Seeking once more the Lord's
gracious help to grant me the words to speak to you this morning,
I'd like to direct your thoughts to the chapter that we looked
at on Wednesday, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, and the text again
you'll find in verse 3. We are bound to thank God always
for you brethren as it is meet because that your faith groweth
exceedingly and the charity of every one of you all toward each
other aboundeth. Those of you who were here on
Wednesday will hopefully remember that we looked at the first part
of this verse and how that the Apostle, having ministered to
this people, having proclaimed the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and as he warned them that as they believed on Christ,
they would enter into great persecution, and he warned them that it was
no easy thing to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And as he left
them, and no doubt he was concerned about them, and worried about
whether that was truly the work of the Spirit done within their
hearts and if it wasn't he knew that the persecution would cause
them to fall away, that they would not truly be able to follow
and continue in the ways of righteousness. And so we saw that he sent Timothy
and Timothy comes back with a good report regarding the church at
Thessalonica. Although they were young, yet
they were able, they had been able to persevere under the midst
of great opposition. And not only were they just,
they were not just existing as Christians, they were actually
abounding in in love towards each other and they were growing
in the faith. And we saw that faith and knowledge
were inseparably linked together. The more that they knew about
the word of God, the more they knew about Christ, the more their
faith was able to lay hold of him. And we saw that knowledge
and faith are enabled to grow through sitting under the preaching
of the Word of God, through reading the Word of God, through prayer
and meditation of the Word of God, but also through Christian
experience, the walking out of the Christian life and how we
are able to witness God working in our lives that also increases
our faith and so these letters that are written to the churches
give us a window of what was taking place as the gospel first
went out into the world and as it first came to the Jews then
to the Samaritans and then into the uttermost parts of the world. We see many and the consequences
which were experienced by those who first believed and trusted
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul testifies and I noticed
that in the majority of his letters that he witnesses the same things. In the chapter that we, in Colossians,
the chapter we read together there. He commends them the same
as he does with the church in Thessalonica. He says in chapter
1 and verse 4, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus
and the love which you have to all saints. He commends them. He heard of
their faith and their love which was to all saints. Verse 9, For
this cause we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease
to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with
the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being
fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of
God. Verse 12, giving thanks unto
the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. And so he commends them as he
writes to them. He's saying that though there
is that opposition, yet there is that growth. There is that
growth in love to all the saints and a growth in knowledge, which
we see also causes a growth in faith. And so each of the churches
that were planted through the preaching of the word of God,
or not all of them but most of them, he encourages them that
he is sin, true evidence that what has been planted in them
is indeed a true work of God. that is able to persevere. It
is not a stagnant work but that work continues to flourish and
to grow in each believer causing them to grow into the likeness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a genuineness to their faith. It was the real
thing. It was not a counterfeit. but something that was planted
deep down and done by God himself. Peter tells us in his first letter
in chapter 1, verse 6, Wherefore ye greatly
rejoice now for a season, if need be ye are in heaviness through
manifold temptations. the trial of your faith being
much more precious than of gold that perishes though it be tried
with fire you might be found unto the praise and honor and
glory at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ of Christ Jesus. And so he says there through
manifold or through many temptations a manifold if you if you look
on a car a manifold that which comes out of the engine part
of the exhaust is where where many things come into one and
he says these manifold temptations these many temptations which
are coming down upon you is causing great heaviness but these manifold
temptations are a test of your faith and the testing of your
faith is far more precious than gold that perishes. True faith
is tested to the extreme so it can be seen what type of faith
it is. Is it genuine or is it fake? We looked at the parable that
the Lord Jesus Christ told about the seed that was planted and
shot up quickly. But then it was choked by the
weeds and the thorns. And that was likened to a false
profession of faith. A faith that can't handle persecution. A faith that cannot handle trial
or difficulty. And as soon as opposition comes,
that type of faith, it dwindles away. But the apostle writes
to these people saying that your faith I can see that it is a
genuine faith because it abounds in the midst of persecution. It doesn't stagnate, it doesn't
disappear but it flourishes in the midst of opposition and persecution. And we saw that it tells us in
Hebrews that Faith is the substance of things hopeful, the evidence
of things not seen. We see that faith then is that
foundation which lays hold of the Lord Jesus Christ and upon
his word. It anchors us to the truth which
enables us then to build off that faith and to be unmovable
in the midst of great opposition. And so as their faith grew, The
Apostle says not only has your faith grown but also your love
is abounding. Your charity. Your faith grows
exceedingly and the charity of every one of you all towards
each other abounds. It's overflowing. their love
towards each other is overflowing one towards another. I think
I finished on Wednesday by saying often when there's loads of stress
in life and loads of problems and we're overwhelmed with difficulty
it doesn't bring us peace and it's not the the source of loving
one to another. It brings stress and hostility
and sharpness and anger. But something was truly working
in the lives of these believers. In the midst of their opposition,
in the midst of their persecution, in the midst of an extremely
stressful environment, they were not pushing each other away.
