Bird, I turned the power off
on that amplifier just because it messes up our audio. I'll
forget the reason I'm telling you. Good morning. I want that
message to be clear and plain this morning. If something's
full, if something's, I mean, really full, that means there's
room for nothing else. That hymn we just sang is so
glorious. Christ receiveth sinful men. This is a faithful saying, isn't
it? Worthy of all acceptation, Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Are you full of sin? If you are, there's a glorious
message of hope and salvation in Christ for you. If you've
got any righteousness whatsoever, then you don't need a Savior. But if you're full of sin, I
mean just full to the top, top of your head to the bottom of
your foot, you're nothing but putrefying sores before God,
then the gospel, the good news is for you. We're going to take our Bible
study hour and look at the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians this
morning, if you'd like to turn with me there in your Bibles.
1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Let's bow before the Lord and ask His
blessings on our study together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we We rejoice in knowing that there is a savior for sinners,
one who is perfectly righteous before thee, one who presents
himself on behalf of his people so that we can rejoice in knowing
that he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all as
one. We ask, Father, that You would
bless Your Word to our hearts by Your Holy Spirit and that
You would reveal to us the glory of Thy dear Son and cause us
to fall at His feet and to find Him to be all in our salvation,
all our righteousness, all our sanctification, all our hope. For we ask it in His name. Amen. Last Sunday we looked at 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 and considered that man of sin as being the one who
denies Christ his glory in salvation by making salvation a manner
of works. Every message of salvation that
man presents, that man produces, that denies Christ His glory
and salvation, denies the finished, accomplished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ is a works gospel and it is that warning that the
Lord gives us there in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. We find in Acts chapter
17 the planting of the church in Thessalonica. And there were
plenty anti-Christ. There were plenty that would
promote a works gospel that were in Thessalonica that gave to
the believers great, great persecution. You remember in Acts chapter
16, the Apostle Paul went to Philippi and ended up in prison and the story
of the Philippian jailer being converted to Christ and then
Paul having to leave Philippi. And when he left Philippi he
went to Thessalonica. And in chapter 17 of the book
of Acts, we have the story of the Apostle Paul going to Thessalonica
and going into the synagogue, as his custom was, and preaching
the gospel of God's free grace in the accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ there in the synagogue. And the scripture
says in Acts chapter 17 that he did it for three Sabbaths. So he was only in Thessalonica
for three weeks. That's it. And after the third
week, the scripture says that some of the Jews believed, and
of the devout Greeks there was a great multitude, and of the
chief women not a few. So the Lord sent Paul to Thessalonica
to preach the gospel because the Lord had some lost sheep
there. And they received the gospel
and rejoiced in the message of free grace that Paul preached. And then the scripture says,
but of the Jews which believed not. They raised up, and you
find this in Acts 17, they raised up some lewd fellows. That word
lewd actually translated means full of labor, full of labor. So the Jews in Thessalonica that
didn't believe the gospel and were offended by the gospel,
brought some accusations against the Apostle Paul, brought it
to the magistrates of Thessalonica, saying that this man is stirring
up dissension against Caesar, and they did it with lewd fellows. There's still plenty of lewd
fellows around, isn't there? Still plenty of men that are
full of labors, that are standing against the gospel, of God's
free grace in Christ. And they hate the gospel. They
hate it. It robs them of their hope. It
strips them of their righteousness. It leaves them not as sinners,
but it leaves them offended at the cross
of Christ. And so now Paul, after three
weeks, had to leave Thessalonica and he went on down to Berea
and then to Athens and then to Corinth. And in Corinth, this
is his first missionary journey, in Corinth he writes his first
epistle. 1 Thessalonians is the Apostle
Paul's first epistle that he writes to one of the churches
that the Lord planted through his preaching of the gospel.
And he's writing back to these believers that he only had three
weeks with. That's all he had with them.
