Alright, brethren, 1 Thessalonians. The church at Thessalonica, we
saw last time, was a very young church. They hadn't been called
very long. Paul had been there for three
weekends preaching, and the Lord called and established these
brethren, and persecution came right away to Paul and to them,
and he had to leave by night And he was worried about them.
Worried about them. And Timothy came with words that
they were doing well. And he sat down and wrote this
letter as an encouragement to them. And we saw last time how
we encouraged them by speaking of their work of faith and labor
of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus, in the sight
of God and our Father. And then this time we're going
to look here in verse 4. This is what he comforted and
encouraged them with. He said, verse 4, Knowing, brethren,
beloved your election of God. Knowing, brethren, beloved of
God beforehand. Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God. Now, the doctrine of election
is throughout the scriptures. And man, naturally, is offended
by it. But this, as you can see, is
what the Lord moved Paul to use to encourage believers. Knowing,
brethren beloved, your election of God. The doctrine of election
is only offensive to an unregenerate, carnally religious man. Only offensive to somebody who's
fleshly religious by his own flesh. And here's why. One, it
declares salvation began with God rather than man. That's where
it began. It began with God in eternity.
In eternity, God chose His Son. He chose to glorify His Son.
He anointed Him Messiah. And He chose for Him to come
forth and do all the things to honor God and glorify God and
fulfill His law. And God chose a people in His
Son. Gave them to His Son. Trusted them to His Son. And
that's who Christ came forth to save. And He did all this
before the world was made. That's offensive to the man who
wants glory for doing the choosing. And then secondly, the doctrine
of election offends men because it declares all men are sinners.
That's really what is at the heart of the offense, is it declares
all men are sinners. Everybody comes to this world
as a sinner and declares that if God had not chosen his people
and caused us to approach to him, we would never have chosen
God. Listen to this from Romans 3.11,
and Paul is just quoting Old Testament Scripture. Romans 3.11,
he said, there is none that understandeth. He talked about the Gentiles,
he talked about the Jews, and he said, by nature, there is
none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. You see a lot of seeking going
on, but he is saying it is not after the true God. And if God
hadn't chosen a people, nobody would have sought Him. He causes
us to approach Him. Listen to this from Psalm 65,
verse 4. Blessed, happy is the man whom
thou choosest, and causes to approach unto thee, that he may
dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. He makes His
people happy. Happy when you see that God did
this for you. Let me help you with this doctrine.
Instead of hearing it and saying that's not fair that God chose
someone to save, think and think if is that good news to you? Can you say I'm thankful God
chose me? If it is, you'll be pleased,
you'll be delighting, you'll be happy that He chose you and
caused you to approach unto Him. Because without it, we wouldn't
have. Three, the doctrine of election is offensive because
it declares God did not choose His people because of any foreseen
merit in us. You know, that's what we're accused
of. Well, you think you're just better
than everybody else? Are you saying some people are
better than anybody else? No. No. Scriptures are crystal
clear. There's none righteous and no
not one. But this was... God didn't choose
us based on anything He foresaw in us. Think about it. He gives
you life, He gives you faith, He gives you repentance, He gives
you... Love, He gives you all spiritual blessings. So He didn't
foresee we'd have any of those in us. He gave all that to us.
He gave all that to us. Why did He choose us then? Listen
to this from Romans 9.11. He's talking about Jacob and
Esau. They're in the same womb. They
got the same earthly father, the same earthly mother conceived
at the same time. Now listen to the script. This
is the Word of God. Listen to this, the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. Here's the purpose
of election right here. Not of works, not of our works,
not of anything we did to merit it, not of works, but of God
that calleth. That's the purpose, so that God
gets all the glory. That's the purpose, to show us
it's not of works, salvation's not of works, it's of God. He
said to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And
I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion. If we
see ourselves as really, really, really the sinful, ungodly creatures
we are by nature, that's the best news you'll ever hear. God
chose you freely by His grace. Freely by His grace. That means
He's going to keep you by His grace. And He gets all the glory. And you know what? When He does
this, makes you know it, causes you, makes you willing, you want
Him to have all the glory. But in the heart of those that
he's called, this is good news. This is great news, because he
showed you something of your sin, and he showed you, he chose
you, and Christ came and redeemed you, and that makes you rejoice.
