Good morning. Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 19 from your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book.
Let's all stand together. Number 19. Sovereign ruler, lord of all,
prostrate at your feet I fall. You are holy, wise, and just. I'm a creature of the dust. All things move at your command,
governed by your mighty hand. ? Fulfill all your wise decree
? There's a man, resist his war ? Stand against the sovereign
God ? I will bow before your throne ? Seeking grace in Christ
your Son through his blood and righteousness. Lord, I plead
with you for grace. If you will, you can, I know. Grace and mercy to me show. Will you, Lord, my soul forgive? Grant this sinner grace to live. I've no other hope but this,
Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now I'm conquered by your grace. In the dust I hide my face. Give me Christ or else I die. I upon your grace rely. ? Oh, for mercy now I plead ? Grant
me, Lord, the grace I need ? Turn, oh, turn to me and say ? All
your sins are washed away ? And, my son, your debt is paid ? Leave
for you the ransom made Please be seated. Good morning. So many high and
God honoring worthy prayers in that hymn that we just sang.
And that is our hope. The Lord will. Speak peace. To our hearts, only he can. And
he does. We're going to be. in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 2 this morning. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. I have to tell you that Friday night the last thing that
Bert whispered in my ear was, tell the brethren but I love
them. So I'm telling you his last words
to me for you was to tell you that he loved you. He often told
me that what I've often heard preachers say and what I've thought
myself often He would say to me, you know, there's only two
days in the week. He said, I just live for Wednesday
night and Sunday morning. And I know that's true for me,
but how encouraged I was to always hear that from our brother. He
lived to worship, to meet with God's people and to hear God's
word. And he will be Greatly missed. Yet we find our comfort and our
hope in the precious promises that God's given us. And the
death of his Saints is precious in the eyes of the Lord. How
he has. Prepared a place for them. Let's. Ask the Lord's blessings
before we begin. Our Heavenly Father. Thank you for giving us some
understanding to that hymn that we just sang. Thank you, Lord, for the work
of your spirit. It causes us to. To see, at least in part, that
we are centers. In need of a savior. to have
some understanding of the lack of righteousness that we have
in ourselves and how dependent we are upon the Lord Jesus Christ
as our advocate, our righteousness, our savior, our surety, our sin
bearer. Lord, thank you for the fellowship
of the saints. for the encouragement that we
are able to give one another by the truth that you put in
our hearts. Lord, we pray that you would
enable us to bear one another's burdens, particularly in the
home going of our brother Bert. Lord, might you speak peace to
our hearts and enable us to comfort one another with the comfort
where with we've been comforted. Bless your word now and make
it effectual to our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. First Thessalonians chapter two. Verse 13. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing. What a blessing it is to have
a thankful heart. First Thessalonians chapter five
verse 18 says, be you therefore thankful in all things for this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And it
is the will of God that we be thankful But if you look at that
verse, the this is in reference to all things. Turn over just
a page to that verse. Verse 18 of chapter five. In
everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. The word this is referencing
back to everything. It's the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. God's ordained will and purpose
is perfect. It's not painless, but it's perfect. It's good. It glorifies him for
this cause. Also, thank we God without ceasing And here he gives us the reason
why in verse 13, back to our text. Because when you received
the word of God, and that's the title of this message, the word
of God. When you received the word of
God, which you heard of us, you 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. Words from men can be helpful
and encouraging. They can provide comfort. They can also be very hurtful,
can't they? And they can, too often times, we've spoken
words that we wish we could take back. But when the need is a matter
of the soul, when there's a need that the words of men cannot
reach, we have the Word of God. That's what our Lord is telling
us here. He said, when I came to you, you received what we
told you, not as the words of men. but you received it as it
is in truth, the word of God. God has spoken. He's spoken. He's given us his precious promises
in his word. We don't value that as we ought. Brethren, we have the word of