And he's writing them to encourage them in the things that they
heard from him. And he sends back to Thessalonica. Paul had a huge target on his
back, and so everywhere he went, the Judaizers were looking for
him, and creating great persecution. Timothy and Silas, on the other
hand, weren't so well known, and Paul was able to send Timothy
and Silas back to some of these churches to help them, to encourage
them, to reinforce the gospel to them, and that's what he does. And so, in chapter one of 1 Thessalonians, I love the way Paul presents
himself. Paul. You know, sometimes we
refer to Paul as the Apostle Paul. He never refers to himself
that way. Never. You never hear the title or the
word pastor used in front of the name of any of the pastors
of the New Testament. There's a message on God's part
to His church that denies the clergy-laity division that is
so popular in every religion of the world. In Revelation chapter 2, when
the Lord is writing to the seven churches, he writes to the church
at Ephesus, you remember, and he commends them for some things,
and then he concludes his commendation by saying, yet I have someone
against you that you have left your first love. One of the things
the Lord commends the church at Ephesus for is that they hated
the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. In that same chapter, he writes
to the church at Pergamos, and he says to the church at Pergamos
that they had, not like Ephesus, he chastises the church at Pergamos
because he says to the church at Pergamos, you have some in
your church that teach the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Now those two verses in Revelation
chapter 2 are the only place in the Word of God where the
word Nicolaitan is used. And there's no explanation given
in either one of those passages as to what it is. Oh, by the
way, for the church at Ephesus, he says you have those in your
church that that hate the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and I hate
it too. And then in the church at Pergamos
he says you have those who teach the doctrine of the Nicolaitans
which I hate. So the Lord Jesus Christ says
twice that he hates the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Now there's
been a lot of speculation among a lot of people as to what the
doctrine of the Nicolaitans was. And men have gone outside of
Scripture in order to try to define the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. One of the very first rules of
interpreting the Word of God is that we never go outside of
Scripture in order to interpret what God says. The Scripture
is to be interpreted by the Scripture. So, since the word Nicolaitans
is not defined in the scripture, and since the Lord made it clear
twice that he hates it, what is the doctrine of the Nicolaitans?
And the only way to interpret it is to interpret the word Nicolaitan. That's the only, if we're going
to interpret what God's saying here, if we're going to understand
what it is that the Lord hates, we've got to just stick with
that word, Nicolaitan. And the word Nicolaitan translated
means ruler or master over the people. There is no question,
if we just stick to the scriptures, There's no question that that
which the Lord hates is practiced in every religion and it is the
laity clergy division that men set up in religion. And men in
the pews love it because it relieves them of any responsibility. Phil,
I know some of you all came out of a strict reform tradition that would say, well,
we don't believe in priests. And yet, that's exactly what
they did. They set up their elders as priests, and the people in
the pew enjoyed it because it relieved them of any responsibility.
The pastors got all the responsibility for my soul. And the priest enjoyed
it because it gave him power. And God says, I hate it. I hate it. I don't know how to emphasize.
I know we've gone over this before, but I see the subtlety of it. even sometimes among believers. This thing of priestcraft, this
thing of setting up preachers and pastors and making a division
between the clergy and the laity. God says, I hate it. We ought
to hate it. Paul never calls himself the
Apostle. And don't you know, I mean, Paul
had apostolic authority. Paul had spiritual gifts given
to him as an Apostle to perform miracles. I mean, this was, what
does he say about himself? I came to you with fear and trembling."
My speech was contemptible and my outward appearance was weak. And now look how he introduces
this letter. He says, Paul and Silvanus, which
is Silas, and Timotheus, which is Timothy. So he puts himself
right on equal standing with Timothy and Silas. He doesn't
say, the Apostle Paul is writing to you, and he's saying, Paul,
Timothy, and Silas, we're together in this thing. This is so important. It's so important that we understand
this. No man has access to God that
you don't have. No man. I will make them to be
a kingdom of priests." When the Lord Jesus Christ saves
His people, He puts them in the family of
God, and all of His children, all of His children stand on
equal ground in His presence. Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus,
unto the church. You know what that word church
means. In the Spanish, it's eclesia. Eclesia, I think, is the proper
pronunciation, which is a transliteration of the very word that's in this
text, eclesia, and it means called out ones. If the Lord didn't
call us out and make us a part of his church, we wouldn't come
out. We would not come out. We have to be called out. We
have to be made to believe. We have to be given ears to hear. We have to be given eyes to see. We have to be given faith to
believe. We would never come out if the
Lord didn't call us out. Right here in this very first
verse, we see a picture of the church of the Lord. This is so
important for us, isn't it? This is important that we understand
that we're all equals before God in Christ and that we're
all part of the ones who are called out. Of the Thessalonians, which is
in God the Father. The church is in God. How are we in God? Well, God,
before the foundation of the world, chose a people. He wrote
their names in the Lamb's Book of Life. He chose them in the covenant of
grace, did he not? And loved them with an everlasting
love. Never was there a time before
time ever began. that the Father did not love