Thank you, Lord, that you did this for me. It's not only assurance to us
personally when He does it, it's assurance that we're going to
preach this gospel and devote everything God gives us to send
this gospel forth and we have this assurance. God will call
out His elect. He will. He will. And He's going to produce fruit. He's going to produce children
through the gospel we're preaching through this incorruptible seed.
And that fruit is going to remain. He is going to keep His people.
That is what He told His apostles. He said, You have not chosen
Me, but I have chosen you. And I have ordained you that
you should go and bring forth fruit. And that your fruit should
remain. That whatsoever you shall ask
of the Father in My name, He may give it to you. Now think
about what Christ just said. What did the Lord tell Ezekiel
when He brought him to that valley of dry bones? He said, Can these
bones live? Ezekiel said, Lord, you know.
He said, preach to them and do what else? And ask the Father. Pray to the Father. The Lord
said, whatsoever you ask of the Father in my name, He'll give
it to you. And the Spirit came upon them. He preached and the
Spirit came upon them and they lived. They lived. And James said, of his own will
begat he us with the word of truth. That we should be what?
A kind of first fruits of his creatures. His creating. Born
of the word. Born again. That's the fruit
he's made. And he's promised his people
that's what he's going to do through our preaching. But it's
not merely the doctrine of election that we want to see sinners believe. We're not just trying to get
folks to believe election. We want to see sinners believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to see them believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's Christ alone who saves His
people. Christ is the salvation God has
given to save His people. We must believe on Him. When
the unbelieving Jews had kicked the blind man out of the synagogue
and the Lord Jesus came to him, he came and asked him a question.
He didn't come and say, do you believe the doctrine of election?
He came and said, does thou believe on the Son of God? That's the
question. When the jailer cried to Paul
and Silas, just before he went to preach to Thessalonica, they
threw him in jail. And the jailer ends up coming
and asking him and Silas, sir, what must I do to be saved? Paul and Silas didn't say, well,
if you believe the doctrine of election, you'll be saved. They
said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And the same goes for everybody
in your house. If they believe on Christ, they'll be saved.
It's by believing on the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
that we know our election of God. It's by believing Christ
that we know God chose us. That's right. So that's why Paul
said, Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. Now let's
look at these things that Paul based this on. First of all,
we know our election of God by the message that we first heard
and how we were made to hear it. By the message we first heard
when we said that we believed that God saved us. The message
we heard and how we came to believe it. Verse 5, he said, our gospel,
here's how he knew, he said, because our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance. God sends the gospel to those
he elected to save. He said, our gospel came not
unto you in word only, but it did come to them in word, and
it came as the true gospel. It's not a false gospel that
came to them, the one true gospel came to them. You know there's
just one gospel? The Scriptures are clear on this.
There's another that men preach, but the Scripture says, God's
Word says it's not another gospel. Paul spoke of another gospel
which is not another. That's in Galatians 1.6. He spoke
of another Jesus which is not another. He spoke of another
spirit, another doctrine, which is not another. That's 2 Corinthians
11, 3 and 4. But there's only one true gospel,
one true doctrine, the doctrine of the one true successful Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the gospel God sends to
His people. I've heard men who claim to believe
the true gospel say this. I've heard men make a statement
like this. I could no longer sit under the preaching I heard
when God first saved me. What? You couldn't sit under
the gospel that you heard when God first saved you? And what
they mean by that is, I can't sit under that message they're
preaching now. I believe it's false. I don't believe they're
preaching too many inconsistencies and too many lies mixed with
it. But then they're saying, but that's the message God saved
me with. You don't find that in Scripture. You don't find
that anywhere in the Scripture. In the Scripture, God calls through
the truth of the Gospel and believers are shown to hold fast that same
Gospel, believe in that same Lord Jesus Christ all the way
to the end. All the way to the end. That's
even the word of the apostles to everybody they preach to.
Hold fast this form of doctrine. It was not men This is another
reason this gospel came to them, the one true gospel. God sent
it to them. But it was not man, it was God
who sent that gospel to them. You say, well Paul went there.