God. When the Lord told the prophet
Isaiah to comfort the people of God, he said, comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, speak ye comfortably to them and tell
them. In other words, declare unto
them what God has said. That will comfort their souls
in a way that the words of men cannot possibly do. Sometimes you might read men
who refer to the Bible as a means of grace. I hear that often, especially
in old writers that I read, they call the Bible a means of grace. In fact, there's only one means
to grace, and that's faith. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. But there are, faith is what
we need. We're continually crying, Lord,
help thou mine unbelief. Lord, increase our faith. And
if the Lord does that, he would do it by his word. Faith comes
by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God. And so the
Bible, God's Word, is not a means to grace. Faith is the means
to grace, but the Word of God is a means to faith. It is an
essential means to faith. Without God's Word, where do
we look? Where do we hope? Where do we
stand? We have the word of God. The word of God. Some men think it's presumptuous
for us to speak of hearing from God and knowing God, but that
is exactly what God has done. He has revealed himself to his
people by his word. And when he's pleased to give
faith, we believe everything that God has said. And we hang
all the hopes of our sin sick hearts and souls on the promises
of God's word. Scripture speaks of revelation. And there are two types of revelation. There is general revelation. That is the revelation that God
has made of himself in creation. and in conscience. It's called
general revelation. All men have it. All men can
look at the order of creation and know that there must be a
creator. And so God has revealed himself
in creation as the creator, the source of all life. Conscience convicts men that
there is a God with whom they must do. And there's a need for
an atonement. There's a need for them to be
reconciled to that God that creation has revealed. So the scriptures are clear in
Romans chapter one that men will stand guilty before God for having
rejected the revelation that he has made of himself in creation
and of the revelation that he's made of himself in conscience. General revelation, creation,
and conscience will never be sufficient to enable
us to be reconciled to God. If all we're ever left with is
creation and conscience, we will attempt to atone for our own
sins. And that's what man-made religion
is. We will attempt to reconcile ourselves by our works and by
our will. And that's what men do all over
the world. This is why we need the word
of God. Special revelation is given to us in God's word. And
only by that special revelation given to us in God's Word, blessed
by God's Spirit, can we understand how it is that we can be reconciled
to God. It is God's Word that reveals
God's Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the written Word. to reveal the living word, and
we never separate the two from one another. And so the comfort
that God speaks to the hearts of his people is by his word. That's what Paul's saying here.
He's saying, when we came to you and spoke to you the word
of God, you received it not as the words from men. You didn't
just hear it from us. You heard it from God. You received
it as it is in truth, the very word of God. And it was by God's word that
you were saved. It is the word of God. James put it like this, of his
own will, of God's sovereign will, hath he beget us, hath
he birthed us by the word of truth. So the revelation, that
the written word makes of the Lord Jesus Christ the living
word. That's who we need to know. This is life eternal that we
might know him, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he
had sent. The Lord Jesus is called the
word. The word was made flesh. In the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the word was God. And the word
dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as the glory of the
only begotten of the father, full of grace and full of truth. And the Lord Jesus, when he spoke,
he said, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and
they are life. These are the only words that
we can find comfort. in our time of need. It's God's
word. We ought to encourage one another
and comfort one another, but the most comforting thing that
a believer can say to another believer is what God has said. What God has said. When God speaks,
he always reveals the person and the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Why, when Paul said, I determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. The written word is all about
the living word. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. And the Lord met with the disciples right
after his resurrection. Scripture says, in beginning
with Moses, and the Psalms and the prophets, he expounded unto
them those things concerning himself, concerning himself. The Lord Jesus is who we need.
