Bible, that
is not the Word of God. You might say, well, how? How
is it that this is the Book of Books? How is it that we feel
that this is the Word of God? One reason is that it is actually
a collection of books, 66 in all, 39 in the Old Testament,
27 in the New, and written over a period of 1500 years with up
to 40 authors involved. But it is actually historical
records and the Old Testament through the children of Israel
has many chapters of names. Much of the history of Israel
is there. And so it is not just cunningly
devised fables. We are actually reading the history
of the world. It's a terrible thing in our
day and generation that so much is done in our schools to take
away the idea of a creator, to take away the idea of a young
earth, of creation that was 6,000 years ago. And in doing that,
it is undermining the faith of so many And the very reason,
the very thing that God says, men shall be without an excuse
in the last day, when they themselves, their own bodies, are a witness
of a creator. The teaching of the worldview
today undermines that very thing. So men look at the wonderful
creation of God, and instead of thinking, here is God's work,
they have rubbed into their minds terrible blasphemous thoughts
of evolution and saying that this just happened, it just was
not made by anyone. And it is a terrible thing that
that is happening because the Word of God, it describes to
us the world that we live in today, the beautiful world we
live in. It also explains the presence
of death and of suffering and of all that's happening in the
world, it not only comes to where we are now, it points forward,
it points to the end of the world. It points to what God is doing
in the world. It gives answers to every question
that we might have as to what has happened and what will happen,
what is to come, what is going on. There is a God and he is
in control. and He has given us His Word.
The authors of the Word, those that were the penmen that wrote
the mind and words of God, they actually claimed that the words
that they were writing were divine. The scriptures testify that that
is so. There cannot be any higher authority
than the Word of God. Whatever book we may say we have
that is the Word of God, if we really believe it is, then there
cannot be a higher authority. We can't go to some higher critic
or some wonderful scholar in some university and rely on him
to tell us what the Word of God is, because that would say, well,
he is higher than the Word of God. He has more authority than
that. And so we see the Bible as one
book made up of 66, but a consistency that runs right the way through
it, a majesty that runs through it, that makes it a book like
none other. And so the blessing, the most
important thing first, is that we actually have a Bible. We actually have that Word in
our hand. There's so many nations in this
world that are hungering and thirsting for the Word of God. They want a Bible. They haven't
got one in their own tongue. The joy when they do receive
one in their own tongue and are able to read it and have it. And I think we take it for granted
very much in our own land. and what it is to actually have
a Bible. With our Bible boxes at the chapel
here, many will take those Bibles. They have the Bibles. Some of
them, they will reject them. They won't even think that this,
what we have, is the Word of God at all. But the important
thing is that the book that we actually have, that we hold in
our hands, as a starting point for whatever we might go forward,
is actually the word of God. We haven't got in our hands some
other religious book, some other book that is claiming to be God's
book, but we have the book of Him, who is the one true and
living God, whoever was, whoever will be, the eternal God. And
we have that book that he has given God-breathed and providentially
preserved through the ages to his people. So that is then the
first thing, that we have a copy of the Word of God ourselves. We have in our hands the Word
of God. But then secondly, how vital
it is that we do receive it as it really is. That we receive it as the Word of God. Our text says, will this cause
also thank we God without ceasing Because when ye received the
word of God which ye heard of us, remember what we said at
this time, it is not receiving it in a book form, it is receiving
it as hearing it of them. Ye received it not as the word
of men, it was a man that was speaking, it was Paul. But ye
received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, The
Word of God. Here is Paul, he is claiming
the words that he is speaking to the Thessalonians are the
Word of God. And they received it like that.
How are they to know the difference with all the other teachers?
