I'd like us to take a little
bit of time and spend a few minutes contemplating the Apostle Paul.
The more I have followed his journey through Acts and the
more I anticipate the rest of the journey through Acts, the
more amazed, more amazing it is to see this man raised up
by the Lord. It's amazing to see that that
Paul said he is what he is by the grace of God. This is the
evident mark of the grace of God in the life of this man. In verse 2 it says, And Paul,
as his manner was, as his manner was. He went to a place where
the word of God was read. He went to a people who were
gathered to worship God as best they knew fit at that time, and
he came to a meeting where politeness required, in a sense that Paul
as a visiting Jew would be given an opportunity to speak. He prayed
that there would be a door of opening, a door of utterance
for him. and he went in unto them for three Sabbath days.
The Jews allowed him three Sabbath days. We don't know how long
he was in Thessalonica. It may have been much longer
than that, but it may have just been that time as well. But he
had three Sabbath days where he went in and the Jews allowed
him to preach. But as I said earlier, Paul was
a remarkable man. He was beaten with rods, imprisoned,
in stocks in a dungeon, and the next morning he gets up and he
walks through those cities. And that's a salutary lesson
in itself, brothers and sisters in Christ, isn't it? That the
gospel comes to certain people in certain places, and the gospel
is withheld from people by the sovereign hand of God. We may
think lightly of the preaching of the gospel here, but I can
assure you that God doesn't, and His saints never do, Those cities aren't mentioned
again in the New Testament. And I'm not saying there weren't
believers in those cities, because there were believers on the city
on either side. And we read from the story of
the Philippians and from the Thessalonians that the Word of
God went out from them and they became famous for their faith.
So we're not to presume that there were none, but we are to
be warned of God about the preciousness of His Word coming to His people. So as this matter was, Paul had
a consistent... habit, didn't he? He had a persistence
about his life. He was a man led by the Spirit
of God, and he went where he went. You didn't have to guess
what Paul was doing, and you didn't have to guess where Paul
would be found, and you wouldn't have to wonder about the company
that Paul kept. His life was open for all to
see. I'd like us to turn in 1 Thessalonians. I just love reading his description
of himself. And when we read this we have
to remember again that he said that by the grace of God he is
what he is. This is the work of grace. This
man was a murderer. This man was a blasphemer. This
man was a hateful, injurious man and he had a new heart, didn't
he? He had that new heart given to him and he trusted in God. He had the law of faith written
by the Spirit on his heart and the Spirit of love moved him
and the Spirit of truth instructed him and the Spirit of faith persuaded
him and he was a man who in the midst of all of the trials of
life was found both pleading with God No doubt pleading with
God for those who so shamefully treated him and pleading with
those in that jail with him and pleading for the Lord's word
to go out. And he was a man who had one desire, didn't he? He
wants to know him. He wants to know him and he wants
to be conformed to him. He wants to be like him. But
here's the man sent of the Lord Jesus Christ on a mission. If
you read the opening verse of 1 Thessalonians, it says, Paul
and Silvanus, Paul and Silas, and Timotheus, unto the church
of Thessalonica. The Thessalonians, sorry. And
notice what it says about this church. And this is applicable
to all of the churches throughout all time. It's the church which
is in God, the Father. And it's the church
which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The church is the gift of God
the Father to his son, and it's the purchased possession of the
son. He bought the church with his
own blood on Calvary Street. He owned the church in covenant
surety ship from before the foundation of the world. This is a glorious
church. This is the Zion that we read about in Psalm 84. The
church which is in God the Father, and the church which is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And for those who are in the
Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, says grace be unto you
and peace from God our Father. And we give thanks to God always
for you, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without
ceasing your work of faith and labour of love and patience of
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God our Father. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God. Paul and all of the saints of
God rejoice in God's electing love and His electing grace.
And the election of God is an election that's in His Son. It
is the name, one of the names of our Lord Jesus Christ. For
our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power,
and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what
manner of men we were among you for your sake. Paul reminds them of his entrance
into them, his entrance to them. And you became followers of us
and the Lord, having received the word with much affliction,
with joy in the Holy Ghost, so that you were examples, examples
to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia, for from you sounded
out the word of the Lord. not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place, your faith to God is spread abroad,
so that we need not to speak anything, for they themselves
show us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you
turned to God." Always the turning in the Scriptures. The turning
is a turning to God, and then it's away from idols. Turn to God from idols to serve
the living and to grow, and to wait for His Son from heaven,
whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us. not attempted to deliver, he
delivered us, he delivered the church, that church that's in
him, he delivered them from the wrath to come. And then he speaks
again of himself, he says, for you, for yourselves brethren
know our entrance in unto you that it was not in vain, but
even after we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated
as you know at Philippi, We were bold in our God to speak unto
you the gospel of God with much contention. Wherever the gospel
of God comes, there's always going to be contention, and mostly
contention from religious people. For our exhortation, this is
how he describes himself. May God make it our testimony. in the hearts of his people.