And the means of faith in him is God's word. And Peter tells
us, it's not just the Bible, it's the gospel. Because Peter
tells us, he says, and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. So it's not just a matter of
learning some scripture or learning some doctrine or some Bible history. It's a matter of God using his
word to reveal and speak to our hearts the gospel. The gospel, the good news. The
good news is that salvation is of the Lord. That's the good
news. The good news is that our God reigns and whatever he does
is right. That's the good news. The good
news is that the wrath of man shall praise him and the remainder
he shall restrain. The good news is that his sovereign
purpose cannot be changed. The good news is that he loves
his elect. He loves his people with an everlasting
love. He said, anyone that come unto
me, I will in no wise cast out. This is our hope. How would we know
these things if God had not spoken them? If he had not given us
his word, how would we know them? We couldn't learn these things
from our own conscience. We could not learn these things
from the revelation that God has made in creation. We need
the special revelation of God's word. And we come here, we come
here to hear. I like Cornelius, when Peter
went to Cornelius' house, you remember? Cornelius said, we
are all here, H-E-R-E. to hear, H-E-A-R, whatever the
Lord has given you to speak to us. We just want to hear God's
word. We need a word from God. We need
a word of spirit. We need a word of truth. We need
a word of comfort. We need a word of hope. What
has God said? The very first time that the
phrase Word of God is found in the Bible, and you understand
the law of first mention, whenever we find a word or a truth revealed
first in Scripture, generally speaking, the definition of that
carries out through Scripture. And there's such a glorious truth
revealed in the very first time that we have the Word of God
spoken in the scriptures. It's found in 1 Samuel 9. We've
been looking in 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 9. Verse 27. And as they were going down to
the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, bid the servant pass
on before us, and he passed on. But stand thou still. And in my Bible, in the margin of
my Bible, a while is translated now or today, right now. Stand
thou still that I may show thee the Word of God." Surely all of our lives are filled
with too many activities. We We don't have, we don't take
the time as we ought to be still and know that he is God. To listen to his word, to read
his word, to meditate on his word, and surely there's something
to be learned here. What Samuel is saying to Saul,
be still, be still. Take the time to be quiet. I'm sure that there's something
much more important to this word from God. And that is the
importance of ceasing from your labors. There's no hope of hearing what
God has to say if we are still attempting to Approach God based
on something that we do. So be still, cease from your
labors, quit working. Stop trying to atone for your
own sins and work your way to heaven by your own works. Stop. Only by the Spirit of God. That's
in our nature. We come into this world thinking
that we've got to do something. We've got to do something. The
hardest thing to do is nothing. It's to be still. To know that the work is already
done. There's the gospel. To believe
that it is finished. That's an impossible thing for
the natural man to do. And there's a part of our old
nature and our old man that still rears its ugly head and thinks
in terms of a works mentality, doesn't he? That's why we have
to keep hearing the gospel. We still keep thinking, you know,
I can atone, I can achieve some favor with God if I'll just stop
doing this or start doing that. And if I do better, you know,
God will have more favor on me. Be still. Turn with me to Hebrews
chapter four. Verse nine. There remaineth therefore
a rest to the people of God. And that word rest is keeping
of the Sabbath. Keeping of the Sabbath. The Sabbath
is not Sunday. This whole passage is revealing
the Lord Jesus Christ himself as our Sabbath. When God first
gave the Sabbath laws to the children of Israel, he told them
to do no work. And the Sabbath in the Old Testament
was on Saturday, the seventh day of the week. It was an acknowledgement
that God had rested from his labors on the seventh day because
the work was finished. It was finished. And it pointed
forward to what the Lord Jesus would do when he finished the
work of redemption. You remember there was one time
when a man was caught picking up sticks so he could make a
fire and cook, his wife could cook dinner, he could cook dinner,
you know, for the family, whatever. And they caught him picking up
sticks on the Sabbath day and they brought him to Moses and
said, what do we do? And Moses went before the Lord
and the Lord said, kill him, kill him, put him to death. I shared this story one time
from this pulpit and, Had a man say, well, I'm not
working anymore on Sunday. That's not the point of the story.
That's not the point of it. You missed it all together if
you think that's what it's, what it's talking about. It's putting
your hand to the work of salvation. It's thinking that you can add
to the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we all,
well, there's part of us that still, still thinks that way. And if we, if we try to come
before God based on our works, we will die eternally and spiritually
separated from God. That's the point of the story. And so the Lord is interpreting those Old Testament
Sabbath laws here in Hebrews chapter four and telling us that
the Sabbath, which translated means rest, was all about Christ. It's all about Christ, all about
resting in him. Look at verse 10. For he that
is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own
works as did God from his. It's the hardest thing to do.
The hardest thing. It's impossible. It's impossible
for a natural man. It's only possible through the
miracle of the new birth. It's only possible if God takes
his word and speaks it effectually to our hearts and reveals Christ
to us and shows us that everything that we put our hand to is infected
with sin. That's why the Lord said when
you build an altar, don't don't don't hew the stones. Don't put
don't put a tool to the stones. Don't try to dress up the altar.