It's the same as right from the beginning of the world, there
was false prophets and real prophets, prophets that said, They were
speaking the word of God, but they weren't. In Jeremiah's day
especially, we had those that were contradicting what he was
telling them from God. But God said that the prophets
whose words came to pass, that was a true prophet. And those
prophets, their words didn't come to pass. And Jeremiah's
did come to pass. And of course, in the Old Testament,
is all the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, concerning
the Lord Jesus. And when our Lord was crucified
and died and rose again from the dead, at the time of the
crucifixion and resurrection, again and again we have that
it might be fulfilled which was written in the prophets. And
David in Psalm 22 and in the other Psalm 69, we have the prophecies
even of the very words that our Lord uttered upon the cross,
penned, written by David in the Psalms a thousand years before
it actually came to pass. And these things they testify
as it being the true word of God. But the Apostle here with
the Thessalonians, he says before them what the messengers were,
they were. He says in verse 4 of chapter
2, as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. What a trust! God entrusting
Paul with the word of God, with the gospel, to bring that word. And he says, our exhortation
was not of deceit or of uncleanness or of guile, Now, it is important
we look at that, because very often, when you have preachers,
when you have men coming to bring the Word of God, what they say
today, very often, there'll either be pride there, there'll be a
monetary thing, there'll be something that is unclean or taking advantage
of one. But the apostle is very clear
in this, that He did not want to please man, but God, which
tried our hearts. He said, neither at any time
use reflattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetous
Scottish witness. And so it's very important that
the messenger bringing this word was seeking to bring a pure word
without any other ulterior motive whatsoever. There's a good test,
a test, a minister, a test, a religion in that way. It is their desire
truly to the honour and glory of God alone. And the Apostle
sets forth himself and the messengers that they were sincerely trying
to bring the word of God to these people and they received it as
the word of God. And we mentioned before of Jeremiah
and some of the prophets. We think of in Jeremiah 42, we
have when the, after some of the children of Israel had been
carried away into Babylon, others had been left in Jerusalem. And there were those that came
to Jeremiah and they were testifying that They wanted to hear the
word of God. And they asked Jeremiah the prophet
to go and inquire of the Lord for them. And they said that
whatever the Lord would tell them, that they would obey and
that they would do it. They protested very solemnly
whether they should go down into Egypt or whether they not. They
said to Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 42 verse 5, The Lord be a true
and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according
to all things for which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us. Whether it be good or whether
it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to
whom we send thee. And you see where the Lord, after
10 days, He appeared to Jeremiah and spoke to him. He said, the
people have dissembled. They've already made up their
mind to go down into Egypt. They're just flattering you.
They don't really want to know the word of God at all. And that
is exactly what had happened. When they were told not to go
down into Egypt, we read in chapter 43 in verse 2, then spake Azariah,
the son of Hosea and Johanan the son of Korea, and all the
proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely. The Lord
our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn
there, but Barak the son of Nehemiah setteth thee on against us. They
made out it was not the word of God some man had. Persuaded Jeremiah to speak a
word that Jeremiah was saying was the word of God, but it was
actually someone else that sent him. What a chance they were
charging Jeremiah with. And so they wouldn't obey, they
wouldn't accept that word at all. Most solemn thing. And yet that happens still today. We might have a Bible, we have
the words in it, But we're not receiving those words. Some will
actually, some churches, so-called, will say, well, Paul's epistles,
that's Paul, that's not God. And the only words, the words
of the Lord Jesus are those that are in red in our Bibles. The
word of God testifies that every word of God is pure. All scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profitable from Genesis.
It's a revelation, every word of God is pure. That which was written aforetime
was written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the scriptures might have hope. And so in Jeremiah
44, the people of God, they were saying there, As for the word
that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will
not hearken unto thee, that we will certainly do whatsoever
thing cometh forth out of our own mouth. A rejection of the word of God. Many might have a Bible and they
open it and they read it, but they reject what they read. They
liked Jehoiakim. Jeremiah through Barang brought
the word to him, and he was sitting with a fire in the great. He
took a penknife, and after he'd heard a bit of that word read
to him, he took that scroll, cut it up, and threw it into
the fire. He didn't fear God. He didn't
regard the word as God at all. But then we have the other side.