But don't you remember this? Paul was going to go somewhere
else. In Acts you find that Paul was trying to go somewhere else
and the Spirit of God appeared to him, the Lord appeared to
him and made him go to another place. He forbid him to go where
he wanted to go and he sent him to Macedonia to the city of Philippi. And then from Philippi he sent
him to Thessalonica. Why did he do that? The Lord
had elect who Christ had redeemed who God must get this gospel
to. He must get it to them. And they
must be made to hear this good news. And so what did Paul preach?
I want you to look at this in Acts 17. This is where you can
find Paul's going to Thessalonica and what happened. But I want
you to see here what he preached. Acts 17.3, here's what he preached. He went there to the synagogue
where the folks would gather together. He went there three
Saturdays in a row. He went there and he preached.
Verse 3 says, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered
and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach
unto you is Christ. We know what Paul preached from
that outline because we see it in all his epistles. We know
what he preached. Christ must needs suffer. Why
did Christ, why was it a must that Christ go to the cross?
Because God the Father chose him. to be the salvation of His
people. God the Father chose Him to be
the righteousness of His people. God the Father chose His Son
to come forth, take flesh, liken to His brethren, go to that cross,
fulfill the law for His people, uphold God's law, magnify God's
law, justify His people by His righteousness, putting away our
sin forever. That's what God chose Him to
do. He must go to that cross. God's glory is at stake. God's
justice and His mercy God sent Him to establish the
covenant of grace. He sent Him to be the head and
the high priest of His people. God promised in that covenant
when Christ finished His work that the Father would raise Him
to His right hand and He would be head over all things to the
church and Christ would get the glory of sending this gospel,
being our high priest, our prophet, priest, and king, and making
us believe this gospel by His grace through the Spirit. This
is all about God's glory. That's why it was a must he need
suffer. And Paul declared Christ was
victorious. He declared that he conquered
death. He declared he fulfilled the
law. He declared he put away the sin of his people. Well,
where did you get that from those three things he said? Because
he said Christ arose from the dead. You know why He arose from
the dead? The grave couldn't hold Him.
Why couldn't the grave hold him? Because he put away the sin.
He died under sin once. He bore the sin of his people,
bore the justice of God for his people, and put away sin. Sin is the sting of death. What's
the strength of sin? Paul said in Corinthians, the
law is, he fulfilled the law. that death has no claim on Him
anymore. And you who He chose in Christ
were in Christ. You did what Christ did. Justice
fell on you in Him. And when He came out of that
grave, you came out of that grave and sat down at God's right hand
in Him. That's the good news. That's the good news. And who
is this one that did it? Paul said, this Jesus. This Jesus. This man, Jesus. Peter said,
this One whom you crucified. This one is the Christ. He's
the Christ. He is the Son of God. He's Messiah. He's the one God sent to save
His people. That's who He is. The God-man
mediator. And many believed. When Paul
preached this, many believed. How'd they believe? How'd they
believe? Some didn't. Some got real angry. How did those that believed,
how come they didn't get angry? How come they believed? By the
power of the Holy Spirit. Back there in 1 Thessalonians
1, 5, Our gospel came not unto you
in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much
assurance. The gospel came in word, but
it came as the gospel, and it came in power. That's what Paul
said in Romans 1, 16, 17. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth. That gospel didn't
come in word only, though. It didn't fall on deaf ears.
And it didn't come in just producing them a cold formal profession
and just a performance of duty. That's not what it did. It came
in power. The Spirit of God created life
in them. Spiritual life in them. Made
Him a new creation. He gifted Him with faith to believe
God. He gave Him a new will. He gave
Him a will that was willing for God to get all the glory. He
gave Him a new will that was willing for Christ to get all
the glory. And He made Him willing. And they believed Him by God's
grace. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that night of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, lest any man should boast. That's what
Paul said in Ephesians 2. And He created a love for Christ
in them. They beheld what Christ did for
them and they created a love for Christ in their heart. And He gave much assurance, much
assurance that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
they cast all their eternal care of their soul into Christ's hand
completely. submitted it all to Him, resigned
it all to Him, cast it all into His care, completely. The Spirit
did in them what the Lord Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do.