Just stack up the stones. Because if you put your hand
to the altar, you defile it. You remember when Uzzah, the
ark was teetering and it was about to fall off the cart and
Uzzah was standing there and he reached his hand up to touch
the ark to keep it from falling. Seemed like a noble thing to
do. As soon as he put his hand to the ark, God killed him right
there on the spot. Don't put your hand to the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the Lord's telling
us. And that's the good news. The good news is that salvation's
of the Lord. It's done, it's finished. And
the first mention of the word of God is when Samuel says to
Saul, stand still right now, today, and hear the word of God. We will not hear the word of
God if we're still trying to come into the presence of God
based on anything that we've done. Because here's the message
of the word of God. It is finished. It's done. Christ has accomplished our salvation. He's provided everything that
God requires for our acceptance before him. That's the gospel. And that's the whole message
of God's word. Look at the next verse, verse
11. Let us labor therefore to enter into his rest. Now there's
the labor. It's the labor of faith. It's
the labor to not work, to trust Christ alone for all of our salvation. lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick. You see that word? Doesn't really mean fast. Though when the spirit of God
gives us faith to believe his word, it is immediate. We don't
grow in that regard, we just believe what God has said. But
the word here really is quickening. Quickening, which means life-giving. The word of God is life-giving. Oh, how we need life. especially when we are surrounded
with death, how we need a message of hope that declares the truth
of life. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. There's no other word other
than the word of God that will give life in the face of death. He that believeth in me, though
he die, yet shall he live. Isn't that what the Lord told
Mary and Martha at Lazarus' tomb? He that believeth in me shall
never die. And he asked those Lazarus' sisters,
believest thou this? And what did Mary say? Yea, Lord,
I believe. that thou art the Christ, the
Son of God. I believe everything you say and everything that God's word
says about you. Peter puts it like this in 1
Peter 1, he says, being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. So this word of God is quickening,
it's life-giving. Is there anything we need more?
We come into this world dead in our trespasses and sins, and
the dark cloud of sin continues to
hover, and the corruptible man continues to reside. We need a word of life. being born again, not of the
words of men, not of corruptible seed, not of our own works, but
of incorruptible, even by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever. For of God's own will begat he
us, he birthed us by the word of truth. We have to hear the
gospel. God's not using a false gospel
to save his people. He uses the gospel, the word
of life, the word of truth, the revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And notice the word of God is
quick and it's powerful. It was God's word that said,
Lazarus, come forth. That was God speaking. How we
need that word to be spoken to us to our hearts. Word of God reveals God. It reveals
God to the heart. Word of God. And as I, let me
remind you, we're not separating the written word from the living
word. They are one and the same. One is a revelation of the other.
So when I speak of the word of God this way, we're talking about
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as he is revealed to us
in scripture. The word of God changes a man's
life, prepares him for heaven. It certainly had that effect
on the thief on the cross. The thief on the cross heard
the Son of God speak. He heard the compassion that
the Lord Jesus Christ spoke toward his mother when he said, woman,
behold thy son. Behold thy mother, he spoke to
John. Those A man hanging on a cross
would not be concerned for anyone other than himself. And the thief
heard the love and compassion that the Lord Jesus had for his
disciples and for his earthly mother. He heard him speak. Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. He heard the word of
God. One heard and one didn't hear.
They both heard him audibly speaking, obviously. And we know that the
Lord Jesus died before these other two men died because the
scripture says when the soldiers came to break their legs, that
they might die quickly. They saw, they broke the legs
of the two thieves and they didn't break the legs of the Lord because
he was already dead. So that thief heard the Lord
Jesus Christ cry, it is finished. Father into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. He heard the word of God. Oh Lord, remember me when I come
into thy kingdom. And he heard the Lord Jesus Christ
say to him, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise, this
day. He needed to hear the word of
God to be prepared for heaven. You and I must hear the word
of God and must hear it from God, not as the words of men. If all we do is hear it from
another man, we haven't God has to speak it effectually to our
hearts. How powerful his word is. His word gives faith. His word makes us sinners. We wouldn't see that. We would
not see that we're sinners if God had not told us. Oh, our
conscience would convict us of the obvious violations of the
law that all men are guilty of. But only the Word of God anointed
by the Spirit of God can make us to see that everything about
me is sinful. Anything I put my hand to is
unacceptable. Anything that I offer to God
will not be accepted outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that I do, if it is
not of faith, the scripture says, it is sin. There's enough sin. You've heard
me say this before. I'm gonna say it again. I think
it's, I say it, yes, for shock value, but it's true, it's true.