We have Josiah, King Josiah. They found the Word of God in
the temple. They brought it to him. They
read it to him. And he said, if this is true,
then great wrath is upon us from God. He humbled himself. He sought to God. God showed
him mercy, but visited the land with the judgments because of
all their sin. Our Lord is very clear. When
he was upon this earth, When he sent forth his disciples and
he sent forth them with his word, he directs his servants. He said, when you go forth, if
you come to a house saluted, if the house be worthy, let your
peace come upon it. But if it be not worthy, let
your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive
you, nor hear your words, When you depart out of that city or
house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. And then we have in the 40th
verse, in that 10th of Matthew, he that receiveth you, receiveth
me. And he that receiveth me, receiveth
him that sent me. And there's that link. a link
between the servants of God, men, and the Lord Jesus Christ
and his Father. The commission given unto us
today is to preach the word, not bringing our own thoughts,
not bringing just a social gospel, not bringing a commentary on
all that is happening on the world, but preach the word, instant,
in season and out of season. And that Word that is opened
up and preached as we preach this text to you this morning
is to be received as the Word of God. In the Acts of the Apostles,
we read as Peter preached, then they that gladly received the
Word were baptized. And it is vital that the Word
actually be received received as the word of God. Our Lord
said, you call me Lord and you say, say well, for so I am, but
you do not the things that I say. The people didn't regard his
word as having authority at all. They just gave lip service. They
chose what they wanted and what they didn't, they just rejected. And so we must ask ourselves
this morning, how do we come up with the Thessalonians and
what was said of them and why the apostle gave thanks when
they heard the word of us? When you hear the word of me
or of another minister of the gospel that is preaching the
word, how are you receiving it? Are you receiving it as it is
in truth the word of God or are you just receiving it as the
word of man? What authority does it have? They said of the Lord that he
was different than the scribes and the pharisees and the difference
was that the word was with authority. I don't personally like it when
a minister says well I'm just bringing a meditation this morning,
a meditation. In one sense it is, but the word
is to be preached, authoritatively declared, God speaking through
the word to men. And so they hear the word of
God. And so, do we not only have a
Bible, but do we receive the words of the Bible? One of our
hymns says, regarding what the Bible has to say, concerning
ourselves as sinners and guilty before God, nor are men willing
to have the truth told. The sight is too killing for
pride to behold. So how is it with us? You might
have had a Bible for many years, read it, heard it, approved,
given assent to many sermons. But do we really receive it as
the infallible, inerrant Word of God, the Word of God to us? Because when we look at our third
point, that will really determine whether we are receiving it as
the Word of God at all. So I want to look in the third
place. The vital thing is that this
Word, that it in us. Our text says, but as
it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also
in you that believe. The Apostle is very clear in
this that where the word is effectual it will bring a person to be
a believer, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and to believe
the word that is spoken. And the Word, of course, is the
Gospel, it is the good news of salvation. The Word of God clearly
sets forth that we are sinners, that we are guilty, that we are
all under the sentence of death, all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And it sets forth the certainty
of the judgment to come, We shouldn't need to be told that we must
die. Graves around the chapel and
the graves of our loved ones should testify to us that man
is but a passing shadow and he passes away. That there is sin
in the world should be very evident because of all the death, the
suffering, the sickness, the illness, the curse that is here,
the great contrast between that which is a wonderful creation
and that which is a marred creation, should reinforce to us that the
teaching of the Word of God, that the creation was good, but
man sinned, and in sinning brought death and the curse. And that
explains, it sets forth what the situation really is. Now, if the Word is effectual,
we receive it, and effectually works in us, it will bring us
to conviction of sin, to acknowledge that what the Word says about
us is true. We have sinned. We are guilty. We are under the sentence of
death. We need a Savior. We need a Redeemer. We are not fit to die. We are
not fit to stand before God as He's taught us in the Word of
God. There is a judgment to come. there is a time when we must
stand before that judgment throne. And so the Gospel then sets forth
the coming of the eternal Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ,
that he came in the likeness of sinful flesh, but not being
sinful himself. He came with a real soul. Man
is a soul and a body, a spirit and flesh. And in that body and
in that soul, he lived for 30 years on this earth, 33 years. And then he suffered, willingly
laid down his life for ransom in the place of his people, suffered
in their stead, endured the wrath of God, and then rose again from
the dead the third day. It is in what Christ has done
on behalf of his people in their stead that is the good news of
salvation, that is life from the dead, it is hope beyond the
grave, it is a saviour for sinners. And when this word is set forth,
if it is effectual in us, it must profoundly affect us. Those that believe, the Lord
has said, they shall not come into condemnation, They have
passed from death unto life, and that life affects them in
their lives. The Apostle tells us very clearly
in these chapters the effect that it had on the Thessalonians. He says in verse 5 of chapter
1, Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power,
and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. As ye know what
manner of men we were among you for your sake, ye became followers
of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction
with joy of the Holy Ghost." It had a real effect. God is
a real God, a powerful God. His gospel is real. The word
is powerful. The apostles had to tarry or
wait at Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on
high, until the Holy Spirit was given. And the Word that we have
is a living Word, and where it is received as the Word of God,
it must also effectually work in us to save us from our sin,
to turn us away from evil, to turn us to the Lord. What the
Apostle said of these Thessalonians, They turn from idols to the true
and living God. That was effectual, wasn't it?