For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor
of guile, nor of guile. So when He came, there was no
deceit, there was no uncleanness, and there was no craftiness whatsoever. We simply hold out the Word of
God and trust Him. And then I love what he says
in verse 4, he says, but as we were allowed of God to be put
in trust with the Gospel, we were allowed of God. to be put
in trust with the Gospel. I pray that that is the testimony
of our church, brothers and sisters, that we are allowed of God. If
the Gospel is in a church and the Gospel is maintained in a
church, it's only because God allowed it and God maintains
it. Even so we speak, not as pleasing
men, but God which trieth our hearts. Paul says to the Galatians that
if he sought to please men, he cannot, he cannot be the servant
of God. Verse five, for neither at any
time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness. God is witness. Nor of men sought
we glory. neither of you, nor yet of others. When we might have been burdensome
as apostles of Christ, but we were, I love this way he describes
himself, but we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes
her children, as a nursing mother with her children. And the reason
And what the nursing mother typifies is that being so affectionately
desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not
only the Gospel of God, but also our own souls, because you were
dear unto us. For you remember, brethren, our
labour and travail, for labouring night and day, because we would
not be chargeable unto any of you. We preached unto you the
gospel of God, and you are witnesses in God also of how wholly and
justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believed,
as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one
of you as a father doth his children. He's both a mother. in love and
tender affection, and his father to this Thessalonians, that you
would work worthy of God, who has called us into his kingdom
and glory. For this cause also we thank
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." The words you have on the page
in front of you are the very words of God. They are not my
words, they're God's words. He just loved these people. He
went there under the power of God's Spirit and he loved them.
and he longed to see them again. He had to leave, as we read earlier
in Acts 17, but he longed to be with them. And in verse 19
of chapter 2 he says, For what is our hope, or joy, or crown
of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For you are our glory
and our joy. And he couldn't get to see them,
so he sent Timothy in chapter three, in verse six he says,
but now Timothy has come from you unto us and brought us good
tidings of your faith and charity, that word means love, and that
you always have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly
to see us, and we also to see you. He loved these people, and he
loved that they love each other. He says in verse nine of chapter
four, he says, but as touching brotherly love, you need not
that I write unto you, for you yourselves are taught of God
to love one another. And I love how he reminds them that God is amongst them. At the end of it in chapter 5
verse 23 if you read, and the very God of peace sanctify you
wholly, make you completely holy. That complete holiness is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray God that your whole
spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Then he reminds them where all
this is coming from. He reminds them of the gospel.
Faithful is he that calleth you. Faithful is he that calls. and
calls effectually, and calls purposefully, and calls to his
own, and calls unto himself. Faithful is he that calleth. What a great name for our God,
faithful. Who also will do it. He's faithful and able to do
it. And I love how he describes the
brethren in verse 27. I charge you by the Lord Jesus,
by the Lord, that this epistle, this letter be read unto all,
how does he describe the brethren? The holy brethren. The holy brethren. He came as a man, He came as
a man with a message from God. He came with a purpose, didn't
he? I love what he says in 2 Corinthians 3.18. It's become one of my favourite
verses and I pray it becomes true in the lives of his people. It says, But we all, with open
face beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit
of the Lord." In that same chapter in 2 Corinthians 3, he reminds
them that going back to the law is to go back to a curse and
to go back to death and to be blinded. Paul sought one thing
from the people that he loved, that they had their eyes fixed
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul reflects the Lord Jesus
in his life. You see, when he went to Philippi,
there were some called out, weren't there? He was sent there on a
mission from God. He was stopped from going to
various places and he was directed as clearly as ever by God to
this one place. And he called these people were
called out. He went to this place and he
called out some. And some of them were religious,
like Lydia, and some were pagans who couldn't care less about
God at all. And he called them out and he
made them both brethren together. You see, our Lord Jesus Christ
came from heaven and he called out some. And Paul in Philippi
willingly submitted to those who threw him in prison. And
our Lord Jesus Christ willingly submitted to those wicked hands
that crucified him and put him in the grave. For when Paul was
in prison, an entire household was baptised. When the Lord Jesus
Christ went into the grave, the entire household of God died
to sin and to death and died to the law in him. And when Paul
was freed, what did he do? He came to his brethren and he
comforted them. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
freed from that grave, what did he do? He came to his brethren
and he comforted them. The first thing he says, isn't
it? Peace. Peace, he says to them. And Paul, released from
that prison and comforting his brethren, he went out into the
world and he began setting captives free through the gospel. When Christ entered into his
glory, he sent his messengers He sent his ambassadors with
his gospel, gathering captives to himself throughout this world. And what he's begun is a work
that he continues on to this very day, saving them alive. He rides out triumphant. I think
I get more and more repulsed by any notion whatsoever that
our God doesn't reign and reign triumphantly over all things.
And I do read Revelation 19 to you, but I just love for you
to think about what this is. This is true in our day. This is our God. This is why
he's gathered us here. This is why when this God is
your God, his gospel is his power under salvation and we have no
reason to do anything other than to live before people as Paul
did and to proclaim wherever we can the gospel. In Revelation
19, 11, I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse, and he
that sat on him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness
does he judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood. His name is called the Word of
God. And the armies which were in
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that
with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a
rod of iron. And he treadeth the winepress
of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God, and he has on
his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of King. and Lord of Lords he reigns brothers
and sisters he reigns and he rules triumphant let's think
about that while we have a break for a few minutes and then we'll