our exposition in verse eight,
I want us to consider how these two passages of scripture expound
one another. And the first one is verses four
through six of our text. Look at 1 Thessalonians 1, four
through six. I wanna bring us to verse eight
by way of this consideration. That's part of the context. So
look at verse four. knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God. 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. And you became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction,
with joy of the Holy Ghost. Now with that passage in mind,
turn with me please to John chapter 10. Maybe just hold, put a marker
there in First Thessalonians one. And think about what he's
saying, your election of God and how we know about it. Our gospel didn't come to you
in word only but in power in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. Look at that in John 10, 24. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, how long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. And Jesus answered them, I told
you and you believed not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because you
are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice. Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God." There's your election of God right there. They believe not because they
weren't his sheep. But he said, my sheep do hear
my voice. You didn't believe me because
you're not my sheep, but they do. Knowing your election of
God. And how is that manifest? Continue
there in John 10, look at verse 27. My sheep hear my voice and
I know them and they follow me. See that in our text, in our
context. You became followers of me and
of the Lord. Your election of God is evidenced
by that. You're not my sheep, they are,
they follow me. Now look at verse 28. And I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Much assurance. It came to you
in much assurance. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand." So there it is. That's the Lord expounding
1 Thessalonians 1 right there. Your election, you're my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice. They follow me. And assurance
is found in the Savior's power, in his preservation of them. Now these Thessalonians were
a living example of what the Lord taught right there in John
10 where we read. And we learned so much from this.
Think about what that means. What truth is laid bare in that
exposition right there. First of all, only the elect
will hear and believe the gospel. Is that clear there? Only the
elect are gonna hear and believe. But, just as importantly, if
not more so, the elect will hear and believe the gospel. You see
that there? He didn't say, boy, I sure do
hope my sheep will hear though, even though you don't. He made
a stark contrast there, and I wouldn't know ifs, ands, or buts about
it. You don't believe because you're not my sheep. My sheep
believe. Would we be adding to the scripture
if we said because they're my sheep? I don't see how we would be.
That's exactly what he's saying. You don't believe because, and
they believe because, So the election of grace, it's
not uncertain. It's not the gospel sent forth
on a whim to see who will believe and who won't. It's the Lord
uttering his voice to cause faith in his sheep, to cause them to
follow him, to draw them to himself, with cords of everlasting love. Somebody asked Charles Spurgeon
once in a mocking way, of course, everybody despises the truth
and they love to mock like they did our Savior. And they said
to him, if you believe that, why don't you just preach to
the elect? And Spurgeon, being pretty quick-witted, he said,
you go around and put a mark on them and I'll only preach
to them. Kind of turned it around on him.
That's a good way to push back on foolishness like
that. But this also shows us now that
when the gospel is preached in power, that is blessed by the
Spirit of God, and I'm talking about our text and what we read
in John 10, it's the voice of Christ himself. My sheep hear
my voice. They hear my voice. A man now preaches, a base, foolish,
weak man preaches because that's who the Lord chooses. But the
Lord said, my sheep hear my voice. What a responsibility we have
to preach the word. Paul said, who is sufficient?
for these things, we have a responsibility though to preach the word, not
embellish the word, not explain the word, not interpret the word.
The scripture is of no private interpretation. And usually the
word, the emphasis is put on the word private there, but that's
not where the emphasis belongs. The Lord's saying there, don't
be interpreting the scriptures. You don't need to tell people
what God meant by what he said, just tell them what God said.
That's preaching the gospel. We don't make deductions from
the word. If the sheep are gonna hear his voice from this pulpit,
we must preach him. And they must hear his voice.
Now, when God's sheep, when his elect hear the gospel preached
in power, and in the Holy Ghost, like he said here, our gospel
came to you in the Holy Ghost. power, and in the Holy Spirit. And when God's sheep hear that
gospel preached that way, they don't make decisions. They just
don't. They follow Christ. When the
Lord said to Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom, you've
read that account. Here this man is, He's in a good
position. He's getting kickbacks and he's
doing real well cheating people at the receipt of customs. It
was customary at the receipt of customs to do that. And everybody
knew it. That's why they were hated so
much. Just kind of like it is today, right? Pretty much like
it is today. But when he said to Matthew,
follow me, and it says that Matthew followed
him. Do you think, Matthew, that maybe
they didn't record this in the scripture. What Matthew really
did was sit back and say, well, I've got a decision to make. I don't think so. I don't think
so. I don't think that's how it happened.