He did in them what Christ said He would do. In John 16.8, Christ
said, when He has come, talking about the Spirit, when He has
come, He will reprove the world, talking about His elect all over
the world. He didn't reprove all of them
there because a lot of them didn't believe. But here's what He did
in the hearts of these ones that did believe. He reproved them
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin. Why? Because you believe not on Me.
When you believe Christ, your sin is gone. That's the good
news. But until you believe on Christ,
all we are is sin, all we've ever done is sin. Of sin, because
you believe not on me. Of righteousness, Christ said,
because I go to my Father. He is the righteousness of God.
We got to submit to Him. The righteousness of God is a
person, Christ. And He convinces you of judgment,
because the Prince of this world is judged. There at that cross
is where His people were judged. That's where Christ crushed the
devil's head, right there. Just like Genesis 3.15 said He
would. They could say what Peter said,
ìLord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure.î He gave much assurance.
ìWeíre sure. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God.î Paul says here in our text, he says, ìThis
certainly wasnít of us.î It wasnít of us, Paul said. This was of
the Spirit of God. It wasnít of mere silence, he
said. Verse 5, ìAs you know what manner of men we were among you
for your sake.î It wasn't of us. There was nothing in Paul
or Silas to make these sinners give them a hearing, much less
believe the gospel they preached. Paul and Silas, one, they had
just been rejected of men and beaten and imprisoned at Philippi. They probably were still barely
able to stand up straight. They'd been beaten so bad. And
these were well-respected Jews. This was the religion of the
day that everybody looked up to that had rejected them. And
officers of the law that rejected them. Put yourself in their shoes. And this man comes beaten, still
got bruises on him and bleeding, and he comes and preaches an
offensive gospel to you? When he preached, he didn't use
flattering words. He didn't come and use flattering
words to them. That's what you hear going on today in pulpits. He declared them ungodly sinners
with no righteousness of their own, no way of producing one.
They needed Christ's righteousness to justify. That's the gospel. He declared them spiritually
dead in need of the Spirit of God to quicken them. So these effects were not due
to Paul's charisma. They weren't due to the force
of his words. They weren't due to his speaking
ability. There wasn't any external appearance in Paul or Silas.
And there wasn't anything done by them that made these men believe. It was the power of God effectually
working to bring these brethren to believe on Christ. Paul is
saying here exactly what he said in 1 Corinthians 2. Listen to
this, I brethren when I came to you came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God.
I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. I was with you in weakness. and
in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." That was God that
worked that. Making Paul preach the gospel
after what he had been through already. And it was the power
of God that brought those Thessalonians to believe when there was nothing
about Paul or Silas to even make them want to hear them, much
less believe the gospel they preached. So that's the first
thing Paul said. Then their election was known
by Paul because they followed Paul and Silas and the Lord Jesus
with joy and they did it in the face of much affliction. He said,
verse 6, and you became followers of us and of the Lord, having
received the Word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. Christ said, that's what His
people would do. He said, My sheep hear My voice
and they follow Me. They were not ashamed. Now you
think of the environment they were in and the hostility that
was going on around them. They were not ashamed to identify
publicly with Christ and say this is our Savior, this Jesus
who religion had just crucified. They said this is our Savior
right here. This is our righteousness right here. He is the fulfillment
of the law for us right here. They weren't ashamed to identify
with Paul or Silas or any of the churches of Christ when Paul
and Silas had just been rejected and they knew it. And this was
certainly the power of God because this was in the face of much
affliction. Immediately, these new believers
were persecuted. Immediately. They were afflicted. They had witnessed Paul and Silas
shamefully treated by these men. Listen to Acts 17.5. If you still
got it marked, you can turn there, but let me read it to you. The
Jews which believed not moved with envy. They didn't want to
see God get all the glory. They didn't want to see these
Gentiles follow the Gospel. They didn't want to see them
believe Christ. They didn't want to see them follow Paul. They
were envious of God and His Gospel and of Paul and Silas. They were
envious. And they took unto them certain
lewd fellows of the baser sort, and they gathered a company,
and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason,
and sought to bring them out to the people. And that's when
Paul and Silas went out and uncovered darkness. These unbelievers tried
to turn these new believers from Christ. They tried to turn them
from trusting Christ. They tried to turn them from
