hymn book. Let's all stand together. Number 33. Behold I come, our Savior said,
the Savior promised long. ? I come to do thy will, O God
? And thus our hope was born ? Behold, the virgin has conceived
? And born a son of flesh ? His name is called Emmanuel ? God
dwells in human flesh The angels left their high abode to see
this mystery. ? The great almighty sovereign
God ? ? A babe of feeble clay ? ? Mortals beheld His lovely
face ? ? The Father's only Son ? ? How full of truth, how full
of grace ? ? Christ came to save His own ? His spotless life of
righteousness and sin-atoning death fulfilled His Father's
holy will and satisfied His wrath. Our glad Hosannas, Prince of
Peace, your glory shall proclaim. Enthroned in heaven as our King,
we love to praise your name. Please be seated. We're going to begin a study
on 2 Thessalonians for the first hour on Sunday mornings. We spent a few months actually
looking at 1 Thessalonians and finished that up last Sunday. We'll be looking at the first
three verses of this second letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to
the church at Thessalonica, and I've titled this message, The
Evidence of Grace. The Evidence of Grace. So, let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our time together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the great mystery of the
incarnation of thy dear Son, that God was manifested in the
flesh, that you were made in the likeness
of sinful flesh, and yet, without sin, redeemed those who were
bound to the justice of God, and Lord, we thank you for the
work of Christ in accomplishing our salvation. We pray, Lord,
that you would enable us to look and
to see Christ and to rest all the hope of our salvation on
him. We thank you for faith. We thank
you for the work of grace that causes us to love thee and to
love one another. And we pray, Lord, that you would
cause it to grow. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Second Thessalonians chapter
two, Paul, and Silas, Silvanus, and Timotheus, Timothy, unto
the church of Lethesla and Icons, in God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace. Every time Paul writes to a church,
He introduces his letters with grace and peace. And let's not
miss the importance of grace being before peace. If we're to have peace with God,
we must experience by the grace of God. And so grace always precedes
peace. If we're to enjoy the peace of
God, we must have peace with God, which comes by God's free
and sovereign grace. Grace unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank
God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, as it is proper,
It's proper that we be thankful in all things, but especially
thankful for the work of grace that the Lord does in the hearts
of his people. And so Paul said, we are bound
to give thanks unto you. We're constrained to be thankful.
And it's proper, it's meet, it's appropriate that we should feel
this way. And here's what he says, and
here's the message for this morning, because of your faith, because
that your faith groweth exceedingly and the charity of every one
of you all toward each other aboundeth." Faith and love. Faith and love. The evidences
of grace. And I would precede this message
by warning us not to be looking too closely in ourselves for
faith and not to be looking too closely
in ourselves for love. Truth is that those who have
faith, if they try to find faith within themselves, they see a
whole lot more of their unbelief than they do of faith. And if
they try to find love within themselves, they find a whole
lot more of their selfishness than they do of love. So where do we go to define the
evidences of this grace? Well, we go to the place we go
every time for everything. We look to Christ. We look to
Christ. This is what faith, there's no
boasting in faith, and there's no selfishness in love. And yet
this is the work of grace that God does in the hearts of his
people. He gives us faith, but faith in order to be faith cannot,
you see, there is a tendency, I should say, for all of us to
have faith in faith. And if we try to find faith within
ourselves, that's what we will tend to do, to place the hope
of our salvation in our faith. Faith looks outside of itself.
Faith looks wholly to the Lord Jesus Christ for all of its acceptance
before God. Yes, faith is the substance as
the Lord tells us in Hebrews chapter 11. Faith is the substance
or the confidence, that's what the word is there, of things
hoped for and it is the evidence of things not seen. And he goes
on in that same chapter to say, without faith, it is impossible
to please God for they that cometh to him must believe that he is
and that he's the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Paul is expressing his thanksgiving to God for the faith that is
growing exceedingly in the church of Thessalonica. When faith grows,
it grows like a tree. It grows down, sees more and
more of the darkness of its own sin and inability and it grows
up and desires more and more of Christ. And so, Scripture says that this faith
is a gift from God, for by grace are you saved through faith,
but that faith is not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works.
There can be no boasting in faith. Faith was given freely by God. Faith is that look that God gives
to the heart to the Lord Jesus Christ for
all one's righteousness before God, for all one's acceptance.