or arguing against each other or bickering or gossiping against
each other they were knit together as a body of believers in love
and they were abounding in it abounding in love and so as their
faith grew so did their love grow And that is how it should
be. Everything should grow together. If we have a baby that's born
and only its legs grew it would be very unusual. We would say
it's got a problem. It's got a medical condition. Only one part of it is growing
and the other parts are deformed. We would say he has a problem. We would say that it would be
the same in Christianity. We can't say that person has
got great faith and yet he has no love. That one is a real follower
of the Lord Jesus, does great things for Christ. and yet he
has no love. They go together as with knowledge
and hope so does faith and love. They are knit together, they
are inseparable and as faith grows so does love grow. As a believer is indwelt by the
Holy Spirit of God and we see the greater evidences
of him indwelling in the Christian. It's not just one part of him
that we see but we see all parts. Galatians tells us what is expected to be seen in
someone who is indwelt by the Spirit of God. Galatians 5 tells us first about those things
which are seen in the flesh but then in verse 22 it tells us
about the fruit of the Spirit. Notice that it is a fruit, not
fruits. Think of an orange. An orange
is a fruit but it has many segments And this is how it is viewed,
that when the spirit of God is indwelt in a person, it is not
the fruits of his presence that are seen, it is the fruit of
his presence, the segments of his character that are seen within
the life of the Christian. And as an orange grows together
Not one part bigger than the other. That whole fruit grows
together in every segment. It is growing together with the
other segments and it is one fruit. And so the fruit of the
Spirit is love. joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. And so we see those two characteristics
that were seen in the church of Thessalonica. The fruit of
the spirit, love and faith. As their faith grew, so did their
love grow. And we can no doubt agree that
all of the other attributes of the Spirit of God grew also in
them. And he says, they that are Christ's
have crucified the flesh with the love thereof. And so through
the persecutions that they were going through, and the opposition
that they were facing day by day. The flesh, the nature is being
cut down and Christ or the Spirit of God
is being seen. And that is why the scripture
tells us that the trial of your faith is far more precious than
gold because it cuts down the natural man. It cuts down the
human nature. It crucifies the flesh. It's
painful and difficult for the flesh to pass through, therefore
it withers under such opposition. And as it withers, so then Christ
is seen. If you think of a lampshade,
if you have a lampshade with a big thick lampshade round about
it the light does not protrude the light does not come out of
it but if you were to peel away that lampshade so it became thinner
then the light would be seen and so trials and persecutions
and oppositions and difficulties and heartaches and struggles
they peel away the flesh so that we may manifest greater evidences
of the Spirit of God indwelling in us. If you think sometimes
when you drive along the marsh early in the morning there's
a lot of fog or mist there that lies low over those low places
but it doesn't stay there all day. As the sun comes out it
burns it away, it disappears. When the snow comes everyone, the children especially,
are very happy. But when the sun comes up it
melts it away. And so there is the same thing
that happens in the life of a Christian. As the persecution comes As the
opposition arises, so the flesh withers away and the spirit is
seen. As the sun shines on the coldness
of the flesh, it melts away and then is seen the warmth of the
Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth indwelling in the believer. And so as this church were passing through
those difficulties, the apostle says, these things
are having a good effect. I am seeing that what is taking
place, what has taken place in you is real. It is true. It is a living work. and it's
bearing fruit. Not only that I can rejoice in
what is taking place I can thank God for what has taken place
in you. And so as their faith grew then
their love grew. And so as we have seen that that
love and that faith they are again
inseparable. That knowledge is all linked
together in one chain that cannot be broken and as it grows they
all grow together. Faith and knowledge, love and
faith, growing together in the life of a persecuted church. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is the
chapter of love. Right at the end of that chapter
in verse 13 it says, And now abideth faith Hope. Charity. These three but the
greatest of these is charity. You know that charity can be
translated as love but love that has an action attached to it
not a passive but an active love. In our language we have charities
They do things to benefit other people. And so love that is called
charity is a love that is active and not passive, a love that
is seen, that brings about a change. And so he says the greatest of
these is love. in Hebrews. So I've read already,
I've quoted already chapter 11. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. If faith
then is that foundation, then faith is the substance of things
hoped for. As I thought about this, I was
trying to think how can I How can I picture it? How can I bring
all these things together to enable us to see what is truly
taking place? I thought of a tree. A tree has
roots and if you think of faith as the roots that dig down into
the soil, that are the anchor of the tree into the ground.