believing the gospel. They tried to turn them from
the apostle Paul. But they continued following,
believing and following the Lord Jesus. And they did it with joy. No amount of affliction could
stop them from publicly identifying with Paul and with Silas, whom
the whole city was rejecting. Couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. Why? Because Christ used them
to preach the gospel to them and saved them. That's why. He
gave them assurance. Let me show you something here
about this assurance. Colossians 2 verse 1, Paul said,
I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you and for
them at Laodicea, for as many have not seen my face in the
flesh, that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together
in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding. to the acknowledgement of the
mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." You see, when God
gave them this assurance to believe Christ, and they knew He is the
Christ, He knit their hearts together. He knit their hearts
together with Paul and Silas, and all of them's hearts were
knit together in Christ. And these other men that came
trying to turn them away and trying to make them reject Christ
and reject the gospel could not make these believers stop identifying
publicly with the man that preached the gospel to them. They couldn't
do it. You know why? That's of God. The power of God. He knits the hearts of His people
together. He gives us joy in His good news
of the gospel. He makes us see what Christ has
done for us and it can't be undone. It can't be undone. He makes us see this, brethren.
The joy is this. This is what Christ did for us.
This is exactly what Christ did for us. He suffered affliction. He suffered persecution. He suffered
at the hands of men. Did He forsake us? No. Did He stop identifying us before
the Father as His brethren? No. Though we didn't know Him.
Though we were ungodly and hated Him and wanted nothing to do
with Him, He didn't stop. He didn't stop. He didn't forsake
us. He didn't deny us. What did He do? For the joy that
was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame.
And He makes you see that's what He did for you. And when He makes
you see that's what He did for you, It can't turn you from Him
and it can't turn you from those He uses to minister the Gospel
to you. He makes us endure the affliction
with joy. His joy was glorifying the Father
and saving His elect from our sins so He could send this Gospel
to us and give us this good news and make us know we're accepted
of God. That's the joy Christ spoke about.
He said, I'm preaching these things to you. That night He
told His apostles, I'm speaking this to you, that my joy might
remain in you. My joy might remain in you. And
that your joy might be full. That's the joy He puts in our
hearts. That's the only way, that full assurance of knowing
He's our salvation. That's the only way by His power,
by the Spirit, that we can endure affliction. And not just suffer
through it, but do it with joy in our heart. And we're one with Christ in
the affliction and in the joy. He said, remember the word that
I've spoken to you, the service not greater than this, Lord.
If they persecuted me, they'll also persecute you. If they kept
my saying, they'll keep yours also. And Paul reminded us, he
said, unto you it's given in the behalf of Christ, not only
to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. So by the
power of the Spirit, they were not ashamed of Paul and Silas. They endured the affliction with
joy. They did it together with Paul,
Silas, with all the other churches, with all their brethren. Now,
Christ said, if a man is not born of the Spirit, and affliction
comes, and trouble comes, He said, He has no root in themselves,
and so they endure but for a time. But afterward, when affliction
or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they
are offended. But the affliction didn't make
these brethren stop believing. It didn't make them stop identifying
with Paul and Silas publicly. They didn't care what men were
saying. That's another way the Word of God is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart. Our Lord makes those He's
knit together in heart endure affliction together with joy
in the same Lord and the same Savior and continue preaching
His Word. That's what He does. Lastly,
their election was known by their love for Christ and for His people.
We could say At first point, it was known because the gospel
came to them in truth and how it was they came to believe the
power of the Lord. Secondly, we could say that was
faith by their faith because that's what we see there. They
endured believing through all that affliction with joy. And
here we can see their love, the love that worked in them, for
Christ and for their brethren. Verse 7, it says, You were examples
to all that believe in Macedonian Achaia, because from you sounded
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonian Achaia, but
also in every place your faith to Godward is spread about, so
that we need not speak anything. They themselves show us what
manner of ending end we had unto you, and how you turned to God
from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for
His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus,
which delivered us from the wrath to come. When the Gospel came
to them in power, the believer turns from all our idols, To
serve the living and true God. That's true repentance and faith.