And Paul is saying, I'm so thankful that your faith groweth exceedingly. We know that this grace of faith,
this gift of faith comes by hearing. And hearing comes by the word
of God. And so the Lord uses the means of his word and his
gospel to give us faith and to grow us in faith. Faith is not a choice, it's not
a decision. That would be something for man
to boast in. Faith is what happens when God
reveals to us the glory of Christ and in doing so shows us our
sinfulness, at least in part, and shuts us up to Christ so
that we've got no place else to go. There's no choice in it. There's
nothing to boast in. We're dependent upon the Lord
Jesus Christ for all of our acceptance before God. Turn with me to Romans
chapter three. Romans chapter three. And we'll
begin in verse 23. For all have sinned, and come
short of the glory of God. We've looked at that verse many
times. What in your life falls short
of God's glory? Paul said, in me, that is in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Sin is what we are apart from
Christ and everything about us falls short of God's glory, doesn't
it? And so when the Lord says all have sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God, everything about me before God, apart from
Christ, I'm so thankful. Paul said that in Romans chapter
seven, in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Yes,
but I have a good thing in Christ. I have a perfection in Christ.
I have a holiness and acceptance in Christ. Look at verse 24,
being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. To be justified means to stand
in the presence of God without sin. So how can one who is nothing
but sin in and of themselves stand justified in the presence
of a holy God? Well, to be found in Christ. He's my righteousness before
God. And in him, I have no sin. Have no sin. Now this is such
a glorious truth. Some try to figure out whether
we're sinners and saints. The truth is that only a sinner
is a saint and only a saint is a sinner. I'll say that again. All sinners are saints and all
saints are sinners. All the righteous, truly righteous
in Christ, believe themselves to be unrighteous. And all the
unrighteous, those who know nothing of God's grace, believe themselves
to be righteous. You see, this is a great truth,
it's a paradox that the unbeliever can't Can't see, but child of
God, this is your experience, isn't it? This is your experience. So we're justified through the
shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 25, whom
God hath set forth to be the propitiation through faith in
his blood. All the wrath of God has been
appeased. through the sacrifice that Christ
made on Calvary's cross. He shed his blood, his precious
blood, his sinless blood as a covering for our sin. Faith looks to him
and looks to his perfect work of redemption for our propitiation
to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. When God gives faith,
we cast our care upon him who careth for us. We look to Christ
alone for all of our righteousness before God. We don't make a work
out of faith. Faith by its very definition
is the absence of works. It is the absence of one's ability
to do anything to save themselves. It is trusting and believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Paul's saying to this church,
oh, I'm so thankful for your faith. Your faith which aboundeth. Thankful to God because that's
where it came from. Look at verse 27, where's boasting
then? Where's boasting? If salvation
is a faith, what do you have to boast in? It is excluded. There's no place for it. By what
law? Of works? Nay, but by the law
of faith. The law of faith excludes all
boasting. Where? The child that hides its face
in the neck of its father in fear, what's that child have
to boast in, his father? The child doesn't have anything
to boast in. All the boasting, all the strength, all the help,
all the glory goes to the one who's doing the protecting. Not
the one, and the Lord said, except you become as a little child,
you should not enter the kingdom of heaven. Suffer the little
children to come unto me, for such is the kingdom of God. A
child doesn't have anything to boast in, and neither do we,
do we? Neither do we. Not if God's given
us faith. You hear someone talk about when
they decided to accept Jesus, or when they did this or did
that, or they prayed this prayer or that prayer, They're boasting
in something that they did. They're looking at faith as if
it's their contribution to their salvation. Faith is the result
of the new birth, not the cause of it. I'll say that again. Faith is the result of the new
birth, not the cause of it. A very, very important distinction. If faith was the cause of the
new birth, then we'd have something to boast in. But the Lord has
to birth us by his Spirit and faith is the breathing of that
new birth. A child breathes because it's
born alive, it doesn't achieve life because it breathes. You
see the difference? It's very important. Therefore we conclude, verse
28, that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the
law. No salvation apart from faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. No one's ever been saved without
it. All right, let's go back. Let's
go back to our text. The evidence of grace. How do I know? Oh, Lord, I believe. I believe. And faith always cries,
Lord, I do believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Lord,
the sin that doth so easily beset me, this unbelieving, flesh that
I have, Lord help me, help me. I've got no place else to go
but to believe on Christ. And when God gives faith, that
faith grows, it grows. It sees more and more of its
need for Christ It sees more and more of its own sinfulness. It sees more and more of the
sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ to save. And that's what
Paul's saying. He said, I'm thankful. If God's
given you faith and me faith, that faith's going to grow. He's
going to see to it. He's going to see to it. Turn over just a few pages back
to 1 Thessalonians 1. As Paul addresses, introduces this
letter in much the same way. In verse 2, we give thanks to
God always for you, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without ceasing your work of faith and your labor of love
and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of
God our Father. So he's saying, oh, we've heard. God's gonna try our faith in
order to grow it. You remember when the disciples
said, Lord, increase our faith? You remember what the circumstances
were around that? Prayer, Lord, increase our faith.