I've got a big decision to make. No, he followed Christ as surely
as there was light when the master said, let there be light. That's
what happens when the gospel is preached in power to the sheep.
That's what happens when God's good and ready, when it pleased
him, he reveals his son in us. These Thessalonians followed
Paul because Paul was given the commission to preach that gospel. And they followed Christ because
Christ is who Paul preached. And in our text, verse eight,
Paul says, the word sounded out from them. The word came to them,
Paul said, and it sounded out from them. That's the way that
works. It's a living stream. It's a
well of water springing up within us. There's just aren't any two
ways about it. The woman at the well, as soon
as she knew who he was, she ran and said, look who it is. Look
who it is. Is not this the Christ? And notice that their faith was
seen, not in some display of spirituality, or some fleshly
acts of religion. Their faith wasn't seen in that
they walked an aisle or they put together a choir and did
some cantatas at Christmastime. Their faith was seen in their delight in and their compulsion
to tell forth the gospel of Christ. They rejoiced in the gospel.
That's how it was seen. They received the word with gladness. The Jews didn't, but there were
those there. The Gentiles received the word
with gladness, Paul said in another place. That's faith. The Lord blessed
them to do that. The Lord turned the light on. The word that's translated sounded
forth According to John Gill, who I
read quite a bit because he doesn't skip anything. John Gill had
something to say about every word of scripture, best I can
tell. And rarely, I disagree with him. But he said here that
that word that's translated sounded forth, it alludes to the sounding
of a trumpet. Which in Old Testament times,
trumpets are mentioned quite a bit in specific
contexts. In Old Testament times, the trumpet
was used to gather the people of Israel as God's spiritual
Israel are gathered in his churches now by the sounding forth of
the gospel. That's why you gathered here
this morning. It's good to see one another, but that's not why
we came here, I hope, this morning. You heard the trumpet, didn't
you? Calling you here. We came because of the gospel. A trumpet also was blown to signal
the year of Jubilee, which meant freedom to slaves. It still does. The preaching of the gospel. By God's grace and power and
discretion, it'll set the prisoners free. It was forgiveness of debts. Still is. Restoration of inheritances
still is. All of which are spiritual benefits
to those who hear and believe the gospel. A trumpet was used
in the rallying of the troops to war, as expressed in 1 Corinthians
14, eight. Listen to this verse. For if
the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself
to the battle? The gospel is not an uncertain
sound. It's not if, it's not if you will, if this, if that.
It's God does and you shall. You read the new covenant. There's
no uncertainty about it. There's no uncertain sound whatsoever
in the preaching of the new covenant, the covenant of grace in Christ.
Trumpets also were prevalent musically in the Old Testament. to give a joyful sound, as the
gospel does to those who are poor and needy. Look at verse nine of our text.
For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we
had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the
living and true God. Instead of Paul going to these
other places and telling them, he went to these other places,
Macedonia and where he mentions in verse eight, I guess it is. Anyway, he mentions these other
places that he went. And instead of him going there
and saying, you know, listen to what happened in Thessalonica.
Boy, they heard the gospel, they rejoiced. It affected them. It
was powerful. Clearly the God did something
for them. He didn't even have to say that.
He went to these other places and they told him what happened
in Thessalonica. Because it was so wonderful that
the Lord was praised and word traveled fast of the grace of
God. that was experienced there. They themselves show us what
happened there, what manner of entering in we have, and how
you turned, how you repented, how you changed, how you received
the gospel, empowered in the Holy Ghost. When we got there,
you were already talking about it. God is glorified in saving
them. How that they repented, rejoiced
in the gospel to turn from idols. You think about this. What a
powerful change it is to turn from idols to serve the true
and living God. That's a big deal. That's a big
deal. To turn to God from idols is
to go from trusting your own feelings and superstitions, deeply
rooted now, to trusting God's Son. It's to go from loving yourself
and selfishly indulging in whatever you think your idol does for
you, to loving the Savior and living for Him. And notice that they didn't just
go from being deceived to a mental ascent of the truth of the gospel. Although, that's a wonderful
thing. I don't want to minimize that
for a second. To turn from your superstition and your, the things
that seem natural and right to men are that if you do good,
you're rewarded. Whereas in the gospel, people talk about, well, my good
outweighs my bad. I've heard that over the years
so many times. You don't have any good, that's the problem. If you did, it wouldn't outweigh
anything, but you don't have any, none. In our flesh dwelleth no good
thing. But to go from that, to knowing
by God's grace who he is. There is a mental ascent that
is necessary. There is knowledge that is necessary. But when it talks about this
is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God
and Jesus Christ who now has sinned, that goes beyond just
factual knowledge. It doesn't circumvent factual
knowledge. But notice what it says here.