It means we renounce all our former religion. Everything we thought was salvated,
we renounce it. We say, that did not save us.
We weren't saved there. We were saved by Christ. And all our works were vanity
and they were worthless and it was just sin like all the rest
of our sin. Our best religious deeds. How
did they come to do that? They were given something better.
You remember the illustration. Brother Marvin Stoniker has a
father named Gerald. Brother Gerald Stoniker. He's
with the Lord now. But Gerald owned a restaurant
down in Ball, Louisiana. Down around Alexandria, Louisiana.
And a little boy was in there one night, and his parents were
ready to go, and it was a fish place, seafood place. And they
had corn on the cob buttered, you know, on the blind. And they
had gotten them, that little boy, a piece of corn on the cob
all covered in butter. And he had eaten all the corn
off that cob, and now he's just sucking the butter out of that
cob. And he would not let go of that cob. And it's dripping
down his arm, and they're wanting to go. And he wouldn't let it
go. And they tried everything they could to get him to let
that corncob go, and he wasn't going to let that corncob go.
And Brother Gerald walked up to him, and he said, can I try
something? And they said, sure. And he pulled a big old Hershey
bar out from behind his back, and that kid dropped that corncob
and latched onto that Hershey bar. You can whip men. You can scold
them. You can shame them. You can drag
them behind a truck if you want to. That ain't going to make
them turn from their vain religion. You can educate them until they're
the smartest on three planets. That ain't going to make them
repent and believe God. Christ has to make us see Him
and what He accomplished and how it's better, better, better,
better. That's when we'll let go and
lay hold of Him. And He don't stop doing this.
He keeps doing this. This is how He keeps you growing
in faith and repentance from the beginning to the end. He
keeps showing you He's better, He's better, He's better. And it's what it makes you say.
Paul said, what things were gained of me? Those I counted lost for
Christ. Yea, doubtless I count all things
but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dumb. There's no loss at all that I
may win Christ. I want to be found in Him, not
having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. I want to know Him. I want to
know the power of His resurrection. I want to know the fellowship
of His suffering. I want to be made conformable to His death,
so that I'm willing to suffer whatever He sends, knowing this
is just to teach me more of Him. And that's what I want. I want
to know more of Him. I want to know His power to hold me and
keep me and deliver me and conform me to Him. I want to be made
conformable to His will. I want to be submitted to His
will. That's what I want. Isn't that what you want? if by any means I might attain
to the resurrection of the dead." And so they sent this gospel
far and wide. They sent it everywhere to their
brethren, and the word of their faith spread everywhere. Everybody
heard about them, how given they were to God, and how they just
started sending this gospel forth, and these persecutions couldn't
turn them away. They kept ministering to lost
sinners and needy brethren by sending the gospel. They sent
financial help to those that needed it. We'll read about that
later. Macedonians were held up. And
he's talking about those in the city of Thessalonica too. They
were held up as being examples in a way they just supported
their brethren and helped them any way they could. They wanted
them to have the gospel. And they wanted them to be able
to hear the gospel and continue in Christ. And they did whatever
they could to help them. And they did all of this. Persevering
in faith. Waiting, watching, looking, anticipating
the return of the Lord at any time. You know what makes men
not want Christ to return right now? They are too tied to this
world for one, but also they are scared to death of the wrath
of God. What makes you walk through this
world, believe in Him, looking for, wanting Him to come, anticipating
His arrival, and just watching and waiting? What makes you do
that? Because He's made you know He has delivered you from the
wrath to come. Death's just going to be this
door on this life closing and a door into His presence opening.
That's what it's going to be for those that believe. You waited for His Son from heaven,
whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us
from the wrath to come. That's the result right there,
what we just saw of being God's elect. That's what He works in
His elect by the power of the gospel, by His grace. And so we just keep believing
Him, keep loving our brethren. This gospel has done this to
us, and so we see how valuable it is, and we send it forward.
We know it's the dynamite that he's going to use to save. And
whatever we can do to help one another, that's what we're going
to do. This is what he works in his people. Amen. All right, Brother Greg.