There's enough sin in what you and I are doing. We came here
to hear the word of God. We came here to worship God.
I came here to try to preach Christ to you and speak a word
of comfort and hope. And there's enough sin in what
I'm doing and what you're doing right now to send us to hell. We've got to have a righteousness
outside of ourselves. You wouldn't believe that if
it wasn't for the Word of God. Child of God, you're agreeing
with me in your heart right now. Yes, God has shown me that. There's
enough sin in everything I do. My best efforts. Man at his very
best state is altogether vanity. the best thing that I've ever
done. If God judges me by it, I'm going to hell for it. You
wouldn't believe that if it wasn't for the Word of God. The Word
of God is not only quick, it's powerful. It's powerful. And you would not believe that
your sin has been put away. It's been covered by the blood
of Christ. It's been separated from you
as far as the East is from the West. You would not believe that
God remembers it no more, that you would not believe that you
are holy and undefiled, accepted before God, without charge before
God, had God not told you, had it not been revealed in his word,
you wouldn't believe that. The word of God is powerful.
Oh, how powerful it is. And it's effectual. I want to
close by going back to our text. For this cause, verse 13 of First
Thessalonians chapter two, for this cause also thank we God
without ceasing, because when you received the word of God,
which you heard of us, you 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. We understand that it is the
Holy Spirit that must apply God's word to our hearts. It is God
that works in us, causing us to will and to do of his good
pleasure. We understand that the hearing
ear and the seeing eye are of the Lord, that we can't just
read the Bible and come to these conclusions apart from the Lord. teaching us, they shall be all
taught of God. The Lord Jesus, when he prayed
at Lazarus' tomb, he said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast hid
these things from the wise and the prudent, and you've revealed
them unto babes. We're completely dependent upon
the work of God making his word effectual in our hearts. There are three different ways
in which we understand a verb. There's the passive voice, which
means that the action was done to the subject. The boy was hit,
hit being the verb by the ball. There's the active voice, which
means that the subject was performing the action. The boy hit the ball. And when I first looked at this
verse, I thought, surely this is in the passive voice, effectually
worketh. God has to do this for us. There is a third way in which
we understand a verb, and it's called the middle voice. And
the middle voice is an action that we perform on ourselves.
The boy hit himself with the ball. I was surprised to find
out that effectually worketh is in the middle voice. And I
thought, Lord, what are you telling us here? We know from so many
scriptures that I've already quoted that we are that we are
passive in one sense for the Word of God to be made effectual
in our hearts, we're dependent upon the Spirit of God. But I believe what the Lord is
telling us here is that the same thing Samuel said over there
in 1 Samuel 9, the first time we find the Word of God, when
he says, stand still. There's an effort involved in hearing, in meditating on and
in believing the Word of God. You made an effort to come here
today to hear God's Word, to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ
and what he's done. to put away your sin. The scripture
says, study to show yourself approved a workman that needeth
not be ashamed, rightly divided in the word of truth. I love
it when Paul speaks of those Bereans. He said, and the Bereans
were more noble than those of Thessalonica, for they received
the word of God with readiness of mind, and they searched the
scriptures daily to see if what they heard was true. I have several verses here I
wanted us to look at. Proverbs chapter one, let's just
go there. Proverbs chapter one. Verse one, the Proverbs of Solomon,
the son of David, king of Israel. to know wisdom and instruction,
to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of
wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity, to give subtlety
to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise
man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding
shall attain unto wise counsel. There's so much more even we'll
continue to read. We could go to Psalm 77, 2 Peter
chapter three, and many, many other places where the Lord admonishes
us, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the
manner of some is. Search the scriptures, search
the scriptures. These are they which testify
of me." What we're doing right now is
essential for the Word of God to effectually
work in you. It's in the middle voice. I want to close this message
by just Encouraging us. Be still. Be still. That first time the word of God
was mentioned, stand still and hear the word of God. Labor to enter into his rest.
Cease from your labors. You and I need a word from God.
We need God to speak to our hearts. It's not gonna happen just out
of the blue, okay? The Lord's going to require some... David said, I will not offer
anything to the Lord that costs me nothing. To hear God's word and to spend
God, to hear from God is going to require the boy hitting himself
with the ball. Does that make sense? All right, let's take a break.