They went from idols to serving God. James said, show me what you
believe without any service and not in a bragging way, not in
a, to look at me way, but he said, by way of argument, I'll
show you what I believe by my service. That's what we see here. If you're transformed in so much
that you not only don't say things like God loves everybody anymore,
because you know better. And now you say rightly so that
God's love is in Christ. That's a good change. That's
a big change. That's wonderful. But if you
go from that, from I live the Christian life, I tithe, I do
all this, like the Pharisee, look at me. To say, and not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, not
just in word, but in deed. You serve the living God. To
serve is to bow. To serve is to get down in the
dust. To serve is to come and it's
to the abandonment of my own will in consideration and deference
to His will. Not my will, but thine be done,
said the perfect servant. That's service. You turned from
idols to serve the living God. It's one thing to be a Calvinist.
And I'm happy that I agree with the doctrines that Calvin laid
out in what's usually called Calvinism. Total depravity, true. We're helpless and hopeless before
God. Wretched and sinful and no, No way out of it. Unconditional
election. I've heard people say from pulpits
that there's no such thing as unconditional love. Is there such thing as unconditional
election? Because you know what election
is? It's love. God didn't say eeny, meeny, miny,
moe, Jacob, I pick you. He said, Jacob, have I loved
that the purpose of God according to election might stay. Don't get smarter than God and
say there's no such thing as unconditional love. I will love
them freely. That's unconditional love. And
I get it, they're saying, well, Christ had to meet some conditions
in order for God to love you. You can argue that however you
want to, but what the scripture says is that God loves us freely. I can meet no condition whatsoever
that recommends me to God. That's unconditional love. You can be clever all you want,
but that's not unclear. And that's what we're seeing
here. To serve the living God, it's one thing to be a Calvinist,
and it's another thing to be personally subservient to the
master. That's a life thing, not a I
believe thing. Only. Yes, it's an I believe
thing, but it's more than that. Show me the I believe by actually
serving God, by actually getting on your face before him and saying,
not my will, but thine be done. Living for his glory and not
yours. bowing to his will, able to say,
the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name
of the Lord. That's serving him. To be able
to say, honestly, it is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.
That's serving the Lord. To be a servant of his people
is serving the Lord. Is that what he's taught us or
not? as though doing so unto them is doing so unto him. They served him. And they served
him as witnesses of his grace and majesty. They told forth
the word that they had believed, the truth of Christ that they
had laid hold of by faith given by God. They told it forth. And look at verse 10. and to
wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." Now
this waiting for the son, it's not just referring to being patient
and biding time until the Lord returns. Now that goes without
saying. What are we gonna do about it?
You can make predictions and you can get all excited about
this is the end times and all that. Okay. You know, noted. But I don't
know about any of that. I can't agree with you, I don't
know. This word literally means to
look steadfastly and with trust. We're looking to Him. We're not
just being patient while He, until the time comes that He
has ordained from the foundation of the world when He'll come.
I wanna be patient about that. I wanna just say, Lord, whatever
you do is right. But that's not what this is.
That's not all it is. To look steadfastly to with trust. Here's the perfect definition
of this word weight here. Turn with me, please, to Psalm
123.1. And I'm almost done. Well, I should be. Turn to Psalm 123.1. Look at
this. You talk about defining this
word weight. Webster couldn't possibly do
it. But this is the perfect definition of our text. Psalm 123.1. Unto thee lift I up mine eyes. O thou that dwellest in the heavens,
behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters,
waiting for an order, waiting for direction, waiting for his
will. And as the eyes of a maiden unto
the hand of her mistress, So our eyes wait upon the Lord our
God. Do you see that? That's wait
in our text. We're looking at him, waiting
for him to give the word. And here's what we're waiting
for until that he have mercy on us. And that includes the Lord's
return. What greater mercy could the
Lord have on us and then for him to come back and take us
home. Well, it's gonna be when he's
ready, not when I'm ready. But that's great mercy. I look
to him for mercy every moment. I need it every moment. I need
him every moment of every day. And we look to him for that mercy. You see the difference between
that and just Biden time? Like you're waiting at the DMV
or something. That's not it. That's not this
word. Oh God, we're looking to you.