And as faith digs down deeper into the ground and nourishes
itself from the nutrients and the water that is there in the
soil, so the trunk comes up. The trunk of the tree. So faith
digs down but hope looks up or reaches upwards. We could say the fruit of that
tree is love. The greatest of these is love. The fruit of that tree is love. If you think of a fruit tree,
that tree itself does not benefit at all from its own fruit, apart
from that it is passing on its seeds, seeking to procreate its
seed. So the fruits of that tree are
for the benefit of other people round about. And surely that
is what true love is. True love is, as we read in Quintet,
is not selfish. But it is a love that is Christ-like
in the sense that it exists to benefit other people. It is not what we talk about
in our language or, you know, I love you. And it can be said
to friends. It can be said to your dog. It
can be said to your house. It can be said to anything. It's
just a word that comes off our tongues. But it has no real depth
to it. It's just a word that we say. But true charity, true love,
the love of Christ, it is deep-rooted and unselfish and beneficial
to other people around about. It's not a fuzzy love, but a
love that moves to an action. Jesus says, doesn't he, greater
love has no man than this. and a man that lays down his
life for his friends. There is no greater demonstration
of love than Christ laying down his life for his friends. And so there is the definition
of what true love is. A laying down of our lives for
our friends. who says to the church, and the
charity of every one of you all towards each other aboundeth. Their love was not selfish. It
was a love that abounded or overflowed to everybody else. It was a love
that was Christ-like. a love that was seen, that was
evident, that could be felt by other people. Sometimes if you
have boiled the kettle and you've left it for a while and you can't
remember how long ago it was or what the temperature of the
water is, you can't tell by looking at it how hot it is. You sometimes
may have to pour a bit out into the sink or onto your finger
to judge the temperature of the water. It is unseen, that temperature. But when it is boiling, it's
completely different. When water is boiling it is obvious
to all that this is hot water. And this is the type of love
that was seen in this church, a boiling love, a love that was
evident for all to see. It was obvious that these people,
although they were passing through great trouble and persecution
and opposition, they abounded in love one towards another and
they counted each other greater than themselves. And so their
faith was seen and their love was seen. And all of that is a response
to what they had received. Jesus tells us about the lady
who came to him and he says, he who has had much forgiven,
the same loves much. And so the love that one receives
from Christ is then seen in the way that they live out their
life. If they don't think that they've
forgiven much then that will be reflected in their life. If
a person believes that they have been forgiven of much there will
be a greater response and that response will be seen
in unselfish acts of love. We saw, didn't we, that these
people from Thessalonica were once idol worshippers but they
had turned as the Spirit of God worked in them. The Word of God
was preached to them. They turned to the living God,
the true God, from idols. They understood by personal experience all that
Christ had done for them and they laid hold of it as a reality
and they lived their life in accordance with what the apostle
had been preaching. As we said some of them overdid
it so much as they ceased from work waiting for the immediate
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in which Paul then corrects them
for that wrong view. but with the same zeal that they
worshipped their idols. Now with that same zeal they
worshipped Christ and followed Christ and they loved one another. And we see in the example that
is given to us about the Christian church being the body of the
Lord Jesus Christ and we see that he being the head of the
church and we believe as his body and the reason why it is
described in that way is because the parts of our body are not
selfish. The parts of our body work together
for the benefit of each other and so as the Thessalonians were
persecuted They came together to assist
each other in the persecutions that they were facing. And that
is called a demonstration of love, one for another. They cared
for one another. If we see our own bodies, if
we are injured in any way, the hands will come and grasp that
point. then another person will come
and dress the wounds. And so everything is pulled together
to that position or that part that is wounded. And so the Christian