It was when Peter came to the Lord in pride and said, Lord,
how many times do I forgive my brother? Seven times? Should
I forgive my brother seven times? Peter was pretty high on himself,
wasn't he? He thought, I'm being gracious. I'm showing the evidence of faith
and grace in my life. And the Lord looked at Peter
and said, oh no, Peter. No, Peter, seven times 70. And the Lord
wasn't saying 490 times, he was saying, never stop forgiving. And that's when Peter said, oh
Lord, you're gonna have to increase our faith. For me to have that spirit of
grace, you're gonna have to increase our faith. How does the Lord try our faith?
Oftentimes he tries it through offenses, through offenses, doesn't
he? And we have spirit of resentment
and anger and the Lord said, no, you forgive. Be kind and
tenderhearted toward one another, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake had forgiven you. And so forgiveness is the
result of being forgiven, isn't it? The Lord will also try our faith
by showing us our inability. The centurion that came to the
Lord and pleaded with him to heal his servant, a centurion
said, the Lord said, I'll come. And
the Lord said, oh, no, Lord, you don't need to come. You don't
need to come. I'm a man of authority. I know
what authority is. I say to this man, go, and he
goes. I say to another man, come, and
he comes. I have total authority over a hundred Roman soldiers
and they do exactly what I tell them to do. And if I've got that
kind of authority, I know you have all authority. You just
simply say the word and my servant will be healed. And the scripture
says, and the Lord marveled at his faith and said, I have not
seen such faith, no, not in all Israel. You know, there's two
times that the Lord marveled. That was the one. And the other
one was when he went to Nazareth among his own people and publicly
declared himself to be the Messiah. And they said, this is the carpenter. He's the son of Mary. We know
his brothers and he names his brothers and sisters. And the Lord looked at them and he
said, A prophet is not without honor saving his own household.
And he could do no great works there is what the scripture says.
And he marveled at their unbelief. He marveled at their unbelief. How oftentimes the Lord must
marvel at my unbelief. I want to be like that centurion,
but so oftentimes my faith is so small. Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. How did he believe God? Well,
he was fully persuaded. that what God had promised, he
was also able to perform. That's what, you see, faith believes
in the ability of God, doesn't it? Lord, I can't, you can. Lord,
I won't, you will. Lord, I'm not able, only you
are able. And he's able to save. This is
what faith, this is, Lord, I believe. that you are able to save to
the uttermost. You are able to save completely
those who come to God by Christ. I've got no place else to go.
I've got no way else to come, but to come to God by Christ. And he's able to keep us saved.
See, faith is believing in the ability of God. Lord, you have
to be able, I'm not. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him all the way up against that day, all
the way to the end, he's able. Lord, if you let me go, I won't
remain. Jude put it like this, he's able
to present us without sin to God. Now to him who is able to
keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence
of his glory. With thanksgiving. God is able, Romans 14, four,
to make us to stand. to stand in the presence of God,
to remain believing. Can't stop believing, can we? Why? Because of his ability.
If he didn't keep us, we'd leave. Philippians chapter three, verse
21 says, he is able to change our vile bodies into that glorious body which
is fashioned after his, he's able to subdue us unto himself. Lord, you're gonna have to subdue
me. You're gonna have to keep me. You're gonna have to save
me. Lord, you're gonna have to do it all and you have to do
it all by yourself. I can't help you. I can't help you, I'm not
able. That's faith. That's faith. What is there to boast in that?
You see, we can't look to our faith to find evidence of grace. Faith
looks to Christ, it looks to Christ. And the evidence of this faith
is is love for God and love for
his word and love for his people. And here again, we must be careful,
mustn't we? Because if we look within to
see how much we love, oh, don't check your motives, brethren.
The closer you check them, the more imperfections you're gonna
find in them. Everything you say and everything
you do has some element of self-promotion in it, doesn't it? Sure does,
you see that? You see that. And yet we have a love for the
brethren that we can't have for, we have a bonding Christ. Turn
with me to 1 John 3. These two things that Paul is
thanking God for the believers as evidences
of their grace, their abounding, growing faith, the evidence of
their greater and greater dependence. You see, with faith, the way
up is down, isn't it? The way up is down, always. So
the more we grow in faith, The more he increases, the more we
decrease. Isn't that the way it works?
It is, sure it is. So there's an abounding faith. The self-righteous and the feigned
humble boast in their faith and they have hierarchies of of sainthood among their people,
some have a greater faith. Oh no, no. Look at 1 John 3, verse 23, and
this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name
of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he has commanded
us. There it is, faith and love.