We're looking to our master's hand. May God make it so. Do you really
live like that? Do I? Remember Paul in the very breath
before verse 10 of our text here said they had turned from idols
to what? Serve. That's what we just read
in Psalm 123 now. Behold as the eyes of servants
look unto the hand of their masters. That's verse
10 of our text. And to wait for his son from
heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath
to come. It's simply the son of God that
we look to. We wait for his son. Not we wait
to go to heaven, not we wait to get out of this horrible world
of sin. What now him? We look into him. All that other stuff is just
fringe benefits of him. Think about what this looks like.
We're closing. We always consider these miracles
because they're so, such beautiful pictures of what we're talking
about here, looking to Christ for mercy. When Simon was sinking beneath
the waves in Matthew 14, 30, what was the first word out of
his mouth? Simon is walking on water and
then He begins to look at the wind and the waves and the sea
and not Christ. And he begins to be fearful and
he begins to sink. What's the first word out of
his mouth? Not even hell. He don't say hell. He don't say
what I probably would have said, oh, bleep. Lord. Think about that for a
minute. He's sinking beneath the waves.
And the first word he says is Lord. That's what we're talking about.
We're waiting on him Lord. We're looking to him. Lord save me. There's never been a better prayer
prayed by a sinner than that. Lord save me. Save me from myself. Save me from my sin. Save me from all my other enemies
besides myself. Save me from the wrath to come.
Save me or I'm a goner. When the woman with
the issue of blood said, if I can but touch, the hem of his garment,
I'll be made whole. To live every day being convinced
of that is to wait on the Lord. When the woman of Canaan wouldn't
shut up, we cried to him for mercy. Without regard to the
disciples' rebukes, the disciples rebuked her and said, shut up,
you're bothering us, you're bothering the master. Why was she not discouraged? Why did blind Bartimaeus when
they said to him to hold his peace? Why wasn't he discouraged
by that? Because he wasn't talking to
them. He wasn't looking to them. He wasn't looking for their approval.
He was looking to the Savior and she was. She didn't care
what they thought because her eyes were on the Lord of glory. They didn't need a verdict from
the disciples. They waited on the Son of God. You know, the centurion, I never
really thought of it this way before, but the centurion, you
remember when he said, Lord, I'm not worthy that you should
come under my roof? I just say the word. Let's take
care of this here and we'll get on with our day. You don't need
to come. He rejected an experience. Most
people would have craved that. They would have said, Lord, yeah,
Lord, come to my house, and I wanna see, I gotta see this, you know.
If you're gonna have mercy on my servant and heal him, I gotta
see this, because I know how sick he is. He's a goner. He's
dying. And boy, that's gonna be spectacular.
No, don't even come to my, he rejected an experience. Just
say the word. No spectacle, no dramatic scene. Lord, it's just you. It's up
to you. That's waiting on the Lord. According to our text, he was
raised from the dead. He's who he said he was. He's all that He said He was.
He does indeed have power on earth to forgive sins. When we've
seen Him, when we've looked into His face, we've seen the very
glory of God, we've seen the Father, we've seen God Almighty. And we know this from that, He
was raised from the dead, then all my sins are gone. All of
my sins are gone. I wait on you. He, past tense, delivered. See that in the text? He delivered
us. And that word delivered us means
to draw to oneself, to rescue. There it is again. Who are we
waiting on? Him. What is salvation? Him. To have Christ draw you
to himself is to be rescued. To be rescued. Not for him to give you, you
know, moral excellence. Not for him to make you a model
Christian so that you can live the Christian. Salvation is come
here. Come here. It's to draw you to himself. That's what rescue is. He's my righteousness. He's my
morality. He's my life. from the wrath to come, wrath
that we deserve, being by nature the children of wrath, and yet
saved by him. Grace, grace. I wait on him now. I wait on
him for comfort. I don't wait on heaven. My comfort
is not a mansion and golden streets, it's Christ. I wait on him for
peace. Peace is not the absence of turmoil. It's the absence of enmity against
God. We can have all kinds of turmoil
in this world and be at perfect peace. I wait on him by his grace for
assurance. What is assurance? How would
you define assurance? I challenge you to come up with
a better definition than this. No man can pluck them out of
my hand. Assurance is here. For grace, I come to him as the
scripture says, for grace to help in my time of need. We think of the word help as,
you know, if you helped me do something that I mostly did it,
you just lent a hand. That's not this word help. This is Lord save me. And he did. He did. Let's pray.