church, when we are acting in our right minds following Christ,
when there is a wounded party Instead of isolating that person
we are knit together and we pain, we feel the pain of that person
or that family. We weep with those who weep and
we rejoice with those who rejoice and so as every single believer
is knit together by one spirit and is united together in one
cause, in one body and that is the body of Christ and the cause
of truth, the advancement of the kingdom of God. And so as
their faith grew so did their knowledge and so did their love
one for another. Verse 4 says, so that we ourselves
glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and
faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure
which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God
that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which
ye also suffer. And Paul took that, all that
they were going through, all that they were being oppressed
with that they were counted worthy of the kingdom of God. It was
a sign, was a certificate that these people are indeed true
followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus tells his apostles in John
13 as he is preparing them he gives
them a new commandment John 13 verse 31 says, Therefore,
when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified,
and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God
shall also glorify him in himself and shall straightway glorify
him. Little children, yet a little while I am with you, you shall
seek me, and as I said, unto the Jews, whether I go you cannot
come, so now I say unto you. A new commandment I give unto
you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that ye
also love one another. By this shall men know that ye
are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. That was the commandment given
to the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I have loved
you and as the Father has loved me, you also are to love one
another. And how was the love of Christ?
He laid down his life for the brethren. It was a sacrificial
love. It was not to elevate himself
in any way. It was he humbled himself. And true love, as Corinthians
tells us, doesn't seek any gain for itself, but it is a charity. a working out of what Christ
has done in the heart, what Christ has done for us. And so we seek to live that out
in a way that is obvious, a way that is seen, a way that is characteristic
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says 1 Corinthians 13, Charity
suffers long or is patient and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth itself or does
not lift itself up, is not puffed up, does not seek itself. seeks not her own, is not easily
provoked, thinks not evil, rejoice not in iniquity but rejoices
in the truth, beareth all things, believes all things, hope in
all things, endureth all things, charity never fails. So that's the definition that
the scripture gives us of what true love is. And as the early church grew
in that love, grew in that faith, may we as those who are believers
in Christ also experience that growing in faith. And in doing so, may we be enabled
to see our flesh crucified and the light of Christ shining forth
out of us that we may be abound or overflow with love one for
another. We are bound to give thanks,
we are bound to thank God always for you brethren, as it is meet,
because that your faith groweth exceedingly and the charity of
every one of you all towards each other aboundeth. Or may that be said of each of
us this day. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. Our closing hymn is hymn 1092. Loose him and let him go, till
God the sinner's mind illume. It is dark at night within, like
Lazarus in the dreary tomb, bound hand and foot by sin. Hymn number
1092, the tune 163. As I hailed him, his dark past
night withered. Like phantoms in the dream returned,
come and let us go. The gospel has the good news
of salvation. ? How in their joyful sound ? ?
When God gives light to suffer ? ? Grace shall be on their sins
abound ? ? Blest in heav'n and near ? ? Justice be ruling Israel at last
? ? The Lord of hosts is come ? ? Aces I fold that I may crown
? ? Lucifer and let him reign ? The Holy Ghost proclaims the
Savior's birth. Dear Lord and Almighty God and
Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word and we pray that
it may be seen in us that Thy Spirit dwells. We pray that every
trial, every difficulty that we pass through may have a sanctifying
effect upon us and that thy son the Lord Jesus Christ may be
seen within each of thy people. We pray thou be with us now as
we go home to bring us back here later according to thy holy will
that we may worship thee once more. Now may the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with us each now
and for evermore. Amen.