Faith and love. Prayer, is that not the way in
which we express our faith to God? It's through prayer. Love. Love is the fulfilling of the
law. Listen to what the Lord tells us in Romans chapter 13,
verse eight. Oh, no man anything. Well, there's a lesson that important. Oh, no man anything, but to love
one another. For love is the fulfilling of
the law. Romans 13 verse 10, love worketh
no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the
law. Bear ye one another's burdens, Galatians 6.2, and so fulfill
ye the law of Christ. This love, it's the meat of the
gospel. Election, predestination, limited
atonement, particular redemption. You know, there are people who
say, oh, those are deep, dark things that only the theologically
trained can understand. And those are things that are
to be debated among Christians. They're not debated among Christians.
Every believer understands that God is sovereign. And had he
not chosen me, I would not have chosen him. Every believer knows
that what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross
was successful, that not a drop of his blood was wasted, that
he actually put away the sins of his people. If he didn't do
it, I've got nothing to contribute to his work. Every believer knows
that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. I'm a
sinner. I have no righteousness before God outside of Christ.
All believers know that. They may not know the theological
terms, but when you explain to them the theological terms that,
yes, that's my experience, that's what I believe. That's not the
meat of the gospel, that's the milk of the gospel. That's baby
food. The meat of the gospel is love. That's the hard part, isn't it? Oh, we have such a self-serving
spirit within each one of us. To esteem others more highly
than ourselves. To love others. Oh, there's the law. Love thy neighbor as thyself. You think about anybody getting
hungry or anybody any more than you think about yourself? The world says, oh you need to
love yourself. No, that's the problem. That's the problem. The problem is that we love ourselves
way too much. Here's the evidence of grace.
that you love. You love the brethren. Notice
how Paul says that your love for every one of you all toward
each other aboundeth. It's growing. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians. 13, and we'll read a few verses
here and close. 1 Corinthians 13. Being able to forgive is the
result of being forgiven, isn't it? And in the same way, being able
to love is a result of being loved. The ability to love is
the result of having been loved. Men are afraid to love because
they're afraid that love might be abused. We have an inexhaustible
source of love from which we draw. Just keep loving, brethren. abundantly abound and they keep
forgiving. Why? Because God's forgiveness
and God's love is infinite. It's infinite. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 1, Though
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love. The word there is agape. There's
different words in the Greek language for love. This is God's love. This is selfless
love. This is sacrificial love. Though I speak with the tongues
of men, we use the same word love to describe our love for
a lot of different things, don't we? Our affection for things,
our desire for things, you know, we love you know, a particular
place and we love eating a particular thing and we love our children
and our grandchildren, we love God and we just, that word's
so broad, isn't it? This is a very narrow, God-given
love. For hearing is love. Not that
we love God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the
propitiation for our sins and no greater love hath any man
than this. He laid down his life for his friends. Oh, we have
a friend, a friend of sinners, a friend that sticketh closer
than a brother, a friend that has proven his love for us by
his death on Calvary's cross. Here's God's love. If I'm able to speak with great
eloquence and I don't know anything about this love, my speaking
is noise. It's just noise. It's sounding
brass and it's tinkling cymbals. There's no melody to it. There's
no music in it. It's just noise. And though I have the gift of
prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though
I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not
love, I am nothing." You see, you can't separate faith and
love, can you? Can't separate it. Oh, if I've got great understanding,
great abilities and I have not love, I'm nothing. And though
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my
body to be burned and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, is kind,
envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed
up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily
provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices
in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth
all things, endureth all things. This kind of love never fails,
never fails. Oh Lord, I want that kind of
love. I don't know much about that kind of love, do you? I
mean, I believe that this is God's, love for me and for his
people. And I want to have that kind
of love. I don't know. I don't know a
whole lot about it. Not in my experience. I want to grow in
it. A love that wanteth not itself. It's not puffed up. It's kind. Not critical, patient, understanding,
tolerant, not judgmental, merciful, kind. A love that is quicker to find
fault in itself than it is in others. A love that's not so quick to
justify itself and to blame others. A love that is slower to respond
with its own opinion and more thoughtful, less confident in itself. Is this not what growing in grace
and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is? Is this not
faith abounding and love growing? It's not what it is. And the Lord Jesus said, take
my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly of
heart. Oh, what perfect love he has. Brethren, let us love one another
for love is of God. And everyone that loveth knoweth
God. And he that loveth not knoweth
not God. For God is love. Faith and love. The evidence of God's work of
grace in the heart. All right, let's take a break. Okay.