those that he chose in Christ before the foundation of the
world. This is his church. He says, so he's writing to us. This is not just to the church
of Thessalonica 2,000 years ago. This is to the church here in
Apopka. This is to you and to me, which
is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's never been a time, never
been a time when God's called out ones, when God's elect were
not seen by God in the Lord Jesus Christ. God loves righteousness. He hates iniquity. We're nothing
but iniquity. We just sang that, that Christ
came to save sinful men. How can he save us? The only
way he can save us is to impute to us his righteousness. Charge
His perfect obedience to the law to our account. And that's exactly what the Father
did for us in Christ. And so the very introduction
of this letter, if we're going to understand what this epistle
is all about, if we're going to benefit from it at all, we
need to understand who the penman was. He was just a man. He was
just a man. A man chosen by God. A man given to the church to
declare the truth and the simplicity of the gospel. This message is
to the called out ones. It is to those who are in the
Father, those who are in Christ Jesus. Look at verse 2. I'm sorry, we've not finished
with verse 1 yet. which is in God the Father and in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Grace, grace be unto you. How important it is. It all begins
with grace, doesn't it? It begins with grace and it ends
with grace. The free gift of God. Election
is all of grace. God did not look down through
the quarters of time and see who it was that would believe
on Him and then choose them according to His omniscient foreknowledge. No. He loved them in grace. He elected them in grace. Our redemption. The shed blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the salvation of our soul is all
of grace. There's no way to understand
the gospel apart from grace. And if we mix any work at any
point in the message of salvation, then grace is destroyed. If it
is of grace, it can no longer be of works, otherwise grace
is not grace. Grace has to be pure. It has
to be undefiled. A little bit of leaven leavens
the whole lump. And so our election is all of
grace. Our redemption, we didn't have anything to do. with the
redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ when he shed his precious
blood on Calvary's cross in order to purchase to himself the elect
that God had chosen in the covenant of grace. In order to pay their
ransom price, we didn't make any contribution to that, did
we? It was all of grace. What about regeneration? No man
seeketh after God at any time. We didn't make a decision. We
didn't pray a prayer. If we did, then it's not of grace.
Regeneration is the assault of God on a sinner when he awakens
them to the truth and gives them life. He shines the light of
the gospel from heaven, knocks them off their high horse even
as he did for Saul of Tarsus. Regenerates them. breathes into
their dead soul's life. It's all of grace. It's not of
him that willeth. It's not of him that runneth.
It's of God that showeth mercy. It's all of grace. If we're going
to understand the gospel, we've got to understand that our redemption
is of grace, our justification before God. If we're going to
be justified before God, if we're going, and that word means that
we are sinless before God. How are you and I as sinners
going to stand sinless and perfect without charge, the law being
silenced against us without any being able to say, how are we
going to do that? Only by grace. Only by free grace. Only if the
Lord Jesus Christ presents Himself on our behalf is the only hope
we have. It's all of grace. What about
our sanctification? Well, don't we have some contribution
to make in that? No! It is He that works in us,
causing us to will and do His good. He's set us apart. He's
made us holy. He's sanctified us. We can't
make Ourselves, holy? The word sanctified means to
be made holy. It means to be set apart. It's
not something that's done by degrees. Holiness is an absolute. You're either holy or you're
not holy. You know, you can't get part of holiness. It's the
Lord that sets us apart. How? Because we're in the Father
in election, we're in the Lord Jesus Christ in redemption. What
about our adoption? Being made, we've just talked
about being the children of God, all of God's children, loved
by Him equally. How are we adopted? Do we stand
up in the orphanage and raise our hand and say, I want to be
chosen? No. No, the Lord went in and chose
out certain individuals, didn't he? According to his own good
pleasure and according to his own will. It's all of grace.
It's all of grace. What about our glorification?
How are we going to get to heaven? How are you and I going to be
presented faultless before the throne of grace? Only by grace. It's all of God's grace. And the Lord begins this letter
by telling us, we're all in this together. We're the called out
ones and we're called out by grace. We're sanctified by grace,
we're glorified by grace. Grace unto you, unto you, is
given unto you. It's not something you seek after,
it's just given by God unto His people. And peace. Peace with God, through the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the peace of God. Grace has to come before
peace, doesn't it? Always does. Everybody wants
peace. Everybody wants world peace,
they want personal peace. Life is hard. I mean, there's
a lot of conflicts in this life. And men are always seeking after
some way to achieve a level of peace in their life. What's the scripture say? Peace
comes from God our Father. Peace comes through the Prince
of Peace. The one who gave himself as our
peace before God. And the only way to experience
the peace of God which passes understanding and keeps your
heart and your mind is to be kept in Christ Jesus. The whole gospel right there
in the first sentence, the first verse, isn't it? Who wrote it? Who's it been written
to? Who's it about? What's its purpose? Verse 2, we give thanks to God always
for you, making mention of you in our
prayers. In fact, the way we express our
thanksgiving to God is by prayer, isn't it? The Lord tells us to be anxious
for nothing but in all things by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be known unto God. Why do we express thanks to Him?