What has it done for us? How has it changed our lives?
How has it changed our practices, what we do, what we allow, what
we say, what we believe, what company we keep? Are we obedient to the Word? Or are we disobedient to the
Word of God? Does the Word of God have nothing
to say to us? Or does it have a lot to say
to us? And do we seek to guide our lives
and seek grace and help that we might walk according to the
truth of the Gospel and the Word of the Gospel? How important
it is that the Bible is not just an interesting book, not just
a book we give assent to and then just go on our lives as
if it never had anything to say to us, but a book of which God says,
man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. Jeremiah says, thy words were
found And I did eat them, they were to the joy and rejoicing
of my soul. Do we know what that is? To have
the Word of God, a verse, a text, a sentence, made so special,
so blessed to us. The Lord has used it to open
our eyes, to convey His peace to our souls. My peace I give
unto you. Not as the world give I unto
you, my peace I leave with you. In the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. What good news that
is, what blessing that is. I give unto them eternal life,
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of mine hand. What wonderful words those are,
how great they are. The Apostle Paul testifying that
he has a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far
better, absent from the body, present with the Lord. What wonderful
words they are. That death has lost its sting.
That death is but a sleep and a passing from this world to
the next. That as we have borne the image
of the earthly, so we shall bear the image of the heavenly. that
this mortal must put on immortality, this corruption, incorruption. Or Peter's words, an inheritance,
incorruptible and undefiled, reserved in heaven for you. Are
they not precious and wonderful to us? Or the words of the Lord,
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I'll come again. and receive you unto myself that
where I am, there ye may be also. Are they not precious? Are they not
words we'd hang upon and hope in? Yea, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
thee. Are they not precious words?
It is the Holy Spirit of God that through the written Word,
through the preached Word, conveys to men, in an effectual way,
the Word of God, that moves their hearts and moves their lives,
so that they experience the truth. They don't just read about the
truth, they experience the truth. They say yea and amen to what
the Word says about their sin. They bless God for what the Word
says about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done for them.
They testify of the peace, of the hope, of the joy set before
them. They run the race that is set
before them, looking unto Jesus. three vital things in the Word
before us this morning. I hope it is that each one of us,
we have a Bible. We don't just have that Bible,
we receive it as it really is the Word of God, the words in
it. And that those words in it, when
we read them, when they're preached to us, They work effectually
in us. It does have an effect. It has
had an effect. They do have an authority in
our lives. May we never deceive ourselves
in this. Pray that God will give us reality
and power. Give us the fear of the Lord.
that real sense of the presence of the true and living God and
having before us and in our hands and in our hearts His Word, His
Word. May the Lord Jesus Christ be
precious to us, precious as our hope, our Saviour, Redeemer,
our eternal Friend and the One who is the Incarnate Word. and one whose word we rest upon
and lean upon, the word of the gospel. The Lord bless this word
to you. Bless it to me this morning.
Amen.