Well, because He's the one that did the work. He's the one that
did the work. Have you ever done something
on your job or for your friend or your wife or your husband
and they thought somebody else did it and they gave them the
credit for it? You ever done that? You got offended, didn't
you? You want to say, hey, wait a
minute, I did that. You want to thank somebody, thank
me. Thanks to God. Why? Because he
did the work. He did the work. Don't rob him
of that glory. We're not here to express our
thanks for our salvation outside of
thanking the Lord. Verse 3, remembering without ceasing your
work of faith your work of faith. Paul said
in Galatians chapter 5 verse 6, for in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. In other
words, what you do or what you don't do avails nothing in your
salvation before God. Do you believe that? That means
you can't do anything to get yourself saved. And if you are
saved, you can't do anything to get yourself unsaved. Neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything. Now that's grace. I'm glad that
it's that way. Because if God required me to
do something to get in, I wouldn't do it right. And if I could do
something to get out, I'd be out. I'd be out. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
availeth anything but faith which worketh by love. It is the love
of God that gives to us faith. This is, one of the man said,
what work can we, what can we do to work the works of God?
This is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath
sent. In other words, God's work in
you is to give you faith to trust the Lord Jesus Christ alone for
all your righteousness and for all your salvation. And that's
what he's saying here. He said, we give thanks to God
always for you, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without ceasing your work of faith. The faith that God's given
you. to rest in Christ, to rejoice
in Christ and your labor of love, your love for Christ, your love
for your brethren, your love for the word of God. We rejoice
that the Lord gave you that love. There was a time when you didn't
love the gospel. There was a time when you didn't
love God's people. There was a time when you didn't
understand what the Bible was all about. You thought it was
a rule book for Christian living, didn't you? You thought it was
a history book. You thought it was a book of
theology. You thought that it was whatever. You didn't know
that it was a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom now you
love. You do love Him. Why do you love
Him? Because He first loved you. Paul said, remember these are
believers that the Apostle Paul, Paul the Apostle, only spent
three weeks with. But now he sent Timothy and Silas
back and he's getting reports back of what the Lord's doing
for them. And he's saying it's good to hear about your work
of faith and your labor of love and your patience of hope. Your
patience of hope. in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me ask you a question. What
are you patiently hoping for? Are you hoping to get better? Are you? How's that working out for you?
Are you hoping that your circumstances are gonna get better? How's that
working out? What are you hoping for? Are
you hoping that the world's going to get better? It's not getting better, is it?
You're not getting better, your circumstances aren't getting
better, the world's not getting better. And yet that's what men
put their hope in, isn't it? That's what men are hoping in.
That's a hope that will disappoint. That's a hope that will never
be realized. It'll never be fulfilled. What
is Paul saying to these believers in Thessalonica? I rejoice in
that God has given you a patient hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a hope that won't disappoint. And I'm gonna say it again, because
I find great encouragement and great comfort in this glorious
truth. you're not going to be here much
longer. I mean, we just need to be reminded
of that, don't we? We need to be comforted with
that truth to realize how brief this world is, how brief this
life is. It's a vapor. Don't put your
hope in it. It'll disappoint you. Patiently
hoping that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to finish what He started.
He's going to take me home. He's going to deliver me from
this present evil world. He's going to make me to be just
like Him. I'm going to see Him as He is
and be made like Him. That's my hope. That's my hope. Not only will that hope not disappoint,
but that's a hope that's going to deliver infinitely more than
you and I can possibly imagine. We can't even begin to imagine
the glory that's going to be revealed in us. And the troubles of this world
cannot be compared to them, to that glory. Look at verse four, and I'll
finish with this verse. Knowing, knowing, do you know
this? Knowing, brethren, Beloved, your
election is of God. It amazes me at the number of
people who call themselves Christians who will say, well do you believe
in election? Do you believe in predestination? There's no gospel apart from
election. If God didn't sovereignly choose
us according to His own will and purpose, if He didn't call
us out, if it wasn't all of grace, then there's no salvation. There's
no salvation apart from election. It's another gospel. Look at
the next verse. For our gospel, I said I was
going to finish verse 4, but I've got to show you. What does
that mean? That means there's another gospel.
And just go to Galatians chapter 1, Paul says there's lots of
gospels out there. And then he says, which is not
a gospel. In other words, there's no good
news in it. If our salvation is dependent upon us doing anything
for it, then it's not good news. It's just not good news. The
only gospel that will save is a gospel in which God does all
the electing, God does all the redeeming, God does all the justifying,
God does all the sanctifying, He does all the glorifying, and
He gets all the glory. Ludefellows. stood up against
the Apostle Paul when he preached that gospel in Thessalonica. Plenty of lewd fellows today,
full of labors. Alright, let's take a break. and th